Scouting with RouleurBaby

[RouleurBaby]

Hello there and welcome to my battle log/ long term quest. First, my name... ‘Rouleur’ is a cycling term for a good all-rounder. The types who can sprint a bit, climb a bit, do a bit of everything. This describes where I want to be rather than exactly where I am. I’m better at climbing than sprinting, ok on short sharp hills but I need to add that extra bit of oomph in my legs. Finally, scouting refers to my quest type. I want to push my endurance capacity which will become evident in my goals.

 

I have one main goal, my holy grail, and that is to cycle 5000km before the end of the year. That’s not from today, that would be ridiculous! I already have 1,514km in the bank from January. This is not good, it’s okay but it’s not good. That leaves 3,486km remaining in the last 5 months which is quite the challenge. Broken down that’s roughly 150km per week which I was inconsistently doing at the start of the year but work, life and motivation got in the way. It's doable if I put my mind to it and if successful I can then push on next year. I want to become more of a Rouleur so I have a second quest which is to add more power. This is tied in nicely and I think my steps to success would see a natural increase in this as a byproduct without needing separate goals. 

 

Quest: Cycle a further 3,486km this year.

Sub-Quest: Add 10% in power

 

So how am I going to get there?

 

Structure: Follow a clear plan.

Divide my riding into 2x indoor high intensity interval training sessions and 1x weekend endurance ride. 

Ride 150km per week.

 

Gym work: A stronger body = increased bike comfort, extra power and looks better.

Starting Strength 5x5 (when gym opens) 3 sessions per week.

 

Diet: Eat better.

5 servings of fruit and veg per day.

Well balanced, low fat meals.

 

Rest: To minimise injury and promote progression

1 full day off per week

7 hours sleep per night

 

I'm super excited, super motivated and can't wait to progress. I've got a great chance now while I'm off work for a few weeks to put in place a solid routine with no excuses.

[Sloth the Enduring]

Rouleurs are my favorite type of racers. Welcome to NF.

[RouleurBaby]

On 7/24/2020 at 12:27 AM, Sloth the Enduring said:

Rouleurs are my favorite type of racers. Welcome to NF.

 

Thank you! I do love the out and out climbers but there's something special about Rouleurs. I grew up watching Thor Hushovd drag his big, bulky sprinters frame over mountains to hoover up sprint points and now we're seeing Peter Sagan do the same.

 

 

[RouleurBaby]

I'm still feeling my way in this week and trying to set some routines. I've ridden 99km so far with a 60km loop planned for Sunday which will see me move ahead of my distance target. I do go on holiday though on Friday which will see a full week of zero riding, so I do need to make this up somewhere. It's self-catering though so I do intend to eat properly although there will be treats here and there - I'll just be sensible with my choices.

 

My sub-quest is an increase in power by 10%. I tested last week and measured a 181w FTP which is 2.83 watts per kg. My goal is 200w and 3.1 w/kg but I will expect my weight to increase along the way. I may try and keep track of bodyfat %.

 

 

Here is the data from a typical indoor session, this is from yesterday. First of all, intensity - 89%. This is a difficult workout which will see gains. It's what we call sweet-spot training at or just under threshold. It is good bang for your buck which means you can improve but can also recover quickly. It was a solid 40 minute block of alternating 5 minutes of 160w then 175w with no rest in between. Even though 40% was at 'tempo' it was pretty much 83% at 'threshold' which should be what you can just hold for 1hr (100% intensity).

 

My two indoor sessions will be of a similar type followed by that longer ride at the weekend. This was quite a short session at 50 minutes and will quickly move to 1hr+ sessions I imagine I will be covering 70/80km in 2 indoor rides leaving my Sunday ride needing to average a further 70/80km but at Z2 Endurance intensity.

 

 ---

 

This morning I'm already on 2/5 veggies from a low fat, high protein cooked breakfast with dinner still to come. Need those nutrients! I have a bodyweight/ dumbbell workout to complete this afternoon which will only be the 2nd of the week not the ideal 3x but I don't want to burn out in week 1. Funnily enough, I think the 5x5 starting strength workouts will be less intense, especially in the opening stages.

 

Later on I'll be going to a bbq, again I just need to be sensible. Stock up on protein and carbs, try and choose low fat meats and then ensure half my plate is salad. I don't promise to eat like a monk and I also don't want to become a social hermit - it's all about balance.

[cd667]

4 hours ago, RouleurBaby said:

it's all about balance.

