My Week in Training – Week 29

Date	Kms	Time	Type	Avg Speed (KPH)	Links
Mon, 18th Jul 2011	40	1:32:55	Road	25.6	Strava – Garmin
Tue, 19th Jul 2011	84	2:42:46	Road	30.9	Strava – Garmin
Fri, 22nd Jul 2011	92	3:18:11	Road	27.8	Strava – Garmin
Sun, 24th Jul 2011	33	1:55:12	Road	27.6	Strava – Garmin

View from Burling Gap

The weather forecast is awful for this week. Today, the westerly winds are really strong and blustery. It also looked like rain. I decided to take the Trek out today and go around Beachy Head, taking the camera with me, as the photo opportunity would be quite good at Burling Gap and Beachy Head.

My progress so far – 18th June 2011

Firstly, here are the numbers:

• 2 weeks to go to the start of the 2011 Tour de France.
• 10 weeks to go to my Tour de France or Bust trip.
• 2873 miles cycled so far this year.
• All 21 stages mapped for GPS (available for download).
• Accommodation booked and confirmed for the first 11 days of the trip.
• £88.00 collected for Help for Heroes (My target is £1000)

My Week in Training – Week 17

Date	Miles	Time	Type	Avg Speed (MPH)	Links
Tue, 26th Apr 2011	25	1:22:10	Road	17.9	Strava – Garmin
Fri, 29th Apr 2011	57	3:23:41	Road	16.9	Strava – Garmin
Sun, 1st May 2011	57	3:09:01	Road	18.2	Strava – Garmin

There was no riding for me on Easter Monday. This was due to family commitments and recovering from the efforts of the previous day’s Tour of the Weald.

My Week in Training – Week 15

Date	Miles	Time	Type	Avg Speed (MPH)	Links
Mon, 11th Apr 2011	25	1:16:17	Road	19.8	Strava – Garmin
Thu, 14th Apr 2011	21	1:11:14	Road	17.6	Garmin
Fri, 15th Apr 2011	25	1:30:13	Road	17.0	Strava – Garmin
Sat, 16th Apr 2011	25	1:20:53	Road	18.2	Strava – Garmin
Sun, 17th Apr 2011	84	4:26:29	Road	19.1	Strava – Garmin

On Monday, I really pushed it on the way home from Brighton which, with the blustery Westerly wind, helped me get a Personal Best on both the Exceat and the East Dean Road climbs on Strava.

My Week in Training – Week 13

Date	Miles	Time	Type	Avg Speed (MPH)	Links
Fri, 1st Apr 2011	32	2:08:39	Road	15.3	Strava – Garmin
Sat, 2nd Apr 2011	20	1:09:34	Road	18	Garmin
Sun, 3rd Apr 2011	85	4:55:07	Road	17.4	Strava – Garmin

Working 10hrs a day with a 2hr commute each way doesn’t leave much time for training. My day off this week was friday, which coincided nicely with the start of the #30daysofbiking.

My Week in Training – Week 9

Date	Miles	Time	Type	Avg Speed (MPH)	Link
Wed, 2nd Mar 2011	34	2:13:16	Road	15.5	Garmin
Sat, 5th Mar 2011	32	2:07:12	Road	15.0	Garmin
Sun,6th Mar 2011	31	1:42:07	Road	17.4	Garmin

I normally ride up Beachy Head as a single large loop of 25 miles but after a conversation with Josh Cunningham where he mentioned a loop of Beachy Head, which he does as interval training, I decided to give it a try.

My progress so far – 5th Mar 2011

I’m in my 9th week of training since my hernia operation. I’m much fitter than I was before, due to the fact that I’ve been doing much longer rides. I used to just do mainly 25 mile rides but adding loads of 52+ miles has really improved my base fitness and hill climbing. I’m still doing low-ish intensity training at the moment but I will throw in some higher intensity rides this month.

My Week in Training – Week 6

Date	Miles	Time	Type	Avg Speed (MPH)	Link
Tue, 8th Feb 2011	20	1:10:36	Road	17.7	Garmin
Wed, 9th Feb 2011	52	3:19:50	Road	15.7	Garmin
Sat, 12th Feb 2011	68	4:15:16	Road	16	Garmin

Finished work early on Tuesday and as it was a beautiful cloudless day, I decided to go out for a quick blast before it got too dark. I wanted to see how I’d get on pushing it for an hour or so. I was quite pleased with the results. I had a lot of strength in my legs and kept the HR within level 4 for most of the ride. I took the Trek with the new Continental tyres. I’m still very pleased with them, in fact, I was so pleased with them that I’ve ordered another pair for the Fondriest.

My Week in Training – Week 1

Date	Miles	Time	Type	Avg Speed (MPH)	Link
Mon, 3rd Jan 2011	29.85	1:55:36	Road	15.5	Garmin
Sat, 8th Jan 2011		1:00:00	Turbo	Level 2	Garmin
Sun, 9th Jan 2011	29.74	1:50:36	Road	16.1	Garmin

Went out for a very flat 30 mile ride, on Monday, along the seafront to Hastings and back. This was my first ride since my Hernia Repair Operation, 6 weeks ago. Didn’t feel to too bad. I took it nice and easy but couldn’t keep my HR down to the level at which I had intended to ride. I assume this is due to the fact that, at the moment, I am quite unfit.

First ride in eight weeks

I went out this afternoon for the first time in 8 weeks. The lay off the bike was due to the fact that I’ve had a hernia repair operation. I decided to do a straight out and back, 30 miles, on very flat roads thinking that if I should get some pain or discomfort, I could easily turn back, but it was fine. It was cold though. Just above freezing, but I was well wrapped up although I did start to feel the cold in the last 5 miles.

The purpose of this ride was not only to test my recovery from the operation but to try out my new training strategy as described in one of my previous posts. The recovery turned out to be fine but my training strategy went totally out of the window. I had intended to ride the 30 miles at Level 2 which I had worked out to be between 145 and 155 BPM. I tried to ride at a cadence of 80-90 RPM but no matter how hard I tried, or should I say how slowly I tried, I couldn’t get my HR below 175 BPM. In fact, my average HR for the ride turned out to be 173 BPM. To see the stats for this ride, click here.