Two Weeks to Go: Training

For me, cycling is a social activity - a chance to relax and catch up with friends. Such occasions should be punctuated by coffee and cake at a rate of 1 café per 20 miles or so. I am still recovering from the shock of a recent cycle with a friend from Carlisle who dragged me round a 45 miles ride without a stop.

My initial approach to preparing for the C2C(2C) was to continue in that vein - a once weekly, 40 to 60 mile cycle with the requisite number of coffee stops. However, with about 6 weeks to go, it was becoming increasingly obvious that this approach wasn't working. The tipping point was when a planned 70 mile ride round Stow was abandoned less than half way and became a miserable get me home as quick as you can slog. I finally, if somewhat belatedly, accepted I needed a new plan.

I was having my very own energy crisis. A review of my performance data - yes there are apps for that - confirmed I was hardly generating enough power on my leisurely, chatty, caffeinated rides to light a lamp (before the invention of low wattage LEDs that is). Cycling blogs reccomended including 1 or 2 short (20 miles), fast, caffeine free, rides in between the longer trips and also some full-on turbo sessions. Convinced that they knew better than me, I complied.

The blogs were right, and my average speed and endurance have increased significantly over the past month. The increased ride frequency was having a marked effect. Strava (cycling app for the geek) has an algorithm that estimates increases in fitness as a result of training (and decreases as a result of sitting around on one's backside). The resulting graph showed pictorially what my legs were already telling me. I was getting fitter.

The blogs also suggested that in the last few weeks I should get used to climbing hills with a full load, presumably by filling the panniers with bricks to represent my luggage. It sounds like good advice, however I will never know as there are lines that I am not prepared to cross. Cycling needs to be fun, or I will stay home with my feet up, and the idea of carting a load of bricks around Midlothian sounds anything but fun.

Let's hope I don't live to regret my flat refusal to follow the science.......Read more