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No eggs sucked here, my GF is a peadiatric physio so does occasionally make some blunders... K tape was one, ended up waxing the hair off around my quad and knee. Her response was I never need to shave my patients before using it on them.... (They're children). So advice from an experienced cyclist as yourself is amazing, thank you. I'll get her to measure my knee angles tomorrow and we can keep a note of it like you suggested.
I'm definitely in a good routine with my nutrition and recovery but I've found when I'm tired I get lazy, which means I don't make gels for the following days so end up eating sweets. What was your challenge? When I was working from home, I was there with 3 showers a day and I would agree. Occasionally I do 100+km after work as it gives me quite a buzz, shows how much time we have after a working day. I'm planning on doing LEJOG in July which will be amazing but after that I will need to set mini goals, probably mini training camps so I can take advantage of the fitness gains for when the challenge is completed.
@Tallboy that would be amazing :) I've replied, thank you so much
Norfolkbound-
It was a much smaller order than yours. The aim was for a bunch of ultra racers that Ed Tapp knew and pulled together to raise money for Doctors Without Borders. The goal was for us to collectively "ride around the world". Initially with the riders we had it was only supposed to be 1000km each but then some genius got the idea to do it twice or something so half way through it changed to needing 2500k each. I'd already decided to do all of it on the turbo because I felt riding 1000km in a month outside was too easy. But then being slammed with work and trying to do the 2500+ using Trainerroad sessions of all things was a proper ball ache, hence the 3 rides a day and getting onto Zwift to make my life a bit easier.
Thankfully my missus kept me fed. Eating sweets doesn't sound like a problem to me! I only use gels when I'm racing TTs with a support crew. When I'm racing ultras or training now, most of the time I'm eating sandwiches, lollies, waffles, doughnuts, etc. Just high energy food that you'd get from gas stations. No point training on gels if you can't find any during a race.
If I were you I might swing towards using a carb mix drink rather than gels (I've never made my own though, as much as I've wanted to). It's much easier to dump a few scoops of Torq into a bottle than DIY gel but I'd definitely have some foods close to hand if you're getting hunger pangs. Liquid feeding ain't always the best idea but on the turbo when you're likely running hotter than outside it might help.
Also, have some treats. These made one session a lot more fun!
hippy
Ah, well if you've got access to a physio I'm basically teaching you to suck eggs then. She'll sort you out. I would keep an eye on the knee tracking, like have a reminder to "inspect" it a couple of times a session and note any weirdness or pain. Have your GF look at your knee angle to see if it's too high or low. Check for wobbles and do what you can to stabilise them. No one is perfect though so don't get too hung up on one knee kicking out a bit or whatever.
Plenty of carbs, fluids. I mean yeah, you've done months of this already so you probably know already. I'd be looking for interesting sub-goals to do when winter comes back. Maybe try different apps. When I did that fundraising thing last year I did it all indoors just because that was harder for me and I felt if I'm raising money I should suffer, obvs. :S I ended up throwing Zwift on for that month in addition to Trainerroad just to level up and stuff. It kept it a bit more interesting and then I killed my account after it. There's some other training apps that use video and stuff that might be a laugh to use. Riding morning, lunch and night was a drag - three showers a day is nonsense so I'd prefer to do a single bigger session and then have more recovery time but I was pushed for time trying to hit my goals, hence 3x day.
You might be able to find cheap Speedplay for spares. I've got a lot but they're all on bikes or waiting until I break another C-spring to swap in.