August 2013 Review

Very happy to be reporting last month's efforts.  Finally managed to get some decent consistency together, and kick a goal worth cheering about!!  Firstly, to the figures themselves...

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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
August - 518km / 26hrs

Year to date - 2589km / 126hrs

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Feeling awesome!!

Happy with this on a number of levels:

• Biggest monthly mileage and hours for the year
• First month to crack through 500km (finally!)
• First 150+km week (155km)

After missing the first 6-days of the month due to the lingering man-flu from July, I wasn't sure exactly how much I would be able to achieve.  So I decided to just try and make sure I got on the bike as much as possible, and use August as a 'base rebuilding' period.

That worked out really well!  After a relatively easy first week back to make sure I didn't compromise my flu recovery, I was able to finish with three big weeks all clocking more than 130km each. The final week was my peak, hitting 155km to record my biggest weekly mileage of the year.

I've derived a whole heap of confidence from August.  While I'm still 'slow' after a month of base, I feel really strong.  I've already started adding a few short intervals into my September rides, and the legs have handled them well...

Looking ahead

Racing-wise, its all about criteriums for the rest of the year.  I have two Opens on my radar in October:

• 6th Oct - Fusion Games criterium at Newstead (inner city Brisbane)
• 27th Oct - Be Better Psychology criterium at Glenvale (near Toowoomba)

If the legs respond well to some harder riding and club racing in September, then I'll try and enter at least one of these races.

September Goals

In the meantime, the month of September (& hopefully some good weather!) lies ahead.  In simple terms, I just want to continue on and keep up with logging some decent mileage and time in the saddle.  To that end, I'm hoping to keep on hitting 100+km each week, and break through the 500+km mark for the monthly total again.

While I won't be adopting any formal training structure, I'll be gradually adding in some tougher efforts to my usual rides.  These will basically be in the form of some hard intervals interspersed throughout my rides.

Club racing is an important part of my September plans.  I'm aiming to race every weekend, but of course that is tempered with the caveat of not knowing what the kids' sporting commitments are yet.  So I'll squeeze in whatever races I can.

Feeling great

I mentioned on Twitter that it really is amazing how consistent training really feeds confidence and motivation.  I feel terrific after August's efforts, and I am really enjoying my cycling at the moment.  I don't intend to lose or forget this feeling, and will use it to drive me forward for the rest of the year.

Safe riding!!