Weekend Yields a Ride!

So a nice steady 99.9km ride on Saturday. Not exactly blazing around but was reletively relaxed at the end. I think what may be better is to increase the distance ridden weekly and once at 100miles then start increasing intensity. All in all an OK riding week; clocking over 12 hours with the commuting (and not including the Monday commutes). No other riding at the weekend with having previous girlfriend arranged commitments to attend to.

What is going to be difficult this week is the weather getting colder, with the UK having notoriously bad road de-icing and lots of ungritted lanes, I really do think that the Turbo is going to be getting some hammer.

Yikes

So long ride tomorrow, after news at work tomorrow made me and the missus not in the mood to do anything this evening. A real motivation destroyer, however I am out tomorrow for what will be my only long ride this week. I really should make use of the turbo more. So this week thus far my Strava score is a disappointing:

Which isn't that bad, considering the week before I had to go to DK for work with a chest infection. So after eating a huge Chilli this evening I am looking forward for tomorrows 60 miles. I should really do this in low zone but I have enough to do at the weekend that getting the morning free to do anything is pretty amazing in itself as the GF has already booked me up with important activities.

So most of this week has been riding to and from work, which is always fun in the UK as drivers believe the roads were built for them when in fact they never were :D. Cue on my ride to work lots of people on a Toucan crossing blocking the path when the light goes green for us. This makes it difficult to get around them, and I really have to make sure I use their vehicles for support when I go past them \m/ \m/ To be honest most drivers over 40 don't know if there is more than one type of pedestrian crossing anyway, such is the poor standard of driving in the UK and the lack of interest that drivers take in further training means that they have forgot most of their training when they took their driving test anyway. Plus the last highway code they bothered to buy was probably at the time of their test. No wonder our roads are so safe for athletes to train upon.

Meh

OK, copped out last night on a training ride owing to a late finish at work. Yeah right I hear you say; but it's true. However in my (minimal) defense I did join the work GyM last night. Which is great, however the best news is that the underused and fully trained staff there can run VO2 max tests as well as Max Heart Rate tests. Therefore I am going to try and do a little more work before Mid February and then do it. I have been told it is best to be a little rested as the test for both (can they do this?) will be over in around 20 minutes. So my colleagues who can be bothered to get to the GyM are going to have a laugh watching me try to rock my heart out on an excercise bike.

I also joined Strava, this is in the vain hope of igniting some competitive streak in myself and log some miles. Not fed in my bike weights as I appear to be devoid of the gene that makes me a weight weenie. I blame the parents for this DNA deficiency which means I cannot take advantage of the computed power readings on the website. I have also discovered that I am one of the most dismal cyclists in Fleet according to some of the Strava rankings. Go ME!! Hopefully this embedded widget from them should work:

Finally I have stopped eating before the ride to work and now do it afterward. All I have in the morning now is a nice espresso and a glass of water before the 7.5 miles to work. The reasoning behind this is that I read an article which alledgedly was from a top coach (I think it was in Cycling Active Fitness Special); who stated if he changes one thing it is when people eat, and those who commute should have breakfast on arrival at work. So now along with the lunch box I carry a smaller tuperware from the fridge which contains a yoghurt and a weighed portion of muesli. So I arrive, have a shower then something to eat. We will see.

So after resurrecting this in order to get my training back on track I better start training! So with that in mind it is worth recording what I am going to be using for my heart rate targets. These targets are from a bike radar article a while ago.

So on the trusty Edge 705 I have set up the following zones:

Zone 1 : 65 - 74 %

Zone 2 : 75 - 81%

Zone 3 : 82 - 88%

Zone 4 : 89 - 93 %

Zone 5 : 93 - 100 %

Based on a max heart rate of 193bpm (yes at 36!)

The more eagle eyed amongst you will have noticed that there is no Zone 1, chiefly because that Garmin do not allow for custom number of Zones (talk about oversight). Hence I have to remember to keep rides below 74% to do base endurance mileage. How many people go for a Zone 1 ride anyway?

Currently I ride to and from the office when I am there. This is a 7.5 mile ride on a fixed gear bike with panniers loaded up. The plan will be to get at least a couple of rides in a week, with the Turbo to be used in the event of bad weather. At the moment I am aiming to complete the Wiggle Cheshire Cat 100 at the end of March.

So that is it for now. Why not sit back with an espresso and enjoy the following:

Motorist Kills Human Being

It appears that if you want to kill someone in the western world you can legally use a car and get away with it. In the US as long as you are rich enough and you can afford expensive lawyers you can kill with impunity.

Haha we laugh at the idiocy of the colonials but here in the UK things are no better; and by that I refer to the latest 'accident' that kills another cyclist. What is scary is that the motorist admits to making a call whilst attempting to overtake.

Are things going to change? Probably not so lets be careful out there, on a motorbike it's best to assume that everyone is trying to kill you and on a non-motored bike assume it doubly.

Back to training tomorrow. The rain on the way to work was awful and went through a waterproof, a gore tex windstopper, a micro fleece and my jersey.