Weekend Training Stats:
NB: IF YOU'RE AT ALL INTERESTED IN TRAINING STATS/CHARTS/GRAPHS ETC. - I'M FULLY AWARE THAT IT MIGHT JUST BE ME! - THEN I'VE POPPED A LINK TO THE GORY DETAILS OF ALL MY WORKOUTS ON 'MOTION BASED' IN THE 'LINKS' SECTION ON THE LEFT HAND SIDE OF THE BLOG. ENJOY...OR NOT!
Saturday's allotted task was a Threshold Session - with the aim being to work in my heart rate zone between 162 and 172 bpm. I guess this replicates a bit of reasonably tough climbing. Obviously, you can't necessarily keep this going indefinitely, so I did it in interval sessions. I chose to do 12 mins at Threshold level followed by 6 mins at easy 'recovery' pace' - all repeated 3 times, giving a total workout time of about an hour, after you factor in warm up and warm down times.
My legs were reasonably sore, but I wasn't completely shattered by the end of it. Also, once I was in the required zone, I found it fairly easy to stay there. I don't know whether this has something to do with my physiological testing stats which suggested that I'm actually more efficient at higher heart rates.
This morning - despite a late night, AND the clocks going forward - I managed to scrape myself out of bed for the Twickenham Cycling Club Sunday club run. It was cold, but dry and not too windy, so in the end I figured that if I wasn't going to go out on days like this then I'd never get out.
Interestingly, it's also a fairly strong motivator knowing that I've got to update this blog - so if I hadn't gone out, even the fairly limited readership here would know just how lazy I'd been.
As with the first time I went out on a club run, once we were out and riding I was really glad that I had got out, as the weather tried it's best to get a bit better, and I felt a bit more comfortable and relaxed riding in a group. I even had the legs and the confidence to take an occasional turn at the front and didn't struggle at all.
It was also 'nice' to take on a couple of fairly steep inclines - which had me out of breath, but again not out on my feet.
For the first time it's worth me popping an elevation profile graph in the blog! For some reason it feels more like 'proper' training if you're really struggling, but I recovered reasonably quickly, and it does feel like my training is beginning to have some effect.
Overall, I'm really happy with what I've achieved with my training this week. I've stuck to my training programme pretty much to the letter - despite plenty of inclement weather, and have ended up doing a total of 10 focussed hours of work, which is exactly what I was looking for. As this coming week is my 'work' week, I'll have less opportunity to get out this week, but it should at least give my body a chance to recover properly.
Mate, i don't want to sound rude but we don't care about your graphs and the stats and all that pony. We want more photos and more videos. Get out on your bike and get some footage. Come on Shezzles...give your fans what they want!
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