Considering that the week didn't start too well it ended up as a pretty decent week with two good rides to Jonkershoek. My aim at the moment is to do more quality rides as opposed to quantity and the main way to do this is to increase the intensity of my rides. This involves getting out of the saddle and standing for the climbs and hitting the hills in bigger rings. I got out of these habits when I started building my base and feel that I lost quite a bit of my climbing ability. I had become a bit of a mountain goat and could quite comfortably beat most of those I rode with on the hills. I originally started riding in the bigger rings on hills in training for the Karoo To Coast but continued afterwards as I enjoyed it so much. Yesterday I really enjoyed climbing up to the waterfall in Jonkers in my middle blade and third at the back.
My aim in all this is to increase my lactate threshold prior to the Epic as there is still time to do this. Hopefully I'll also improve my VO2max which I will get tested again in a couple of weeks. I'm also trying to be careful not to overtrain and stay within the limits of the Polar training programme. Putting in big weeks of 20+ hours isn't really the cleverest thing to be doing at this stage. Also, the base fitness is in place and well sorted so only needs to be maintained with one long slow distance ride a week. The rest can be higher tempo rides getting ready for race pace on the day.
Yesterday's ride was great as I took about 1½ hours off my usual ride time to Jonkers' and still felt fresh and strong at the end of the ride. One aspect of these rides I really enjoy is the smug feeling as I see cars with bikes driving up to the Jonkers' gate, knowing that I've ridden there and will be riding home. My stats for yesterday's ride aren't quite right as 8k's into the ride my speed sensor was ripped off and I didn't notice until about an hour later. Thankfully I managed to find the lost sensor on the way home as it got ripped off on a short sharp hill which most riders choose to bypass so noone had picked it up. Thankfully that saved a few pennies as they're not cheap.
Stats for (load) week:
Ride time: 12:14 (target: 14:00)
Distance: 190km
Kcal's burnt: 8200
Total ascent: 2745m
Mountain biking as a workout.
9 months ago
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