Week 56 Training Log

Week 56. I’ve had an extremely busy week with work this week so I wasn’t able to do all that I had hoped for. I was pleased at the end of the week to see 14 hours there. Combining so much work and training has had an effect on fatigue levels though. I was really beginning to feel tired in the middle of the week and started planning to drop or shorten a few sessions. By Saturday and my longest ride I had nothing left. I then made a fatal error which I hope not to do again, ever!! A combination of things contributed to me blowing up after 2 hrs on the bike. The new diet is going well, I dropped 3 pounds in a week and a half and have enough energy for the average training session. I have learned from my mistakes in the past weeks and before my ride on Saturday I had extra carbs to help me on my way. I took cereal biscuits with me and a bottle of home made gel. What I didn’t allow for was the fact that I was already dead on my feet before I even started. Within the first 2 hrs I had taken most of the nutrition that I had with me because I was struggling so much. My breakfast lasted about an hour and as soon as that was burnt up I was left empty. Of course by the time I had gone through all of my nutrition I was too far from home to simply turn back so I had to just plod on. When you blow up on the bike it’s a horrible feeling. Still 30 miles from home with absolutely no energy left, the peddles turn so slowly and the average speed drops with every mile. Other cyclist breeze by you like your standing still with a chirpy “ Morning”. Looking at it after I was so stupid. I knew I was already tired and I knew I was going out for 60 miles and I knew I would use over 3000 calories, yet I had around 500 for breakfast and took with me less than 1000. You do the maths. 56 weeks in, still making mistakes, still learning.

A big run on Monday started the ball rolling and I think with the week of work that I had ahead of me I struggled to recover from that run, so the rest of the week was broken up into shorter sessions. I think also that I have had a soaking each time I’ve gone out this week, typical August weather.