I could probably subtitle this month's post as "Blame it on the Tour"! What did I do? Nothing!! I discovered that I am well-&-truly not a teenager anymore that can 'rock-&-roll all night and party every day' - staying up for the Tour de France all through July absolutely destroyed me during the day.
Just because I want to, doesn't mean I can... ;)
I was able to do just enough at work to not get fired (luckily my boss is a fellow Tour de France fan!). I slept as long as I could in the mornings, waking up just in time to madly get changed, kiss the wife & kids, and catch a bus to work. And I spent the rest of my time in a sleep-deprived daze. It'll come as a massive shock that I also managed to catch "man-flu" not long after the Tour ended in my fatigued state...
Anyway - here are the embarrassing stats...
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January - 300km / 13hrs
February - 452km / 20hrs
March - 341km / 20hrs
April - 269km / 12hrs
May - 201km / 10hrs
June - 437km / 21hrs
July – 71km / 4hrs
Year to date - 2071km / 100hrs
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Pretty disastrous in terms of what I was planning and preparing for. But hey, I love staying up and watching the Tour - it was an (unplanned!) sacrifice that I willingly made.
So what now - how does one recover from an unscheduled month-long break from the bike? Well, you get straight back into it...
Apart from a work trip to Canberra and the lingering effects of the man-flu in the first week of August, I've managed to rack up some decent mileage again already. This month will be very much a 'base' month, rebuilding some mileage again.
The new race targets are a couple of months ahead in October. There are three big Open criterium races, and I'll hopefully be able to schedule in 1 or 2 of them. In the meantime though, I just need to focus on some consistent training.
Halfway through August, I'm already on track for it to be the biggest month of the year so far. If I can keep that up, that should set me up for some harder, more intense work in September leading into the October races.
Let's see if I can finally get through a 3-month plan!! I've had a few aborted attempts for various reasons this year - but I can't see impediments ahead. Fingers crossed!!
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