Pushing Too Hard

One of the many rules around training is the idea that you should only increase your mileage by 10% each session. The idea is that you give your body a small challenge, it adapts during recovery and then at the next session you push it a little bit more. I applied this quite happily when building up to my first 10km running race so I knew it would work again on the bike.

I was putting in plenty of 20 mile rides to get used to the bike and iron out any problems with the equipment. These included some hills, some training in Zone 2, some social rides, it was all going rather well. When Ben popped up with an 80 mile ride in the Cotswolds in 18 days time I quickly started to work out how I could ramp up to that distance.

Sticking to the 10% rule it would take 15 rides to increase my distance from 20 to 80 miles. There was no way I was going to achieve that as a casual cyclist so I wimped out, found a shortcut, and agreed to come along for 60 miles instead. This should still take 11 rides, but with only two weekends spare I would have to push it a little.

So the next weekend I headed out with another friend, Tim (also taking part in the C2C) for a bit of a training run. I should have known I was in trouble when I arrived at Tim's garage to see it full of bikes, including a Time Trial bike. Turns out Tim was quite a keen cyclist and the following 37 miles were a great exercise in how to sit on somebody's wheel. An average of 16.3mph had me gasping.

Hoping to do things at my own pace I headed out again the next weekend for my first 50 mile ride solo. With no wheel to hang on to and several punctures this turned into four and a half hours of grind, more than double the previous weekends time. I finished exhausted, barely able to turn the pedals, though I did overtake somebody pushing a shopper up a steep hill.

Now I was out of time and the big weekend had arrived. Having already done 50+ miles solo I was happy with doing 60 miles in company. The pace was a little slow as we set off but soon the miles were rolling by. You can read a full description here. We reached the pub in good time and this was where I was due to split off after lunch to take my shortcut. But we all know what happened after a beer and a bit of bravado.

I ended up completing the full 87 miles (yes, 7 miles longer than planned), again crawling into the finish in a complete state. Did I complete my challenge? Yes, and I am pleased I did, but I cannot recommend escalating your distance this quickly. At the time it wasn't a fun experience and I am probably quite lucky that I didn't injure myself.

Next time: The training plan