I’m pleased with the bike session I did today – 20 x 1 minute, high resistance, low rpm intervals. My breath was like a dragon’s and steam was coming off me. The bit that really pleased me was that I did the whole session properly. All of it. Every last minute.
I also did a swim today. It was very different from yesterday’s in that I put the effort in and hurt. Actually, I didn’t hurt all the way. I just did 15 x 100′s hard. Then I eased off a bit for the rest of the session. Not sure how far I went as I didn’t plan it.
Yesterday, I was disappointed with my swim speed. I got a new toy that allows me to time how quickly I swim (a bit like a stop watch). As I haven’t swam properly since May, I was pretty upset to see how slow I was. So, I decided to turn over a new leaf and start swimming a bit more… vigourously! And regularly.
I also decided to reset all my pb’s. I am living in the past. My 400m pb used to be 5:55. Yesterday I did it in 7:12. Oh, dear. Yesterday’s time was at the end on 90 minutes swimming, was at a low intensity and so is not a real pb. However, it gives me something to start from.
Anyway, tomorrow will be another swim, an hour run and perhaps a short bike session.
I don’t like turbo trainers. But I know that they are a great way to improve so I am setting myself the challenge of riding inside a lot more over the winter. I want to do lots of short rides – I don’t care about long rides as I am not doing an ironman in 2010. I want to be able to ride little and often.
So the plan is to do some of the following:
- 30 min and 60 min steady paced rides
- 20x (1 min hard resistance, low rpm intervals + 1m easy)
- 6 x (5 min moderate, 50 rpm + 2 min easy)
- 6 x (3m fast, 60-70rpm + 2m easy)
The idea is to get me into it easily and gently. I want to ride indoors regularly. If I do it regularly then that will be a success!
I did the Woodcote Sunday Sportive yesterday.
I think I was the only person there to do it on a tri bike so I felt a bit out of place. The weather was glorious. The 131k route well marked. Most of the route was good to ride with quite a few hills. Some of the steep downhills through narrow tree-lined, pot-holed, gravel-littered roads were a bit scary and so I would prefer a bit of a route change for next year.
The plan was to ride without power (I’ve “lost” the bike computer) and go quite a bit harder than ironman pace. I did. I averaged 31 kph for the first two hours. Then I slowed a bit. Then at 75k I ran out of water and the second aid station turned out to be at 110k. A long ride in the heat. Because I was going faster at the start I ate less than I wanted. Actually, that’s not true. Because I brought powerbars with me I ate less than I wanted to. Those things are horrid on a hot day, especially without water. So, I think I slowed because of the early pace, the lack of a powermeter to tell me I was slowing and the thirst/energy food.
I came home in 4 hours 52. 1 minute from “gold” standard. I spent 3 minutes at the second aid station drinking and less than one minute massaging my left quad up one of the hills. But I did not draft anyone because of the tri bike. I did have two “shadows” who drafted me for the first 70k (and which helped me go too fast to start with).
I normally do transitions pretty sedately Well, they are quick-ish but I use road bike shoes so I always put them on a take them off in transition. But I’ve been having pins and needles on the run after long bike rides and so one theory of mine is that my road shoes are a little too tight. So I bought some tri shoes.
It then seemed a bit silly not to attach them to my bike when I do the Windsor Triathlon next weekend. So I got some elastic bands and had a go at practising on the path in front of my house. The kids came out to help as well!
All was going well. I could take my feet out of the shoes and dismount. Easy. I could run and jump on to the bike. Not as easy. I get a little scared jumping on to the saddle! I aim to land my right thigh on the saddle as there is less scope for unexpected pain! That went well. Putting my feet in shoes while moving was a little harder but do-able.
I was then down to my last two elastic bands and so I thought that I would have one more practise. I ran. Fine. I jumped. Fine. I landed on the saddle. Fine. I started pedalling. But unfortunately, my bike was in a big gear. My foot slipped off the shoe. The shoe hit the ground. The pedal stopped going around because of the shoe was still hitting the ground. Then I fell off. I fell to the left and kind of fell on top of the ground.
Afterwards, my daughter said that she thought I was going to cry. I said that I was too busy trying not to swear. LOUDLY!
The bike was fine but I’ve got blood coming from: little finger on my left hand, palm of right hand, thumb of right hand, two places on my right knee and two toes on right foot. I also have a sore right foot, sore right knee and sore right thumb.
That never happened when I trained for Ironman. Olympic distance training hurts…
Yesterday the taper started a bit more. I did a four hour bike ride “easy” and stopped for a bacon roll and a chat at the lake. It rained a few times and was really windy. But I felt confident in the wind. I also did a 20 min easy run off the bike and my legs felt really good. A little strange but no where near what it feels like to run after I have done a long ride, putting in a “hard” effort over the last hour.
After the run, I took the dogs for a walk. Then went to a forest with the son and one of his friends. They enjoyed it, especially when we found this animal sunbathing!
