Weeks 2 and 3

OK so I have been slacking in terms of blogging and am rolling two weeks into one in this post so it might be on the longish side.

Monday 1st July

Monday is fast becoming my tempo training day and going on the same route so it's good to see if the training is benefiting me. My legs were a bit stiff to start off with after the club ride on Saturday. I think I am going to have to start doing recovery rides on a Sunday, hopefully flush out some of that lactate to train better.

It was windy and head winds are a killer it makes things so much more difficult on your legs when you're riding solo. It felt like I didn't get a tailwind at any point but I must of I just didn't feel the benefit. I also had an issue with my Garmin 500 constantly auto stopping so some of the times might not have been completely accurate. By the end of the ride I felt good, 18 miles in around an hour.

Tuesday 2nd July

Rest Day

Wednesday 3rd July

Rest Day

Thursday 4th July

Happy Independence Day to any Americans out there, I know by the time you read this it will be a distant memory. Training hasn't been too good this week so a quick tempo ride just under 13 miles, some parts of the route I have been on before but one bit was in reverse. It was tough, some short sharp climbs that hit my legs hard but after a while they came back to me. The final climb I made up for it bettering some my previous times up it and actually having something left in the legs to push on the flat. Normally once I get over a hill my legs disengage from my brain and only come back once they have recovered enough as they know my brain will tell them to keep pushing, a sign I am getting fitter which is always good.

Friday 5th July

Rest Day, I know another one.

Saturday 6th July

Today I decided to change it up a bit and add something new. Hill repeats, thinking about it scares me even though I know I have to do them as it is great for strength work and interval training. Also if I want to race at Redbridge Cycling Centre on a Thursday night they have a hill that you have to repeat 10 times, so I need the practice. The hill I was going up is only 0.4m but averages 6% I knew my legs would burn but no pain no gain. As I had no idea how I would feel after one I had no idea how many times I would repeat so I would play that one by ear. All the climbing would be done standing and in the big chain ring. It was painful, fortunately there was a bouncer on a part of the climb encouraging me each time I went past. I ended up doing 5 repeats before heading home and found another short climb which caught me out, but I battled through it my legs pretty much wanting to disown me.

Sunday 7th July

Rest Day, This week really was quite flat but hopefully next week I pick it up.

Monday 8th July

My standard Tempo ride today. A week ago I said that I need to start doing recovery rides the day after a hard session but this time it will be done. The first part of my legs didn't want to cooperate due to them being stiff then the downhill section was into a head wind so where I would normally recover a little I was having to push to get through the wind. I had a crosswind up a hill and then a great tailwind heading back to Shenfield and then another up a climb to Brentwood which done wonders for my best segment times on Strava, in comparison to the last weeks it was fairly similar but taking into account my harder training on Saturday and minimal training last week I am glad I didn't go backwards. 18 miles in just over an hour.

Tuesday 9th July

Rest Day

Wednesday 10th July

I was thinking about the idea of attending the club time trial but it needs me to actually make a decision before the day as would need somewhere to look after my son for 20 minutes or so until my wife gets home. Seeing as I wasn't participating in the time trial I decided to add sprint training into my training. Given that as a runner I was a sprinter I was quite looking forward to this. I went onto the rollers and yes I am a baby and still using the stand but for the most effective training it makes sense.

I had a 10 minute warm-up and then into the sprints. The plan was 20 minutes which would consist of 30 seconds sprint the 30 seconds rest. I learnt quite quickly that there wasn't enough rest and the effort wasn't lasting 30 seconds so I changed the timings to 15 seconds sprints 30 rest then to 20 seconds sprint 40 rest. I was dripping in sweat and shattered it was a good workout and great for working on my leg speed my cadence peaking at 150 in the biggest gear.

Thursday 11th July

I hadn't had an endurance ride in a while so got on the rollers again and the aim keep in Zone 2 working on my endurance. I thought I might be a bit heavy legged after the previous days exploits but they were fine. As I have said before the hardest thing with indoor training is the boredom factor. Tonight I watched some of the Ashes and the the last 10 minutes I watched cycling I had recorded, I rewound it 10 minutes from the end for last 10 minutes of my ride to keep me entertained and sprinted when they did might as well get my body used to sprinting at the end of a ride. Indoor training is great for working up a sweat. This week is already on level terms with last week. The trouble for me is finding time to fit everything I want in, next week on my days off I am thinking of throwing in some double sessions, thought those ended when I had my last pre season as a footballer.

