Week 9 - Halfway to Wigtown
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Weekly Distance 255km
Cumulative distance 2008km
Completing week nine marks the halfway point of my training plan for 7-in-7 and hopefully February coming to a close also signifies the coldest and darkest rides are behind me.
With just over 2000km and 96 hours in my legs, relatively few soakings and only one extended spell of icy weather this far I think I’ve been pretty lucky to this point.
In keeping with the number 7 theme for this challenge at the start of the plan I identified 7 pillars of improvement I felt were needed to succeed. Halfway point seems like a sensible time to assess my progress or otherwise!
1) Nutrition – 8/10 I’m 4kg lighter than 9 weeks ago and other than a serious chocolate blowout last week in anticipation of my 40 days chocolate free until Easter I’m pretty satisfied with how my general nutrition has improved with the help of Huel replacing bacon sandwiches and trips to the vending machine at work.
My fuelling for training has been an adventure in itself trying new brands and flavours of energy bars, gels and drinks with Rawvelo raspberry now my drink of choice, Torq Rhubarb and Custard retaining the throne for gels and Veloforte sweeping the opposition away with their natural, tasty bars which offer an energy boost that doesn’t need instantly washing down to prevent your teeth sticking together or your jaw aching.
2) Training effectivity– 8/10 I’ve consistently hit my training zones – so fingers crossed that the training plan from Spoked works, and I will be fit and ready when I arrive in Wigtown at the end of April. I’ve had to learn not to look at my Strava average speed as a significant drop in pace has been a side effect of training in this structured manner, warming up, cooling down, recovery intervals etc have all taken a toll on the average speed of each session.
3) Flexibility – 6/10 I’ve missed a few too many of my sessions with Dynamic Cyclist. Not sure I’m any more flexible than when this plan started, but I’m injury free, and maybe the stretching and flexibility routines have helped.
4) Strength – 1/10 Well, I planned to do three strength sessions a week and nine weeks in I’ve completed a total of just 3. Can do better!
5) Recovery – 4/10 Early morning commutes haven’t helped me get close to the notional target of eight hours sleep but my average is closer to six than five so marginal gains perhaps.
6) Mental Toughness – 5/10 Nothing much to report other than I have started reading my signed copy of Mark Beaumont’s Cycling Psychology book, I need to get through it before giving it away to the lucky winner!
7) Organisation 3/10 The cock-ups so far include; forgetting a Garmin mount, arriving at work with no trousers to change into and beginning a ride without having tightened the new disc brake rotor fitted the evening before. On the plus side accommodation and ferries are booked, I’ve fitted a new bottom bracket and replaced a damaged Di2 cable on my Scott Foil which will be my ride of choice in April, unless I pinch Conor’s Orbea!
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