Training - yes it is a good idea - The Reunion Ride

Training - yes it is a good idea

This won't be one of those cycle-tours where I can get fit on tour. There won't be any easing in period as the time will be limited and set by the leave from work and the start of the school reunion event. It will be essential that I be able to do at least 100 km per day from day-one without feeling like a physical wreck. It'd be embarrassing to limp or crawl into the reunion because of being underprepared physically for the ride.

This means planning and sticking to some sort of training regime for about 10 weeks before the ride.

That is, the training needs to start now. Not in a month or two.

Discipline, not my strongpoint, will be needed. I won't have to be superfit or race-ready...simply ready and steady enough to do about 700 km in 7 days with a lightly loaded bike through undulating country-side.

The training plan will be a flexible one. I'm going to try to do about 200 km riding per week with a few climbs included and an average speed greater than 20km/hr. I'll also swim 1.5-2km at least four times per week.

Fortunately I can build a fair bit of this treadling and sploshing into my daily commute to work except for times when I need to travel out of town for work which is fairly often. Normally I ride about 25km per week day commuting and the local pool is conveniently located en-route. This helps greatly with the time-factor which would otherwise be a problem.

I'd also like to do a couple of longish day-rides if the opportunities arise in the next few weeks. These would be excellent training and would add variety to the preparation.

Today was the day to start some semi-serious training so I looked out to the high, distant hills, took a photo of them, then found a lower, closer hill to ride up.

The near Canberra hills early this morning (late July) looking from home before the training ride.Canberra is endowed with lots of pleasant, accessible road training areas ranging from easy to very difficult. We are spoilt for choice. Today's ride was fairly local and not right out into the big hills.Observant readers will note the snow. It's been freezing here. The next week will be a string of -5 degree C morning starts. Double glove conditions.

Like all good training plans, today was start-day. Saturday morning and minus something degrees Celsius.I rode a half-lake circuit and up Mt Ainslie on my newish red Thorn Audax bike. About 30 km with a 300 metre climb at 20 plus km/hr.The pic is looking in exactly the opposite direction to which the Reunion Tour will go. That's because the view of the snow-capped hills across Canberra and Parliament House is always an eye-catcher. Credit for this view has much to do with an architect from Chicago and his gifted wife. Anybody know who they were?

...and day two of training is looking slightly coolish. Nothing ventured, nothing frozen.

48 days to kick-off: Training update
Moving right on...It's a weekend and Saturday 9 August and there's some precious time to do some hill training. Morning temperatures this week have been a string of sub-freezing. -8C, and a few -5's. Fingers tingle and feet go numb.

When this happens, it's better to ride uphill rather than ride fast or a long way.

So today I headed for the hills.
Three of them. Mt Ainslie, Black Mountain and Red Hill. They are Canberra's lookouts.

The total ascent of todays treadle was 822 metres in 41 km. Average speed was 19.4 km/hr over 2 hrs 9 mins. I've no idea if this is OK, great or poor but the reassuring thing is that I felt as if I had quite a bit more in the tank when I finished. It wasn't gruelling.
Should I have pushed harder?

Three reminder pics of today's training effort:

Hill two today ... Black Mountain with its comms tower. The Red Bike and I hit the 812 metre mark at the lookout.

Hill three today...The last and lowest...Red Hill. 720 metre above sea level. By now I was ready for a coffee.

Overall the training is going well with at least 100 km per week of cycle-commuting topped up with another 80-100 km at weekends.

If I can maintain the steady training build-up, the actual tour should be fairly easy.

THREE WEEKS TO DEPARTURE UPDATE:
Training cleverly disguised mostly as commuting is going well. Although I've not had time to do longer distances, I've increased the average speeds and done a bit more climbing.

I'll only have one more week to prepare for the tour, then a short work trip to Indonesia will intervene.

Given past experiences with Indonesia, it will be a challenge to avoid coming back without gut problems, so I could be a lighter starting weight than planned.:)

If all goes well, I will arrive home, jump on the bike and head off.

Note to self: pack extra loo paper due to cycling one day after returning from Java.

Spring commute rides have helped build up the training tally to well over a 1000 km.Blue sky and blossoms are slightly misleading as the temperature this morning when taking this pic was about 2 degrees C. Clear and chilly in the national capital. Situation normal.I've been using the Bike Friday for commuting while the red Thorn is at the bike doctor being converted to a 9 speed.

One of the joys of commuting/training over the last couple of months in prep for this short tour has been seeing cygnets just after hatching, and now today, much bigger.

Here are before and after pics of the bike-way babies taken with my phone:

If anyone ever asks me why I cycle, this is one answer. I see things like this...

And a few weeks later, seen from another training ride, here they are again:

TEN DAYS TO START
I am in Java for work and the busyness of meetings and travel has brought the training to almost a complete halt.

Walking between meeting venues has provided some exercise, but the traffic, heat and air pollution in Jakarta makes this feel like a health hazard rather than training.

I did discover a training bike in the hotel gym and gave it a quick whirl. The training bike has more readouts on the dashboard than a Jumbo Jet. Calories burnt, heart-rate, speed, distance and a few other programmable functions which I didn't experiment with. The view from the hotel gym window is more interesting than the training bike gauges.

While in Java on this work trip, I briefly considered hiring a bike to do a training ride or two but one glimpse at the traffic stymied that idea.

The motor scooter rules supreme here. Here's a sample from this morning's walk.

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