I Didn’t Train For A Week. And It Was Amazing!
Sometimes the universe has other plans for you.
120 days long, I'd been sticking really strictly to my training schedule. Hitting those Tuesday and Wednesday morning Kickr sessions, slowly building fitness, one day at a time. The rhythm was there, the motivation was high, and the thrill for Cape Epic remained.
Then, I had to travel to Austria for work, packed the bike and the trainer to come along, so training was to continue. But, I did not pack my MTB shoes....
It sounds almost trivial when you say it out loud. Just shoes, right? But anyone who's done structured power-based training, probably would agree that putting on your Nikes on your SPD pedals is far from ideal. For a second or two, I was angry with myself. But then the thought of not training for 6 days straight settled in. And I kind of liked it!
Surely, not as planned, not ideal, certainly not what JOIN had scheduled for me.
The mental game
Here's what I found interesting about this forced break: the first day I was still going back and forth between embracing it and kicking myself. But on day two, I completely settled with the thought of extended rest. Yes, of course I chatted with my AI friend about it, because the analytical part of my brain wanted to treat this as a disaster. We're targeting 310W at 75kg by February's end. Every week counts. The math is unforgiving when you're trying to leapfrog from recreational cyclist to competitive Masters category performance at Cape Epic. Luckily, he was there to confirm that up to 5 days of completely backing out of training, doesn’t do harm to any of your metrics.
And the thing is - training for an eight-day stage race isn't just about accumulating volume. It's about being smart enough to know when to push and when to accept reality. And in this case reality meant not having my shoes.
What I actually learned
Looking back at the week now, a few things stand out:
My body probably needed the break more than I wanted to admit. Twelve to fifteen hours of weekly training while having a job and managing other commitments creates cumulative fatigue that's easy to ignore when you're motivated.
The missed week gave me perspective on how much I've been enjoying the structure. I genuinely like the early morning Kickr sessions, as much as I do going on a long ride on the road. That's a good sign when you're still three-and-a-half months away from race day.
Recovery is part of training. Pros know this (and act accordingly), but it's harder to internalize when you're chasing ambitious goals with a deadline.
Moving Forward
Monday I was back on the bike. JOIN has recalculated my schedule, and honestly, I was eager to see what my legs felt like after a full week off. The first 20 minutes they were a bit sluggish, but then somehow all muscles remember what they had been training for and things were running smooth again. I didn’t have any issue meeting the power targets of the trainer and didn’t feel extra fatigued afterwards.
Either way, it's just one week in a long journey to South Africa. The target is still 310W at 75kg. The route is still 692km with 15,900m of climbing. And I still need to bring shoes with me.
But for now, I'm choosing to see this as a reminder that even structured training plans need to flex around real life. Especially with this busy December period coming, with more commitments on the calendar then I’d normally have. But I’ll take ‘m, one at the time.
Until then, Keep Chasing!