It’s a slow worm. It looks a bit like a snake but is actually a legless lizard. One of the great things about having a phone nowadays is that we can take a photo of it and also check the internet to see what it is – “looks like a slow worm – oh, that’s a lizard – has it got eye lids – yes – definitely a slow worm – look at its tail, a bit less pointy than a snake – oh, the tail comes off if a predator catches it – wow”. Then two minutes later some other people walk up the path and the kids are all knowledgeable – “look a slow worm, it’s not a snake…”
Today I’ve got a 90 minute easy run planned. I like this taper business. But I can’t wait to just go out for a run in the country side with the dogs, not caring how long or what intensity I run for.
Not yet, well may be tomorrow. It’s two weeks tomorrow to Lanza and I have a five hour ride planned followed by a 40 min run. Then Sunday is a two hour interval run. So no sign of a taper yet. Well actually Tuesday is a little easier than last week (swim is 5 mins longer but run is 21 mins shorter). I was expecting a day or two of rest days in the taper next week but the first “OFF” day in the programme is two days before the race. And I am convinced that is only because that’s the day I travel to Lanza.
I am feeling good and confident about things. Bike is going to be serviced on Wednesday so I hope that goes well. Only problem is the continuous feeling of tiredness. I know that is going to be sorted soon though…
So the scores on the doors for the weekend:
Friday:
- 4k wetsuit swim in pool, including a new PB of 5:22 for 400m
- 40 min negative split run
Saturday:
- 6hr 50 bike (plus some time working out how to get un-lost)
- followed by a 40 min run
Sunday:
- New Forest Triathlon (2hrs 14 mins)
One interesting thing was that I weighed myself before and after Saturday’s bike/run. I lost 3.8lbs. But between weigh-ins I drunk around 3.5 litres of water and had a load of powerbars, gels and a couple of mars bars. So, I lost around4. 5kgs of fluids on my ride. Wow!
Part of the reason for this is that I left early in the morning in my full winter gear. I froze on the first part of the ride, especially in the fog. But it warmed up and turned into a beautiful sunshiny day. And then it got quite hot. And I felt like a boil in a bag.
This makes for interesting thoughts about Lanza though. I need to make sure I drink when thirsty on the bike. That should be easy. The difficulty is going to be on the run. In short triathlons/runs, I don’t normally take any water. However, I had ago today in the New Forest and found it very hard to drink from a cup on the run. I think I need to bring my fuel belt to Lanza.
Sleep.
I am so tired at the moment. I sleep really well when I sleep but have been getting to bed too late (after a late training session, it takes me a while to settle) or being woken up in the middle of the night by one of the dogs barking. Today, I felt completely shattered. Not good.
Training has been going well even though work is doing its best to make things difficult. Highlights of the weekend were a 2hr 30 min run on Saturday and a 5 hour bike ride on Sunday. The last hour on the bike felt really hard. Next week will be a 6 hour bike and a 2 hour run. I am probably going to go to Sherborne to re-ride the old ironman UK course to see how I am doing.
I have noticed a difference at the end of the long run compared with a long bike. At the end of the run, if I sit down it is quite hard to get back up and my legs ache big time for ages. At the end of a long bike, I am very, very tired and achy. But after 5 minutes or so I feel fine (if a little tired!).
I’ve been thinking about Lanzarote and what might happen. So one day soon I will write down my race plan. That will help me think things through and get my head straight.
I ache big time. My legs and shoulders. No idea what I did to my shoulders, it may have been the swim on Friday but I don’t think so.
The legs are suffering because of last night’s run. For various reasons, yesterday’s long bike became a long run. I started some time after 7pm and so it was very dark on the unlit “fit track” when I finished. I did the same route as last week but changed the pacing. Last week was a negative split run. Yesterday was 5 min intervals, with 1 min easy recovery. I worked much harder and ran quicker overall (5 minutes quicker for the same route).
So this morning, I have to do my long bike. It has to be a point-to-point ride which means that I can’t just tack a bit on to last week’s ride. If I took the shortest route to “Point B” on the south coast, it would be about 52k. However, a five hour ride means that I have to do something like 135k. So I’ve been playing with maps this morning and have worked out that I am going to take a slight detour and go via Salisbury.
What I think is incredible is that I can only just hobble up the stairs at the moment. Yet, I am going to ride a loooong way!
This week has been pretty poor in terms of training. I had a sore calf from Friday last week which stayed sore until Tuesday. Then on Wednesday I hurt my quad when the chain broke. Wednesday evening I could hardly walk up the stairs. Even today, it is still sensitive to the touch.
I did a 3hr ride today, followed by a 20 min run. It was really windy and I had a 60mm front wheel on so I really noticed the gusts. I was quite scared a lot of the time for the first hour or so and then I felt more confident. I still don’t plan to use it in Lanza but I figured that if I could get used to the UK winds with a deep front wheel, I will be confident with a normal wheel in the Lanza wheel.
The run was much easier after 3hrs than 4hrs+. Not sure why but it was. Because my quad has been really sore I decided to push the pace up a bit on the way back. That felt fine so I feel confident that I will start at Reading tomorrow. However, I am not confident that I will be able to finish. We’ll see.