A great day!

Today I set a new personal record on my Benson ride!

53 miles in 2hours 46minutes, at the average speed of 19.1 mph.

The day started pretty well: I had a good night sleep, after a lovely meal that Geeta cooked for us, and a beer.
We also watched Slumdog Millionaire, which by the way it's an excellent film!

This morning I woke up on time, had a lightweight breakfast, and set off on time at 8am. The sun was shining, the wind was calm and the temperature just right (18C).

Today I also tried a new way of keeping myself entertained: the radio. I used my mobile phone's FM radio receiver and put one earplug in so I could still be aware of any vehicles coming up from behind. Unfortunately, this didn't prove very successful. Reception was intermittent, the music was not that great (Radio 1), and when I arrived at the bottom of Pishill, I decided there was no point in that and turned the radio off.

Up to the sign for Lower Assendon my average speed was 19.2 mph, for a distance of 14 miles. The descent into Henley saw my maximum speed at 45 mph.

The climb from the sign for Lower Assendon to the bottom of Pishill, a distance of 3.86 miles, took 13m 12s, at an average of 17.5 mph, with a max speed of 19.1 mph.

The Pishill climb section, up to the junction with Red Lane, a distance of 1.98 miles, took 9m 23s, at an average speed of 12.7 mph and max speed of 16.4 mph. In itself this was a great personal achievement, topped off by only using a 34x21 gear at the very top and overtaking two other riders on the climb.

At this point I had the only refurbishment of the day, an apple flavor Nutrigrain bar, but this time i didn't take my time to eat it, and instead kept the speed up, which also shows my in-training recovery ability is getting stronger.
I then hit the maximum speed of 47.3 mph on the descent into Britwell Salome. That speed was achieved without any pedaling involved: I assumed an aero position by lowering my body as close to the ground as possible!

The rest of the trip was memorable by simply the speeds I was able to keep: I made an effort all week commuting to work to use one gear higher then usual, in an attempt to increase my speed by forcing my legs into their natural cadence but at a higher effort level.

That proved a very successful tactic today: I consistently pushed one gear harder for the whole rest of the trip, and recover quicker during intermediate town sections.
I believe there is a natural cadence which occurs by sheer muscular engagement. This cadence represents a lower and higher limit to performance: push a gear too hard, and it will not be possible for your legs to deliver the power required, but push a gear too easy, and you will use more energy spinning your legs rather than do actual work.

I applied this from my strength training background, and it is working.
Initially you are going slower due to the lower cadence, but within a few seconds or at most minutes, your legs start pushing slightly harder and your cadence also increases, without a conscious effort, delivering a better performance.

Just like in strength training, this progressive overload must be very slight, since a too big an effort will exhaust the muscular system rather then merely stimulate it.

The bottom line is that today's ride is now my best ride and I have set up a virtual partner course that will enable me to push that little bit more next time and be able to beat this record soon!

Not a great day

Did my usual training ride to Benson today.
53 miles, 3,000 feet climb, and today, very windy.
I was really looking forward to it. Geeta was away on her leadership program, so I had Daniele with me all week. After missing out on last weekends ride, I couldn't wait to get a few more miles under my belt.
I even managed to go to sleep early last night (well, by 11PM).
But I must have been really tired from the past week.
I woke up late (9.30 AM), then took even longer to get ready and have my breakfast.
Finally I realized I didn't have any juice to put in my water bottles, so had to take plain water with me.
By the time I left I could tell I was not in great shape.
Anyway, I got on with the ride, I even enabled the Virtual Partner option on my GPS to keep me motivated.
Unfortunately, I missed a turn due to traffic at a junction (one of the problems of leaving late is that you have to deal with more traffic), which meant my Virtual Partner was ahead of me by a quarter of a mile, and kept the advantage all the way to the top of Pishill.
If it can be of any consolation, this time I didn't feel as tired when I got to the top of Pishill: not the best performance in terms of time, but I managed to keep a steady pace all the way to the top, which in my opinion shows I am getting better at managing my energy reserves.
After Benson, I met another rider and I am please to say I was first to the top of the climb, although he then caught up with me when I slowed down in town to recover some energy. Did I mention I was not in my best shape today?
By this time I was ahead of my Virtual Partner by a quarter of a mile.
Anyway, he was a nice chap, so we rode together, me at the front, for a few miles: apparently we were both heading back to Wokingham, but he was going back the Henley way.
By this time the wind really picked up, and every downhill section was a struggle to get above 30 mph. Needless to say my Virtual Partner caught up with me and his advantage was just growing steadily...
I got back home after a total time of 2h 58m, 5 minutes later than my Virtual Partner. Hence the disappointment.

For future reference, the Pishill climb (from the sign at the bottom to the sign at the top of the ascent):
Time: 9m 36s
Distance: 1.96 miles
Av. speed: 12.2 mph
Max speed: 16.9 mph

This week I am resuming the regular commute to work, which should hopefully raise my fitness level back to where I left it a week ago.
Next weekend I will do two back-to-back rides to Benson, and I just can't wait!