Fun in the sun on a gravel bike in the Forest of Dean! We have had such a wet winter & spring, Saturday was a perfect day!  The sun was shining ☀️, the birds 🦅 were singing & for once the wind 💨 had done one & disappeared! Pure joy.  

Doing Endurance rides, is an essential part of any training if you are aiming to do longer distances.    So Good Friday, for the first time in ages, the weather was set fair (well no rain was forecast), unusually the winds were quite light.  It was  bit nippy, so I felt it was the perfect day to tackle a route around Leicestershire.  I euphemistically named it the 'Leicestershire Round'. 80 miles with approx 4000 feet of ascent, so no huge hills but not really flat either.  According to Garmin my route had 7 climbs, at 35 miles I hadn't actually done any of the climbs so was getting a bit concerned, but climbs are like buses, you don't see one for ages and then 5 come along all at once 🚵‍♀️😵‍💫bad planning by me (no one else to blame really)

Sometimes it’s difficult to get out of bed in the morning and motivate yourself to do anything, especially if it’s a bit on the chilly side.  Signing up for organised rides can be a great way to motivate yourself.  Someone else is thinking about the route, the food stops and the mechanics of the ride, all you need to do is rock up and ride your bike (I make that sound easy some days it is, some days it is less easy).

Whatever sort of training you are doing for any sort of event, recovery time is crucial. When you workout you create microscopic tears in your muscle tissue, resting allows your muscles to heal and grow back stronger. Which means you should be able to do the same workout with less effort in the future.   Proper recovery can also help prevent injury occurring.  Ultimately good quality rest days will improve your performance along with good quality sleep. Even if you are exercising as part of a weight loss regime you should still have rest time built in.  

As with all training plans, a variety of training is needed.  

With storms Isha and Jocelyn having recently rattled through the UK, indoor training calls.

Cycling in a cold climate can be a tough one, it takes ages to put all the layers on before you get out, muscles take longer to warm up, toes and fingers sometimes never warm up or are warm when you set off and then get cold, mainly because you don't move them around much, your feet are in a fairly static position especially if you are clipped in.  Your hands are generally in the same position on the handle bars, so again fairly static....I'm not selling this really am I? 

Having decided what the events are the training plan for me isn’t particularly strict. It’s really more about the enjoyment. Training on a bike of any description usually involves coffee and cake or more specifically scones.   Over the years, you can become a bit of an authority on scones……,however, there is usually a debate about whether the Cream or the Jam should come first.! Not a debate I’m going to get into, you do whatever makes you happy and suits you.  If you want to post a comment with your preferred choice it would be very welcome.