T-22 weeks – Training this week

Training Summary – w/c 24/2

Total – 13.5 hrs
Long ride – 5 hrs

Weekend ride – dartmoor loop

I was on a kayaking trip for the weekend down to Dartmoor with my Kayak club, to paddle the river dart.  However, the forecast was poor.  No water in the river, and no rain forecast.  So I took my bike, got a route from “Great British Bike Rides:, (a book I got on kindle) , and got out.  This was the weekend before the “beast from the east” hit.

I had full winter kit on, and even took my heated foot insoles although I did not turn them on. It was cold, with a fast easterly wind.

I started from the bunkhouse in the middle of dartmoor, with a nice 15% decent.  Unfortunately I had to get up the valley on the other side. Hmm.

I went out with an idea of doing 2 hrs, then turning back for a 4 hr ride.  I kept the hr down to maf except on the hills where I needed everything to get up some of them.  I was on the south then East of dartmoor, riding with the wind. Life was good, so I carried on

I basically looped around Tavistock before heading for home.- it stayed 10 miles away for a long time. Then I turned East and the climbing began again, as did the headwind.  I went very slowly, but hey I’ve got up Ventoux in the wind

What did I learn.

• I am slow.
• I knocked off a 5 hour ride without any issues the next day.
• I started to get some confidence back again.
• Trust your route
• Self belief
• I *can* get up that hill
• I will complete the ride before it gets dark…..

I used to have no doubts when on the bike, so its good to start to quieten that inner doubting voice.  That will continue as I do more long rides – they need to become ‘normal’ again.

Following that good start, I was looking forward to a solid week.  however, the weather was forecasted to be rubbish – I rode to/from on Monday, then my wife banned me – just was well as they snow started on Tuesday and lasted till the weekend.  So I got on the watt bike at work for a couple of lunchtime tick overs, and hit the turbo/zwift on Tuesday, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning,

I discovered group rides, and races, and had quite a lot of fun.  The hardest at thing is keeping the hr steady – It’s easy to go too hard