Isn't everything?

 

It's nice to see another cyclist here. I have a lot to learn from you!

 

I've been looking and bike training is much more sophisticated now. When I last did any, it was just heart rate monitors and a cadence sensor. Weight training is something I'm looking to incorporate into my training too, come the next challenge!

[RouleurBaby]

22 hours ago, cd667 said:

Isn't everything?

 

It's nice to see another cyclist here. I have a lot to learn from you!

 

I've been looking and bike training is much more sophisticated now. When I last did any, it was just heart rate monitors and a cadence sensor. Weight training is something I'm looking to incorporate into my training too, come the next challenge!

 

Have a look at Strava. There's a free trial called Summit for I think 60 days and it's packed with data. The more that you can hook it up with such as HR and if possible power data then it will give you probably all that you need for now. As I say, try the free trial and see if it works for you just remember to cancel or it'll automatically renew. At worst the free version will be a great training log.

 

I'm just going to leave this here for now and do a more detailed update of my week when I've eaten a few more veggies! I wasn't feeling an outdoor ride this morning but I got on the turbo and met my weekly target.

 

[RouleurBaby]

Quest Weekly Review
Structure (Clear Plan) (150km)   A tiny bit off plan with two endurance rides and one interval session plus a short recovery ride. However, 4 days on the bike is a win even if I struggled to motivate myself for the last ride on Sunday.   150.21km ridden is on target.	Gym (3x Bodyweight)   Gym is not open so sticking to a bodyweight routine for now. 2 sessions completed in a busy week. (M + Sat)
Diet (5 A Day) (Low Fat)   Fantastic meal choices this week, I think. High protein and carbs, low in fat. Supported my training well. 4 days of home cooking completely from scratch. Volume could have been higher on some days.	Rest (1 Day Off) (7 hours sleep)   Tuesday was a complete rest day. On holiday so sleep is not an issue.
Honest review   Very happy with my cycling with difficult first week completed. Strava intensity shows a big improvement on previous weeks. Still come way off my April best. (3/3) Gym work felt forced, but looking forward to the gyms opening properly. (1/2) Still choosing lazy options and had a few cheat meals. Will have to make a food log. Still, I ate much better than previously. (2/4) Felt a little tired this week which is to be expected. I’ve started this off the back of a hectic work schedule and there’s a lot of volume here for my current fitness levels. Perhaps I slept too much and have not been in a good routine generally. (0.5/1)   All in all I’d give myself 6.5/10.
Challenges for the week ahead   I go on holiday for 10 days on Friday so I need to get my miles and workouts in before then which will be difficult. Tomorrow will be a rest day leaving T/W/T to both ride and workout! This is obviously around getting ready to go, and I’ve to work a few mornings next week too.

[RouleurBaby]

Monday: A complete rest day. Ticked that off early this week. However from today I'm back working then I have the holiday on Friday with a very early start. This will test my sleeping patterns. I want to be up at half 6 and off at half 7 tomorrow morning.

 

Food Log: I will clean this up later it's a messy way of doing it.

 

Breakfast: Quakers porridge bar

Dinner: Beans on toast

 

Tea: chicken supreme (with fat free quark) with mashed potatoes (asparagus, onions, mushrooms)

 

Snacks:

Hot drinks - 5 they all count

Boiled egg

2 choc digestives

Banana

Strawberries

 

So I said that I'd start one of these because this is my weakest area. I do want to trim some body fat from my middle. So I've got myself some cheap calipers and measured my supraillic, which is my 'problem area'. I'm naturally skinny, my bmi is 20.7 which is bang in the middle of healthy green but that doesn't tell the full picture. I want to try and loosely track fat and muscle gain/ loss. The 4 point measure which does arms, legs etc was bringing me down to about 10% fat which I don't think is right and as I say my area is my lower gut which is just starting to show my age so I will measure that one point. My reading was 12mm which works out at 22.7%. I'm not sure if this is completely accurate and I need to research the exact point a bit more because I've seen a few variations. It gives me a figure.

 

Some maths:

Weight = 135 pounds. Body fat percentage = 22.7%

Fat weight = 30.6 pounds

Lean mass weight = 104.4 pounds 

 

Not happy at all with my eating. Yes it's pretty much fat free and I've hit my 5 a day target but I dread to think of the macro content. These calories in will not make me grow and will not make me adequately recovered and refuelled for my next bike effort. Much work needed.

