Ridiculous to Sublime

Today's training stats: Threshold Strength: TT 1 lap of Richmond Park

After yesterday's horrible weather, I was a bit apprehensive about training when I woke up - although I did have the fallback position that if it was really horrid I could always do some intervals on the turbo.

However, when I pulled back the curtains, it was absolutely lovely outside - sunny and not too windy. After doing a few jobs in the morning, I popped out on the bike around lunchtime. The wind was behind me as I headed through Twickenham up to Richmond Park, so I was averaging 19-20 mph without really pushing myself at all, which was a nice feeling. It takes me about 15 mins to get up to the park, so it's a nice warmup. After grabbing a quick drink, I set out on my 1 lap "Time Trial". In today's training I was aiming at 'Threshold' level - which for me is a heart rate in the zone 162-172 bpm.

Here's the science bit..."This level of effort involves the fast-twitch oxidative (type 2a) muscle fibres, which require large amounts of oxygen to function properly".

This compares with the 'Endurance' level training which I was doing yesterday, which "uses the slow twitch (type 1) aerobic muscle fibre that it's vital to train for improved endurance. (NB: This is a fat-burning fibre - just one more reason why I need to be doing more training at this level!).

The reason why it was important for me to stay in the Endurance zone yesterday was that if I did that, I wasn't using any of the fast-twitch fibres - meaning they weren't fatigued, and I could get more out of training them today.

Anyway, I really caught the best of the weather in the park - although the northerly wind was still quite stiff. Doing my best to push myself quite hard, while keeping in the Threshold zone, I felt exactly how I think I should have - out of breath, but not completely flat out and 'ruined'.

This is a photo of me after I got back. I took it for my Etape 'memories' book, which Katy at Face Partnership is putting together. I'm gonna put the ludicrous 'belly' down to the fact that I'd just drunk almost a litre and a half of SiS 'Go' and 'Rego' energy drinks, but it should make the difference between my 'before' and 'after photos look a bit more impressive. I thought black was supposed to be slimming, anyway! 

As you'll see from the stats above, I finished with a time of 23.24 - an average speed of exactly 17mph. I'm aware this isn't particularly great, as decent club cyclists aim at doing 3 laps in an hour. However, I'm also aware that I'm just doing my best to train myself and I won't be racing anyone in the Etape.

The key thing again today was making sure that I did as much of my training in the required threshold zone, and again I think I achieved that pretty well. As you can see from today's graph, the vast majority (84%) of my ride was in the Threshold

 zone, so I was training exactly the right types of muscle. This way, I should be able to alternate my Endurance and Threshold training, without my muscles ever getting too fatigued. It should mean that I get more training in total, and also that whatever training I do is more effective. 

Despite yesterday's grim weather, I'm pretty

pleased with how this week's going so far, and hopefully it'll continue. Tomorrow should be another Endurance ride - weather permitting, and then I've got a rest day to look forward to on Thursday.