Each week I try to review and reflect on my previous week on the bike. This allows me to see how my fitness and ability is progressing on a wider timescale than day to day. For previous weekly reviews please click here.
This week consisted of four rides, all outdoors, and I have to say, it’s been quite a tiring one. I’m wondering if the heat has played a part in that. Or maybe it was doing six rides last week that pushed me over the edge.
Or a combo of both.
This week’s rides were as follows:
- Tuesday – Churchtown Turn Around (Outdoors)
- Wednesday – Exhaust Force (Outdoors)
- Thursday – Good Enough (Outdoors)
- Saturday – Up And Down (Outdoors)
All in all, not a particularly bad week. I hit my riding goals, but only just. Not that I find that overly concerning. Genuinely, it was very hot last week, and I think having done six outdoor rides last week, I might have been in need of a proper rest.
I’ve said it a few times now, but riding exclusively outdoors and missing out on them enforced indoor recovery rides is probably more detrimental to myself than I realise.
It’s definitely nice to have the heart rate data coming in again now. The Polar H10 strap seems to be working a charm.
I’m wondering if my troubles with the Wahoo Tickr were all self imposed at this point.
One thing I’ve been doing is making sure to wash the strap after each ride – a rinse under the hot tap, then leave it to hang out and dry.
By comparison I think I was overly aggressive with my cleaning regime on the Tickr strap. I thought I’d learned my lessons with the Tickr 1, but maybe I was over zealous with the Tickr 2, too. Who knows? Well, maybe I will in a month or so time.
What’s mostly on my mind at the moment is that the Manchester to Blackpool 100km ride is now less than a month away.
Firstly, I hope the weather holds. It should do, right? Yeah. It should.
Secondly, I need your help!
So I reckon I’ll need to prep some food / drink for this ride. The longest I’ve done before is 72km whereby I took a banana, a food bar thing, and two bottles. One juice. One water.
I’m thinking I might need an extra food bar for this one, and maybe a gel or two? I don’t know. I’ve never needed this stuff before.
Can you recommend me some gels or nutrition for this ride? What would you take with you on a metric century ride?
Any insight / links gratefully appreciated.
Thinking about the week ahead, it’s looking like another hot one, and so outdoors is largely on the riding cards.
I’d still like to get in a longer ride at the weekend, if at all possible. This previous weekend turned into something of a fail. Saturday was never meant to be a long one, but come Sunday it all went a bit wrong due to some real life stuff happening and all my plans getting fudged the fudge up.
No big deal though. I reckon the enforced rest was probably good for me.
All being well, I’m hoping to get out tomorrow lunch time for a 30km ride. That will kick off the week nicely, and it’s due to be a hot one so that should be a nice Churchtown loop around in summer kit.
Then further ahead, I definitely feel like I need at least a 50km ride in the legs to get myself reminded of what lays ahead. I’d also quite like to pace that one out around 2.8w/kg and see how I feel after it. I’m still not sure what pacing to keep for what is likely going to be 4 hours in the saddle. Right now, best guess, 2.4w/kg average? That puts me around the 4 hour mark, I believe.
Anyway, enough of that. As above, any help in the comments very gratefully appreciated, and enjoy your riding in the week ahead!