The reality

 After an easy week and being back on my long distance bike I had great hopes for today's ride.

Such a great pleasure to ride this bike. Not the lightest but very comfortable. The endorphin induced happiness of riding fast, even against the wind. Feeling fresh. Believing you are strong.

A shame reality stroke as soon as we hit Green Dene. It is not that I was dropped. It was that I blew up in a thousand pieces and lost about a minute in 100 metres. 

You barely warmed up, I told myself. For a diesel engine like yours a climb in with barely 25km in the legs is just too soon. (I’m not really sure I have a diesel “engine” but it was a great excuse to be used at that moment). 

The problem is reality is stubborn and I blew up again up Cutmill. To add insult to the injury Cutmill is a climb I know fairly well, I raced it a few times. I know where you have to attack. I was aiming to take it. And just at that very moment I was telling myself “Attack. Now!”, my legs, my brain, all me really, gave up. 

For someone with a thousand excuses in the bag I was starting to run short of them. The diesel engine excuse doesn’t work that well when you are 70km into the ride, even if you play the “I’m a audaxer card”.

Worst of all I was still feeling ok(ish) for most of the time. Fair to say part of it is that by now wind was mostly tail wind and that makes it easier to get tricked into believing you are riding fast when the reality is that it was mostly wind assisted speed. I’m sure you know the feeling.

Ah, the reality. The reality is also that I took the Esher sprint. True too the reality is the order we took turns meant I was sitting on a wheel just before the moment you have to launch the sprint. That helps.

I needed that “win” to keep believing I was fresh, strong and fast. 

Who cares about reality. 

The ride in Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/5024914056

Take care

Javier Arias González

How is my training going?

 

My CTL from 18th of Dec to 21st of March

I wanted to review how my form has evolved in the last few months and think a little about what I'm trying to do from the training point of view. I know you might not care about how my training is going so feel free to completely ignore this post. 

From 18th of December I enjoyed two weeks of holidays. That meant lots of cycling outside. Cycling lots meants your CTL goes up quickly, from 63.5 to 85.1. Cycling lots also means your form gets better and I definitely can tell I was riding stronger than I was for a very long , long, time.

January meant lockdown and not riding outside. Lots of turbo sessions kept me in good form. My CTL went from 85.1 to 77.8, but that’s normal. Even considering that I started to put 2 hours sessions on the turbo it is very difficult to compensate for the lack of volumen when you ride lots outside.

February was not that great. Still in lockdown my turbo decided to commit suicide and, literaly, stopped working with a small explosion. February was also a very busy month from the work point of view. We launched GCN+ and that meant lots of working hours. Lots of working hours mean less hours on the turbo. My CTL dropped from 77.8 to 63.1. I wasn’t too happy about it but live sometimes gets in the way of cycling.

March came. A glimpse of a summer allowing cycling events gave me a reason to dream about cycling objectives. Maratona in July, 1001 Miglia in August, Flanders and a week training camp in September. It is all, obviously, pretty much up in the air but having objectives gave me a reason to start thinking about training. 

A regime of four weeks of 2 easy hours on the turbo on Tuesdays, an intense session on Wednesdays, 2 steady hours on Thursdays, a long, intense ride on Saturdays and a steady ride on Sundays made my CTL go from 63.1 to 81.2 and I started to feel strong again.

I’ll confess this last week was fairly hard. Instead of taking it easy after three weeks I decided to keep the volume and intensity for one more week. That is because next week life will get in the way of cycling again and will force me to ride less so I preferred to force this fourth week rather than having two consecutive easy weeks. It wasn’t easy. My TSB touched -39, on Friday got my first dose of the COVID vaccine. Yesterday’s and today’s ride felt hard and I was dropped again and again. I’m definitely ready for a very easy week.

With the Kingston Wheelers 200 coming on 11th of April and having the 300 in May, the 400 in June and the 600 in July (perfect build up for the 1000 miles of the 1001 Miglia in August)  I’m now switching to my long distance bike. I’m also switching from short 1 minute interval sessions on Wednesdays to 8 minute intervals. Traditionally those have worked very well for me in terms of getting form.

Looking at my numbers for this year and comparing them to my best year (2018) I’m a bit behind in the calendar but they are very similar. The prospect of getting better than I was in 2018 after my fairly weak years in 2019 and 2020 makes me feel very optimistic. Let’s hope everything keeps on a positive note.

Take care

Javier Arias González