 

[Sloth the Enduring]

You just might be a climber. Accurate doesn’t really matter for the calipers, you really want to track the trends.

[RouleurBaby]

18 hours ago, Sloth the Enduring said:

You just might be a climber. Accurate doesn’t really matter for the calipers, you really want to track the trends.

 

I am really, at my weight I can't not be. I've always liked hills but I'd like a few more strings to my bow, so to speak. Good point with the calipers, I have a number to track now and hopefully when I next check there'll be some movement. Might only be a once a month check or something and I'll use the mirror in the meantime.

[RouleurBaby]

Wow, busy day. So work was fine this morning. I wasn't in as early as I intended but the good news is I got my sleep in! Nice relaxed morning then the fun began when I got home. I went straight on to the turbo trainer and did two blocks of 15 minutes at my FTP power which was 183 watts.

 

Absolute sweatbox! 🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵

 

It was a bigger training load than the SST of last week, but 1% less intensity and a much less relative effort, even though it felt harder. The data backs it up though, lower average power and a lower average heart rate. It's a mental game is 2x15, on the SST you have more variations in power but no rest inbetween. Last week it was 160 then 175 then 160 then 175 for 40 minutes straight, this week 183 for what seems like forever then a big break at 110 then back into another 15 minute block of 183. It is harder. Clocked up 30km in an hour but not looking good for 150km this week unfortunately. I think at this rate I'd need a 90km ride tomorrow which is beyond me at the minute and then another session like today back to back on Thursday. Uh Oh.

 

💪💪💪💪💪💪

 

I sacrificed the legs aspect of my bodyweight routine, I figured I'm going to have enough leg exercise with the riding and no rest. Still managed the following:

 

3x8 pressups

3x8 DB shoulder press 8kg

1x5 pull ups - finding these really tough

1x8 chin ups

 

5 minute ab workout

 

💪💪💪💪💪💪

 

Food Diary: I wasn't happy with yesterday at all so needed to do better today. I signed up to myfitnesspal to help track my numbers. Active lifestyle, 3x workouts per week, gain 1 pound per week. That gave me the target of 3,000 calories! 371 carbs; 99 fat; 149 protein...

 

 

 

Much, much, much better but I'm still not eating enough. I'm down by 700 calories. My ride burned 500 calories, so am I actually down by 1,200 calories? I hit the carbs, thanks mostly to my on bike nutrition, my fat looks good and I'm a bit down on protein. Maybe rectified by a protein shake, should I go have one? I've just eaten the seafood and oranges though and feel like I'm forcing it.

 

Little disappointed in lunch, the risotto was a quick option. But dinner was amazing, baked potatoes with a mixed low fat soft cheese/ smoked haddock/ potato filling... sublime. Nice fresh salad on the side too hitting 3 of my 5 a day, properly this time. Banana this morning (plus an extra one) and two satsumas give me a bonafide win on the 5 a day quest.

 

 

 

 

[cd667]

Impressive workout yesterday!

 

Incidentally, did you see this?

 

https://fixyourbikevoucherscheme.est.org.uk/Home/Map

 

The fix your bike voucher scheme entitles you to a free £50 voucher for a service. They're limiting the amount of available vouchers, but it's worth applying for one!

[RouleurBaby]

14 hours ago, cd667 said:

Impressive workout yesterday!

 

Incidentally, did you see this?

 

https://fixyourbikevoucherscheme.est.org.uk/Home/Map

 

The fix your bike voucher scheme entitles you to a free £50 voucher for a service. They're limiting the amount of available vouchers, but it's worth applying for one!

 

Thanks I've seen! I'm really not due a service but if it's to just use as I see fit on cycling gear I'll be all over it - when they come back available! I hope you get one too!

 

Thanks, yeah I was on it yesterday. Big effort on the bike, plus the exercises and with the fork too.

 

It's a shame that that really hasn't transferred to day and I feel like I've let myself down. Looking at my food log I'm about 300 calories down on yesterday and I have already had my full 5 a day (could be 6 if the peas and onions in a cottage pie count?). That's the one saving grace of the day. Please don't look at the cake, in my defence I was gearing up to go on the bike!

