Cycling (20.67 / 01:20:12 / 16.20 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 74)
A bit of a deviation tonight on the commute home. Seeing it was such a lovely evening and I wanted to take advantage of the decent weather and have a bit more of a scenic ride home, I opted for the Lagan Tow path route home.
Yes it was beautiful but it was probably not the best idea I've ever had. Obviously the nice weather had attracted more than just me. The Tow path was very busy and it was difficult to get in to any sort of decent rhythm, but the sunshine more than made up for it.
It was also a good chance to get a few extra miles done.
Saturday 17th May 2014
Running (02:00:40 / 14.00 Miles / 00:08:37 per mile / HRZ 2)
Do you ever have one of those runs where you just think, "I wish I hadn't bothered?"
The first three miles of this run were pretty awful. I felt totally lethargic and was lacking motivation to carry on but I knew this run had to be done and I needed to harden up and get through it, so I just kept ploughing on.
Thankfully after a few miles in and things stated to feel a bit better and I got in to a bit of a rhythm and the lethargy dissipated.
I wouldn't say that this was my best run ever but at least it got done and my goal of hitting 14 miles in the two hours was hit exactly.
Rather like the run on Thursday night, it was humid and warm and I was completely soaked though by the time I got to the car.
It's a weird thing my running at the moment. It is going OK but feeling like harder work than it should be, even though my Heart rate is saying I'm within zone and should be OK. I don't know what it is but hopefully I'll get off the plateau and start improving again.
I have to give a bit of a mention to my Club mate and friend Mark Vaudrey, who knocked out a cracking performance at Ironman Lanzarote today with a great time of 13.42. This was made even more impressive with a bike split of 6H30 for the 112 hot, hilly and windy miles. Well done mate.
Sunday 18th May 2014
Cycling (04:10:16 / 56.92 miles / 13.60 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 68)
Etape Mourne
I was really looking forward to this ride today. It formed part of my training for IM Frankfurt a couple of years ago and I wanted to have another crack at it again. It's a hilly bugger of a course and to be honest I was a bit nervous of it as well as excited.
Typically the weather has been great all week and the forecast for today was for rain all day long, which to be honest on a mountainous course could make for a thoroughly miserable experience.
After collecting Nelson early and in what was a first for me, have my passenger eat a very large bowl of Cornflakes and two pieces of toast on the way down in the car, we made it to Annalong and got set up for the ride.
The promised rain had not appeared yet and if anything it was a pretty pleasant morning. This created the dilemma of what to wear. After a bit of indecision I opted to just go with my new Castelli jersey and pack a rain coat in my back pocket. This turned out to be a good move on my part.
At this stage I do need to apologise to Nelson as I was faffing around like a teenage girl and taking far too long to get organised, but we made the race briefing OK and got started with the main bunch.
A couple of miles in and the memories came flooding back to me in a mixture of sweat and lactic acid.
With less than 10 miles under the belt we had already amassed over 1000ft of elevation.
Out other Club mate Gavin had disappeared up the road a long time ago, and to be honest Nelson could have done so as well but he was good enough to stick with me.
The route is beautiful through the Mournes, and if you can stop your ears from pounding with the blood pumping through your head and your eyes from watering at the effort on the climbs long enough to look around, the scenery is stunning.
The weather was still holding up and we got to take advantage of a rather tasty descent and I topped out at over 45MPH. I did chicken out at this point with visions of my own mortality and the potential impact to my Zurich training if I came off.
The descent down Spelga Dam was a bit more sedate as it is pretty treacherous at the hairpin bend at the bottom.
A highlight for me was the times King of the Mountains section from Rosstrevor to Hilltown, which I completed about 5 minutes faster than I did last time.
The next KOM section was a long climb from the approach to Spelga and all the way up to the top. It was a complete ball buster.
In a rather sadistic move, the organisers had Photographers at the steepest part on the Hairpin bend. I didn't have the energy to think of anything clever to do for the camera, other than grimace in pain and concentrate on breathing and not boking.
Once we started the descent off Spelga again, the weather closed in and we got hit with some really thick Mountain mizzle and the roads became pretty slick. The descent became more like a tribulation and it was far too dangerous to enjoy. We had no brakes because of the damp and couldn't see a thing.
Unbelievably, it led Nelson to say that he didn't want to do another descent. This is like Homer saying no to a Donut, Jimmy Savile turning down a kids party or Nigel Farage marrying a German.... oh wait.... Nelson normally loves his descending.
That's how dodgy some of the descending had become and we had to rein ourselves in a bit on the downhills.
As we cleared what I thought were the last few climbs I was faced another one on the road home and I just couldn't help myself from saying "Not another F'ing hill!"
obviously the effect of fatigue and Oxygen deprivation were hitting Nelson because he thought this was the funniest thing he had heard all day and chuckled for about 5 minutes.
Eventually we made it back to the finish and after changing clothes and drying off we had a lovely cuppa and sandwiches to restore our humour.
It was one hell of a tough day and my predicted 70 miles didn't emerge but the 1600M of climbing over 56 miles made this an excellent raining day and probably equivalent to a flatter 80 miles.
Big Thanks to Nelson for sticking with me and also to the organisers for a fantastically organised event. The marshaling was brilliant and plentiful, the aid stations were stocked to the brim and safety was paramount. Well done Pioneer Group.
Week 27 Summary
13H 23 Mins
Swim 4500M
Bike 110.91 Miles
Run 26.2 Miles
Bike 110.91 Miles
Run 26.2 Miles
Not a bad week of training this week. Perhaps just a bit light on the swimming but things are generally going OK and I feel like my cycling is coming on a bit more.
Next week is my first race at the Roe Valley Sprint Triathlon and I'm really looking forward to it.
No comments:
Post a Comment