I’m now already 12-weeks into training and my sessions are at their peak in the middle of May 2014. Just 6-weeks to go until the Mille Cymru Audax ride and training has progressed really well so far.
My latest weekend long ride was done on 18th May 2014 and was 138-miles long (from Milton Keynes to Birmingham City Centre in the West Midlands – and back again). I had followed a good undulating course with a steady headwind for the entire second half, which saw to it that I got an honest day’s training done.
I completed the session in 11 hours and 45 minutes (11.6 mph average pace, overall), thanks to a few stops along the way to reset my GPS guidance which was not always taking me on the most practical routes! My actual average riding pace was 12.6 mph, whilst moving.
My Hill session mid-week was somewhat ‘tamer’ than the one done in the previous week, suggesting I had not fully recovered from the Birmingham long ride. I was unable to get my heart rate above 170 bpm on any of the 10 hill sprints I did in the session (whilst last week I had reached 172 bpm on a few of the sprints). I wasn’t surprised by this, as I had done a 54-mile time-trial two days before the Birmingham ride and I had probably used up all my ‘recovery credits’ at this point!
The next two weekends will hold the toughest training challenges so far, including a 24-hour ride over the bank holiday and a ride of up to 200-miles the following weekend (which will involve the Chiltern 100 Sportive cycling event in the middle – with about 10,000 feet of climbing).
The long training ride in which we will also do the Chiltern 100 will be tougher than any of the individual days in the Mille Cymru Audax itself and will give us a good idea of our probable pace during the Mille Cymru Audax, so I’ll be doing that ride with both Alan and Stuart…