I have recently started training ready for my solo and pair 24 hour races later on in the year. They feel very far off at the moment, I know from experience that it takes a while for your body to adapt to training.
One of the best ways to improve your power is to use hill repeats, these sessions usually take between one hour and one hour 30 so are ideal for fitting into lunch breaks and before work.
The training session.
Depending on your level of fitness would depend on the amount of reps. I set myself 8.
Warm up for a good 15/20 minutes in heart rate (HR) zones 1 and 2 if you’re a HR meter
3 min power climb to the top of the hill push as hard as you can, I find counting to 10 before switching gears makes me push harder (zone 5 HR)
Use the lap button on your Garmin to record each climb
Free wheel down the hill and have a 3 min rest
Repeat 5 – 8 times
Easy cool down for 15 mins
Spending time in the pain-cave can really help to improve your stamina, threshold power and determination to push that little bit further or faster. You goal over this session should be to maintain the speed in which you climb the hill consistently over each rep and to improve your recovery between reps.
To find some great tips on hill climbing check out the British Cycling website.
Good bye 2016 it has been a great adventure. We have started renovating our first house, got a dog and the biggest challenge of all, racing the Trans Alp Bike race.
I am excited about 2017, after being inspired by Sarah Williams from Tough Girl challenges, who set 7 challenges for 2017 I have decided to write my own list of goals for 2017. So here goes;
Whistler heli-ski for the first time
24 hour mountain bike pairs race
Complete the South Downs Way
24 hour solo mountain bike race
Walk up Snowden with Martyn
Bike Snowden and film it
Bike packing adventure with Mum in the UK
Thanks for a great ride 2016, here’s to an adventurous 2017!
The shortest day of the year may be behind us but winter is in full swing! Winter is a great time to put in some base training and work on your overall fitness for the spring/summer.
Here are my top tips:
Running: I am not a natural runner, but during the winter I like to put on my trainers, wrap up warm and head out for a 20/30 minute run to stretch my legs, release some endorphins and enjoy being active outside. Try adding some squat jumps or lunges to your run to build leg strength.
Strength & Conditioning in the gym: Working on your general strength is really important, cycling is a non-load bearing sport so putting in some time during the winter to build on your bone strength, build bone density and do some resistance training could really pay off and improve your cycling.
Pilates: Pilates is a fantastic way of keeping your core strength up. Your core muscles keep you in a good riding position, with correct alignment enabling you to ride for longer.
Fartleck Training: Fartlek is Swedish for “speed play,” and that is exactly what it’s all about. Unlike tempo and interval training, fartlek is unstructured and alternates moderate-to-hard efforts over a period of time. After a 15 / 20 minute warm-up, play with speed by cycling faster for short efforts (how short and how hard is up to you), then use an easy effort to recover, this should always be slightly longer than your hard effort. This can be great fun in a group to bring in a competitive element sprinting to the next lampost or end of the road. (Please be aware and careful of the traffic and obstacles)
Training explained
This session mixes up working anaerobically and aerobically.
Anaerobic exercise is a physical exercise intense enough to cause lactate to form. It is used by athletes in non-endurance sports to promote strength, speed and power.
Aerobic exercise is any physical activity that makes you sweat, causes you to breathe harder, and gets your heart beating faster than at rest. It strengthens your heart and lungs and trains your cardiovascular system to manage and deliver oxygen more quickly and efficiently throughout your body. Aerobic exercise uses your large muscle groups, is rhythmic in nature, and can be maintained continuously for at least 10 minutes.
I have a new found love for country walks, they have been made more exciting by the addition of Luna. Our 5 month year old German Shepherd puppy who just loves strolling around the countryside with me. We have been exploring the local country parks and beaches around where we live and I have been amazed and the incredible scenery and animal life that surrounds us.
So far we have spotted foxes, owls, lots of birds, swans and even a deer or two!
Our daily walks have been keeping me ‘sane’ whilst I recover from my operation. As I have internal stitches life is taking place in the slow lane for a few weeks while I heal. Doctors orders!
I hadn’t really been keeping track of how many miles or steps I had been doing and instead have just been enjoying exercise with no objective or aim, it is quiet refreshing from training where every session counts and has an aim attached to it. So it was rather a shock when I looked at my fitbit data and found I was clocking up some good miles! I have done over 77,000 steps this week and now have a challenge to beat that next week.
