So today was the last training session of 2015, wrapping up a record year in terms of miles covered.
Squeezing a quick post internal session recovery ride in for coffee today, it was a good time to reflect and how much more progress I was able to make whilst working with a coach. It also came to mind just how wet and windy it's been this winter and how many of the miles (1,934) had been indoors.
2016 brings new opportunity as always and the plan is to maintain my new lower weight, build core strength and muscle where required and continue to use cycling as a way of staying healthy, both physically and mentally. Simple.
I hope it's been a great year for you and wish you safe miles in 2016. Thanks for continuing to visit the blog and I hope to see you on the road sometime.
Month to Date
Mileage- 760 miles/1,216km (+344% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 37hrs 03mins
Ascent - 4,960ft
Avg. Speed - 20.5mph/32.8km/h
Avg. HR - 129bpm
Wattbike Miles- 557
Road Miles - 175
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Miles) - 24 (Flat)
Year to Date
Mileage- 5,789 miles/9,262km (+58% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 320rs 02mins
Ascent - 119,347ft (-17% vs PY)
Avg. Speed - 18.1mph (+9.6% vs. PY)
Avg. HR - 134bpm
November was the big one with my trip to Tenerife to take on some of the lumps of the Island aligned with some winter sun and a week at a Northern Soul event.
Having been putting in a big shift in training for the previous twelve weeks and got my weight goal in the bag, it was time to crack on with some climbing.
Day one of having the bike I did a warm up ride of around 15 miles. The thing is about Tenerife is that you don't ride far without encountering a climb. On this short haul, there was 1,742ft of ascent with a ride ascent ratio of 116ft per mile, which would qualify for hilly back here in the UK.
Day two was the day that I wanted to climb Teide. Setting off at 8am with a route that the Garmin said was a round trip of 61 miles, by the time I got to the base of the climb I'd already covered 47 miles and 4,964ft of climbing (RAR 105). It soon dawned on me that the route mileage was wrong. It was a hot day, 29 degrees and I was already feeling pretty tired by this point, time to man up and go up.
Teide is a relentless climb of 6-9% and long, in fact it's the longest single climb in Europe. After 11 miles of further climbing, I'd covered another 3,930 feet (RAR 357 which was really hard), by this time it was 3.15pm in the afternoon and I saw a sign that said 'Summit 27km'.
Nightmare of nightmares. I'm now 58 miles from the hotel, with no lights on the bike and the sun due to set at 6.15pm and riding at an average of around 10mph given the heat and the ascent. I knew I wouldn't make it back before dark.
Management decision time. I put on my arm and leg warmers, spun the bike round and flew down the 11 mile climb taking full use of the disc brakes on the BMC bike I'd hired. The thing about Tenerife though is that there are only two routes to get back to the hotel, the motorway or exactly the way I'd just come, yes the same 47 miles and 4.9K of climbing (if you've done the math, I'd already covered 69 miles and 8,894 feet of climbing) so after seven hours in the saddle, in the heat, I had those miles to cover again.
Thank god I'd trained so hard. All those intervals paid a handsome dividend. My engine was good, strength was good and I covered a further 20 miles all in all after the descent, including a stop at a bakery to tip another bottle of water over my head, have an espresso and eat as many cakes as I could eat!
Taxi!
It was too dark and treachorous to carry on, so I pushed on until I came to a village, found a taxi rank and cabbed it back to the hotel. All in it was a 90 mile day with around 12,000ft of climbing (RAR 133). Am amazing day and probably the hardest I've ever done on a bike given the heat and the overall ascent relevant to the distance.
After a couple of days rest, I rode up to Adeje for a leg loosener (18.6 miles with 2.1K ascent - RAR 117).
Day after that I went up to San Miguel which is a peach of a climb, around 10km long at 6%. It had an amazing four mile descent, so I went down, climbed back up again and did it again. The loop from the hotel was 43 miles with 3,911ft of ascent (RAR 90).
Over the four days that I rode, I managed to cover 167 miles (268km) and climb 18,900ft (5760M) with an overall RAR of 113ft per mile. It was glorious riding in the warm, the roads were quiet, the climbs long and steady and a perfect way to segway some cycling in with a holiday.
Although I didn't climb Teide in its entirety in the end, the overall distance and ascent given the route planning boo boo, still gave me the virtual climb I guess. Think I have some unfinished business with that Volcano, bring on 2016.
