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Over the last seven weeks I set myself a challenge to improve my cycling – I had two big cycling events in the calendar for later in the year which were part of my 2020 challenges. With lockdown restrictions in place I, like many, took to Zwift and seized the opportunity to work on my cycling fitness and power.

I used the Zwift six-week FTP builder training programme and thought I would share my thoughts on the programme.

When I started the programme, I planned to ride the 160km Ride London in August, and a 130km sportive from Vancouver to Whistler in September. One of my ultra runs has also been rearranged to September so despite a high chance that all of this would change, it was something to focus on.   

What is the programme

Zwift has a number of built-in training programmes that you can follow, with different objectives and time commitments. This one is 4-5 sessions a week, with each session 60-90 minutes and the aim is to increase your power output.

What is FTP and why is it useful

FTP stands for ‘Functional Threshold Power’ and simply put, it is the average number of watts that a rider can consistently sustain over an hour. The most common way to test this involves going all out for 20 minutes and then taking 95% of your average watts – Zwift helpfully can do all of this for you.

It is useful for two things:

1. To be able to set effective workouts based on hitting different % of your FTP at intervals
2. To track your own improvement over time

Personally, I’m not that fussed on what the number is or how it compares to others – I was more interested in using it as a tangible measure of where I was, how much I had improved and to add some structure to my training.   

Fitting the plan around my other training

Training for ultra-endurance events is time consuming and I wanted my cycling to sit alongside my running. My average week would look something like this:

• 4-5 cycle sessions (2 moderate, 2 hard and an optional recovery ride)
• 4 runs (around 45 – 65km a week)
• 2 strength sessions

Fitting in 10-11 sessions a week in total often meant that I was doing the cycle sessions on tired legs, which whilst good for my end goal of increased fitness and endurance was less good for hitting all the workout splits. I think if you take on a programme like this it’s good to be clear on what your overall goal is as it can stop you getting too disheartened when you can’t complete a specific split in a workout.

How was the plan

The plan gives you the workouts each week with a window of a few days each time to get them done. The plan structure starts on a Monday and you can’t change this – I found this slightly frustrating as the hardest session was always Fri – Sun, which didn’t work that well with the rest of my training / life; do bear that in mind if you take on one of their plans.   

I sailed through the first two weeks without any problems until reality hit in the middle two weeks, I found the threshold workouts impossible and found myself unable to complete two of them in full. I felt a bit disheartened but persevered, until I had some kind of epiphany in the last two weeks where I suddenly found things much easier and could sail through intervals I couldn’t do only a week prior. This was a great feeling and made the tough days totally worth it.

I did swap or skip some of my sessions; I’m a big believer in not being a slave to a plan at the expense of missing things that you want to do; sometimes I would swap a session to do a virtual meet-up with friends or to ride outside with my husband – I tried to swap out the easier sessions and keep the hard ones in the plan.

Did it work?

Over the course of the six weeks I completed 20 workouts, totalling over 20 hours and covered more than 530km (plus the additional hours I rode in meet ups or outside). I did a FTP test at the start and the end – I gained 30 points between the two. Both my Strava and Garmin data is also showing a decent uptick in my overall fitness levels over the same period. I’m calling that a success and I definitely feel that this has been beneficial as part of my base building towards the longer endurance events. As someone who also has to be very cautious around running mileage increase due to previous injury, this felt like a really good way to increase my training without increasing impact.  

I think if you like a bit of a structure then a Zwift programme is for you and I’m glad I took this one on. However, I would also say don’t be afraid to swap things around and be a bit flexible with it – don’t miss riding outdoors or getting involved in other fun things just because your session plan is going to disappear in the next 24 hours.

What next?

I won’t be jumping straight into another plan but I will be doing some of the key workouts within my training over the next few months and putting what I have learned about the sessions into good use. I’m also taking on a 300km running challenge in June so will back off the cycling intensity just a little to fit that in.

If you are not ready to commit to a programme I would definitely recommend trying some of the individual workouts – they are great fun.

My two cycle events have sadly now been cancelled. I still plan to ride the Vancouver to Whistler event in 2021 but the future of Ride London is looking very uncertain. However, I don’t believe this training is wasted at all – my overall fitness has improved, my running endurance has improved and I really enjoyed focusing on a specific area of improvement – I feel super proud of achieving something I could both feel and see as data. In the meantime, once national travel / staycation restrictions are eased in the UK later in the year I hope to get that 100-miler done with my husband somewhere in the UK by ourselves – watch this space!

Following on from my previous post about how I’m tackling being furloughed, I’ve been chatting to a couple of people recently about how I’ve settled on some learning opportunities during this period and I thought the tips might be useful to share.

