This week has a been combination of both good and bad. Work has been one of those weeks where the to do lists and the priorities have just got bigger and longer and on top that the new dasboards came out for the sales managers and the TSR's for the seconf half of the year which has meant disecting the information out of there to ensure they are correct but at the same understand where we are and where we need to be and what we need to do to get there so yeah, pretty challenging week. Good news on the sales manager dashboard front is that I am currently 2nd out of 31 sales managers nationally. We still have the rest of the year to go but the quicker you get out the blocks the more effective you can be later on in the year driving the specifics.
The weekend has been a great one. With the ever closing bike race on the 6th Sept coming up, me and my best buddy Ben made a big milestone this weekend. Dr Ben lives in Coventry and the nature of his job can be quite long hours so from that point of view we have both been doing similiar amounts of training. Last weekend we both did 30 miles on Saturday and Sunday so we seemed to be both going in the right direction.
Saturday morning saw my alarm go off at 05:45am although i felt like i was awake for the majority of the night due to heat and the prospect of doing a 60 mile ride with Ben in the morning. I had planned the route from Bens mum and dads house in Willerby which saw us take in the following route.
1/Willerby - Cottingham - Skidby - Walkington - North Newbald - Sancton - Market Weighton - Holme Upon Spalding Moor - Bubwith - Wressle - Howden - Gilberdyke - North Cave - South Cave - Brantingham (Spout Hill!) - Elloughton - Willerby.
In the run up to the 94 mile race on the 6th Sept, me and Ben this year have done no more than around 30 miles on the bike in one ride. We used to ride every week when we were at home, trips to Lakes where we would do 70 miles (with my front brake rubbing on the front wheel for 50 of those miles). Resistance training I called it! I had this ride at been about 64 miles so quite a big jump from what we have done recently and 10 years on from those biking days in Hull we where both wondering how our bodies would react!
I could detail the ride stage by stage but in trying to keep my blogging short and sweet, Ill just highlight key areas.
1/ 65 miles Completed
2/ 3hours 40mins
3/ Avg Speed 17.6mph
4/ We thought we had prepared well by taking onboard plenty of fluids, energy bars / gels / shots! but what one key learning was that at around 40 miles we had nothing really substancial to eat like a tuna sandwich etc. We had plenty of energy in the form of taurine / glucose / caffeine but nothing really substancial in the way of protein for the hours we had been on the bike and more importantly the calories that we had burnt. On the day of the race we will be looking at burning 4,000 calories so it is vitally important that we get that extra protein before its too late. Big learning curve.
5/ The big positive for me was how well we both worked as a team as we are both very similiar strength and stamina wise on the bike. For sections we took it in turns leading for a mile while the other had a rest and so on. One of the highlights for me was when we left my mum and dads, 7 miles from Bens. As soon as we set off my legs were really struggling and we headed for a long stretch of road called Great Gutter Lane. Its relatively flat but really open and if you hit a head wind the legs really take a battering over the 5 mile stretch. The wind was behind us though and this seemed to give us the energy to give a massive push. For this 5 mile stretch we averaged the 30mph mark non stop. It was amazing, the bikes just glided and it was a great end to what had been a fantastic ride.
Our next planned ride together is next weekend. Me and the girls are driving down on Saturday and we are going out again, early in the morning to do the same amount of miles.
Objectives for this ride.
1/ Ride 70 miles minimum
2/ To complete in less than 3hours 45mins
3/ Increase our average speed to 18mph.
4/ Take onboard key proteins at the half way stage and energy bars / gels / shots ongoing to prevent muscle and energy fatigue.
My aim is to do 3 nights this week on the bike trainer for 30 mins at a time to keep the legs ticking over and really maintain the focus on the diet to ensure I am well prepared again for 6 days time...................
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