Pulling up lame

I had a lovely run before work yesterday. I suppose that officially it was a run commute, but as it took in 4 miles along the River Thames, it didn’t feel like it. I felt great and I was ticking over comfortably  at sub IM marathon pace, around 4:50kms. After an hour and 5 minutes I ran towards the front door of work, in fact, I could see it in front of me, only for my right calf to pull again in exactly the same spot as last week.

So that’s it for running for me now.  No more before the big day. While I was hoping to get another half marathon distance in before July 21st, it’s just going to be too risky. I’ve done considerably more running than I ever did before Forestman and Outlaw and it’s going to have to be enough. Three weeks’ rest should be enough to allow it to heal for me to complete the marathon at my goal pace, so now as I head towards the taper I can finish off with more swim and bike. Sub optimal, but in the main I’m in ok shape.

Four weeks out

So, four weeks out. and I've hit that almost panicky period where I'm trying to get every session done knowing that last week and the next ten days or so are my last chance to really effect what could happen at IMCH.  I'm like a coiled spring. I'm ready to go and I'm ready to go now. I'm really looking forward to it but I want it done, so I can move on and ride my bike and run for fun. It's been weeks since I rode my bike with any of my mates, choosing instead to hit the roads on my tt bike to get that really squared away. But there's no doubt I've found that harder than I thought.

It's coincided with another really busy time at work which meant my early morning sessions took a hit as I had to get into work early and ended up doing sessions late into the evening, hitting that downward spiral of fatigue and stress. That said, I got my key sessions done and went back to the old school method of just getting a long bike and long run in, while everything else was a bonus.

The most important session has been my long weekend ride. Last week I got 93 miles done in a tad over 5 hours, while yesterday I went over 100 miles (for the first and last time before Zurich) with 103 miles in 5hrs 40. It was quite a bit slower than I had hoped. A 14 hour day at work followed by a family party until midnight, then on the road by 9:30am. There was a lot of traffic heading to the coast that I got caught up in and I didn't fully fuel so I was running on fumes towards the end. I noticed that my IF dropped off in the last 90 minutes because of this, going from 0.70 to 0.68. It doesn't sound much but this power decoupling was noticeable. Still, a really solid ride in the bank when it would have been easier to have gone to the pub.
https://www.strava.com/activities/2471181558

I've had another minor injury scare. Thursday became a double run day and it was an easy 8 miles in to work and then another easy 3 miles home, but literally within sight of my house I felt my right calf pull/tear again. I stopped straight away and as I type, it seems fine after a few days icing and stretching. I've bought a decent pair of calf gurds and while I hate wearing them, I will until the Ironman just to provide that extra level of security (fingers crossed). Realistically, I 've only got a few more runs left to do, so I will cut my runs short if I have to and hope my bike fitness carries through.

After my underwhelming Cotswold swim, I hit the pool today and had a much more pleasing 3km swim in 55 minutes, which although about the same speed as my half swim, it was obviously without a wetsuit, so, in theory, I should be a bit faster in July. I had another guy in my lane who was just a little faster than me and I used him to keep pace with, although we were swimming in opposite directions. It was amazing how a little competition got me to get out of my ironman plod and raise my rpe. Maybe I need to hit the swim a bit harder? We'll see.

There is something that could completely scupper my swim anyway. I've been tentatively keeping an eye on the weather in Zurich, and next week the temperature is due to get up to 37 degrees. This is quite frankly, shit. As a general rule, I don't do heat but it's looking like there could be a good chance of a non-wetsuit swim and it being baking on the run. I can't do anything about the former, but for the latter, I have a plan, which I will divulge in my next post. I've been thinking about it, a lot!

That said, I think I'd prefer 37 degrees compared to what Ali Brownlee had to contend with today at the inugural Ironman Ireland. Who'd have thought that it could possibly be a tad wet in Ireland?

Cotswold 113 Triathlon

Checking out the OW safety kayaks

This was my first tri since the Outlaw two years ago and was to see how things currently stand as far as my training and preparation for Switzerland is going. So, it was a great day and a frustrating one, all rolled into one.

This is now a well established event and would be the seventh HIM I've done. It's set in the Cotswold Water park and surrounding area and it was a very pretty course, and absolutely pan flat, so the bike leg would prove to be drag-strip fast, or so I hoped. What with my disrupted run training following a mild calf pull the weekend before, I was genuinely considering this as an aqua-bike training session and if my calf was sore then I'd drop out, saving myself for the big day in six weeks' time. So, how'd it go?

