Back on track

My perfect road

So after the wheels coming off in my last post, things are back on track, sort of. I managed to get some consistent training in over the Easter break, starting off with the London Orbital 300km audax.  It was a grotty day and the first 6 hours were very uncomfortable. It was to get worse after crossing the ferry over the Thames, when just after having a full kit change and I started feeling a bit more perky, I ran into a road closure on my route for roadworks and then spent almost an hour to travel less than 5 miles after I enquired where the diversion route was and got a very vague wave of an armfrom one of the workmen. Well, I think he was waving his arm and not giving me the finger, but by then I was so tired I didn't care anyway. I ended up finishing short of 300kms but still covered 195 miles so it was nice big block of TSS to kick off the fortnight.  I was going to ride London-Wales-London again next week, but I've taken the difficult decision to miss it. Things are busy at home and while it was probably my favourite event of last year (plus a name check in the Guardian, which was pretty cool!), it will mean that I won't get any swim or run training in over the weekend and I need to be focussed on IMCH.

I'm slowly clawing back some of my lost ftp using Trainerroad and Zwift but more importantly I'm getting my head in the right place, so that when it's getting tough I'm seeing the sessions through rather than bailing early. Still got a long way to go though.

Full kit change in an 'audax hotel'.

Swimming's ok. I haven't done a CSS test in a while but I think I've made a few small gains, particularly with my technique. I'm still doing relatively short intevals but I can feel that my body position is better, my kick is more pronounced and my body roll seems more effective. The main thing I want to work on over the next few weeks is my catch and pull; the front end of my stroke isn't grippy enough in the water and I'm losing power by not keeping my elbow high in the catch phase. Now that I've got a bit more swim fit, I can start to think about the more subtle nuances of my stroke. I'm able to get back to doing my swims in the early morning to, which has been an issue as I've been fitting them in at odd times, usually when a swim fit class is on. I don't pretend to be the fastest swimmer around but I am usually considerably quicker than most people who turn up at the swimming pool and it's been frustrating trying so hard to avoid people. Apparently, accidentally punching people in the face when swimming is frowned upon. I am actually looking forward to the lake opening in a few weeks.

Running's still the really weak area. I am back running which is good, but it's fairly inconsistent and there's no real endurance going on. I did 8 miles today which was fab; just an easy trundle on my usual trail loop near home.   I think that realistically, the best I can hope for before IMCH is to get up to 15-16 miles with maybe a few big bricks, and to hope that will be enough so I can run a sub 4 marathon off the bike. There's still plenty of time, but the next 8 weeks will be the make or break as far as a realistic bid to go under 11 hours.