Road cycling is the most beautiful thing in the world, but very time consuming. As a racing cyclist, while enjoying the ride on a racing bike, a lot of time passes and other things suffer or are simply postponed. Family, friends and other hobbies. Good planning of your own free time is essential if you are looking for such a time-consuming hobby, but I would never give it up. No matter how intensely I can do it.
experience free time
If you enjoy a hobby or sport, you have to make time for it. Because if you always wait for the right opportunity, the hobby won't work. The easiest way is to set fixed dates for your sport, you do that even if you do a team sport in a club. When it comes to road cycling, I set myself two fixed days a week when I start cycling straight away after work. For me it's Tuesday and Thursday to train. Should something come up - work, family - then look for an alternative date. It's easier to define exceptions when you have a rule! At the weekend I'm a little more spontaneous and I go to some RTF, longer trips or just one Empty run (without having eaten anything) on Sunday morning. This year I came to the road cyclingbecause I planned it that way.
marathons
Already at the beginning of the season, or better before the season, I had already planned the first events for myself. The first event - the Tour d'Energy in Göttingen, I had to drop out due to a herniated disc. In April I just didn't want to take any risks, because in a race extreme situations can sometimes lead to tricky situations or even falls. I was there for that Mecklenburg Lakes Circuit (MSR300) top fit at the end of May! This followed immediately in mid-June Burning Roads Cycle Marathon, which demanded a lot from me. Funnily enough, these two events were the only official events I drove this year. My own training sessions and tours took up a lot more time: As you know, nothing comes from nothing 😉
training and touring
In preparation for the Mecklemburger-Seen-Runde, for example, I started a solo ride in the Harz Mountains. 240km from Hamburg to Lamspringe and that alone, a really hard piece of work so early in the season. But it was worth it, as it turned out a short time later. I approached the Burning Roads bike marathon all the more exuberantly, it turned out to be a real challenge. My training rides in Hamburg were no longer about 40km tours, as I had done from time to time last year, but always about 60km tours and it was not uncommon for a 3 to appear in front of the kmh number. So training pays off!
bikepacking
With my tour in the Harz I was able to do something for the first time bikepacking breathe air. admittedly one bag doesn't make one Bikepacking tour, but there are only two left 🙂 Bikepacking will definitely be my priority next year.
An approximately three-week tour is planned from Hamburg in the direction of the Alps, to South Tyrol and then via Italy to the Pyrenees, over there and then to Barcelona. I am still in the process of clarifying things with my employer (I would like to accumulate 50% of the vacation time), because I would also like to have vacation time for my family, if everything goes as planned it will be my first Bikepacking trip but don't stand in the way.
Road bike holiday at Lake Constance
Already last year I had made a firm commitment to 2018 Lake Constance Cycle Marathon to drive. The route is 220km long and leads in a large loop around Lake Constance. It's hardly worth driving from Hamburg to Lake Constance just for one event, so I decided to add a week's training camp to the marathon.
When I told my work colleague and training partner about it, he decided to join me and so we went on a really nice road bike holiday together Bodensee, in Constance. Constance as a base is really great for exploring this region road bike holiday close. For us North Germans, of course, there were vertical meters on the program - but please always slowly. So we planned our tours quite conservatively so as not to be totally exhausted in the first few days. In our six days we drove through four countries: Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Lichtenstein.
You can already see from the amount of photos that I had a hard time choosing. The week was just great and I can recommend everyone to plan such a training camp. Already on the third day you will notice the training effect if you train every day: The heart rate is significantly lower with the same load.
Conclusion
Many tours, many kilometers and a training camp. I really banged my head in this year. I hope I can get on my road bike for a few more long tours, even though it's already October.
Ride On, Ray!