Winter Blow Out Time
No sooner had I committed to raising funds and awareness for MNDA by riding 700 miles in 7 days in April next year the winter lurgy strikes and the temperature drops sub-zero!
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With Christmas celebrations on the horizon and the annual battle to avoid mince pies in full swing, my visit to the Ally Pally for the World Darts Championships, complete with compulsory pitchers of Beavertown Neck Oil and a healthy portion of fried chicken and chips, heralded the final nail in the coffin of any fitness improvements to be gained before Xmas.
Looking to turn a virus-riddled, exercise-free, fast food orgy, car crash of a training week into a positive, I declared the past seven days as the start of my “official” off-season winter blowout and set about planning routes, logistics and fitness for my 7 in 7 challenge.
The Spoked app has been a trusty training companion of mine for the last couple of years, offering a flexible but structured approach to training that I have been able to follow regardless of the everyday pressures on training time that work and family commitments inevitably bring.
Following advice from Spoked creator @richlang, I have selected the Alpine Sportive training plan as the template for an 18-week block of training, hopefully bringing me to peak fitness when I arrive in Wigtownshire on the 27th of April.
The magnificent 7
New year is a great time to pick up a new challenge and advice to “focus on the process” is resonating with me so here are my seven areas of improvement to focus on next year:
1) Nutrition – You are what you eat, as they say, and a sweet-toothed chocoholic who stress eats and munches out of boredom is not your typical high-performing endurance athlete, so this should be an area for gigantic rather than marginal gains.
2) Training effectivity – Training consistently comes easy; I just love the feeling of freedom and escape riding a bike gives me, but all too often, I ditch the planned session for a relaxing spin or full-on TT effort. Plan the week. Ride the plan will be my motto for 2023.
3) Flexibility – I’m in my mid-fifties and can still touch my toes. Still, there aren’t many movements that are made without an accompanying groan or grumble, so I’ve signed up with Dynamic Cyclist and fingers crossed. I will exist in a more fluid form in the future thanks to 15 minutes a day of flexibility and mobility moves.
4) Strength – Time to focus on my core strength which is currently pitiful. A respected coach once told me, “you cannot fire a cannon from a canoe!” whilst describing the cycling benefits of having a strong and stable core.
5) Recovery – This one is simple – sleep more! Fitbit score rarely creeps past an average of five and a half hours of sleep per day; definitely room for improvement here!
6) Mental Toughness – Generally speaking, I reckon I’m pretty robust in this area, and for sure, I will need a healthy dose of it at times during the challenge. One thing I could improve on is my competitiveness – it drives my son Conor a little crazy that I’m perfectly happy rocking up to a cyclocross race or time trial without having any goal other than to finish safely and be fit for work the following day. Not sure how this relates to a 700 mile, not a race challenge or how I find my inner gladiator but worth exploring to get the best out of myself.
7) Organisation – I can be good at organising stuff, but it’s fair to say I fly by the seat of my pants in default mode. To meet this challenge, not only will the logistics of the challenge itself need planning rigorously, but the training, preparation and improvements 1-6 will all benefit from meticulous planning. Only time will tell if a leopard can change its’ spots!
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