Monday 7th July 2014
Cycling (15.55 Miles / 00:54:25 / 17.30 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 75)
Yes this was my normal commuting ride in and out of work, however it had been preceded by a 5.15AM wakeup call and a 120 mile drive home from Donegal first.
Then I get to the house, grab my gear and bike and head in to work.
A long way to drive for a short cycle.
The good news was that the ride in to work was possibly my fastest ride in ever. You’ve got to love the school holidays for cutting traffic volumes.
Swimming (1750M / 00:40:54)
Club session in the pool and once again I went my own way and just did a straight through set in order to help with my endurance swimming.
It felt really good and the time just flew by. Hilary was aiming to do the same as me, however when I stopped to take a drink after 750M she just kept going and ploughed through.
Another decent wee session, although I did notice my left shoulder joint was getting a bit sore. Nothing bad but just enough to notice.
Tuesday 8th July 2014
Cycling (23.48 Miles / 01:48:00 / 13.00 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 68)
Elevation 673M
Rather than doing the usual hill repeats on Pond Park Road tonigt, I decided to mix things up a bit and just go for a really hilly ride. Fortunately I don’t have to go too far from home to get some reasonable hills and I was joined by Ian tonight as he is preparing for a really hilly Olympic distance Tri called the Browns Bay Beast. Sounds good doesn’t it?
We headed up the Pond Park Road, just once and then made a route out towards Dundrod, which takes in part of the Ulster Grand Prix Motorcycle racecourse and is pretty rolling.
I’d decided to take us on the back roads around to the back of Divis Mountain and then through to the entrance to the road up the Mountain.
There are a lot of grinding type hills and it was tough enough going at times. Ian was sticking at it manfully and grinding his way through. Complaining a bit as he went but still just plugging away.
I felt reasonably good, which was just as well because we were pretty soon at the foot of Divis and looking at a tough climb to the top.
The last time I did this climb it went OK but I remember that the last 400M or so is pretty steep and is an all-out effort to jump on the pedals, so I wasn’t really looking forward to it.
The good news was that the weather was great and we were being rewarded with fantastic views over 360 degrees.
Unfortunately for Ian, he slipped his chain on the ascent and suffered a bit of a cut to his leg. (His photos and commentary later would lead you to believe it was a near death experience and he was lucky to keep his leg – but it wasn’t too bad.)
It meant he missed out on the opportunity to “summit” but he got pretty well up. Lucky for him he missed the final part which feels like a 25% gradient. I’m sure it’s not but it just feels like it.
I must admit that this time up was still hard but it felt easier than last time and it was certainly quicker too.
The rest of the run was mostly downhill with some pretty quick sections all the way back to the house.
A really decent ride out with challenging climbs, fantastic views and great company.
Wednesday 9th July 2014
Running ( 01:00:00 / 7.42 Miles / 00:08:05 per mile / HRZ 2)
This was aimed at being what I am calling a mid tempo run. I’m trying to keep within my HR zone but more towards the upper end of it. Which to me feels like running at a controlled faster pace.
It was a really good run, pacing and breathing felt good and there was even a bit of heat building so that was nice to chuck that in to the mix also.
I’m pleased to be able to run 8.05 pace inside Heart rate zones now. That is a huge improvement on 6 months ago.
Cycling (78.28 Miles / 04:42:37 / 16.60 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 78)
This was my last long ride before I cut the volume down a bit for my taper in to Zurich.
I was looking forward to this ride as the weather was decent and I had a nice route mapped out which would provide a reasonable amount of climbing broadly similar to Zurich.
The only thing I noticed as I hit the road was a bit of a breeze blowing. Hopefully it wouldn’t be too bad.
I was going rally well and averaged 18MPH for the first hour and right about that time, I got to Ballynahinch and encountered the headwind. It was more than a breeze and was hitting me smack in the face and making progress a bit more laborious than it had been.
This wind continued right in to my face all the way through to Carryduff and beyond to Purdysburn.
I finally got a turn and it became a strong side wind.
Heading back towards Lisburn and out towards Ballinderry then Aghalee and Lurgan, the wind seemed to ease off a bit and I made up a bit on the average speed.
The rest of the ride went along pretty well through to about 70 miles and I seemed to drop a bit of energy at this point. Maybe it wasn’t enough energy going in but it’s something I need to be careful of on the main event.
Happy enough with the overall ride and average speed.
Friday 11th July 2014
Swimming ( 3500M / 01:21:20)
ANOTHER early start for the 5.30 swim. I really will not miss these early morning swims and to make things worse the water was pretty damn cold this morning.
I had it in my head to do 3500M as I missed out on swimming n Wednesday after nursing the shoulder in case it got worse and thankfully it was fine today.
I also missed out on a bike / run brick yesterday as my Achilles Tendon had become a bit sore and I decided to rest it. There’s no point doing anything dodgy at the moment as I need to be in the best shape possible in two weeks’ time.
This swim went Ok. Just OK.
The pace was the same as the last time for 4000M which is consistent, but it just felt a bit flat. Rather than doing my usual sets of 750M, I just decided to go through to 2500M with no rest, take a wee drink at 2500M and then crash the rest of it.
This went great until I started to feel belly rumblings at about 2000M. I held it in until 2500 and then had to make a swift exit for the loo.
Once I got back in the pool feeling refreshed I managed to finish out the set pretty well.
Only a couple more early morning swims before the big day thankfully.
The plan for this weekend is to do a 15mile run and then rest on Sunday. That will then
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