Keeping healthy is really important to me and so finding out that I was actually walking a good amount was very rewarding and made me realise that although I may not be training all this walking was keeping my body ticking over until I can start training again.
I have been on two short rides (27 minutes) since my operation which were odd I felt like my leg muscles knew what was going on but my stomach is still not happy about the idea of cycling just yet! So I will continue with the small steps and building up day by day. It is important to remember that muscle memory does not fade over night and building up slowly will mean I am back training quicker than ignoring what my body is saying. As hard as this may be to actually do!
So for now I will be practising my photography skills and enjoying the views.
I hope you enjoy these too!
[/fusion_text][fusion_images picture_size=”auto” hover_type=”zoomin” autoplay=”yes” columns=”2″ column_spacing=”5″ show_nav=”yes” mouse_scroll=”no” border=”yes” lightbox=”no” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility”][fusion_image image=”https://beyondthemud.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_5400-e1480431794255-1024×768.jpg” image_id=”2857″ linktarget=”_self” alt=”Luna at the beach” /][fusion_image image=”https://beyondthemud.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_5533-e1480432444218-1024×768.jpg” image_id=”2858″ linktarget=”_self” alt=”Early morning ride” /][fusion_image image=”https://beyondthemud.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_5514-e1480433378406-1024×768.jpg” image_id=”2861″ linktarget=”_self” alt=”Luna learns to swim” /][fusion_image image=”https://beyondthemud.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_5226-1-e1480433465952-1024×768.jpg” image_id=”2862″ linktarget=”_self” alt=”Luna and Lola at the sea side” /][fusion_image image=”https://beyondthemud.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/IMG_5508-e1480433536533-1024×768.jpg” image_id=”2863″ linktarget=”_self” alt=”Countryside stroll” /][/fusion_images][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
The alps was incredible, I never expected it to be so hard to return to normality after the race but it has been tough!
Puppy’s make life better
In late August Luna burst into our lives and for a while my world was consumed with puppy duties, which took my mind off the way I was feeling and having to deal with it.
Luna is super cute and I am delighted at being a dog owner and cannot wait for her to join me on long rides and walks. For now though she can’t have too much exercise and is more interested in chewing than running!
At 17 weeks old we have started on mini adventures, which so far have been great fun and she has helped me get back outside and reconnect with my love of the outdoors. It also means I’m back to being able to train and deal with the way I have been feeling.
Since coming back from the alps, life has not been ‘normal’, I have not been able to get ‘my head in the game’ so to speak and have been feeling anxious about what comes next and not satisfied with ‘normal’, I want to drive myself forward and challenge myself to pursue new adventures. But the motivation has been lacking…. At times it has felt like I’m a spectator of my own life, like I’m in a bubble looking down knowing what I want to and should be doing , but not quite having the control to be able to make it happen.
It was a relief in a way to stumble across a podcast series called Tough Girl which shares the stories of some amazing women doing incredible things! A lot of these women also talked about this post ‘adventure blues’ which is certainly how I have felt. It’s a great series and well worth checking out.
The people around me have been super supportive and everyone keeps saying to rest and let myself recover and figure it out. However, exercise has always been my stress reviler so sitting at home watching the TV and eating cake doesn’t help my mood or state of mind if anything it makes it worse.
I don’t think there is an easy way to deal with this post race blues feeling apart from keep trying to climb out the other side and that is exactly what I am going to keep trying to do.
Sorry for the long period of silence it has taken me some time to put my thoughts into sentence form!
Since competing the Trans Alp at the end of July life has been somewhat bizzare… I came back full of memories of the highs and lows and buzzing from achieving my dream to complete my first stage race.
The Trans Alp was a magical time where life was completely consumed by racing. The year leading up had also been consumed by training, after a week of re-telling the story and the excitement that we had achieved it, I hit the ‘what happens next’ wall. I found it difficult to describe how I was feeling, but down pretty much covers it, after such a high it was a massive low and for a good few weeks I couldn’t get on my bike for the shear fact that I didn’t know why.
I decided to take the pressure off trying to find the next thing and spend some time enjoying cycling with friends and family which was fun.
Getting out and having some chilled time on my bike was great and gave me time to clear my head and think about what was next.
After a coffee ride with my Mum one day she said why don’t we do a challenge together! after lots of discussion we have now decided to do London to Paris next year which I am super excited about!
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