I took up cycling late, when I was at University and looking for some extra sport. Luckily, I had so much time on my hands that just by aimlessly riding around for 15 hours a week as a beginner, I improved, but probably not at the rate I should have. Still, I was decent enough and could usually hold my own on any group ride.
Balancing Work and Fitness: The Struggle
Things changed when I started working a real job and, like most of the population, I no longer had the time to ride as much as I pleased. Hoping to keep the fitness I had built, I tried some training plans but found the workouts way too intense and difficult to complete so I could never stick to a plan for longer than a couple of weeks. As you can see in my Strava history, my weekly training hours progressively collapsed, I put on weight, general fitness decreased and my bike began to gather dust.
Seeking a Fresh Start: Moving to Andorra
I thought moving to Andorra would help, a fresh start and a new environment, but the reality was that trying to gain fitness (starting from scratch) in the middle of the Pyrenees was much like my stop-start training back in Australia. With great motivation, I would crawl at full effort up a climb for an hour but then the next day be too tired to actually put down another building block of training. Two years passed still with no consistent training, no weight loss, and perhaps even more work than in the 8-6 I had left behind.
Introducing JOIN Cycling: A Game Changer
Over the off-season last year, our producer at the Lanterne Rouge Cycling Podcast, Luc, mentioned JOIN Cycling to me as something I could use whilst embarking on my latest health kick back in Australia to get back on the bike and lose some weight. As I was getting back on the bike, I opted for the recovery plan and was determined to stick to it for the 3.5 weeks. I could not believe how ‘easy’ the prescribed workouts were, mostly 60-90 minute low zone 2 rides, but being able to tick off the workouts was very motivating and all of a sudden I was able to do 2-3 hour hilly rides and actually enjoy them.
Flexibility and Adaptability: The Key to Success
I particularly liked the flexibility of the platform and how it would immediately adjust depending on my availability. No offence to the platform, but it is software with no feelings or emotions, so if I ignored one day’s prescribed training or did some extra intensity because I was enjoying myself, then I did not feel like I was letting a coach down or messing up a fixed plan.
Consistent Improvement: The JOIN Advantage
That was the most surprising thing I found when doing the JOIN Cycling plans, even a more anaerobic focussed plan like the Fabio Jakobsen sprint plan, was that I could always complete the prescribed workout without coming particularly close to total failure of an interval. I think I had been mentally conditioned to believe that to be training effectively, a session and intervals had to be extremely hard whereas actually being able to stack session after session on top of one another with frequency has made me improve much faster.
Remarkable Results: Achieving Personal Bests
After finishing two more JOIN Cycling plans, I have set my five-year personal best power outputs across the whole spectrum of durations, from 5 seconds to 3 hours whilst losing 5kg at the same time. Of course, I made dietary changes to lose weight whilst also fuelling my training, but banking weeks of 8-10 hours of cycling was instrumental in actually burning the calories. It is also a positive reinforcement loop, I get fitter on the bike so my zone 2-3 power increases and therefore I am burning more calories per hour of training without any increase in RPE.
Looking Ahead: Ready for New Challenges
For the first time since moving to Europe, now that summer is here I am actually ready to really enjoy cycling in the mountains. Whilst the LRCP listeners may have chosen my previous plan, being the Fabio Jakobsen Sprint plan, it is time for me to take control back from the audience and do the Stamina Builder plan with some increased hours – this should be perfect for the rides I want to do. I will report back at the end of summer after I have finished the plan and hopefully achieved my goal of 300 watts for 20 minutes and some more weight loss!
