These aren’t just meant to be some exercise, I am actually trying to progress towards a goal here.
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Some more changes within the 20 minute budget. I’m just going to program as I see fit to try to eek something out of every session. I reckon we’ll get somewhere.
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There have been some rows, too, but so far they’re absolutely un-shareable 🤣
A sub-optimal end to 2024 with illness coming straight after a busy work spell.
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Sessions on 24/12 and 6/1 were both failures of the same session. Frustrating as on 20/12 (and 21/12, which was done straight after, but finished after midnight) I felt I was flying, they felt effortless.
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But unfortunately my HRM was playing up for both of those, and I’m left with a bit of a hole in my data. All I know is I still haven’t regained the fitness that my illness (flu/cold/covid/whatever) took from me, so I’m going to slightly change tack.
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Still sticking with the 20’ training budget because I’m curious what can be done with it, but maybe its shortcomings are being highlighted…
Oops. I thought I had just done eight rides since my last compilation post. Sitting here about to do what I thought was the ninth ride to the complete the set. Turns out I’d done 10.
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I probably had something to say about this but 🤷🏼♂️
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Oh well, we move. Happy Christmas and all that.
Diminishing returns are still returns. Plenty more where this has come from, even on the 20 minute format.
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I took a lighter phase, to account for a busier time in work and some travel. Resumed yesterday with the progressive sessions and felt like I was firing on all cylinders.
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Why 20 minutes? Because even on all but the busiest of days, I can usually shoehorn a 20 minute session in somewhere. It’s also short enough that I don’t have to make any wild fuelling adjustments, or have to wear bike shorts.
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So far, I’ve done 54 different 20 minute rides, without repeating the make-up of any one session. And I’ve got plenty more options before I inevitably up the duration.
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And after 16 years, I finally traded in my old budget cycling shoes for as fancy a replacement as exists. Statement of intent.
Amazing the difference you can make to your life, physiology, health, mental state, focus, sense of purpose… in 1/72nd of your day.
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Okay, sometimes 2/72nds of your day.
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Replacement HRM = statement of intent.
The first nine rides…
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Once upon a time, a 20 minute ride would have been the definition of “nothing”. But when the baseline is low, it’s amazing how little it takes to move the needle. These are the rides I should have done as maintenance for the last 2.5 years, but now there’s nothing to maintain. So we build 😤
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In addition to these, there’s also been a weekly 6-7km run which is just about starting to feel enjoyable.
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Let’s see where this goes…
