Any Improvement....?

Improvement work to the Quay area at the Sandbanks Ferry

Due to the continued swings in the weather I have only managed to get out on the bike once since the group ride with the rest of the team just over a week ago...
I have been riding on the static indoor bike daily though and I have been concentrating on specific areas of training that I felt suffered a bit during my one month enforced layoff from cycling......

It's never easy being forced to stay off the bike due to an injury or any other medical reason but to be absolutely honest in my case I don't think that it set me back too far in my training plans.... 
As I mentioned in my last post I did notice some difference to my hill climbing from the point that I was at the beginning of February and so that is one of the areas that I have been working on......

The weather yesterday wasn't too bad at all, so with the promise of rain for today and most of the weekend  I decided to get a ride in......
The Corfe/Swanage Loop seemed to be the sensible route to do as I would be able to see the effect of the past weeks very specific training. My plan was to compare the ride I did as my first ride back out on the road ten day's ago with this weeks ride..... 

I left it till about 1100hrs before setting off as I thought that it would give the promised sunshine a bit of a chance to warm the day up nicely...
When I arrived at the Sandbanks ferry I could see that the work being undertaken to improve the small quay area to the left of the ferry slipway was coming along nicely...
I have the feeling that the workmen's schedule is planned to complete the work before the start of the Easter holiday... it will be interesting to see whether they actually achieve that..

So has my targeted indoor training had any positive effects then..?
Well I am pleased to report that it does seem to be making some improvement overall...the hills were still a bit tougher than they were at the start of the year, but did seem slightly easier than last week....my average overall speed was up as well from 15.2mph to 15.5mph and yes...the conditions and wind speed were broadly similar....You can see the rideHERE
If things continue to improve like this I will be more than pleased by the time we all set off to complete our 10countries in 10days ride in 12 weeks time. 

Before that of course we have a training camp planned for the end of April and a week after that we have all entered a local sportive as a measure that we are all on target with our training.... 

On top of that I heard some exciting news today....... 
Although I can't say too much at this stage...what I can say is, that our Team and the 10in10 Ride seems to have attracted the interest of a cycling journalist and there is a possibility that we could have some coverage in a national cycling magazine...that's all I dare say at the moment.....as always I will keep you all posted here at the purpletraveller...