 |
| Mixed results for the year! |
It tells a fine story of how my year went.
There is some more mileage not shown here, because I don't usually record the short bike commute I do to work and back.
Plus I am crosstraining with some running for much of the year, as well as some "Strength" workouts, so this is just the cycling, but it demonstrates the year rather well.
Anyway, onto the graphic.
Respectable February and March. A few longer rides. I remember a cold ride to Oxford in February, :-)
Then I got in my first "metric century" in March.
the end of March also brought news of the success of the diet that my local health clinic had advised me to go on.
At Easter I went away with high hopes for a vacation of superb training, but returned exhausted and ill :-(
April didn't go well :-(
May brought a new bike, which I then adapted a little to suit me.
June saw me concentrating on aero, weight, and riding in the local charity sportive, knocking an hour of last's years finishing time, and moving up the finishers' list from about 400th out of 500 to 200th out of 500. Moving up 200 places in a year, and knocking a hour off - wow, that was the highlight of the year!
But ...
I hurt my knee in the sportive on the final hill ...
So July and August sees me taking it easy to recover a bit.
By late August I was having back problems, and by September I was having to take time off work to deal with them. Struggling on like a Spartan just wasn't doing it any more, and I knew I just couldn't go on like this. So for the first time in seven years, I rang the boss and said I won't be in.
In September, I bought a turbo trainer, because the experts recommend walking and cycling for general back problems.
October and November show me using the trainer, and my mileage slowly going up again.
Indeed, by November I was good enough to go out on an "exploring" ride along the local canal path and a couple nearer to where I live, showcasing the local cycle infrastructure, warts and all.
The mileage dropped off in December because I only got 9 days cycling in.
On December the 9th, I crashed, breaking my shoulder blade, and getting a free lunch in the local hospital for a week (and a titanium plate fitted in my shoulder)
And that brings 2016 to a close.
Stepping back from it being me, and just looking at it in general terms, I could suggest that "over-enthusiasm" played a part in my breaks in training.
I was probably trying to do too much at Easter, and ended up doing less than I would normally do if I hadn't tried to do the extra!
Similarly, the crash happened on an insignificant minor back road wher I should have been cycling slower - the main "training" part of the ride was the category 3 hill I had climbed a little while before, so I should have been taking it easy on what was, essentially just a loop back to take me to the road home.
Having said all that, overall, it was a good year, and the stand out point was that charity sportive in June!
No comments:
Post a Comment