Cyclist Paul Stewart rides for fitness, charity

Paul Stewart started riding for his own health, but now he rides for both himself and the benefit of others. “About 6 years ago I finally accepted I had put on a bit too much weight, which had shot up to 17 stone 8 lbs (246lbs), so I decided to do something about it.  At the time I had an old Cannondale mountain bike in a corner of the garage gathering cobwebs and although it was winter I started out doing some rides of around 6 miles 4 -5 times a week. I then entered a 50 mile charity ride which gave me a sense of purpose and something to build up to.”

From the 50 mile charity ride, Paul has moved onto even longer events, such as a 24 hour charity ride for children he participated in last year and is looking forward to again this year. “I took part in the 24 hour event last year, riding 5 x 1 hour sessions which with the pre-event warm up meant I rode a total of 164 miles. This year I am aiming for more and what better way to raise money for Children in Need than by doing an activity that I love.”

Describing his love of cycling, Paul points out that it is a very democratic sport that gives participants unusually free access to professional riders. “There aren't many sports or activities that a normal member of the public can follow in the footsteps of the professionals. I have ridden many of the Pyrenean Tour de France climbs and had the good fortune during last year's 24 hour event to ride with 2 of the Great Britain Paralympics gold medal winners from Beijing. Imagine asking Jenson Button if I could go for a drive with him. It just wouldn't happen.”

Despite his busy schedule, Paul has been able to train efficiently for his upcoming charity event through following his plan on TrainingPeaks. “I am only able to commit to around 7 hours a week to my training but have found that by following the schedule on TrainingPeaks that my training has come on especially in the last 4 weeks.”

As a result of this training, Paul has noticed a significant improvement in his fitness. “An example of how my fitness has improved since this time last year is that during the Tuesday track sessions we do an exercise where we take laps on the group. Usually by the end of the season around March I am able to do 6 repetitions of 2 laps. This year on every session I have done 6 repetitions of 2 laps with the exception of one week where I only managed 5 repetitions of 2 laps and 1 of 1 lap. The laps are taken at around 30mph. Massive improvement.”

Paul first began by using the free version of TrainingPeaks but soon switched to the paid subscription services so that he could take advantage of more advanced features, such as the Annual Training Plan. “I started out by using the free version of the TrainingPeaks web site but quickly changed to the subscription service which for me offered the advantage of creating the Annual Training Plan (ATP). I particularly like the flexibility of the ATP and have reduced my weekly hours since the summer and the plan just sorted everything out. The ATP takes out the complexity of deciding which training routines to do during each week leaving me more time to get out and ride my bike.”

In addition to the Annual Training Plan, Paul enjoys the fact that with TrainingPeaks he can record data from many different training devices. “Another very useful thing for me is the ability to upload data from multiple devices. I have Polar and Garmin devices and having the ability to see workouts from the 3 devices in one console is invaluable.”

“I am now enjoying my cycling more than ever before and even after having some injuries early last year feel that I am as fit now as I was 2 years ago. This is backed up by a 50 mile ride I did at the weekend which was the first time in 2 years that I have ridden this route and my time was almost 5 minutes quicker this year with similar conditions. TrainingPeaks has helped me to reach this level of fitness again and without it I would spend most of my time just riding my bike rather than training.”

Get a TrainingPeaks account and start achieving your own fitness goals like Paul did.