Trainin' when it's rainin'

As a brief catch up, Wednesday night training.  Yep, the weather was rubbish but training has to be done.  This ride there's no fancy Instagram photos with filters and inspiration quotes, just the reality of if you want to train, you can't be afraid of the rain.

As Wednesday was essentially the penultimate planned training session, there's the desire to do it well.  So I set off straight from work and headed straight out in to a 100 km ride, heading out across Six Hills, dropping down through Langar, up round Newark and then the rolling hills on the north Trent before coming back into Notts.  To be frank, the weather was crap.  A lot a blustery wind and then torrential rain at the Newark turn round point.  As I was doing this straight from work and I knew I was in for bad weather, the Genesis was the bike of choice.

Ride wise, this was hard-ass.  The Genesis is a harder bike to drive on with it being heavier and more draggy so this really worked me - I'm sure all the greats like Merckx, Indurain and Wiggins all trained at some point with a saddle bag, spare shirt and dinner boxes.  In the second image below, you can see where the data has a step change - this was the point where the rains started along with the head winds, but I enjoyed the ride.

By the time I got home, it certainly felt like I'd put the effort in and this is seen in the heart rate and speed graphics below.  In terms of HR data, it shows a good consistency across the 3.5 hours which reflects the perceived effort.

On a side note, while I was passing through Car Colston, there was a middle aged group hanging around "a car."  My God was that a car!  I don't know the exact model, but think along the lines of a Bentley Blower in red.  Absolutely stunning!  And hearing it rumble around the roads near me was like a short cut to the throat of Odin.  Also, hub gears get comments and coming back in through Notts there was the most fantastic sunset and rainbows in the rain.  But as training is training, no photos.

In summary, good ride, glad I put the effort in and didn't opt for the turbo!  And as always, here's the charity link:

http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/DrStav

Now for the data:

Strava cap.

Veloviewer data analysis 

StravistiX HR by zones

StravistiX speed by zones