Progress Log, Week 9

05/03/2013

8hr 45min cycling

137.2 miles

My weight: 180.1lb

Weekly weight loss/gain: -2.9 lb

19.2 lb to go. My weight goal is 160.9 lb

:-)

Two contrasting sportives

Two weeks ago, I entered the VC Revolution Sportive, together with Antony and Matt. It had all the ingredients of a worthwhile ride in that it was very well planned and organised, with good signposting at the key junctions, the route was through roads on the Essex/Suffolk border, always good to ride and the post ride refreshments were excellent. Sadly, I suffered like a dog for two reasons:

1. We were dropped very early on by the main group of riders in the '15mph average' group on the 50 mile route and it was a struggle to go much above that speed as none of seemed to be particularly sprightly that day.
2. The temperature stayed resolutely around the 0 degrees C mark for the whole ride and after the first hour, I lost all sensation in my feet, which only enhanced the gloom. Still, it was wonderful to get home and collapse into a hot bath!

The following weekend, I entered Colchester Rovers' Cyclo Sportif and the temperature, while only a couple of degrees higher, made all the difference. The sun even made a half-hearted appearance at times.

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I entered the' bronze' 50 mile category, as I was anticipating a repeat performance of the previous week and couldn't imagine riding at the 18 mph average of the 'silver' group. Happily, the pace was spot on for me and by making an effort not to get dropped on the hills (rather fewer in number than the previous week) our group of fifteen or so was whittled down to seven by the end (I would have been next to go!) and we got in at an average of 17.8 mph. The moral of the story is that it pays to stay with the main group, where significantly higher average speeds are possible. With this in mind, I'll have a go at my club's weekend rides as keeping up is more of a possibility than it was earlier in the year.

As an added incentive to keep the riding going, I'm attempting Strava's 'Giro's Train Like Taylor Challenge' to ride for 31 hours and 51 mins in 16 days. It's rather more than I'm used to riding and I expect it will help with the weight loss, which got back on track this week, I'm pleased to say.