Firstly, huge apology to the Wheelers. A comedy of errors meant that I was late leaving the house, I made pursuit along South Deeside but I ran out of puff. It was maybe a blessing in disguise as I am a LONG way off being able to complete a 60mile spin.
It became abundantly clear to me this morning that there is a huge difference between being fast and being fit. I could probably power through a couple of miles and keep up with most folk but there's no hiding place on a solo ride past about 20 miles, well not for me anyway. I suppose it shouldn't come as a great surprise, I've riden more miles this week than I did in the last 3 months, so my fitness coming into this year was on the low side, at best. But there is hope...
Last night, while skimming through the computer, I found an old excel sheet that I kept as a diary of my training sessions (in the days before I discovered Garmin Connect and Strava). I started in March hardly being able to run 2 x 9min miles, 6 months later I was putting together 20 x 7min miles. So I know huge improvements can be made, provided you don't hit it too hard, too quickly. I noticed that I only increased my distances very gradually, and the times came down very gradually but by doing a little bit every day, over a long period the benefits were vast.
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