Enough of the future, here's this week's report.
Monday 21st May
After the rides at the weekend I had another recovery ride to start the week. I had a big debate before I went out about what I should wear. It looked like it might be quite nice and warm; it definitely wasn't! So I was very glad to have picked the gilet, arm warmers and longs. The ride itself was very gentle which was good as it was all I could do to spin my way over the ridge in Strathkinness. Just as I was coming onto the main cycle path I saw a parked car in the entrance to the field with it's four way flashers on. Poor young chap had an oil problem with his car and it was gently smoking out of the bonnet. I stopped and made sure he was ok. But I couldn't do much more for him, so I carried on home.In the end this was a case of getting the miles done, rather than being out for the pleasure of riding. I am trying my best not to get bored with the training but it is an effort at times. I'm fortunate that the Lighthouse ride is on new roads as that will definitely keep me interested.
Tuesday 22nd and Thursday 24th
As far as training went it was back to the gym on these two mornings. Good fun as ever and this week was a heavy lifting week which means pushing the weights a little and working hard. That's most likely the last heavy weights session for the training which lifts a weight from my shoulders as I shouldn't injure myself in the gym now. Fingers crossed!However, the excitement of the day was the fitting of a new bottom bracket and chainset to the road bike. I had a service done last week and whilst most things were ok the bottom bracket had certainly had it's day. I have had issues with the pre-tension crank bolt on the FSA chainset that came with the bike and yet again it was stuck. So to remove this problem I decided to take the opportunity to change the chainset. I didn't really want to make major changes to the bike this late in the day but it made sense. So now the bike has a nice new Shimano 105 chainset on the bike courtesy of my local bike shop. It looks nicer than it's FSA counterpart so it must be faster!
Wednesday 23rd
The schedule asked for a hard 30-miler on Wednesday. For some variety I decided to ride my 3 hills route via Craigsanquhar and Cupar but with a twist. Not only would I climb through Strathkinness from the low road to Guardbridge I would also climb the three major hills twice. Hill repeats with some mileage.It was a lovely morning, but still relatively cold when I set out. The ride itself went quite well with one annoyance. When I got to Cupar I found the bottom of Bishopsgate closed for road repairs. I was able to take another road and do about two thirds of the climb but it wasn't the same.
Once I got to the top of this road I needed to strip off some layers it was so hot. It's amazing what you can get into jersey pockets. I was happy to have my gilet keep everything in place though.
It was a baptism of fire for the new chainset. But what a difference the new bottom bracket made. The cranks seemed to turn so much more smoothly. Not that it made a great difference to my performance; it just felt better.
Friday 25th
Today's requirement was a very hard day, but I woke up to that east coast phenomenon of a haar. A cold sea fog for those of you not conversant with the term. As I am extremely paranoid about getting an injury or having an accident I decided the workout should be in the gym. And, by happy accident, Friday is the morning I sometimes go to a spin class which I really love. So off I went and, when I met the instructor on the way in, I asked for a class of hard intervals. I'm not sure what the rest of the class thought but that's exactly what we got. So for thirty minutes or so I was able to really push my cardio vascular system to the max. I peaked out at 182 bpm which is over my theoretical maximum and I spent a good part of that time I was over 90% of my MHR. It felt good when we were done, but rather than do the stretch part of the class I took myself off to another exercise bike to do a chunk of fairly high HR steady state work. Close to 40 minutes later I'd done 20km of exercise bike distance with an average HR over 85% of my MHR. It's no exaggeration to say I was tired. But it was a good workout, both physically and mentally, with the second part of it particularly challenging mentally.You can see the HR trace here if you are interested.
Saturday 26th
A really different ride on Saturday. The training diary had 50 easy miles on it. For a change I asked my friend and colleague Vic to come out with me. He said yes, and it made the ride hugely enjoyable. I kept the route relatively easy but it is hard to find an interesting out and back route around St. Andrews that doesn't have some climbing. The major part of the ups and downs was kept for the second part of the route which allowed my legs to recover before we did them. And it wasn't too severe anyhow. In fact the hill I was most worried about was easier than I remembered as I hadn't gone up it for a while. A mark of my increased bike fitness I guess. The only downside of the ride was the easterly breeze that made it slightly uncomfortable geting home from Pitscottie after Vic and I had parted company.The weather was fantastic. A proper summer morning which allowed me to go out in just shorts on my legs with a base layer and jersey on top. Fantastic. I didn't so much have a tan when I got in as a layer of flies making my legs look darker. And the weather had brought out all sorts of other cyclists. It was nice to see.
Sunday 27th
Actually this was day off. Nice. My lie-in didn't really materialise as I needed to get up just after 7 so I could go and play golf. Yes, golf! My competitive sport of choice for over ten years until last year's horrible play which led me to cycling and the Lighthouse to Lighthouse challenge. I needed a break. It was really nice to be out with a pal on the links; now I just have to get my game back in shape. A good way to spend a day off training.Now I need to re-focus on the rest of this week's training!
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