Having now completed 2 target events, it now leaves Ride London as the third and final target event. Below shows my last seven days following the Cotswolds Sportive; 78 miles and 5,000ft climbing. For me this was tough, but an improvement of 47 minutes on the last time I did it in 2013 helped ease the pain of the following days.

 

7 day trend Monday 21^st– Monday 27^th July:

 

 

 

On Tuesday I did a tempo effort as I didn’t feel too tired at that point, I was still in the normal range with a green signal. But clearly by Wednesday that had impacted on my energy levels and then gradually declined up to Friday, which is the red signal. I felt very tired on this day. Over these 3 days I didn’t train, mindful of steering my reading back into the normal zone.

It wasn’t until Saturday morning I had a green normal signal again, so I went out for an hour’s tempo. Sunday was a favourable green signal again, so got in my normal longer ride which was 2.5 hours, but at a mostly tempo pace with threshold intervals, which served as my pacing ride for the Prudential Ride London the following Sunday (2^nd August). Monday 27^th again showed a green signal, but I rested this day as the legs were sore and Ride London was looming at the weekend. Good to see though that the last two training days intensity didn’t impact too much on recovery.

 

7 day trend Monday 27^th July to Monday 3^rd August:

 

 

 

The week started off in the normal range following Sunday’s pacing ride, but had a rest day Monday all the same. Tuesday saw a dip into low activation, but went ahead with my plan for the week, and did a 1 hour session of endurance but included 7 x 30 second all out sprints with 2 minutes recovery between. As a result the Wednesday showed poor recovery and high activation that gave me the red, but wasn’t too concerned about this as Wednesday was scheduled as a rest day. Thursday went back into the normal range again, and carried on with my planned 1.5hr ride with a few longer efforts thrown in, around tempo/threshold, but nothing that was too taxing. Friday dipped again into low activation, but as Thursday’s session was my last of the week, I wasn’t too concerned.

Saturday saw a strange reading where my HRV reading went up to 92 but orange, and as a result just managed to make it onto the screen! Bit of a concern considering my target event of the year tomorrow.

 

 

 

Saturday was taken up by travelling down to London and getting the bike set up. Alarm for Sunday was set for 4:30am but woke up at 1am and didn’t get back to sleep. I didn’t take my reading on Sunday as a result. I had a start time of 8:33am and this year the weather was a lot better.

We had a 12 mile bike ride to the start line which served as a nice warm-up. The ride went well and I was pleased with the result, although I forgot to press start on my Garmin! Last year I averaged 16.4 mph with a suffer score of 254, so this year I managed to increase speed by 1.8mph with a slightly lower suffer score.

 

 

 

 

7 day trend Monday 3^rd August to Monday 10^th August:

 

 

 

This week intentionally was going to be any easy week, so didn’t do any training until Thursday. As you can see, the 3^rd started off in a good position, but then dropped on Tuesday and Wednesday even without training, no doubt the effects of Sunday. Thursday was the first day back into the normal range, so did 1.25hrs endurance including 2 x 5min sweet spot efforts. Friday was normal again but had a rest day. Saturday reading was low again but went for 1.5hr endurance ride but with tempo/threshold efforts on the climbs. Sunday was normal but had family comittments.

 

10^th August to 14^th August:

 

 

 

This is a shorter week due to breaking up to go on holiday, so the above is from Monday 10^th to Friday 14^th. I’ve managed to take the opportunity to train every day this week (up to Thursday evening) to make up for what will probably be limited options over the next 2 weeks. I am planning 2 rides at least, which will be led rides. The remainder of my training will be taken up with swimming efforts to try and not lose too much fitness.

Monday 10^th was an endurance ride for 100mins and included 2 x medium sprint efforts. Tuesday was 1 hr of endurance only. Wednesday was a 75min ride with a dedicated 20min FTP test, which resulted in a 7 watt increase over my last test 8 weeks ago. I’m happy with this considering the previous 3 main events in close proximity. Thursday was a 1 hr endurance block with 2 x 10min tempo efforts with 10min endurance between

You can see I am tracking to a slightly improved activation now, following the higher readings at the start of July when I had a cold. But recovery is lagging a bit. Hopefully the holiday will see that improve.

 

 

 

 

Looking ahead I have a sportive in September, October and November, each spaced about a month apart. Therefore I can (hopefully) get back to a normal training regime with there being more of a time gap between these events.

 

Andy Dolphin Profile:

I am what’s termed a recreational athlete, who has around 5 to 8 hours a week to train (season dependant). I have a family with 2 young children and run a business; therefore the ethos of my training is to use training principles that elicit the best results in minimal time. By comparison to my cycling peers, I would class myself as average.