It's all going Pete Tong

The last three weeks have been really tough. After feeling ever so cock-a-hoop after the Hampton Court half I was really looking forward to another block of hard training, but my mind and body have had other ideas. It's that recurrent theme for me, of feeling very run-down and my immune system struggling to cope with life, work and training stress. The first warning sign was a Trainerroad turbo session at ftp that should have been relatively easy to complete, but I couldn't get anywhere near the power numbers thst I should have bee hitting. Instead, I knocked it on the head and went to do 'Black', which is my go-to aerobic TR session which I do when I just want to turn the cranks and do a little bit of work. I couldn't even do that, so climbed off and sulked about it, hoping that things would improve. They havent.

This is what Trainerroad failure looks like.

Despite last week and this week being low volume, I'm still finding it really hard to get back into the training groove. Pretty much every TR session at the moment is ending in me not completing the set and my ftp is falling through the floor; currently down from 275 to 247 watts, which is a very large drop. Some of that is easily explained away by my increase in running volume but really I should still be able to maintain an ftp well above 250W and the fact that I'm not seems to suggest that I'm still not firing on all cylinders.  I ended up having a day off work last Tuesday with a proper stomach bug / temperature bug thing, which I think was my body finally saying 'enough is enough'.

 I need more rest, eat better and to get well, but at the moment it seems easier said than done.

Ah yes, running. It really f##ks you in the head, doesn't it? I genuinely thought that my major injuries were behind me and that I could look forward to some good quality run training and just when I was feeling really good about it all, the running Gods go and stick a pebble in my trainers. I went and ran the other Hampton Court Half last Sunday and was looking to get around in 1:29 ish again. The first 5 miles were great and I was running comfortably at 6:45min/miles when my right calf went twang in quite a big way. I was about as far from the end of the course as possible so decided, unwisely,  I might as well walk / jog back and finish. My calf is pretty buggered and I think it's going to be a fair few weeks before I can even do some gentle jogging. I am beyond annoyed,  mainly at myself for not warming up enough on what turned out to be a cold morning. I didn't do any strides, jogging or stretching beforehand and just went straight into a fast paced effort. This was a really stupid thing to do and that's what happens when one gets complacent. The upside of going was seeing a lovely friend Rachel, absolutely smash her half marathon pb, which was totes emosh!

So I need to focus on getting back in the pool and trying to claw some ftp back on the bike. Easter break is two weeks away and I'm trying to plan a big training week in the first week with a 200 and 300km ride with quite a bit of swimming, so this next fortnight is about re-grouping and trying to knock on the head this virus, or whatever it is that I've got.

No one said it would be easy.

A bit of racing

Time check before it all got rather hard

This is the third time that I’ve raced the Sporting 14 in the last 4 years and it’s been my first event of the season.  On paper, it looks relatively easy with two laps and no major hills to climb, but it is quite frankly, brutal. The start at the bottom of Hungry Hill looks benign enough and as it stretches out before you, calling it a hill seems ridiculous, particularly on the first lap, but after a minute or two I’m usually completely anaerobic with snot and spit pouring from every facial orofice as I desperately try to get more oxygen in.  It just goes on and on and on, slowly sapping speed all the way up. Even worse, there’s a small flat section in the middle which lulls you into a false sense of security, letting you grab a brief respite before the interminable climb starts again.

After the first time up I thought I’d nailed it and felt pretty good, despite the really poor road conditions and cold temperature. My breathing settled as I took the second left to start the long descent back to the start. The second time along Hungry Hill was turgid; particularly at the bottom and despite moving pretty slowly I was absolutely at my limit. Gradually I got into a bit of a rhythm but I felt very rugged going up. The last, bumpy descent merely prolonged the agony and although it was the fastest time that I've ridden the course, it was only a handful of seconds.

This was in stark contrast to the following Sunday, when I ran the Quicksilver Hampton Course Half Marathon. Over the last month I'd managed to get a couple of long runs done that were in double digits for the first time in 6 months or so and I was eally excited about running uninjured and pinning a number on. I wasn't sure what my  speed endurance would be like but I thought something around 1:30 was possible, so I settled myself 50 metres or so behind the 1:30 pacer and sat in. The first half went by quickly and comfortably and I gradually reeled in the pacers, until I was literally tucked in behind them. I should have stayed with them but I thought I'd push on a bit as I was feeling so good. Big mistake! Within a mile I was blowing hard and after being with a nice group being sheltered, I was now out on my own into a stiff headwind heading back to the finish. I was really hanging on over the last couple of miles but I kept my pace constant despite a big increase in RPE, but I was delighted with 1:28:56.