I have recently suffered from a bout of glandular fever and have off the bike for about three months. In that time i have gone from being one of the first up long climbs to one of the last.

I want to get my fitness back to somewhere reasonable by july.

Possible? I aim to get out and just ride a bike about three times a week.

Once pulling kiddy trailer up local hill as fast as I can. Maybe twice (on the same ride) if Miniplatz doesn’t mind.
Another time doing local xc loop (20k) in about an hour and a half.
One long group ride with +/- 1000m elevation gain.

Does anyone have any tips?

Had a chunk of time off a few years with a head injury, best way I regained a decent level of fitness initially was short efforts. Don’t try and stress the system too much initially as will be frustrating… Ride to enjoy riding, it will come back.

Good luck.

Just 3 weeks can make a huge difference, so 5 is plenty. The answer you probly don’t want to hear is intervals, but shorter & harder can have lots of benefit. Also make sure you rest properly between exercise days

You might want to speak to your doctor before going straight into 5 weeks of intervals?

I don’t have access to a turbo trainer and don’t fancy joining a gym. Can you do intervals on normal terrain with steep climbs etc?

Singlespeed?

I know that SS is the antithesis of faffing around but it seems like a faff to do so for this express purpose. Perhaps i could resist the urge to change gears…

Is singlespeeding a bit stressful for knees unless you live in Holland?

I do intervals on my mountain bike as I gave up gym membership, just use a strava segement of the appropriate length and steepness and repeat over and over again. Better on road for uniformity but fun on off-road climbs too. Plus you end up with a KOM if you are training hard enough 🙂

Agreed though that check with doc and break back in slowly. I had pneumonia a few years ago and even though I was officially ‘better’ after a month or so it was triple that before I felt fully 100%