On each of the last four days I’ve set my alarm for 5:15am, accompanied by a great deal of enthusiasm the night before to get up and out for an early morning ride.
For the first three of those I’ve spectacularly failed; the snooze button and duvet at that point being my best friend.
But today, the weekend no less, I did it. Up, out, 33 miles and back by 8am. Feeling smug – and sleepy.
I watched another great GCN video this week – Manon, one of the presenters and another former pro, did a period of primarily Zone 2 training; that is, relatively low intensity efforts where you should be able to comfortably hold a conversation and keep your heart rate somewhere below 150bpm (at least for me that’s about right). The result – after a relatively short 6 weeks – was impressive, with some material power gains.
But sticking to zone 2 in the real world is not straightforward; inevitably any stop/start at junctions, traffic lights etc require additional effort; as do hills.. so it turns out I ended up in zone 3 for half the ride.
I suspect the only way to really stick to zones will be indoors – but it’s 31 degrees today so that’s not happening at the moment.
342 Days 
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