So, October is over – and a quick tot up of the training diary looks like just over 600km ridden (either on the stationary/turbo/spinning bike, road, or MTB), about 60km run, and 5km swum. Just about 30 hours of training over 4 weeks. Which seems ok to me, especially from an almost standing start….
The next three weekends come as an early season marker to assess where that month or so of training has got me.
3 Nov – 10 hour MTB race
This weekend I’m very much looking forward to the Kargo 10hr MTB Solo Challenge – about 40 minutes outside Joburg, a good old fashioned test of how many 8km laps I can do in 10 hours. A good chance to test out the long-term comfort of the new steed as well.
9-11 Nov – 3-day MTB stage race
The following weekend I’m extremely lucky to be able to slot into a pair for what promises to be a real treat – the Wine2Whales 3-day MTB stage race down in the Cape. I absolutely can’t wait. Will be cracking to get a bit of stage racing under the belt, and sample some of the Cape trails (good preparation for the Cape Epic next year), as well as test the legs over a multi-day event.
18 Nov – 100km (ish) road race
By the time I get to this, there’s probably a small risk of fatigue, or maybe I’ll have ‘ridden myself fit’ – a tried and tested strategy (if yet to be truly medically endorsed as a training technique, as far as I’m aware). Anyway – it’s the 94.7 Momentum Cycle Challenge in Joburg – claiming the title of second largest mass participation timed cycle race (behind the Cape Argus, also in SA) – according to Wikipedia. I did it last year and thoroughly enjoyed the day out – am hoping to better my time, but that should be fairly easy since I can’t actually remember my time from last year.
Will be a fun few weeks.