Month to Date
Mileage- 727miles/1,170km (+70% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 19hrs 57mins
Ascent - 24,045ft
Avg. Speed - 16.2mph/26km/h
Avg. HR - 126bpm
Wattbike Miles-428
Road Miles -299
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Road Miles) - 80 (Hilly)
Year to Date
Mileage- 5,028 miles/8,091km (+44% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 282rs 58mins
Ascent - 114,386ft (-21% vs PY)
Avg. Speed - 18.1mph (+6.6% vs. PY)
Avg. HR - 135bpm
Biggest event during October was an episode of food poisoning which took me off the bike for a week and knocked back the intensity of training when back in the saddle.
Sometimes these events just arrive unexpectedly and the advice always is - total rest. I monitor my resting heart rate and during the week it rose from 58bpm to 66bpm (+13% rise), which just demonstrates what your body is going through when fighting infection.
Anyhow, I was glad to get clear of it and get back to the training plan which continues to be focused on losing weight, whilst maintaining muscle mass. The good news for October was I hit my target weight of 82.5kg (13 stones in old money), from my start point of 95.2kg (15 stones) exactly on plan. I've got a blog coming in on how I was able to achieve that shortly.
During the food poisoning, I dropped down to 80kg with all the fluid loss and appetite supression, but soon started putting it back on again when eating normally. With the forthcoming trip to Tenerife and climbs of Mt. Teide, I'm in the shape that I wanted to be in to hopefully give it a good crack.
All in all, with all the indoor training on the Wattbike it promises to be a record year in the saddle with having already passed my best annual mileage log yet of 4,128 in 2014. All being well, with a good training block in Tenerife and continuing discipline it should create a good foundation for 2016.
Month to Date
Mileage- 674miles/1,079km (+209% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 36hrs 42mins
Ascent - 10,141ft
Avg. Speed - 18.4mph/29.4km/h
Avg. HR - 132bpm
Wattbike Miles-350
Road Miles -324
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Miles) - 31 (Flat)
Year to Date
Mileage- 4,308 miles/6,893km (+37% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 238rs 21mins
Ascent - 90,341ft (-42% vs PY)
Avg. Speed - 18.1mph (+9.6% vs. PY)
Avg. HR - 136bpm
Another big month with training inside and outside in readiness for Tenerife next month. Everything is going according to plan with the planned weight loss of 10kg firmly in sight (-8.5kg off already).
September has mostly been indoor miles with lots of time on the Wattbike pushing out sets of around 75 minutes per evening with road rides preserved the weekend.
By re-configuring the content what I'm eating and drinking, it's leading to a calorie of 7000-10,000 per week (driven by the exercise not a major reduction in how many calories I consume which are stil close to daily basal metabolic rate), leading to around a kg a week weight reduction.
Riding out today on a four hour ride, a familiar route over to Alderley edge of around 70 miles, I checked my heart rate average data and it's down around seven per cent with the same speed average. This is a combination of the lower weight and intervals.
The training load has taken quite a lot of organisation to work around work and family life, however discipline remains the key word, plan it and make it happen.
Month to Date
Mileage- 803miles/1,285km (+327% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 41hrs 05mins
Ascent - 7,906ft
Avg. Speed - 19.5mph/31.2km/h
Avg. HR - 129bpm
Wattbike Miles- 571
Road Miles - 203
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Miles) - 34 (Flat)
Year to Date
Mileage- 3,627 miles/5,803km (+4% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 201rs 17mins
Ascent - 80,200ft (-33% vs PY)
Avg. Speed - 17.8mph (+12.7% vs. PY)
Avg. HR - 137bpm
My year of boomerang mileage continues with August delivering the highest miles I've ever done since starting road cycling - 824 miles.
The big change is the amount of time I've spent on the indoor trainer during August, some 357 miles in total with the main effort being on weight loss whilst continuing to build engine capacity.
This has meant lots of intervals after work (75 minute sessions) combined with long controlled heart rate zone rides at the weekends to ensure the ride intensity is in the fat burning zone. Having come out of the bank holiday weekend with around 160 miles (257km) in the bank, the word is discipline. Discipline in eating, doing the intervals and getting out on the road.