 

I really don't know what happened today. I'm a little tired from yesterday but nothing major. In the morning I was flying, had my overnight oats, then a good hummus and pepper sticks snack at work. Then I got home and had a couple of errands to run so I did those......... and then I just crashed. I spent an hour messing trying to pick a route to cycle, picked nothing, got wound up then sacked it off. I think it's because I have one day to finish my work lists before I go on holiday, I've to pack, and I've got a few more niggly jobs that need doing before I go. Couple that with my unrealistic exercise targets this week and I can actually see now how I've got a bit overwhelmed. I just needed to write it down. Sigh.

 

I've had this post open a while so in the meantime I've got all packed for Friday and sorted my breakfast and snack out for work tomorrow. Back on it. No exercises tonight though, I'm not in the mood. I think a good idea would be to add another one of those seafood selections to my food log! I am going to the coast so I need to acclimatise! 😂

 

[RouleurBaby]

I'm back! Had a lovely holiday now it's back to business! I've added a few extra pounds through eating out but didn't push it too far and there was miles upon miles of walking. Back to eating well and now I can check out the rules and regulations on my gym which have kindly started charging me again.

 

Quick caliper test done, here is more maths!

 

I started on this:

Quote

 

Weight = 135 pounds. Body fat percentage = 22.7%

Fat weight = 30.6 pounds

Lean mass weight = 104.4 pounds

 

 

My latest reading is as follows:

Weight = 138 pounds. Body fat percentage = 24.5%

Fat weight = 33.8 pounds

Lean mass weight = 104.2 pounds

 

That's pretty much exactly as expected, there's a little bit of wiggle room in the caliper readings and the scales with water weight and whatnot but it looks near enough. I've added 3 pounds on holiday and that's exclusively fat gain. What did I really expect eating fish and chips, pub lunches, full English breakfasts etc etc etc.

 

[cd667]

It is good to have you back! I was wondering where you got to.

 

I wouldn't fancy a gym at the minute.

[RouleurBaby]

12 hours ago, cd667 said:

It is good to have you back! I was wondering where you got to.

 

I wouldn't fancy a gym at the minute.

 

Thank you very much. Yep, family holiday. Sun, sand and some sea. And far too much food!

 

---

 

These last 2 days have mostly been about cutting down my food intake. I haven't bothered food logging because with the heat and how bloated I still feel I've kept it really light. Good quality, low fat main meals plus light snacking on fruit and the odd nibble. I'm starting to feel better but body clock is still way out.

 

It's almost my birthday and I've been given a gps bike computer as an early present. I've set that up and fully intend to take it for a test ride tomorrow, can't wait!

[cd667]

How's it going @RouleurBaby? Did you get your test ride in?

[RouleurBaby]

Certainly did. Love it it's ace.

 

I'm slowly increasing the veggies back to pre-holiday levels, still just trying to eat cleaner and slowly get back to where I was. I didn't particularly eat junk but it was just a lot of food that's made me feel sluggish. So, birthday weekend is coming to a close, another meal out and a few drinks. Starting again properly tomorrow.

 

I've been on two rides this week back to back on Thursday and Friday which has boosted my relative effort and my Strava fitness number which is great. I really struggled though, just could not lower my heart rate by much even when I backed off - shows I'm a long way away from actually being fit.

 

Looking at my heart rate data my outdoor rides have replicated those indoor hard efforts. First ride back hit 'massive' but both of the relative efforts were huge.

 

 

The second ride saw me take 3rd place in a local segment. A quiet backstreet with not many times posted but still happy with the effort up a stretch of road that hits 13.9%.Absolutely teeming it down today and I'm a tiny bit off it from last night so maybe an indoor recovery ride is on the cards later to get me to 55/60 mile for the week. Under target but expected.

 

I've set up and loaded onto my bolt a few local rides similar to the above. They are all around 20 miles and I've selected at least 3 local hilly segments on each one to mimic hard efforts and try for a bit of KOM hunting. Frequent efforts up these segments will tell me if I'm improving or not.

 

For my birthday I also received a copy of cycling climbs of the uk all numbered and graded. These will be great to fit into my longer rides. Lots of cycling related presents received too, I'm very giddy!

 

[RouleurBaby]

GYM DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Woke up and had a good breakfast. Full English but no fat on the bacon, cooked without oil etc. I'm really starting to like these. I was always one who liked your good old greasy spoon cafe breakfasts but I think I actually prefer these.

 

Late afternoon gym session. Starting the Stronglifts 5x5 so all exercises are 5 sets of 5 reps.