Friday 12th July

Rest Day.

Saturday 13th July

Today my aim was a longish solo ride and put in a new hill. It never ended like that as I couldn't remember where I needed to go but next time I go this way I will certainly attempt to tackle it. My dinner the previous night was a BBQ and people that know me know that I tend to just eat meat at BBQ's and then odd burger bap with my burger so severely lacking carbs. Missing out on carbs the night before affected me on in the ride. I felt like my legs had nothing to give me in terms of any increase in effort but my heart rate remained low compared to how I felt, not happy. Also, I had run out of my SIS electrolyte drink so had to use Lucozade, obviously my dinner the night before didn't help but I didn't feel any benefit from the Lucozade where I am sure the SIS would have helped me along a bit more. I covered 28 miles and averaged 17.5MPH which in context of how I was feeling was pretty good.

Sunday 14th July

Rest Day, the plan was a recovery ride but I failed to do it again. I am going to dig out the skins recovery tights (forgot I had them) plan is to sleep in them even in this weather.

Conclusion

This has been my busiest week in terms of sessions and I have enjoyed it, I am contemplating on racing this week as the series will be coming to an end soon. I am not going to sit here and say my target is to finish is the top 20 as I know the majority if not all will have been doing this for a while and some will be of the category above that I am in. It will be good to see where I am at and how long I can stay onto the main group for. If I do end up doing it wish me luck. I didn't my wife to proof this post so it is probably full of grammatical and spelling errors.

My First Club Run

Glendene is the name of the cycling club I joined, based in Navestock just outside Brentwood. The club night is on a Wednesday so I went down there and met some of the members. My first thought was I am carrying too much weight compared to these guys and girls.

My plan was over winter to get myself fit and be in good condition for the cycling season. Unfortunately this didn't happen due to work but not one to completely write things off I changed my diet. I have never been out of shape but in October last year I was 81kg at 5'10, 2 weeks ago I weighed 75kg my target is 70kg.

18.05.2013 was the date of my first club run.  My sleep the night leading up to it was patchy, as it always is when I am looking forward to something in sport. My head filled with how to stay in the bunch and not make too much of a fool of myself!

The morning came my breakfast was two slices of brown bread toast with margarine, my first mistake. I was slightly late but I was lucky they were waiting for me. The club run is up to the Blue Egg Cafe in Great Bardfield and back again.

We set off from Blackmore a group of about 20. In my jersey I was carrying spare inner tube incase I got a puncture and one bottle of water in my bottle cage, my second mistake.  It was my first time riding in a group. I was nervous, trying to stay in someones wheel without crashing into them and holding a good line so the person behind can stay in my wheel. My fear was getting dropped by the group on hills as me on any kind of hill was always a struggle, but I got to the Cafe with the group even participating in the group sprint. I'm not going to lie I was chuffed 35 miles in total and not dropped once.

We got into the Cafe and I was just going to drink fluids, but someone said to make sure you eat somthing for fuel. I had a slice of beans on toast, I didn't  want to eat much more as I didn't want to feel lethagic, my third mistake and my last mistake was not to stretch at the cafe.

We got back onto our bikes and headed home, it was going to be about 30 miles back. Instantly I got cramp on my inner thighs. I tried shaking them off and it worked but anytime I tried to stand up and climb the cramp would return. As the ride went on I was finding it more difficult to stay in the wheel. Then someone said we have 14 miles to go, encouragement that I needed, but then it happened my legs gave up on a hill. No matter how small a gear I went in they were offering nothing in return. I had been dropped in a horrible way. One of my clubs mates pushed me up one of the hills. I must buy him a drink the next time I see him. The rest of the ride was painful at one point I was doing 10mph on a flat. My legs had well and truely disowned me. The club captain stayed with me and lead me home, while the main group raced away. He spoke with me about the importance of fuelling myself right which from mistakes 1-3 I failed miserably. Mistake 4 was just me being an idiot. I have never done any sport for this duration before and it showed.

I got back to Blackmore and went straight into the shop Lucozade, Cheese Sandwich, Snickers and water was what I bought, my body needed fuel and needed it fast. I devoured it all within about 10 minutes.

I was dreading Sunday and Monday as I feared severe DOMS but they weren't too bad. I had a pint of milk on the Sunday as I read that milk helped reduce DOMS. Whether it was the milk that helped or not I was just glad a could walk relatively normal.

Hopefully my second outing on the club run would be slightly more successful.