Aiming for a Century: Week 5 of 16

Something interesting happened this weekend. I realised that, for the very first time, I had just done a bike ride where the prime purpose was training. I've cycled thousands of miles, but always for some other reason - like doing a cycle tour, or commuting to work, or just for fun. The rides on my little training programme had, up until that point, not called for anything more than my usual 'recreational' riding style. Now I'm being asked to up the pace, which involves pushing myself a bit. To my great surprise this turns out to be a lot of fun. Today was the first time I applied the 'brisk' pace to my commute. It certainly helps getting home more quickly. One rather nice side effect of tracking all this on mapmyride is the discovery that I've burnt over 10000 calories this month. Sadly, this has not yet translated into lost pounds. More on this topic later...