Seeing some good results with around 4.5kg dropped so far against a target of 10kg that I had set for myself prior to riding Mt. Teide later this year. It's taken quite a bit of re-configuration in food intake, time management and riding style (blog to come on the challenges of slow riding) however I'm pleased with the August block.
Month to Date
Mileage- 824 miles/1,329km (+107% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 45hrs 498mins
Ascent - 14,166ft
Avg. Speed - 18.0mph
Avg. HR - 133bpm
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Miles) - 17 (Flat)
Year to Date
Mileage- 2,824 miles/4,544km (+4% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 160rs 11mins
Ascent - 72,293ft (-35% vs PY)
Avg. Speed - 17.6mph (+7.3% vs. PY)
Avg. HR - 139bpm
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Miles) - 25.6 (Flat)
What a couple of months. Battling back from a nasty virus, June saw a paltry 85 miles on the bike due to a combination of a number of factors including my own health, a close family members health and a big weekend away with the lads!
July needed some serious re-thinking to get things back in shape. I don't know how you approach your re-builds, my process for fitness recovery is pretty simple after a gap from the bike: -
1) Slow, long (ish), flat and steady rides to begin with, keeping a close eye on heart rate intensity.
2) Building ride intensity as you can see your numbers improving.
As usual, it's it's a bit of slog as you go out for your first couple of rides. It feels like you're back at square one as a cyclist with lots of people riding by you, each bit of wind feeling like a big battle and a low average speed relative to where you might normally be, with a higher heart rate to get there.
You have to stick with it. Keeping an eye on what your heart is doing (in terms of where you are on your training zones) your engine eventually wakes up and bobs your uncle, you're back. When that occurs, you can begin to start raising your intensity, taking on some harder profile and getting back to normal.
Later in the month, I recorded 19.6mph average for one ride over 25 miles (flat route) which I would consider very fast for me, so it goes to show that rest, patience and a slow build can have a positive effect on your performance.
It''s been a lower mileage year thus far, primarily as I didn't do the London to Paris event this year, which normally adds another 300 miles onto my total. Taking that into account, YTD mileage would be about the same as last year.
Month to Date
Mileage- 412miles/659km (+488% vs. PY - only 70M last year due to illness)
Ride Time - 23hrs 58mins
Ascent - 15,232ft (+814% vs. PY)
Avg. Speed - 17.2mph (-6.5% vs. PY)
Avg. HR - 148pm
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Miles) - 37(Flat/Undulating) (+42% vs. PY)
Year to Date
Mileage- 1,981 miles/3,169km (-14% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 114hrs 01mins
Ascent - 62,501ft (-35% vs PY)
Avg. Speed - 17.4mph (+5% vs. PY)
Avg. HR - 142bpm
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Miles) - 28.1 (Flat)
Judging by the last few years, anywhere between 650-900 miles is my expectation for Q1 mileage. With a number of contributing factors including weather, illness and weekends away (of which there were 3), I didn't ride anywhere near as much as I would have liked, exiting the quarter with just 432 miles.
It can be frustrating when you're not riding, fitness seems to fade so quickly with the resulting weight also creeping back up. The prospect of getting back out there knowing you've got work to do is a sweet and sour moment in many respects, you're looking forward to being out again, yet you know that the first few rides will feel tough as you grind your way back.
Arriving into April with a determination to get things tuned back up, some 34 hours of riding led to 570 miles being covered, more than the entire number in Q1, so things crept back in the right direction.
Wind conditions have been blowy to say the least, with gusts of up to 45mph on some rides. One memorable Saturday early in April, I recall getting back, getting showered and getting straight into bed for a couple of hours. The combination of below par fitness and strong winds giving me a firm reminder of the journey ahead, everything to play for!
Q2 looks more promising with that start. Another bout of illness in May has seen a weekend wiped out, which is far from ideal. If you're coming back from illness, I have a previous post on the subject, with Ten tips to a safe and manageable recovery. I found myself re-reading it last week, you are welcome to view it here.
Safe miles.
Quarter to Date
Mileage- 432miles/691km (-47% vs. PY)
Ride Time - 24hrs 04mins
Ascent - 10,702ft (-19% vs. PY)
Avg. Speed - 18.0mph (+9 vs. PY)
Avg. HR - 137pm
Ride Ascent Ratio (Ascent/Miles) - 22.2 (Flat) (-23% vs. PY)
