The first seven.

The first seven days on the new training schedule has now been completed.... many more to come but feeling super positive about the direction i'm going in.

Definately been a week of discovery... for a year now my training has been get on bike ride hard or get on trainer ride hard/ repeat.
Now there is method to this madness:)
The hardest part for me is to accept that training comes in many forms and that you don't have to be breathing out your ears to be effecting a training effort on the body, as with most other cyclists at this time of year its all about the base.
Lots of long slow rides.. trying to maintain zone 2/zone 3... i'm learning that the slighest movement can cause an increase in your heart rate so maintaining a good position on bike and silky smooth pedalling is the order of the day.

Also amazing how much time goes quicker when your focus is on staying a zone rather than watching the clock..

If anyone wants to know the specifics of what i do then drop me an email, i don't wan to do list after list, day after day i would rather do a few highlights of the week...

This weeks highlights;

- tuesday one leg drills..... turbo session which after warm up had 5 sets of.. 2 minute left leg, 2 minutes both legs, 2 minutes right leg.... i always thought i had a smooth pedalling style... how wrong was i... anyone that wants the dictionary definition of 'pedalling squares' try one leg drills. My right is definately stronger then my left... and i got at least another 6-8 weeks of weekly programmes involving them.

- thursday zone 2/3 session... warm up then 20 minutes sustanined zone 3.. 10 minutes sustained zone 2.. then 20 minutes sustained zone 3 ...warm down.... this was also a good excercise in trying to control your HR.. amazing even though you think you are maintaining a steady cadence how your HR can drift.

- Saturday 2.5 hrs road ride and then a ramp test in afternoon... road ride was great nice and steady, a long loop out towards mansfield then swinging all the way around and home via colwick... i decided to try and find a quick way home as i was reaching the end of time alloted for the session.. unfortunately just succeeded in finding 2 really long climbs:( so much for zone 2/3..
The afternoon was off to a Clarion club members house, Jason (Swann) owns an imagic turbo trainer which feeds info to a laptop and can conduct a ramp test, ramp test helps to refine HR zones, in essence it involves riding at a set wattage then every minute the wattage 'ramps' up.. so like intervals without the rest and every interval harder than the last... alot of pain and hopefully should get some feedback on the results soon.. praying i dont have to do it again.

- Sunday 4 hr road ride, Mark my coach told me to have at least a day a week riding just for enjoyment not worrying about zones etc.. not sure if this was exactly had in mind. Riding partner for the day was Darren (Buckby) from the Clarion.. after an accident on his mtb and breaking his back he is 6 months into his recovery/training.. recooperation has been kind to him and the first few hours signalled the order of the day.. speed... high averages and gritting teeth.
We headed out to the Peak district out towards Matlock and as we neared Matlock the first killer climb of the day was started, up to Crich, one of those that is so steep that your lowest gear isn't low enough and so long you never think its gonna end.. unfortunately this wasn't the last of the day and a few more had to be climbed before we could head back towards home.
My legs today were feeling super heavy after yesterday and i felt the climbing.. weather today was shocking.. heavy fog and freezing cold... reminder to self ask brother for new winter gloves for christmas..
final stats for the day stood at 73miles at average speed of just over 18mph... ouch.. gonna feel that tomorrow.

Oh yeah Dave at TSW cycles sorted the cross bike out.. so been using it as winter trainer, really comfortable... stuck some road tyres on it for now and can see the pair of us doing many miles together:)

apologies again for the lack of pics in my posts..i promise the new year will bring posts will many pics:)