6 Hour Training (Generally) Ontrack

I’ll be riding the Jarrahdale 6 Hour with a mate, in a team of two. I am told the track is about 9.5km, so the target is to ride a minimum of 9 laps (assumption we average 15km/h between us), barring mechanical or biological breakdowns.

I’ve left myself a pretty short period to get in shape for this event. There is a very good reason for this.

Time. Or more appropriately, lack of it.

I often wonder just how much better I would be if I just had TIME to put into training. Prior to my effort at the Karri Cup late last year, I spent a lot of time training, to the detriment of my home life (unhappy wife and a child who barely recognised me). And I still only managed to finish in the back half of the field (8hrs 1min to ride 100km, average ~12.5km/h).

I take from that a bit of a Homer-ish lesson. “Can’t win, don’t try”. Well, maybe not going to that extreme, but there is another lesson there, I believe. Know your limitations, and work within them.

And my major limitation is TIME. With work, fatherly duties and husbandly duties I have very little time left for training duties. Basically, I have only a few hours a week (at maximum maybe 7) where I can spin the pedals and improve my fitness for riding/racing (that includes travel to and from trail heads, which is why I have put more focus on interval training and gym sessions this time).

So the plan was to begin (in earnest) my training this week (I started on Monday), and try and get my 7 hours training in each week for the next 4 weeks. I plan to basically train right up until the event, with a day or 2 off prior to the race. So I am doing a combination of riding on the wind trainer (2 x 1 hour sessions/week, before work), gym sessions (2 x 1/2 hour sessions/week, after work) and trail riding (1 x 2 hour session/week, sometime on the weekend, plus travel time of about 2 hours). This is carefully planned to avoid any “disappointment” from the better half.

Already I have a spanner thrown into the cogs this week. I have met my goals for the wind trainer and the gym, but the fatherly and husbandly duties have once again taken precedent this weekend, so no trail riding time for me this week. I might be able to swing an extra long trail riding session next weekend. We’ll see.

I just hope I don’t let my team mate down on the day.