Wednesday 19th February 2014
Cycling (01:05:03 / 16.05 Miles / 14.95 MPH / Cadence 74)
The commute to and from work. This time Brendan joined me as he wants to build a bit of commuting cycling in to his training, as it basically is free miles.
Not the best of days for either of us really. I punctured about 2 miles from home on the way in to work, and he punctured about 2 miles from work on the way home.
If I’d know how good he was at changing the spare, I’d have let him sort mine for me earlier in the morning.
It was a decent wee spin both ways, and the fact that it was half term and traffic was light was an added bonus.
Swimming (01:01:35 / 2350M)
Nothing else for it but to get back in the pool. I was genuinely worried about this as my last decent swim was a fortnight ago.
I did find it harder going than I would have liked but the positive thing for me was that although I clearly have lost fitness and speed over the last couple of weeks, I was holding my own reasonably well and finished strong, which is a good sign.
Thursday 20th February 2014
Running (00:09:24 / 1.00 Mile /00:09:24 per mile / HRZ 2)
What a nightmare!
My quad muscles had been suffering a bit as I got back in to training, and the effect of this meant that as I ran, my sore quads couldn’t absorb the impact on my knee which was still not 100% right.
I got half a mile up the road and was limp-running, so instead of looking like Gimp, I decided it was more intelligent to head for home.
The grand total of one mile was achieved. Not a happy Bunny!
Saturday 22nd February 2014
Running (01:16:44 / 9.00 Miles /00:08:31 per mile / HRZ 2)
Trying to put the nightmare of Thursday’s run behind me I opted for a fairly flat route just out and back which allowed me to cut short and head for home if I felt any residual pain in my knee.
I’m delighted to say that it went well and apart from the obvious loss of fitness I was pleased enough with the run. I did struggle a bit to keep the Heart rate at a controlled level at times but even with that I am still only about 15 secs per mile off where I was before the injury break, although I am about 10 BPM higher on the Heart rate, which is where the real sign of fitness loss shows through.
Still. A run is a run is a run.
Sunday 23rd February 2014
Cycling (03:43:45 / 58.09 Miles / 15.60 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 79) Elevation Gain 756M
Waking up to the sound of a strong wind battering the house and rain being blown against the window my first reaction was to grab my phone, text Mark and tell him I was hitting the Turbo instead of going out for the planned 60 mile ride with him.
After looking out the window to see that it probably sounded worse than it looked, I decided to man up and get ready for going out.
I knew it was going to be windy one as the forecast had predicted 25MPH winds from the south. I planned the route to allow for this which meant we had a supposed tail wind for about 20 miles home. The bad news was that the first 35-40 miles would be more or less straight in to the wind.
Dutifully, Mark turned up bang on time and we set out. We didn’t get very far. Literally after about 20 metres, my chain came off. It was a problem I thought I had solved. The free hub on my rear wheel was no longer “free” and when I stopped pedalling it de-railed the chain.
A quick change of bike and I headed on the steel Donkey winter bike, which is heavier, slower, less comfortable and harder to ride, but sure it was only going to be 60 miles in the wind with hills! Gulp.
The ride went really well and as predicted there was a definite “wind in the face” feeling.
Despite Mark getting a puncture at about 25 miles we made decent progress, although I did feel like I was slowing Mark down, but he was happy enough as he had knocked out a 70 mile hilly ride the day before along wit ha run straight after it, so this was a recovery ride for him.
The stretch from Lurgan to Scarva was tough going with a really strong wind right in our faces and at times I was pedalling fairly hard downhill just to keep going.
A Pit stop in Banbridge to top up the water bottle and refuel and we were on the homeward stretch with a tailwind.
The funny thing about a tailwind is that you don’t really notice it that much but I could feel the benefit of it and the average speed picked up a bit.
The good fortune ran out about five miles from home when I got a puncture too. The same tyre that punctured on the run to work on Wednesday.
I found a small sliver or metal or a thorn type thing in the tyre and removed it, hoping that I had rectified the problem and I rode on home.
Mark was long gone as he had planned and executed a time trial down the Moira Road and by the time I got home he was probably at home having five rounds of toast and four scrambled eggs. (not joking by the way!!)
All in all it was a tough but satisfying ride and definitely in the category of character and strength building.
Week 15 Summary
9 Hrs 40 Mins
Swim 2350M
Bike 106.7 Miles
Run 13.67 Miles
A strange sort of week, It actually turned out to be one of my better weeks for a while in terms of hours trained, but it just felt like it lacked a bit of quality. Then again that is probably about right given that it was a come back week from injury.
Mostly I am just pleased to be back in to training again and feeling somewhere towards 90% injury free.
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