I’ll start this post with a disclaimer, “I don’t dislike men, but when it comes to men on bikes I could be persuaded otherwise.”
Now I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not a great cyclist and a bit on the nervous side out on the road but I like to think I obey the road rules, consider other cyclists and generally don’t take risks that will impact on me and potentially others if I had, or caused an accident. So when I headed out this morning for a three-hour ride my goal was to ride some hills in a slightly bigger gear than I would normally use. I was NOT going to be racing anywhere!
I went out pretty early lit up like a Christmas tree, no earphones in and concentrating on where I was going. Living just outside Sydney city centre the roads become very busy early, even on a holiday Monday.
To get to Kur-ang-ai National Park I needed to ride through suburbs littered with cars parked in the cycle lanes, those same lanes a collecting ground for the previous night’s burger wrappers and beer bottles. Earlier in the ride, this wasn’t a problem but as traffic grew there was an element of weaving in and out of cycle lanes which irritates motorists if you don’t let them know what you’re about to do, but that’s why I’m out on the road and not on the wind trainer to get used to changing road conditions.
The best bits of riding on the road is watching smarty-pants male cyclists. They can’t bear to have a woman reach the lights first so love nothing more than screaming past you yelling, “On your right” or “Coming through”, only to have the embarrassment of me tootling alongside them as they wait for the lights to change to green.
The other smarty-pants funny is the descent of a hill. This morning I was on the down part of a relatively long hill with a verge on the left that I could have ridden in but it had potholes and gravel in it so was to the right of the verge. Six male cyclists came screaming past me on the right and the left yelling, “Move over” and disappeared around the corner only to be confronted by another climb. The smile on my face as I slowly spun up the hill past them said it all, I didn’t need to yell anything.
Training for any race is about building strength and today I felt strong on the hills but even stronger mentally following the encounters with ‘smarty-pants’ male cyclists, so thanks, guys!
12 weeks down – 31 to go!
Jan’s been writing my program now for 12 weeks and it’s still early days but it’s been good to have time to ease myself back into regular training sessions AND for us both to plan how we can make the most of each session.
As we approach the end of January work starts to ramp up and over the coming months so will the training.
Here’s what we’re working with for the next 11 weeks to Easter.
Monday – no scheduled work so free to train.
Tuesday – work 8.45-11.30 and then 3.15-7.00
Wednesday – work 3.15-7.30
Thursday – no scheduled work so free to train.
Friday – 9.15-11.30 and 3.15-6.00
Saturday – 7.45-12.30
Sunday – 7.45-12.30
(TRT live news crosses could be requested outside of these hours so may impact training)
Here’s an example for the next week of how we’re going to make the most of training.
Monday – stat holiday so 3hr hilly ride, 40min 6/1 run/walk off the bike
Tuesday – 2.5km endurance swim set
Wednesday – 1hr run with 20min steps section, 30min strength set
Thursday – 3hr ride, 40min 6/1 run/walk off the bike
Friday – Long run 1.5hrs 9/1 run/walk, 20mins strength set
Saturday – 1hr WT, Park Run 5k, 2.5km open water swim incl. 1km TT
Sunday – day off
I know there will be athletes out there who work full time and I take my hat off to you but at this stage in my life balance is really important to me and most of all time to REST.
Even with a relatively ‘easy’ training schedule compared to what some athletes have it needs to be managed, particularly stress-wise.
I’ve use my Garmin Fenix 5S to monitor resting heart rate on a daily basis and also my stress levels. How accurate these are is irrelevant, it provides me with a baseline and I have found that when stress levels rise it’s because I don’t take time to rest in comparison to the amount of work and training I do, the knock-on effect is a slightly raised resting heart rate, so in that way it’s invaluable.
Jan continues to pass on invaluable information she’s gaining from Dr Stacy Sim’s online course and given my workload/type, the training and inevitably the age thing training this time around feels very different.
For now, though I’m feeling confident and stronger than I have for years.
This week also means more blood tests so it will be interesting to see whether I’m coping with the gradual build-up.