Back in the Saddle

Decembers been a write off for me on the bike. A second bout of chest infection plus the snow put pay to any base mile work. Chutzpah!

Arriving back from my first club run, in I can't remember how long, I took a look back at my miles for the last six months, to get some idea as to the impact of December on my overall miles.

Miles since May look something like this: -

May 260
June 485
July 290
Aug 454
Sept 460
Oct 222
Nov 224
Dec 32

So between June and November, I managed to clock around 2.1k miles. My overall target for 2010 was 3,000 miles, so I've comfortably hit that with my Jan-April numbers, so despite Decembers poor mileage month, 2010 has been pretty good for my first full year on the bike.

Trundling along in the cold today, I could tell my fitness had taken a dive from where it was. Sunday 28th November was the last time I was on the bike, so it's about four weeks out of the saddle for me. My heart rate monitor was certainly letting me know as I spent most of today's ride in HRZ4, far in excess of where I would normally be.

Still, I enjoyed it. It was freezing out, however I had four layers on to combat the cold. A thermal vest, arm warmers, merino top, windtex jacket and an altura windcheater over that, with some very thick gloves. All in all, I didn't feel cold once.

It felt good to be out on the road again, it started with a bit of a bump as the bike went from under me on my street, no damage done other than to my pride. I considered to abandon at that stage and jumped in my car, full club kit on to lick my wounds at Starbucks. Pulling off the estate I spotted our club secretary riding down, so pulling him over and checking the route, I nipped back for the Spesh and got myself up to Stretton. Route here.

So, time to shortly think about objectives for 2011. More distance overall. More speed. More stamina. Faster Sportive times. What are you planning?