On the Road

(At the moment (2330 on Tuesday) The Garmin Connect site isn't allowing me to post my training details from today, but will add them as soon as I can)


Update Wed 1700: The Garmin Connect site still seems to be having a few problems, so I've managed to upload my training stats from yesterday onto the MotionBased website, which you should be able to find here: Tue Training Stats - 2 Laps of Richmond Park.


Despite the title, I'm not going to deliver today's entry in Beatnik style - mainly because I'm a bit poetry'd out after last Friday's late night writing session. What the title actually refers to is that today I finally got out and about on my new road bike, and did a proper road training session. Nothing overly strenuous - just a trip up to Richmond Park for 2 laps.

That only tells half the story though, because although the weather was grey but fine when I left, it was already quite blustery. On my way up to the park, the wind got stronger, and about half way through lap one, the rain started whipping in horizontally. I hope you'll bear that in mind when perusing the stats above. (While I'm on the subject, can I heartily recommend the "player" function on my stats page. It rather cleverly displays all the major readings - heart rate, cadence etc., against my map location during the ride. Kinda fun).


Lots of positives to come out of the day - the bike felt (no pun intended) really good on the road, and as a road-bike novice, it was good to get a bit of practice at shifting up and down the gears and controlling the drop handlebars. My hand position on the brake hoods also felt a lot more comfortable than it did on the turbo. I've figured out now that because the back wheel is raised slightly when its attached to the turbo, there's more pressure on your hands than there is when the bike's on the flat.


On the flat, as hoped, my cruising speed was 2 or 3 mph up on what I can do on my Sirrus Comp. Travelling at 17-18 mph was pretty comfortable and didn't feel like I was putting in much effort at all.


I also got to try out some energy food - A Sis Gel and an Energy Bar. The gels are a very strange gloopy consistency. They taste ok, but the 'feel' of them could take a bit of getting used to. I really liked the Energy Bar though. It had a sticky, toffee-like consistency. I think it was an Apple and Blackcurrant flavour one that I had, but there was a nice overtone of dried apricot too.


The bad news was that I'm clearly going to have to work hard on my climbing. As you'll see from the gradient map in the stats, the little bits of climbing in my circuit were really very short, but my heart rate and breathing shot up slightly alarmingly. I'm hoping this was at least partly the effect of the wind, but I think even without the wind I would have been pretty uncomfortable.


At least I know now though, and it's not too late to work on it. I think I've earned my 'rest' day tomorrow, although I'll do a couple of hours in the gym in the morning on Yoga and a few weights - so not really 'wasting' any training time I don't think.