 

LEGS Squats 40kg

CHEST Bench Press 30kg

BACK Bent Rows 30kg

 

I took it steady, those are all down on my lifts from before lockdown, squats were actually the ones that hurt the most. Just shows that ok I use my legs cycling but squats are still hard work!!! The progression in Stronglifts is quick so I don't want to start too high and burn out quickly.

 

Quick mass gainer protein shake when I got home then that will do me until a later meal. I'll snack on a bit of fruit if I get hungry. I'm going out again, I know.... I know.... So saving some calories in the bank so I can enjoy it later as guilt free as possible.

 

Tomorrow will be another short, sharp ride followed by abs and pull ups. I feel fantastic! 💪💪💪

 

[RouleurBaby]

I'm still trying to work out what will work best for me in terms of when and how to update this battle log so apologies for the messy look right now. I'm going to do a weekly update Sunday evening but for now just a quick blast of what I've been up to this week...

 

The first thing to note is jeez, my sleeping pattern is useless. One day I'm up early then the next it's 10/11am. Bonkers. That's my number one priority for the next few weeks to sort that out. I'm not sure if it's the training load or the restless sleep (or both) but I am feeling quite tired and achey but I haven't let this stop me! Nutritionally, I'm pretty good. I just need to move some of the treat food to cleaner versions and I'll be laughing. As far as the macronutrients are going I'm doing really, really well. I'm hitting the 2700 - 3000 calories per day target and coming close to my designated 371 carbs/ 99 fat/ 149 protein targets too. As I say, if I convert some of the treat food (birthday celebration hangovers too) to cleaner versions I'll be looking very good. Smashing my 5 a day targets too.

 

Monday was gym day, Tuesday 30m indoor ride, Weds gym, Thursday 20m outdoor. Then tomorrow gym, Saturday either nothing or a 10m recovery ride and Sunday will be my longer outdoor ride, probably 40 miles. That puts me back on for my target and 100 miles per week is very doable if I put the effort in.

 

Very happy so far.

 

 

[RouleurBaby]

Weekly Update

 

This was my first full week back from holiday and after birthday celebrations. My holidays are running out and it was make or break time to set some good routines before work and life rear their ugly heads. So how did I do?

 

Quest Weekly Review
Structure (Clear Plan) (150km)   Tick. 2 harder intensity rides and one longer weekend ride. My fitness isn’t quite good enough though to complete the full (new) mileage into 3 rides so next week will see an added recovery ride to meet the mileage target.	Gym (3x Bodyweight)   Second week going strong in the gym. Current lifts are: Squat (47.5kg) Bench (35kg) Row (35kg) Deadlift (55kg) Ovh Press (20kg)   Next week I may start to work in some dedicated ab work and maybe some extra arm work like chin ups. No need for anything else yet.
Diet (5 A Day) (Low Fat)   Hit my 5 a day target every day, home cooked, good quality food, and I’ve also been consistently getting at least 2,700 calories per day. Fridge is looking super!	Rest (1 Day Off) (7 hours sleep)   Yep, Saturday was a complete rest day which helped my 40 mile ride yesterday and I’ve been sleeping, a lot, possibly too much actually.
Honest review   Very happy with my cycling again with a difficult week completed. Strava intensity shows a huge improvement on previous weeks. Still come way off my April best. (3/3) No gym workouts skipped and didn my prescribed workload. (2/2) I started a food log and it shows a good improvement on quantity. Quality is still improving, less eating out this week, more home cooked food and lots of fruit and veggies. (3/4) Felt a little tired again this week but I am working hard and maybe, just maybe feeling some improvements. Perhaps I slept too much and not been in as good of a  routine as I could have been. (0.5/1)   All in all I’d give myself 8.5/10.
Challenges for the week ahead   High score this week, I need to consistently hit these targets. Looking at my scores, if I can improve my sleep/ routines and push for a full week of home cooked food then I’ll max out. Let’s do this.

[cd667]

This is a solid improvement. Great work!

[RouleurBaby]

I just want to draw attention to what I think is an almost perfect endurance ride for me right now:

 

With heavy rain showers and thunderstorms forcecast I stayed indoors on my trusty indoor zwift set up. For a Tuesday nearly 44m is great and sets me up nicely for the rest of the week. 59 relative effort shows it was steady but not too steady, a decent training load. For reference my outdoor 20m rides have been a whopping 150+ relative effort due to a higher average heart rate. Basically outside I go harder for a shorter amount of time. That's unsustainable on longer rides. But these rides are just as useful. There was 5 virtual hills on this ride which I went fairly hard up (as you can see my hr never went above 183 which is about 10-15 beats less than my max) at at least threshold pace but then really light and steady on the flats inbetween the main hills.

