Weight program: Strength Build Week 5 out of 7
Monday: Indoor ride 20min warmup, 40min @ 95% FTP (Estimated Z4), 10min cooldown.
Tuesday: morning Weights; afternoon 75min Z2 indoor ride
Wednesday: 90min indoor Z2 ride
Thursday: 90min indoor Z3 ride
Friday: morning Weights; afternoon 75min indoor Z2 ride (TT bike)
Saturday: 2:00h Group Ride 212W Avg/229W xPower
Sunday: Off
Total Bikescore: 400
Total Training Time: 8:40h bike + 2.5h weights
Weekly Summary
After I had to modify my training schedule last week to suit the weather condtions and the team group ride schedule, I am glad to be back to my rhythm. I felt very strong and fit trhoughout the whole week. The weather certainly was not as cooperating and it was very cold and icy with severe snowstorms on Thursday, so I spent most of my bike training indoors on the trainer. My TT bike session felt many times better than last week, which is a positive development.
Temperatures slowly rose above freezing, making the Saturday group ride possible. It was a windless (pretty rare for The Netherlands) clear day and it was all going smoothly until…
…we got pulled over by a policeman on a motorcycle. We were riding on one of those typical Dutch roads (the above picture is a pretty close representation). Usually between villages the roads are very narrow with dedicated bike lanes on both shoulders (a little wider than pictured) so cars have to zig zag to avoid cyclists and every once and a while, there are some small islands so that cars going in one direction have to wait for the traffic going the opposite way. There is simply not enough space to separate cyclists from cars. Drivers are pretty courteous and if necessary we form a single file, sharing the road. Since traffic was pretty light we were riding our normal two abreast, being just wider than the dedicated bike lane.
Once we pulled over to a small side road, one thing became quite obvious: the policeman was not having the greatest of days ever to put it mildly. Couple of points that came up:
- We were not biking on the bike path (as i mentioned between those small villages there is just one road so cyclists share it with cars. This is traffic scenario typical for more than 90% of the country…and one of the features of the Spring Classics).
- We should be carrying a valid ID at all times (about half of the people didn’t). I do agree with this point especially if you are in an accident and lying unconscious. I always carry my health insurance card in my jersey pocket.
I was very surprised that in such a bike friendly country as The Netherlands, riding on public roads was a major problem, especially since we were not doing anything to disturb traffic, and drivers are usually very accomodating with giving us plenty of room when they pass the group. We got off with a warning, however, we were assured that next time we would all get a fine. Maybe the officer was trying to make a point about carrying an ID at all times, however, he could have done it in a nicer manner.
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You can find explanations of the terms here together with explanations of the Training Zones.
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