This was me back in August 2024. Hadn’t ridden for literally 18 months, due to life getting in the way. Ok, it’s not a flattering angle, but I was 105.5kg and hugely unfit. So I plotted a pancake flat 100 mile route across the Somerset Levels and gave it a bash. Did not die, so I did a bit more and entered LEL 2025.
In February I rode a 200km from Tewkesbury:
It was very, very hard. I hadn’t maintained my progress from the previous year, although I was a lot lighter (around 91kg). But I got round, just.
In mid-March I failed to complete the Combwich Century:
Post-Combwich I realised that I really hadn’t done many miles, so I’ve been working hard to remedy that. In April, so far, I’ve ridden just over 1000km. That’s more like it. I’ve also been applying a bit more discipline to my rides – using heart rate to pace my shorter rides. It’s not much use for long rides, or multi-day efforts though. Your HR isn’t like a throttle, that you can set to a fixed percentage. It adapts to factors like fatigue and stress, so on a 400km (for example) it’ll become more efficient about half way through and refuse to get too excited, even though you’re putting out roughly the same effort and power.
A few weeks ago (less than a month after failing the Combwich) I rode a 400km:
It was quite fast, but I finished feeling good and not wrecked. I also made a new friend and rode most of the event with him. Overall, it was a vast improvement over my previous efforts this year and it feels like I’m really getting my shit together now. I’m much fitter than I was a month or two ago and I’m applying more intelligence and thought to my preparations. Touch wood this bodes well for August. The weight is still coming off – I’m down to under 85kg now. With luck I’ll be well under 80kg by August and that would be a huge bonus.
Well Chuffed Cycling 