To be honest, it took me a while to figure out what I wanted to do with the extra time I’ve found myself with. I’m now on week three of furlough and it’s only really this week that I’ve got into a proper self-learning programme. I spent the first couple of weeks really doing things that were more about being kind to myself, I did lots of baking, knitting and reading and didn’t try to force it. Towards the end of last week, I naturally started to feel like I wanted to do more and started looking at options.   

I appreciate that many people have not suddenly got more time on their hands, in fact the opposite is true for many. But for those that are looking for a personal development opportunity I wanted to share the steps I went through and the questions I asked myself:

What are your short term and long term goals?

This could be career or personal goals. Remember that learning doesn’t just need to be about your career, it could be something more personal like developing skills to build a new hobby. You may want to work on something that will contribute to your CV for future roles, or you may want to develop a skill that will benefit your current job

I had recently completed a one, three and ten year goal setting exercise with my line manager which I went back to during this process. It is worth taking some time to write this down and think through what would help you to achieve those goals.  

What is your budget?

Making a big financial commitment right now is probably not high on the to do list for many people and that was certainly the case for me; but deciding how much you can afford to or are willing to invest is a key step – come up with a figure and stick to it. It’s ok if this is ‘nothing’.

Do you need a formal qualification?

Going back to your goals, is this something you want to do for the sake of the knowledge itself or do your goals need a certificate or professional learning points to achieve your personal outcome? Many online courses have variable prices for how much you get access to, for example, this might include a certificate or specific assignments for an extra price.

How much time do you have?

This was a difficult one for me. Right now, I have lots of time but the unknown factor is how long I will have that time for. I may be called back to work in a couple of weeks or may find I have another month to play with. It’s worth thinking through whether a bitesize, modular approach or a longer-term programme fit better with your circumstances or goals.

What is your learning style?

There are lots of options for how to learn with online study and everyone is different. Ask yourself both what you enjoy, what motivates you and what will make knowledge ‘stick’.

Your ability to self-motivate is also an important factor. Some courses will be self-paced with no deadlines where others will have deadlines, set assignments or perhaps access to a real-life person online to keep you accountable. This may be limited by cost and the type of skill you want to develop, but it’s important to reflect personally and honestly on this one.

What factors impacted my decision?

Based on my goals and circumstances it was really important to me that I kept the cost to a minimum, which aligned well with the fact that what I wanted to do was about personal knowledge rather getting qualified for something specific. I am also self-motivated and happy to learn at my own pace as long as I have access to good resources. I know I like a test and learn style, with lots of opportunities to try my new knowledge in a practical way.

Based on my goals, I wanted to do a mixture of things with some short and long-term benefits so opted for a mix and match approach where I could achieve something tangible in a few weeks but could build that knowledge further with more modules if more time came to me.

What have I decided to do?

Finance for Operations Directors course with Go Skills – this is self-paced learning with lots of clear explanations and exercises. I’m hoping to fulfil a non-executive director role later this year and this will support both my ability and confidence in this area.

Coaching and leadership – Coursera offer an ‘Inspired Leadership’ specialism which looks like it has some great modules. I’m particularly interested in the role of coaching, leadership and culture within workplace wellbeing so this one will be materially beneficial to achieving my job role when I return from furlough.

The Science of Wellbeing – this one is a well-known course from Yale but they are offering it for free around the pandemic outbreak, also via Coursera. I feel very much that I need to keep up with the wellbeing conversation during my time away to be able to plan and strategise effectively for the best approach in the future. The modular approach will work well for the unknown time period I find myself in.

During this time, it may be difficult to focus or you might feel guilty for doing something for yourself. I will admit to feelings of guilt or feeling selfish but really the most effective thing I can do is stay at home right now and adding something fulfilling to my days is helping me deal mentally with the situation and making me feel happier through identifying a sense of purpose and allowing myself to think about a brighter future.

I’ll update on progress in a few weeks time.

Anna x

I spoke to an old friend this week and she said:

“we might all be in the same boat but we aren’t all looking at the same map”.

We were actually talking about work (and gardens), how individual circumstances shape impact and the relevance of executive coaching and understanding wellbeing to the current situation.

In my (on hold) day job, I am dedicated to working across the world of workplace wellbeing to share, define and discuss what we actually mean when we talk about wellbeing and to highlight why physical activity has such an important role to play. In the workshops and presentations I was just starting to deliver, I was talking a lot about the crucial role of personal purpose and goal setting.  I thought it was important to reflect that thinking back on myself.

For many runners and cyclists, the sporting goals we set are centred around hard physical challenges. Whether that’s a BQ marathon time, an ironman or an ultra-marathon – our goals were different but we were sharing as a community (online and in person) in what it meant to chase down and achieve those goals.

