Last week was really busy, what with a performance of our festival play at the Cambridge Drama Festival coupled with helping my better half prepare for her Brownie Pack Holiday – I had almost zero time to fit in any rides. In addition, the weather was rubbish with another storm covering the UK for much of the week.
It didn’t make for a good start to my 12 week training plan for RideLondon, but I did manage to get in two indoor rides using Zwift . . .
My training plan
I’m following a pretty standard training plan drawn up by top British cycling coach Andy Cook which aims to have you ready to do your first ton within 12 weeks. Most people say that if you can cycle 70 miles then the last 30 is achievable based on adrenaline and the hundreds of people cheering you on as you make your way back into London. Distance isn’t necessarily a worry as I cycled 70 miles in the London to Cambridge event a few years ago, but that was when I was cycling regularly almost every week so I need to build that up again.
I’m concentrating on getting my base fitness back up to a level where I feel I can rejoin the local cycling clubs for some group rides in the lead-up to the event. Group riding is a needs some practice to be good at it, but there’s nothing more frustrating than trying to keep up with a group when you clearly don’t have the speed or the stamina to catch up! It’s a sure-fire way to kill your motivation so I have no intention of doing it just yet.
This weeks training rides
The two rides I did in week 1 were both on Zwift – an online virtual cycling platform that enables you to ride with other people around the world on a make-believe island called ‘Watopia’ using your turbo trainer <cue laughs from some people>. It successfully manages to break the monotony of indoor turbo training sessions, but it is no substitute for getting outdoors in the fresh air. I plan to post about what Zwift is and how you use it at some point in the future, but for now here are the rides completed in week 1:
Week 1 Stats:
I knew the rides in week 1 would be difficult to fit in so I’ve included the stats from the previous week which I intentionally did in their place. This came to an extra 23.6 miles / 1h35, which makes me feel a bit better about my progress!
| This week | Cumulative | Target (+/- diff) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distance | 50.3miles | 50.3miles | 60miles (-9.7miles) |
| Time | 3h11 | 3h11 | 4h00 (-0h49) |
Clearly the busyness of the weeks activities had a major effect on how many miles and time spent on the bike, so I plan to make that up gradually over the rest of the 11 weeks that follow. Onwards and upwards in week 2!
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