August Goals - The Month Ahead
This is an exciting moment, the first of what will become many monthly updates on my progress through blogging and my pursuit of fitness.
The plan is to set out my goals for the month, what I want to achieve and the kind of riding that I will be doing. I also want to highlight anything additional such as strength training or nutrition that I want to work on during that time. It will begin with a review of the previous month and whether I met the targets I set myself and consider my progress towards the larger goal.
Obviously with it being the first month there will be no review to begin with. I am firmly focused looking forward towards the goals that I want to achieve. I hope it will be a fun journey for all of us. The hard work for me will be worth everything when I can look back on how far I will have come.
So to kick it all off I will explain a little about where I am at now. I am a cyclist, I own a bike (actually 3) and I have a completely unremarkable level of fitness. Three weeks ago I started a new job with the idea of cycle commuting everyday. The journey is roughly a 25 mile round trip. Working five to six days a week it gives me a weekly mileage of 125 - 150. At the moment the commute is still a struggle for me. I can complete each journey in a reasonable time but as the week progresses my legs get more and more tired and I find myself begging for days off to rest.
My first goal for this month is to cycle each day to work regardless of the weather and how tired I feel. I would like to see my average time for the journey a little quicker by the end of the month but I am hoping this will come naturally anyway.
The first thing that I did was head over to Strava and looked at the challenges available for the month. For anyone that doesn't know, the site offers a range of challenges that one can enter and then push themselves to complete. I have personally found it a great way to get me up off the couch and out riding when I might otherwise not have bothered.
Firstly I signed up for the August Distance Challenge, the idea is to ride as far as you can with everyone managing over 1250 km being awarded a digital "badge" on their profile. This is roughly 775 miles. If I average 150 miles a week on my commute I will come up short so it is a stretch objective as far as I am concerned. I am not sure if I can make it but it will all depend on how my legs feel a few weeks in.
Secondly I also signed up for the August Climbing Challenge. The target here is to complete 11,000m of ascent during your rides for the month. I am lucky enough to live in a nice flat part of the country and my commute only has 90m of climbing there and back. Some quick sums suggest a month of journeys to work will only get me roughly 2k for the month. I can't see this one being achievable but it will be interesting to see what I manage.
Finally I entered the Gran Fondo. Quite simply this is to complete a single ride of over 130km. I am determined to complete this one but it will require some careful planning and squeezing in around my shift pattern. If the weather is nice, I am hoping for a day towards the end of the month to smash it out.
Beyond that I do not want to set myself too many more goals. I weighed myself this morning and I was at 12 and a half stone. I am not planning to change my diet yet and it will be interesting to see what a solid month of motivated cycling does to this.
So that's me set for the month. It would be great to hear about your goals in cycling or oustide, a goal shared, is a goal one step closer to being completed.
Good luck and stay safe.
