Training week one – and spring has arrived (better late than never)

At last, spring. The copper breech looking ….. er ….. copperish, the apple tree with blossom (showing no ill effects from me falling out of it in March) and the lawns mowed

Happily, my training for the ride to the alps might not be as random as I’d feared it was going to be. That is thanks to Jim of Fit Recovery (one heck of a good blog – well worth reading for many reasons) who kindly came up with the advice to go for training blocks of 3 consecutive days of riding, with increasing distances.

To be honest, I prefer the ‘eat more cake’ recommendation from a tongue in cheek Tempo Cyclist (another exceptional blog, by the way) but I suppose nothing worth achieving comes without sacrifice.

The ‘training blocks’ idea makes good sense – it replicates the ride in the summer which will be 3 (or 4) days and will help educate my body to recover ready for the following day in the saddle.

After a week off following the sportive I decided to get back into it so I did the first 3 day block on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. The weather was still uncertain early in the week so it was back to the turbo.

Tuesday – 50km in 1:06:14 @45.2kph (31 miles @ 28mph) with 6x1km sprints – something as simple as that made it much tougher than normal.

Wednesday – 53.6km in 1:12:17 @ 44.6kph (33.3 miles @ 27.75 mph) after going to the gym in the afternoon. I found it hard and had intended to struggle no further than 50 km but stupidly made a deal with myself that I wouldn’t stop before the end of the frame of World Championship snooker I was watching – it turned out to be a long one!

Thursday: 56.43km in 1:21:20 @ 41.6. A little slower but not too bad at the finish, after a sluggish start with tired legs.

So, 160km (100 miles) in 3 days – against a week’s target of 150km. True, it was all on the turbo but I do make sure turbo sessions are intense and relentlessly hard. Out on the roads next week.

With the promise of a cycle-free Saturday (going to London for our younger son’s birthday) I let youthful exuberance get the better of me and I was back on the turbo on Friday for another hard, quick hour: 46.48km (28.9 miles) with 5 sprints of 1km.

It might be my Spinal Tap moment – if three is good, four must be better, right?

That makes 206.5km (128 miles) for the week – in 4 days. A reasonable start but a bit sobering that those four days combined were still more than 70km (40+ miles) short of what I plan to ride on each of the 3 days in July!

Today it seemed that spring had arrived. A great day for cycling missed – but I’d give up any number of cycling days for our sons, and it was also a great day to see the younger one for his birthday.