The Long Rides Are Getting Longer ...

A great ride this morning. I had to ride Sunday rather than Saturday this week as my daughter had dance exams on Saturday. It was great to go along and watch her dance; the confidence they have to stand up and perform in front of a crowd is just amazing. Some of the kids were just awesome dancers as well.

Anyway, back to cycling. The weather forecast for Sunday earlier in the week had been rubbish, but today it was mild and we stayed dry, although the wind did pick towards the end it never seemed to reach the forecast 15mph. I wore normal cycle mitts for the first time this year and my fingers didn't fall off - Spring is definitely here. It was a tough route; over Portsdown Hill and onto the Southern Sportive route including the climb past Ditcham Park School before cutting off the top of the sportive route and going through East Meon and up the side of Old Winchester Hill before heading home. It was a really enjoyable ride and as a group of 4 there was plenty of chance to chat and let the miles roll by. The P*ncture Fairy paid me a visit but I was the only one in the group to suffer from that today. Overall, a 4 hour 20 min ride and 110km covered. I rode with a HR monitor for the first time in years and look forward to analysing the detail from the ride (when I can work out how to get the computer off the bike!).

This finished off another good week. 9 hours 25 minutes of training including 270km on the bike; my average weekly bike mileage is now 186km/116 miles. I'm still tweaking my training programme to include lessons learned from the changes I've made to my lifestyle of late, and once this settles down I will let you know.

Train smart folks.