hpatraininglog

w/c 3rd August 2026

Intro

First week of August and although it is still hot, the weather is turning and you can feel Autumn coming…which only means one thing.

Cyclocross is just around the corner.

And with that my attention is starting to turn towards this discipline. Although I have one bike that needs to be completely rebuilt and one that’s currently set up for gravel, it won’t stop me getting out on the gravel bike to get used to it and hopefully practice a bit of technique in the coming weeks until my Ridley is built!

Monday

Official rest day from the bike. Went to the gym at work to work on some lower and upper body accessory work.

• strict press
• pull up variation
• RDL
• split squat
• goblet squat
• core

A useful strength training session with the aims of balancing out each leg. I have one that is a lot stronger than the other, so a lot of single leg stuff will hopefully help with this in the long term. Lifting extremely lightly as to not write myself off for a few days!

Tuesday

Today I managed to get my gravel bike finally set up. The indexing has NOT been easy on this one, but it’s about as good as it’s going to get. So with that, I headed out on it to start to get used to the geometry of it.

Today’s session was more of a leg opener after having yesterday off the bike completely. A solid warm up and then fast peddles every 4 mins to get the blood into the legs.

After getting back I realised this bike still needs a little TLC. I need to take the crank set off, get the bottom bracket out and give it a good clean.

It was *so loud* whilst out training. Thank goodness I had music.

I also need to tweak my position slightly as I don’t feel quite right on it either. And the bottom bracket area sounds dreadful.

So today’s ride came with a side quest; Rebuild half the bike, kinda.

Take out the crankset, cleaning it all to see if that stops the creaking noise. Stick it al back together again…

Wednesday

This felt like a bad day. Not physically – mentally.

I had high hopes of getting my training done at a reasonable time, but things got in the way and the day got away from me.

After some thought, and getting other jobs around the house done, I jumped on the turbo for this session.

The session is an over geared effort with 7 intervals with a specific cadence of 65-70 rpm for 2 mins, then without changing gear to rev up and push the watts over threshold for 30 secs.

Then 5 minutes rest before doing it all over again.

I can tell you now: that was a lot harder than it looks on paper.

I’m actually glad I did this on the turbo, this session is actually a hard one to get right if I was do it on the road. The turbo and using Zwift allows for more accuracy for these sorts of sessions and to keep as consistent as possible meaning getting the right training stimulus for the session.

I was pretty gassed by the end of it and was then pretty tired for the rest of the evening!

Sometimes the hardest part isn’t the training session, but your brain or adulting already deciding that the day is over.

Thursday

DOUBLE TRAINING DAY!

Busy day for training today.

First session being a Z3 40 min effort to build some fatigue in the legs for the afternoon session.

Had a massive carby breakfast of overnight oats, fruit and honey. Gave it some time to digest with a coffee and got out.

I think today officially marks the day where I can feel Autumn in the air as it’s below 20C and it feels cold! I had to wear a long sleeve for this session. I blame the recent heatwaves we’ve had.

This entire session went great actually. A little too well in fact.

The Z3 effort I felt like I could have done it all day long. The amount of fatigue I already have in my legs from yesterday’s session is just the right amount for this kind of session. Like I could turn on the taps and leave them on.

Got home and now full send on recovery for the PM session. Food, hydrate and a nap.

After leaving at least 5 hours between sessions, as recommended by my coach. Snacking on carbs throughout the day, I motivated myself to get out and complete my PM session.

I had an hour and a bit of under/overs, three blocks of intervals where each blocks efforts get shorter and harder, with shorter recovery in-between.

With this mornings session hanging in the legs, it took a few intervals to get going.

But when I did and found my rhythm, I managed the session pretty well!

Surprisingly well actually.

Biggest take home from this was given enough rest in-between, hard back to back sessions is more than doable.

With that, I went home, had a massive dinner and chilled the F out.

Friday

I can feel yesterday’s sessions in the legs today.

Feeling a little jaded, so I’m glad that today is an easy spin kinda day.

Sometimes that’s exactly what you need.

Saturday

Big session inbound.

Decided to ride the road bike on today’s 3.5hr ride.

It’s a warm one too, and on reflection I wish I had taken more water with me as I ran out at about the two hour mark.

So, emergency resupply mission activated. Water stop at a corner shop.

Fanta and water secured, I carried on for the last hour.

Within that 3.5 hours I had to complete 3 x 8 min Z3 efforts. I love a Z3 effort I do. It’s just right on that edge of easy vs hard. An effort when paced right I feel like I could keep that pressure on the pedals all day long.

However, my water was running out just before my 3rd effort. I used this last one to get me as close to the nearest shop as possible, which in the end worked out just fine.

Enough water and some sugar back on board, the last hour of the ride was a Z2 effort so nothing too taxing.

When I got home I realised I hadn’t eaten anywhere near enough – cue:

• carbonara for dinner
• a can of soft drink
• ice cream
• chocolate biscuits

At this point I felt semi-human again, just in time for bed.

Lessons learned today – better fuelling and hydration strategy required!

Sunday

Bike faff is the order of the day before training.

A nice long lie in, followed by home made crepes and bike faff. A nice Sunday morning by all accounts.

Getting out in the late afternoon meant missing the heat of the day which was a bonus.

Still taking two 500ml bottles of carbs and a camelback with 2L of water to make sure I didn’t run out still.

Taking the mountain bikes over to Cannock Chase meant that endurance box was ticked, planning on hitting the Vo2 efforts on the way home.

At Cannock riding the blue and red trails, it was a little quieter at that time of the afternoon but there were still a few families knocking about on the trails.

As I said on the way home, I managed my 4 x 1 min Vo2 intervals on the way home.

The MTB was a great way to finish the week. Riding technical terrain while already carrying some fatigue is useful preparation for CX, and it’s something I genuinely enjoy doing.

Road bike. Gravel bike. MTB. Turbo. Gym.

Not a bad week’s work.

Things I’ve learned

• Fuelling is incredibly important but so are fluids. Without them you can not complete a hard or long session, especially in the heat! Must remember is always better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it.
• Double days are doo-able with the proper rest and nutrition in-between sessions. Things like adequate food, hydration and naps
• Although it is the middle of summer, the turbo and using platforms like Zwift still have their place in training. For sessions that require specific cadences or have intervals that need consistency, Zwift has its place as a good training tool.

Total time in the saddle; 13 hours

Distance: 187.5miles

TSS: 631

Training goals

With September slowly creeping its way closer, it’s easy to think “cyclocross is about to start!” But I still have time to get things like my Ridley built up (contact a mate about that) and to get started with technique.

Newport CC are a local cycling club where they will be running training sessions at one of the local race rounds, so I want to go to one of their cyclocross training sessions to see what its like and get started with the basics again.

Fuelling – do better at this! Especially hydration. With a race coming up next weekend this is something that will make or break the race for me.

Stay tuned for nexts weeks blog post! Remember if you like reading this to subscribe below 🙂