It feels great to get the first week down, and while it did not all go to plan, I learned some crucial things that will help me achieve the goal of completing a 100 mile ride. I’m not going to beat around the bush so let’s get into it.
To begin, I completed three of the four planned rides and two of the three strength sessions. The first strength session felt good but hit hard over the next two days, specifically in my hamstrings, in a good way though. Wednesday’s session was felt good throughout and didn’t leave me feeling drained in the days that followed so a positive there overall. Where I fell short was Friday. If I’m making an excuse I would say that personal life and responsibilities got in the way but the honest answer is that I wasted time in the morning and didn’t set aside the appropriate time to get the lift in. I regretted it the following days but ultimately all I can do is be better going forward and remind myself that I felt bad for skipping it last time.
I am proud of the effort I put in during the lifts I completed and that’s something to build off of. The lifts performed were tough but enjoyable and this should be a good pairing for the ride program as the effort starts to ramp up.
Now for the rides! Tuesdays ride went better than I anticipated, I felt very good on the bike considering I hit legs the day before and completed the ride pretty quick. The struggle I had was keeping the pace very low, I found my heart rate creeping into Zone 3 for a lot of the ride and made a conscious effort to back off a bit but I would continue to unconsciously push harder than needed. Overall I was left feeling great after the ride and like I could have easily gone longer, but alas we will try to follow the program as closely as possible. Where Tuesday became a real learning lesson was at my golf league.. I am not a big drinker but on Tuesday nights I typically enjoy a few beers with my teammate as we try to keep things loose and just have fun. But just four beers had a deep impact on my sleep and left me with a Whoop recovery score of only 17%, and that leads us into Wednesday.
My body felt solid waking up but based on the recovery score it was clear that I was not in a position to push it again or I would find myself in a hole early on in the program. Because of this, I opted to forgo my Wednesday ride and complete only the strength session to give my body the best chance to recover. I don’t feel great about skipping the ride but it was the right move when looking at the bigger picture. If I constantly overtrain and do not give my body the proper chance to recover this will constantly be an uphill battle and that is not the precedent I want to set. But the lesson learned here is that the beers at league need to be skipped so recovery can be prioritized, doesn’t mean I won’t drink any alcohol throughout the program but that I need to be smarter about it and consider what lies ahead in the program.
Getting back on the bike Thursday was exactly what I needed. Starting out the legs were feeling a bit heavy and riding into a headwind did not help but after the first two miles I felt noticeably stronger. The second half was extremely fun as the wind was now helping and got to chase some speed on the downhill. Again I felt like I wanted to go longer but we kept to the plan and cut it off after a brief 6 mile ride. The take away here was refining my setup a bit, raised the seat post and shifted the seat forward a little bit and it certainly felt more comfortable on Saturday.
With skipping my workout on Friday I treated it almost as a rest day, outside of some yard work I needed to complete, with a focus on the best recovery possible to be ready to go for the first longer ride. We got some rain on Friday night but it was dry enough for me to get out on the road by 8 am. I was sure to eat something at least an hour before, my breakfast choice lately has been avocado on a toasted sourdough English muffin with a little salt on top. I’ve never been much of a breakfast person so I’ve found this quite tasty and light making it easy to get down in the mornings.
Once on the road, the first few miles felt similar to the start of Thursdays ride, breathing was good and the legs felt just a little heavy. But as the ride went on I felt the strength start to build again. Something I want to do throughout the program is always finish the second half of the rides as strong or stronger than the first half. I’m okay feeling like there was a little bit left in the tank, especially in these early weeks when I’m still feeling things out. The majority of the ride was spent in Zone 3 with some climbs pushing me to Zone 4, when given the chance on some flat roads or slight declines, I made an effort to hydrate and try to bring the heart rate back down to Zone 2. But we completed the 15 miles in around 1:06 and got to finish by bombing it down a decent hill I have driven to a hundred times but never took my bike down. The rest of the day I kept light and completed some simple tasks around the house.
Sunday was very easy day going full rest day style. Ate some good food and kept things loose all day. I wanted to go for another ride which I think is a great sign coming off the first long ride but chose not to in an effort to maximize recovery going into week 2. I did forget to do my daily stretch routine which I am disappointed about but going forward it will be the first thing I do on rest days. All in all the week was a good one and as mentioned before it was a good learning experience and chance to calibrate things before the intensity picks up.
Looking ahead, I think it is clear that my focus on recovery will be just as important as the focus on riding. Maybe I am harping on it a bit much but this week was eye opening to how important it is and that it’s so much more than just getting enough sleep every night – though that is a crucial part of it too. This week will be pretty straightforward, almost a repeat of last week but all the mileage just kicked up a little bit. The goal for this week is to complete all four rides and all three strength sessions, and of course not skipping out on the stretching. I might be paying for yesterday’s missed session already as the hips feel a bit tight today. But I am happy with where things stand at the moment and am very excited of what’s to come, if anything this week has given me the confidence that completing a century ride this year is really possible.