Hello and welcome back to the channel friends. This week I am finishing off my emergency rest period with what I call a ‘soul ride’. I’m not the first to coin that term, it makes so much sense. This ride is just as important as all that intensity so treat yerself!
This ride – https://www.strava.com/activities/10882795779
Purpose of this ride is to remind myself why I fell in love with riding a road bike to begin Withing good afternoon welcome to another Ultra cycling related video if you’re watching any previous ones thanks a lot for coming back if this is your first visit my name is Andy I’m an ultra cyclist on the south coast of England the videos I make are about Ultra cycling training and Adventures I’m
Currently documenting my training for the Transcontinental Race So if you have endurance goals of your own subscribe follow along I’m sure there’ll be something in there for you or hopefully you’ll teach me something on the cars for today I’m still recuperating so going to take it a little bit easy once
Again so yeah a shorter ride than I’d like to be doing truth be told but in true Andy fashion it’s still a very particular structured ride and one that everybody should be factoring into their training plans really the reason I love Ultra cycling so much I just love riding my bike and I
Love riding it all day you can’t do that every day you just bury yourself exactly what I’ve done recently somehow I just fell out of routine and didn’t factor in rest as much as I should have but this ride I generally do every 4 weeks in lie of a a long one to
Recuperate I’ll go through what it is in a minute but it’s really easy and when I said structured the structure is that there’s very little structure it is an absolutely stunning day this is where I was last week in the horrendous wind next to an Airfield obviously what a difference the week
Makes as always hopefully you’re all well looking after yourselves quite lucky that on the south coast if I stay by the coast is pretty flat as soon as I turn north into the South Downs I got some hills and slightly more tricky terrain so weeks like this week where I
Need a bit of a rest it’s Ideal He Back on this lovely stretcher Road it’s beautiful today so I mentioned earlier this is a very specific restful ride it’s one that I usually do every four weeks for whatever reason over the last few months just haven’t done it as often as I should have I call it a soul ride personally
Because I’m charging my batteries it’s popping up my soul reminding myself why I love riding my bike usually this would come at the end of my rest weeks take it easy through the week and then one shorish ride much shorter than I normally do taking it as
Easy as possible and as I mentioned there’s some structure that’s only to make sure it’s a really restorative ride one of the warning signs of overtraining and just pushing a bit too much being fatigued for me starts to feel like I don’t want to be on the bike that
Much but luckily I’m always ready for that one cuz I know for a fact I love doing this so it’s never right the purpose of this ride to remind myself why I fell in love with riding a road bike to begin with not necessarily cycling full stop
Most people it’s probably a long time ago I started riding a road bike 6 years ago something like that what made me really fall in love with riding bikes is the freedom to explore exploring my local area town I grew up in covering lots of distance relatively little
Effort for me personally that’s what I’m trying to get back on these rides just go out for a spin roads that I know really well my garment’s turned off so I’m not following any numbers don’t know the time of the day whats average speed average speed is a
Big one get asked quite often about average speed it really is irrelevant legs wise I don’t want my legs to feel tired at all I don’t want them to feel taxed if I feel like they’re getting a bit tight or SAR in the slightest then it’s getting towards the
End of the ride breathing wise my breathing’s even slightly elevated really it’s too much need to really rest take it easy get some food get some coffee just enjoy myself I’m sure people watching this probably pack during rest rides rest weeks to some extent we can be so busy pushing on with
Training plans that you don’t necessarily rest as much as you should so take it from me go out for a soul ride think about why you started riding your bike to begin with why you love it that’s probably slightly different for everybody if you can go out take it
Easy recapture a bit of the Sparkle from when you first really love riding your road bike it’s a really valuable session once I get to the end of this ride batter’s recharged hopefully I’ll be ready to go again next week feeling much better now actually I’ve been prioritizing calories this week and
Rest I went out for dinner yesterday and had eight courses so that was nice lots of food lots of rest very little work Thursday was the first time midweek I haven’t trained on Thursday for about as long as I can remember so taking one session off completely hopefully going to make me
Feel much better all ride does sound really cheesy I just had it stuck in my head one time the song 70s or ‘ 80s it’s old ride take it easy that’s what I was thinking at the time that’s what I had in my head that was the goal of the ride and kind
Of seemed to Fit So far so good the roads down here not the most scenic not the quietest either most importantly they are Flat so now going to continue that restorative theme go meet my mate Rob some more of those calories I mentioned Cruise along the beach Rob kind of appeared on this long time ago very briefly have to introduce him at some point he’s one of my best mates and we
Meet every week to go for a spin take it easy have a cat face stop and just catch up known each other for about three decades so it’s good mate never in Therey hey Hey Hey Okay Well I’d say mission accomplished there any ride you feel better at the end than you did at the start there a win in my book and I didn’t get rained on so I’m off of my trademark hot bath now hope you have a good week I’ll see you on the next one
13 Comments
Great video as always. The weather looked like one of those days where if you don't go out and ride, it seems like you are committing a crime. Song = "Slow Ride" by Foghat (1975)
I’m slightly at the opposite end of the scale on this, the rides I most enjoy and make me feel the best are the ones where I just go out for a flat out hoon for an hour or so!
I just find focusing on the effort and really opening up the legs and lungs for no reason other than the pure thrill of it really clears my mind more than anything else
After your last video I was a bit worried about you and my self too,- I shared some of the symptoms you mentioned, so I decided to take a step back as well. In this sense this video is a great reminder in the right moment for what it`s all about: having fun, exploring and enjoying the changing surrounding, -thanks Andy, as always.🙋♂
I’m glad you are getting back to normal Andy. Some of those coastal paths look fantastic and you had the weather for it, we had it up here in Berkshire today – Spring had arrived! Truly glorious. I miss the summer, this one is going to be a good one I can feel it! All the best!
nice vid Andy, soul rides/headspace rides/chill-out rides are the best – when the sun is out, no wind and you've got the time not to worry and just get the miles in….I did my first road bike ride last weekend out to Titchfield and along the coast at Lee, weather was gorgeous, bike rolled sweet, coffee and cake hit the spot – good for the soul indeed 🙂 it's good to have goals and ultra events to train for, but it's also good just to ride for enjoyment and headspace 🙂 cheers
Beautiful scenery Andy, the most important thing you mentioned previously is to just enjoy. ‘Soul Riding”
Andy – if anybody does CTS average speed is crucially important as the Sun doesn't wait for anybody 😉
Now you’ve reminded me of something I was once told Andy: “every week or two, go for a blind ride, stick the garmin in the back pocket, turn off the sound, and just enjoy the ride”, something I haven’t done in maybe 12 months. Time to plan those back in for me and enjoy a ride to rediscover my “soul ride” thanks Andy for another great and very useful video 😊👍
That was great Andy! The blue sky and the sea looking fabulous! Great day for a ride.
I like to tell myself, "Every ride an adventure". The same route is different every time.
Love these, Andy.
A soul ride sounds wonderful. A nice flat ride would be wonderful
I live in Ashurst, right on the edge of the new forest. I quite often ride in the forest and that’s my soul ride.
Looked a beaut of a day for it 👌
I think we can feel it in the body when to train hard and when not to. When feeling strong and going harder is not bothering me , I know I’m good to go . When feeling weaker we should probably just take it easier and recover more. All the best mate during your recovery period. am sure everything’s gonna be alright.