I completed my annual distance goal at the end of 2025. For 2026 I thought something different would be in order.

Lat year I rode one route a lot. It took no thought. It was a sure fire way of getting the miles in. The ride was nice enough. Not too hilly, not too flat. A mix of rural lanes and urban roads. Start and finish from home. 50km. I could do a loop before or after work. Towards the end of the year I was riding pretty much on autopilot.

I thought about adding a bit of variety by planning seven different routes starting and ending at home. Pick one on any given day depending on my mood, the weather, time constraints and so on. Sounded good to me. My average speed has gone down a bit so thought I could work on upping that a bit too.

Average speed makes more sense with a bit of context.

• I live along the line of the North Downs in Kent. There’s not a ride near me that does not involve hills.
• My bike’s a Surly Disk Trucker. It’s a good fit. Very comfortable. Great for getting about on. Perfect for touring. Bit of a cart horse though.
• Peak performance is decades behind me. I’m fit and lucky enough not to have any health issues I know about.

Articles about creating goals can be found for two a penny, especially in January. Make then SMART. Specific, Measurable, Relevant, Timed. There was one with an example of reducing the index number of visceral body fat rather than simply “lose weight”.

I’m easily distracted. Visceral body fat (VF) is fat that surrounds abdominal organs such as your liver, pancreas, and intestines. It’s hidden fat. You can look thin on the outside but be be fat on the inside. There’s a few things that contribute to it’s build up and it’s not all food. It’s a particularly unhealthy type of fat that increases the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, cancer and dementia . I’m in pretty good shape but have always carried a bit around my middle. Hip to waist ratio is an indicator of VF. Seemed like a good idea to get a measure of my VF and make a reduction of that link up with increasing my average speed. I found out my VF is around the mark of it’s okay, don’t go higher, losing a bit would be good.

Physiologically and gear wise I’m more akin to a diesel engine rather than anything sporty. I had some awareness of heart rate zones. I’d also heard the term “junk miles” but since I don’t train had not given either much thought. No such thing as “junk miles” when you love cycling. However, it did occur to me that from a training perspective a lot of my rides likely involved many such miles.

Heart rate zones are pretty simple to understand.

Zone 1: Recovery. Easy rides. Gentle pace. Coasting is okay.
Zone 2: Endurance. Moderate effort. Conversational pace.
Zone 3: Tempo. Feels like hard work after a while. Creates fatigue.
Zone 4: Threshold. Really going for it. Short bursts. Big effort.

I dug out the heart rate monitor I bought years ago and paired it with my Karoo GPS. I was not at all surprised to confirm my default riding pace is on par with recreation and leisure. Mostly high zone 1 and low to mid 2, from time to time I would drift upwards into zone 3, and never into zone 4.

Nothing wrong with that but my VF, average speed, and endurance will at best only be maintained if I don’t make any changes.

I connected the Karoo to intervals.icu, and off I went down the rabbit hole of cycle training, which is where I have been for the last week or so. A 101 in theory and methods of pyramidal, polarised, threshold and high intensity interval training. Terminology varies but since I am using intervals.icu I’m getting my head round things like intensity, load, HRRc (heart rate recovery), TRIMP (training impulse), fitness, fatigue, and form. It’s the last three I am mostly tracking.

Initially I over-complicated things by planning precise workouts and syncing these to the Karoo. One for building strength and torque; “The Ridge”. One for fatigue resistance; “The Drag” Another that serves as a fasted fat burner; “The Roller”. The fourth as a spare and suited to building aerobic flow; “The Spinner” The first and last being the same route but clockwise and counter clockwise and has around 500m elevation. The second and third also sharing the same roads and once more heading out one way or the other. Those two have 400m elevation.

I planned a schedule. “The Ridge” Monday evenings. Tuesday a rest day. Wednesday morning the “The Roller”. Thursday evening, “The Drag”. Friday a rest day. Saturday for audax rides or 60 - 100k jaunts in zone 2. Sunday an easy spin or day off.

Just ten days in I was doubting the approach. Adapting rides and schedules to accommodate unplanned events. I was becoming preoccupied with numbers. I’d not figured out how to combine the rides with the 16:8 intermittent fasting. It did not feel right.Things needed tweaking.

• Instead of creating and syncing workouts to follow I shall use the terrain to guide my effort.
• I’ll adjust the schedule according to need and guided by the metrics.
• I’ll keep regular fasted morning rides to no more that 90 minutes and stay around the mid level of zone 2. Just doing that instead of coasting on these rides will increases my speed and support endurance.
• “The Ridge” and “The Drag” I’ll use during the week to push through zone 3 as quick as I can into zone 4. I will let off the pace just over the summit. I’ll do these with a least a day between them for rest, and between 5.00 pm and 7.30 pm. This means I can eat before and after each of these.
• On longer rides I’ll eat something suitable every 60 to 90 minutes to help maintain strength and power.
• No fasting on audax days.
• I’ll have a rest day after completing an audax and whenever I feel the need or the numbers suggest I should.
• Whey isolate to break fast followed by moderation and healthy eating. No biscuits, sweets or snacks.

It actually looks quite similar to what I had planned but it feels less regimented. I think this approach will be effective in helping to reach my goals. So long as I have my bearings and course correct along the way I will get to where I want to be.

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