Project Flanders Starts Here....

The first of December started with my first long training ride in preparation for Flanders and its clear there is work to be done. Since October I have been doing about 2.25 to 2.5 hours on the road before a break. Riding fairly flat roads at my lower level 2 HR zone (143 - 157 bpm). On Saturday I notched up 106 clicks, with about 3.25 hours before a well earned coffee stop and the roads were far from flat. In fact, the whole ride seemed to be up hill with a few fairly hairy descents. Luckily most of the road had dried out after Friday night's awful weather but there were a few puddles and wet patches along the route. Six of us set out at a steady pace. In the final hour of my ride I started to get quite a severe pain in my glutes. Maybe because it's the longest I have spent in the saddle since I came back from the Alps in September. But I had to stop not very far from home and push the bike for a short while to ease off the pain. Off the bike I ached but today it's not too bad at all. Which is more than can be said for the weather.

For the statisticians among you, I did 106km, 4.34 hours ride time but spent a whole 1 hours 6 minutes and 57 seconds of that doing absolutely nothing. Maybe there was more downhill than I remember!!!! But the best thing about the whole thing other than a good excuse to sleep for two hours in the afternoon was burning 1,763 calories, which meant I could stuff myself silly in the evening.

But today, getting out of bed was a struggle. Two cups of filter coffee and toast and marmalade in bed was all I could manage. The weather was not conducive to riding on the road. Ended up doing a 40 minute spin on the turbo at Lower Level 2 to get some rubbish out the legs from yesterday. I still have a slight niggle but nothing serious.

This has been my rest and test week. On Thursday I did a 20 minute threshold test on the turbo trainer. The test consists of 20 minutes flat out to measure my average watts. I'm currently training with a PowerTap, kindly lent to me by my team mate, Mike, who is off travelling this winter. In fact, its going to be expensive when I have to give it back!! The test went well, although I at the end I didn't know if I was going to throw up or cry. I didn't do either but if I ever get to that state at the end of race I will be crossing the line to lie in the nettles. My training plan for this month will include one long ride per week and an easier ride the other day of the weekend.

Best burn some more calories as our Trisportnews team meal is only two weeks away!!!