First go of the training

So first day of the training and its hammering down outside, blowing up-to force four and the roads are very slippy. Two weeks ago I would of come up with an excuse and stayed home or at best hit the turbo. Today I was out there. The plan was for just a gentle ride in zones one and two. Quick explanation, heart rates help training, riding in zone one for a warm up and cool down helps recovery and zone two builds the engine and helps rest up after a years riding hard. It works on a percentage based on resting pulse and maximum heart rate. The resting pulse should be taken first thing before you get out of bed. A 10% increase can indicate over training or an approaching illness. Mine sits between 48/50 bpm. The maximum heart rate is a bit different. You may of heard of 220 minus your age as a maximum HR. that would put me at 171 but I regularly hit 180 and can hold 170 for a while so using that theory could blow my training. You can look back over your training and see what you have hit in the past year or take a ramp test amongst other methods. I haven't done it yet so more on that when I do. So my HR works between 50 and 180 with zone one being 108 to 117 bpm and zone 2 117 to 135. Being someone who averages a HR in the high 140's when trainingI was warned this will feel slow to me but to stick with it, keep the cadence high and drop the gears going up hill. The ride was a 15 minute warm up in zone 1, an hour in zone two pushing to the top end towards the end of it then a 15 minute cool down in zone one. 

I used my Garmin training mode to set the ride the day before, it beeps when your HR is too low or high and changes zones after the prescribed time - so off I went. And yes it felt very slow.... I averaged 15.4 mph which, considering I normally ride close to 19 has me wondering what is going on. I guess I will find out by the end of the week. I finished the ride in 90 minutes and six seconds, I don't know how I managed to get it so right but on the downside punctured within sight of home which didn't even upset me, go figure. Tomorrow is a three hour ride in the same zones so it will be out around Chester. One last point, the bike was stripped, cleaned, new inner tube and oiled straight after the ride, again not like me ready for tomorrow. 

Overall I'm impressed, so far, how using a coach motivates and intrigued on how it will all come together... Early days yet