 

There's also something else that I'm very pleased about.... 722W max power. I don't remember hitting higher than 650 before... ever! This also came in the final 200 metres when I sprinted for the finish banner meaning I held 700w+ for over 5 seconds at the end of 40 miles. Very happy with that and it shows a definite increase in power which was my sub-quest.

 

-----

 

I just thought I'd take time out of my day to share that. I'm just taking a break from some housework... I'm sorting out my pantry and spice cupboard ready for another stock up. Strangely enjoying myself. Really starting to knuckle down on nutrition and I'm sure it's helping me recover.

 

I highly recommend the NerdF blog posts on nutrition, meal planning, shopping tips etc I'm really finding them useful. As always with guides like these, take them with a pinch of salt and adapt them to your needs. Hear the message and make them work for you. For example, Noel, Steve, Staci etc have a tiny shopping list and look to eat the same thing most days of the week. There's no way I can do that I'd end up lashing out and going off plan... but the mesage is to have a plan, buy healthy foods (again I need more variety but I know me) make a list... that's what I've done and it is the best that I've ever eaten by a long way.

 

I looked in the fridge and the cupboards and pulled out what I could use, that ticked a couple of days. Then I thought right, what else do I want to eat this week? My breakfasts I knew, I've loads of oats in for midweek (topped with whatever fruit needs eating first) and I'll treat myself on the weekend with my low fat full breakfasts. Lunch (dinner where I come from lol) again, easy just leftovers from my evening meals. Dinner (tea haha) is what I had to think about. The past sort of 5 days I've eaten spaghetti bolognase, chicken stroganoff, meat and veg type sunday dinner, meast feast pasta and 1 restuarant meal. That's not food poor, that's fantastic, tasty, healthy food. I've enough meat still in for chilli and rice, a homemade curry, and enough seafood for a seafood paella because I knew right on these days I'm eating this this and this so I bought my meat in bigger packs, portioned it up and froze it. I'll need a trip out either tomorrow or friday for some more vegetables and fruit because they go off quick and need to be bought little and often. This has made enough to last for my lunches and also portion up a tub to freeze for when my girl can come and get them. Has it come with a cost, yes, but I'm new to this and I'm sure I can shop wiser as I practice more but it's worth it because as I say this is the best I've ever eaten. I say it's come with a cost and it has, a lot more than eating chicken nuggets and frozen chips every night, but not half as much as ordering a takeaway or eating out most nights.

 

My girlfriend is on slimming world. I don't need to do slimming world, I'm trying to go the other way and gain weight. However, the principles of eating are the same. Low fat, fresh, healthy, vibrant food with lots of veggies and lots of fruit. Everything I've made, I can save leftovers for her. I'm just upping my portion sizes and adding in extra calories though healthy snacks and protein shakes. I usually eat this way a couple of times per week but this week I'm all in. The plus side is what I don't eat, I tub up and freeze and that keeps her on plan too. Win win.

 

 

 

 

[RouleurBaby]

Just to show the topsy turvy mental nature of these kinds of challenges, I'm having a bad week on the bike. I put 44 miles into the bank on Tuesday but I haven't rode since. I just haven't had the get up and go needed to drag myself onto the bike which is very frustrating. To exaggerate matters I had a mini-crack last night and instead of cooking tea I ordered a pizza. A waste really considering I have nearly half of it left over. I just feel like the wheels have come off this week and I'm annoyed with myself.

 

It's strange though because my gym work has been on point with nothing skipped and I have progressed in all of the lifts. Nutritionally (apart from last night) I have also been on point. There are a lot of things that I'm really proud of but that one blip has hit me hard. Just got to dust myself down and move on.

[RouleurBaby]

Forced myself onto the bike and really didn't enjoy it. I should have either not gone on or stuck to a flat route, I did neither. Just under 20 miles done leaving me at a miserly 61 miles for the week. Looking at Strava's fitness and freshness... amazing it has risen one point this week (mainly on the back of Tuesday) so all is not completely futile.

 

I do need to stop, re-evaluate and figure out where to go from here to get that spark back. Annoyingly my quest has cycling as my number one priority butright now cycling seems to be at the bottom. Cycling (out of cycling/ gym/ nutrition) was my number one favourite thing, today was the least motivated and quite frankly bored that I have been for a long time. Food for thought.