Didn’t enjoy today’s training ride as much as I had hope. The pace was a bit on the quick side of steady for my liking and I found myself struggling a bit. Actually, I was struggling a lot, as much with frustration as with my lousy ability up hills. I guess I must have been lazier than I thought in October and November as there’s no way I was this out of shape this time last year. Then again I did have probably a few more 50km rides under my belt from doing sessions in Richmond Park on my Tuesday day off.
Today was a nice late-January day: quite mild, a bit of a chill wind but nice enough in the sun. The group was about 16 and there were a fair number who were obviously used to a faster pace than we usually take. Certainly there were a few of us who found ourselves struggling in places to keep up, but mainly just me.
I’ve been trying to spin at a higher cadence recently, attempting to put out a cadence constanly above 80 and ideally between 90 and 100 revolutions per minute. The downside of this has been that my legs haven’t quite adapted yet and I’m getting regular bouts of cramp after three hours or so. It also means I seem to be sweating like a leaky tap and getting through more fluid than usual which means that if the rate doesn’t get me, the dehydration does.
Today the dehydration really took it’s toll on me, to the extent I had to soft-pedal it all the way back from Esher to home with a stop in Hampton Court for a plum and two bottles of Lucozade from the shop.
By the time I got home I was fit for doing my stretches, ordering a pizza and slumping on the sofa for the rest of the day. which is exactly what I did. Oh well, I suppose it does get easier.