Get back on your bike Fatty!!!

  It is quite amazing how quickly....

...You detrain when you stop riding for any length of time.

  I've had the odd bimble about on the bike but no real 'training' for almost 6 weeks. Got out yesterday in the rain (sigh...) and spent most of the time wondering if the brakes had stuck on or some weird tectonic motion had made all the local roads tilt uphill or something. I don't mind really, at least I feel nice and fresh and ready to go. After all,as they say, "You've gotta get up to get down,".  Oh hold on, that should be the other way round...  Anyway, I mean you can't have the 'peaks' without the 'troughs'.  The great bit will be feeling it all building back up again over the next few months.

Andy was feeling nice and rested after his few weeks off

  The tsunami-like conditions were really handy for testing out my new waterproof gear for this winter however - everything passed with flying colours. Like I've always said, I don't mind being wet, and I don't mind being cold but I hate being both at the same time!  Bike okay too, and even the computer continued working!

 The plan

  Well, nothing too formal because that does my head in but I want to build on what did and didn't work last year.

  What really works, and always has in fact, are those 'dieselly' rides (my terminology!) around 130-135bpm. Depending on what system you use, these are in the old 'Level 2' regime which is notorious for slowly but surely grinding you down and leading to fatigue / OTS. I had a few flashes of really tasty form in 2012, in fact I probably got to within a few watts of 'Old Andy' on one ride, so it worked but I was yoyoing from quick to knackered every few weeks, so obviously overdid it. I had a monster streak of form in about january (doh!!), then started the season knackered, had a rest, did a few good rides, had a rest in june & had a monster july, then slowly and surely imploded towards the end of the season.

  So, I'm going to be brave and halve the volume but keep the intensity, at least until xmas. See how I'm feeling at that point. So that'll probably work out as a long ride on the sunday with my local club (If they'll have me!) and just two or maybe three dieselly rides in the week.

  So, 2hrs 40 mins in the rain yesterday @ av HR134. God my legs ache this morning......