Rest Week

The weather has conspired to give me a rest week apparently.

After a decent morning on Monday when I got in my long ride of the season (so far), the rest of the week has been pretty rainy. I did manage to do my commute yesterday though the return trip was in a pretty steady rain by the time I got home.

Today and tomorrow are supposed to be rainy, with as much as an inch of rain or more expected over the next day or so, with chances of thunderstorms mixed in. Not good conditions for riding.

It is just as well though. In looking back on my entries in FitDay, the online nutrition tracking program I'm using, I see that I've just completed a third build week (time and distance increasing from week to week) so I'm due a week with lower volume. While I'm not training as seriously as I was a couple years ago, I think it is a good idea for everyone who is taking part in regular strenuous exercise to work in easier days in amongst the harder ones and easier weeks every 2 or 3 weeks. This allows your body to recover and rebuild and that is where the real gains in strength come.

Here are my numbers for the past three weeks:
Ending Mileage Time Avg Speed
7/7 71.7 miles 5:42 12.6 mph
7/14 77.5 miles 6:09 12.6 mph
7/21 98 miles 7:08 13.74 mph

I think the main difference in speed between the first two weeks and the third is that in the third week, half the mileage was done on my road bike where I averaged better than 14.5 mph.

The increase in distance/time between the first and second week is pretty close to the recommended max of 10%, but I sort of went overboard on the third week, increasing distance by 26% and time by 16%. The time one is a bit more indicative of extra effort, so it isn't that far off, but definitely time for an easier week. Hopefully weather will improve over the weekend so I can get in about 50 miles total for the week.

I don't imagine I'll go too much over 100 miles a week this summer, as I'm trying hard to avoid going overboard this time around. So 100 miles a week sounds good and I can work on increasing intensity rather than distance to keep fitness going up.