My training plan has given me a well-deserved rest week this week. Training has been ramping up, and the intensity is now starting to get hard. Finding the time to fit training sessions around work and home life is becoming slightly more challenging as the length of the sessions increases. The weekend rides are slowly transitioning from being really fun and enjoyable to more of a ‘let’s just get this over and done with’ attitude. So, a recovery week right now is ideal. But don’t get me wrong—I’m still training; it’s just that the length and intensity of the sessions have decreased.

Some exciting news for me this week is that I’ve managed to get myself booked onto a couple of triathlons. I have an Olympic distance tri this weekend and a half-distance Ironman at the end of June. The Olympic distance tri is a 1500m swim, a 25-mile (40k) bike, and a 10k run. This will be my first Olympic tri, believe it or not, so I don’t really know what to expect timing-wise. I think I will be happy with anything under two and a half hours. The half-distance Ironman is a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike, and 13.1-mile run. For my last half, I got 5 hours 28 minutes, so basically anything under 5 and a half hours, and I’ll be happy.

For my long ride last week, I had a 4-hour 20-minute ride followed by a half-hour run. The only problem was that the weather was horrendous. If you have read my previous posts, you’ll know I did a 3-hour-plus turbo session due to weather a few months ago. The prospect of doing that again did not appeal to me at all. Due to this, I decided to brave the rain and wind and go out regardless.

Things did not go well. Only 20 minutes into the ride, my chain came off and got stuck in the pedals. With the force I was pedaling, I managed to twist a chain link. With no tools to fix the issue, I tried to carry on—bad idea. Every time the twisted link came around, it forced a gear change. Essentially, the bike was unrideable. I turned around and nursed it home. This left me with the awful prospect of spending 3 and a half hours on the turbo, only this time I had nothing set up to watch.

I got back quickly, transitioned to the turbo, and started the slog. I had been watching a TV series called ‘Humans’; luckily, this was all set up on the laptop, and all I had to do was press play. So, I sat there pedaling away for just over 3 and a half hours. I did have to get off and have a little walk a couple of times to give my rear end a bit of a rest. I really don’t know how some people manage this week in, week out. Staying on the turbo for that long is not for me, and I will not be doing it again—unless, of course, another situation like this comes up...

Luckily for me, my bike was just about to go in for a service, and I only had one short ride on my backup bike. But what a difference a bike makes! On the same route, I can easily average about 18 mph. On my backup bike, which is an entry-level bike, I could only manage just under 16 mph. This is one thing that annoys me about triathlon and cycling in general. If you are competing, the quality of your bike makes a big difference in performance. Take two people who have the same power output—one on my backup entry-level bike and one on my mid-range Canyon Endurance bike. The guy on the Canyon wins.

What this boils down to is money. It’s as simple as that. The more money you plough into your bike, the quicker you go. Two people with the same physical abilities can have vastly different results all because of the money spent on the bike. It’s not like running or swimming, both of which, for the most part, are based on physical ability. I hate it when I get overtaken by someone riding a top-of-the-range tri bike. Yes, they might actually be better than me, but the frustration is still there. What gets me even more is the fact that the bike is the longest part of the Ironman. Spend money to do better.