After SXC race 1, I decided I needed to up my training somewhat. It became clear during the race that a) the basic pace was higher and b) there’s a big need to tolerate short bursts of higher output.<\/p>\n
So, training-wise over the last 2 weeks I’ve done:<\/p>\n
– four days commuting to work (about 80 miles total). Two of those days, I used the ride into work to do intervals (ie. going flat out for a short time, then recovering then repeating). I intended the ride back home to be a gentle recovery, but both times I got suckered into racing other cyclists. *grin*<\/p>\n
– last weekend, a 30 miles jaunt over the Pentlands. Super muddy, rutty, technical and windy. But I enjoyed it and definitely felt it improved my technique.<\/p>\n
– this weekend, a 55 mile road trip via Kincardine. Pretty pleasant, and it felt a lot easier than the last time I did it (last year) which suggests that my training is going pretty well. This is in preparation for 10 Under The Ben in May – aiming to do ~50 miles offroad then.<\/p>\n
I definitely feel improvement in terms of being able to sprint for longer, recover more quickly and push bigger gears when I have to (my tendency has always been to spin all the time, but that’s not always possible in MTB races). But the increased training is also taking its toll as my body adjusts – I need to be careful not to step it up too quickly too soon.<\/p>\n
There’s still 3 weeks until SXC round 2 at Contin. Hopefully I’ll be able to keep up with the intervals midweek and longer rides at weekend, and be able to see an improvement during the next race \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After SXC race 1, I decided I needed to up my training somewhat. It became clear during the race that a) the basic pace was higher and b) there’s a big need to tolerate short bursts of higher output. So, training-wise over the last 2 weeks I’ve done: – four days commuting to work (about […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobugs.org\/lejog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobugs.org\/lejog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobugs.org\/lejog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobugs.org\/lejog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobugs.org\/lejog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=233"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobugs.org\/lejog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobugs.org\/lejog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/233\/revisions\/235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nobugs.org\/lejog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobugs.org\/lejog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nobugs.org\/lejog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}