Now that community feels a bit lost and is looking around to see how best to channel that need to have a plan, a routine and a structure.  Ultimately it all comes back to purpose.

For some, climbing marathons on back garden steps, walking a marathon around a sofa in a lounge, or running an ultra in the garden is the way they have chosen to recreate a version of their goals. For me, personally, I cannot think of anything I’d like to do less and also know that this would be a one-way road to injury. So no, for those who have wondered, you won’t see me doing that.

But that’s just me. And that’s the point.

If you want to run laps of your 10 by 10 garden for three days then go for it and I’m definitely not going to judge you, in fact I’ll be one of your biggest cheerleaders if that’s how you redefine your own goals.

Personally, I’ve been thinking a lot about why I want to run an ultra and how best to adapt my goals and training with everything cancelled or postponed and no guarantee of when we might be back on the trails. As I talked about in my last blog, this coupled with losing the anchor of work made it especially important for me to define broad goals and objectives.

For me running an ultra is about the people, the view, the fresh air on my face, the journey across a vast part of the country, the eating all the freddos at aid stations (fact). The thought that I could possibly run the complete circumference of the Isle of Wight actually blows my mind – and I know I want to do that one day. But THAT is what I want to do. The number of miles is actually not relevant to me. I’ve already waited (and worked for) over 18 months to try to get to this ultra-start line, and if I have to wait six more months or another six years I don’t really mind – because for me – that is the start line I want to be on and that is what I’m not willing to give up on.

Heading towards 40 felt like a big deal three months ago, it felt really important that I achieve A, B and C before that happened – but it’s all just numbers. And the one thing I’ve figured out for me is that I’m not doing this for the numbers. I did originally say I would run an ultra before I was 40 even if I had to do it in the house, but I now know that’s not the point for me.

I am goal orientated though and not knowing when my ultimate goal might be possible makes it tough for that to be the focus, so instead I’ve set some new short-term goals to keep me motivated and to keep my spreadsheet brain alive. I’ve taken on a six-week power building plan on the indoor turbo trainer – this is a structured plan delivered by Zwift, that I can tick off each session and (hopefully) test my improvements at the end. This works for me – it has structure, and an outcome I can measure. (I’m a strategic project manager, I’m all about the SMART objectives and for anyone knows me well this will make total sense). I’ll continue to turn to virtual pub quizzes and sewing projects to plug that charity gap – these two things combined are my hallway marathon.

As this goes on, and as we wait to find out if the hope we have for September rescheduled races is overly-optimistic, it will be important to all of us that we maintain a relevant sense of purpose as it’s vital to our wellbeing. We may also need to constantly redefine what that looks like.

So, if you are tempted to run a marathon in your flat or simply feel overwhelmed by that 13^th live Instagram workout of the day – ask yourself what your short-term and long-term goal is, find your own purpose and go with it. Be inspired and uplifted by those around you, cheer for them and congratulate them but remember to do you and to focus on what serves you. Do what brings you joy and remember to be kind to those who might be doing things differently to you.

Anna x

The last week of March is usually my favourite week of the year. Spring is in the air, the days get longer and I usually eek out birthday and anniversary celebrations over at least a week. This year, instead, it was the week I found out I was being furloughed from my job and dealt with the fact that I didn’t get to see one of my close friends walk down the aisle in Oz and the two years I had already waited to see friends across the world would now be much longer.

I know none of this is bad. I know none of this is anything to compared to what many people are facing and one of the hardest things has been dealing with the guilt of feeling sad about things that are minor in the wider reality of what so many face right now.

Just a few weeks ago most of us had never heard of the word ‘furloughed’. Simply put it means that you have been temporarily laid off from your job, at a % of your salary. I work for a not-for-profit health body representing the fitness and leisure sector, we are a small business that represents an industry that have been as hard hit as any, my projects were rightly put on hold and in the shoes of our executive team, I would have made the same decision. They have been amazing in how they communicated and supported me through this.

But the truth is, this is tough news; especially if like me you are the kind of person who likes to feel useful. There are the financial implications to think about but once you’ve brushed off the temporary damage to your self-esteem, you can either sulk or use it as the opportunity that it is.

I am choosing to see the positives and finding a way to make a contribution, both to myself and also to others. I’m lucky really, I’ve been here before and I know the drill. Until last year I worked in the event industry – I was either freelance or on fixed term contracts and my husband was the same. We have had times where only one us worked, we plan for uncertainty in income and we have lived off one salary more than once, importantly we are used to having honest conversations and continually switching roles in our relationship.

