My #1 goal for May was to complete a 10-day block of training averaging 110 miles per day. I ended up with 1110.8 miles, for an average of 111 miles per day. Mission accomplished.
I learned a few lessons along the way. On day 5 I drove over to Fernley for (a) a little change in scenery and (b) to get away from the rain in Reno. For some reason I was feeling pretty good that day. I don't know if it was the change of scenery or what, but my legs felt fresh. You know that feeling you get when you have a tailwind but you're in denial about it? You feel like you've made some sort of breakthrough in your training. The hard work is paying off and you're finally getting faster. It's a great feeling, but then you turn around and it all comes crashing down.
I didn't have a tailwind on day 5, but I had a similar feeling. My legs felt fresh, like I had made a training breakthrough thanks to the 4-day blocks and back-to-back long days I've been doing this year. I rode harder than the previous 4 days, satisfied with myself along the way. The next day was like turning around and realizing that I had been riding with a tailwind the whole time. Day 5 was not a training breakthrough. In fact, I rode too hard on day 5 and ended up paying for it on day 6. I was able to ride at an easy pace on day 6 and recovered for day 7, but I learned an important lesson.
Pacing is everything. That's the big lesson I learned from my 10-day block of training. I'm bound to have some up days and some down days during Petoji. I have to resist that urge to ride too hard on the good days.
Aside from the day 5 mistake, I was pleased with how the 10-day training block turned out. My previous high mark was 500 miles in 5 days, so a lot of this was new to me. I did well on the post-ride nutrition front. I was recovering well from day to day and my weight was steady. At a certain point I just got into the groove. Eat, ride, eat, sleep, then do it all over again. When the 10th day was over I felt like I could have kept on going. I gained a lot of confidence from this 10-day block.
10 days is good, but it's obviously a long way from 23 days. I may be happy with the way things are going, but there is still a lot of work left to do.
Day 1
Day 2
Day 3
Day 4
Day 5
Day 6
Day 7
Day 8
Day 9
Day 10
