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.

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.