Ending The Ride Streak And Beginning Circuits
If you’ve been keeping up you’ll know that I set out a little over 3 weeks ago on a 23 day Tour de France ride streak. Last week I reported on the first few weeks and I wanted to take a minute to summarize how I ended the streak.
Here are the numbers for the last 7 days of the streak:
- Monday, 7/16 – 50 minutes on basement bike trainer
- Tuesday, 7/17 – 15 minutes on basement bike trainer
- Wednesday, 7/18 – 42 minutes on basement bike trainer doing Sufferfest
- Thursday, 7/19 – 45 minutes on gym spin bike
- Friday, 7/20 – 50 minutes on basement bike trainer
- Saturday, 7/21 – 45 minutes on basement bike trainer
- Sunday, 7/22 – 130 minutes riding on real road
Yes, you read that right … I took my bike off the trainer and onto actual asphalt and cement. I know crazy right? The weather finally dipped below 100° and I got out of bed before 7 am on a weekend to get some real riding in.
It was a great ride with my local club, they were doing some training for a Sub 5 century. My legs felt really good and I could tell the past 3 weeks have really made them stronger. My pulls at the front weren’t very taxing and I was able to spin easily in the pace line without issue. About the only thing that was hard is dealing with the bike handling of a few people but that’s for another blog post.
Anyhow, towards the end of the 42 miles I was starting to feel the 23 days of riding. My legs started to get a bit heavy and the last few hills made me dig deep to keep the 20+ mph pace. Funny thing though, even feeling a bit heavy I hit some new PR’s in Strava on a long flatish climb.
Here’s how the ride streak looked on the calendar (minus the first day as it was the last day of June).
Here are a few of the interesting numbers:
- Total Days — 23 days
- Total Ride Time — 20:02:02 h:m:s
- Total Miles — 381 miles
- Total Calories — 19,042 calories
- Average Distance Per Ride — 17.32 miles
- Average / Max HR — 137 / 170 bpm
- Days on Trainer — 15 days
- Days @ Gym — 4 days
- Days on Road — 4 days
I didn’t break 20,000 calories like I was hoping but I came darn close. I’m really happy with the riding I did and most of all I’m extremely happy I finished the streak.
There were many days I wanted to just relax after work and certainly couldn’t imagine getting on the trainer again. There were days I was itching to ride on a real road and swore at the crazy heat and the strange workout hours for forcing me on the trainer again.
But in the end I kept going, continued to ride, and finished the streak strong.
Every end is a new beginning
With this ride streak ending I’ve started with a renewed interest with circuits. I actually did my first circuit routine last night and it felt amazing. I felt strong and really pushed myself doing heavier weights, faster moves, and clean form.
Going forward for the next month or so I’ll be doing 3 days a week of circuit training and 3 days of cycling. That should allow me to build from my ride streak base heading into my 200 km ride as well as drop some unneeded weight to make those climbs a bit easier.
