Fitter and less fat

Today started with the usual Monday morning weigh in, so here's the tale of the Tanita for this week.

Weight: 11 stone 8 pounds (down a pound - right on track)

Body Fat: 19.4% (up 1%)

Visceral Fat Rating: 6 (same)

Basal Metabolic Rate: 7198kJ/1720kCal (down a bit from last week)

Muscle Mass: 8 stone 12 pounds (down about a pound)

Water: 55.9% (pretty much the same)

Realistically, I'm starting to be a bit sceptical about the body fat/muscle mass etc figures, because they seem very volatile - going up and down from day to day. As long as things are going generally in the right direction, I'm happy - I don't think it's worth worrying about, as long as the training's going ok.

The weather this week's supposed to be pretty miserable on the whole, so I really wanted to take advantage of the dry, warm conditions today. I popped out early afternoon for an 'Endurance' session and immediately felt noticeably fitter than I have been doing up until now. I guess it might be because, essentially, I've had a rest week, and it's given my body a chance to recover and build up muscle in all the right places - but it was a feeling that persisted.

My legs seem to be dialled in to working at a higher cadence now, and although sometimes it feels like I'm not doing enough 'work', it definitely means that there's less strain on my legs.

I haven't been able to upload today's stats as yet - perhaps because my Garmin crashed midway into my ride, and perhaps that's corrupted the file. I'll continue trying anyway - but the bare stats are that I did 39 miles in about 2 hrs 20 mins, at an average speed of just about 17 mph. When you factor in all the slowing down and starting up again in traffic, that's very acceptable. I was still pressing on at the end of my ride, and even managed a little finishing sprint.

The most encouraging thing was that even when I hit a bit of an uphill stretch, it all seemed less of an effort than it has been doing. Even on the hills, where my heart rate went up a bit out of my Endurance zone, and my legs were starting to feel a bit sore - I didn't actually feel much out of breath. For the first time, it felt like the long distance climbs of the Etape might actually be somewhere near my capabilities.