I’ve always been good at using the time wisely. In the past I’ve learned to knit, qualified as a Prince2 practitioner, learned French (with limited success) and discovered a love of running.

This time feels a little bit different, I am finding it harder to focus because I’m distracted by the current world situation, options are more limited and the long term uncertainty is greater. I also don’t want to do something entirely for myself as I want to do something for the bigger picture this time.

So this what I’m going to do:

1. Use the time to work on my own health and fitness
2. Learn a new creative skill
3. Learn a new business skill
4. Raise some money for charity

I have more time, I have a great indoor fitness set-up and I can still run outside a couple of times a week. With unlimited access to my bike turbo trainer (husband negotiations permitting) – it’s a great time to focus on Ride London which is still set to go ahead in August.

I’m a keen knitter and I love knocking out baby hats and blankets for all my child-having friends so I’m going to improve my skills, finish the 4 frogged projects in my knitting box but also learn to sew. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do so now seems like a good time – youtube tutorials here we come. New babies can expect wonky bibs and dodgy quilts – you’re welcome.

Just before all of this happened I had been offered a voluntary Non-Exective Director position on a board of an organisation I am very passionate about, this is on hold for now but I hope will still go ahead later in the year. I wanted to do this to develop my broader business skills, so now I have more time to prep for that. I’m looking at options for courses to do, I’m planning to find modules that would eventually contribute to an MBA should I decide to do that in the future but I haven’t quite decided where to focus just yet.

I missed the window to apply as an NHS volunteer, but I can continue to support my local community and check-in on the people in my street and I will continue to explore how best to help our local community. But I still strongly believe that non-directly related charities are going to be hit hard by this crisis so I want to ramp up my efforts for MacMillan. I’m kicking off with a virtual pub quiz tomorrow for the We Are Runner pacers, and hope that the sewing will yield something I can explore. I’ve got time to get creative and pre-plan some activities for later in the year to make sure I smash through my target.

I’m a planner and I like to be busy, I like to be a contributor and I like to feel useful. For me this is the best way I can find to do those things during this time and also protect my own mental health. But I’m also going to go easy on myself, if somedays I want to stay in bed and read my book then I will; if I don’t solve world peace in the next two months then that is ok, but having some kind of plan will hopefully support me mentally until I can go back to the job I love.

I thought hard about not publishing this blog website as I had been planning to do on my 39th birthday, but decided that now more than ever I am keen to document my journey through testing times. I’m also very much aware how much charities are going to need donations now more than ever so I have decided to carry on in an adapted format.

Just a few weeks ago, I was training hard for my set of challenges – running, cycling, stretching and spending time in the gym working on my strength and making my body more resilient to what I was about to put it through.

Now I’m at home for at least 23 hours a day, most events are cancelled and the world is not the same place.

But now more than ever, I’m finding solace in running and walking. Right now, one outside exercise a day is permitted (and even encouraged), so I’m not training anymore; I’m using the time outside to just be and run or walk in a way that respects social distancing. I run very early in the morning, I choose routes that are wide and I walk whenever I need to adapt to those around me. Mentally I’m finding the world a hard place to deal with and running or walking is sometimes the only time I can get out of my own head and things seem more hopeful.

I am very lucky in so many ways – I can work from home, I have a salaried job that I’m still getting paid to do (and which I love), we have a turbo trainer and some at home fitness equipment, with space to throw down a yoga mat whenever we need to. Neither of us (my husband or I) are sick or classed as vulnerable and we generally spend a lot of time with each other anyway. I have very little to complain about compared to many and I’m hugely grateful for that but sometimes it makes me feel irrationally guilty.

The main thing for me to deal with what is happening has been finding a new routine. I’m a planner and I don’t deal well with change, or things that are outside my control. I’ve created a new routine for myself – I ‘commute’ to work each day – either with the turbo trainer, an outside run/walk or even just 30 mins of yoga. I do the same in the evening, doing something active indoors for 30 mins to recreate the idea of commuting home again. I’m also limiting the amount of time I spend scrolling through social media or reading the news – I watch the daily press conference each day but try to avoid falling into a rabbit hole of twitter anger or fake news which just makes me feel stressed. I’ve always been a knitter and a baker, and this is really helping me with stopping the incessant scrolling that I had found myself doing last week. I’m also trying to stop worrying about what everyone else is or isn’t doing – everyone has an opinion right now and frankly I can’t control what other people do, so I’m channelling my inner Elsa and letting it go.

So here we are, I’m planning to write a blog post each week, including updates on my challenges and adapting to whatever this situation throws at us all but also sharing some of the ways that I’m finding to help cope with the situation we all find ourselves in.

So happy birthday to me (sing it twice and wash your hands), till next time!

Anna x