Winter blues? Or just tired?

Another week done. Same sessions as last week apart from Saturday, something new to try from coach Rob, and it sounded hard!

Tuesday's session was on the winter road bike, cold and fresh out. The battery died in the power meter, so the second half was a bit trickier to keep track of. Hard to to think back to doing intervals before I had a power meter now! A 30 second interval was almost impossible to pace back then, now I have a power level target to hit each time. Think it went ok, but riding on feel always seems to result in too low-a-power in reality. Power meters help you train harder, put simply.

Wednesday's session was indoors and on Zwift again. Sweaty and warm, feels strange to sit on the trainer and ride in mountains with snow when you ride indoors to escape the cold weather, ha ha!

Thursday's session was where I felt this week catching up with me. Had been on a fairly intensive training course in Malmö Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with work, and during Thursday's session I felt pretty tired straight from the outset. Completed the first set of 30 second intervals, but the 10 second sprints turned out to be more of a challenge. Managed just half of the allotted set and decided to call it a night. Night being the operative word, training after 21:00 in the evening for the third night in a row also takes it's toll. At least the streets and trails are quiet! :-)

Also took a chance to visit Musette while in Malmö after the course on Thursday. A nice coffee and a chat with the lads about next year's plans. Exciting times! Drooled over some of the Void clothing while I was in there too, hope Santa has been to the shop this year.... ;-)

Saturday was the new session, with a small twist. As many intervals as you can muster holding the pace, then one more for good luck..... All I can say is ouch. Breathing out of my a*se as we say in England....

Sunday's route

 Sunday was a 3hr base session. Rode together with Malin and the kids again. We rode out to Vismarlöv to 'fika' (coffee stop for you Brits reading this) in the cafe there. A nice soup, coffee, and then on our way to try to get home before dark. We pretty soon realised that we would probably not make it back to Lund in the daylight, and had forgotten to fit front lights. So a detour into Genarp was made to visit Hans & Anna, and then Tobbe who very kindly helped us out with a light each for the remainder of the journey! Sometimes I wonder how we ever managed those first few months in Sweden before we met all our amazing friends from cycling. I honestly believe us cyclists are among the friendliest and most helpful people one can meet! Especially Mountain Bikers!! ;-)

Here's to cycling and cyclists, whoever and wherever you are, whatever you ride. Give yourself a pat on the back for being awesome. And don't forget to wave when you see another awesome cyclist coming in the other direction!