Stupidly early start rewarded with a stunning sunrise

Swim 34:59
I was hoping for a 33 minute swim, so was pretty disappointed when I got out the lake. I was in the 5th wave and so there was not very much biff at all, which was good. I'd made sure that my wetsuit was on properly and my shoulders were loose and after 10 minutes or so, I found myself in a group of three, sometimes leading, but often sitting on the feet of the lady in our group. I felt really good, except for the few times when the lake was quite whiffy and actually felt a little sick. I think it's because I felt good that I was pretty hacked off with a 35 minute swim. That said, it was about finding out where I am, and now I know!

T1 4:31
OMFG! The first rule of transition is, don't be in transition. The second rule of transition is; DON'T BE IN TRANSITION!

This was just terrible. I got 95% of my wettie off, only for the left leg to become stuck fast over my ankle transponder. I was stamping, rolling on the grass; I was almost considering getting my car keys and splitting the leg to get it off. Eventually the wetsuit was off, helmet on and I was jogging to the bike mount line.

Bike 2:40:44
The course was really flat, so the plan was to just sit on 0.75IF and that should bring me in around 2:30. So when I fired up my Garmin, I was surprised to see that all the data fields that I had on screen, including my power and IF were not there. I pressed all the buttons and went through the various screens but it was nowhere to be seen, before it dawned on me what had happened. On my long ride the week before, I had not been able to upload my Garmin to Training Peaks and Garmin Connect so I had eventually done a factory reset on it, and this of course had wiped out all my pre-set screens. That meant I had no power so would have to go on rpe alone. No bother, every single triathlon I have ever done before, this has been to case, so I just had to crack on with it. The other issue I had was that my xlab bar bottle covered the time and distance so I was not able to take time checks at quarter and half distance to compare with my rpe, and this was to cost me.

The bike was a pretty course and very flat. My main issue was that as I started in a late wave, there were a lot of competitors in front and I had to be careful going past and as the morning progressed, more cars were on the road, which at times got quite congested and I lost some time sitting behind cars who were (very considerately) waiting to go round other riders.  The weather ended up being perfect; a little wind towards the end but 16 degrees with some light cloud cover and not cold at all. It was really nice. I didn't see my Garmin time and it was probably just as well. Had I done so, I would have thrown a proper strop as it was my slowest bike in years. That said, it was around Ironman intensity, so pretty good on reflection

T2 1:48
That's more like it. Helmet off; shoes on. Go.

Run 1:39:51
This was great. The fact that I had underbiked meant that a good run was more likely on the cards, if my calf held together. I just felt really good from the off and was clicking along at 4:10-15kms. It was a three lap course with mixed trail under shade and some pavement. Again, it was pan flat with the only 'hill' being a little jump over a log before one of the feed stations. During the run, I lost count of the people I overtook and was only overtaken by three fast boys who were on their final lap or two.  At the end of lap 1 I was still feeling really strong but I really needed a wee, so managed to hold on until the portaloos before going, so I lost another minute there. Lap 2 was much the same, still going strong, but then about two thirds of the way round my bowels decided to rebel from the energy drink, which I think had caffeine in. I managed to just about get back to the portaloos before things erupted in a very dramatic way. It was an extremely quick poo, but still cost me another couple of minutes. The last lap was considerably tougher and I was gradually losing a little form, but the kms were ticking off until I got to 'a parkrun to go' which always helps me to see the last 25 minutes out. My actual moving time was 1:36, so I lost 3 minutes on the run for toilet stops, while it pretty much equalled my best HIM run from over a decade ago. Still a bit of life in the old dog yet, and even better, my calf was fine.

Final time 5:01:55

I queued up for my times, convinced that I was well under 5 hours, even possibly 4:50, as I still didn't know my bike split at that moment. When I saw my time I was like a child who had just dropped his ice cream on the floor; I was, as they say, gutted. But after a day or two to reflect, I have to be pleased. A really solid performance, in the middle of a training block, without a taper and I'm not injured.

So, things to work on.
1. I'm not as fast in the open water as I thought, so I need to get more practice in. To be fair, this was only my second OW  swim in three years, so not really surprising.
2. Re-sort my Garmin.
3. Need to ensure I have got some solids when fuelling on the bike. Just liquids seem to be a bit of an issue for my stomach.

Practicing my pacing

number geek

So after last weekend's failed long ride at the Hounslow 100, I was back out onto the A24 yesterday, riding solo and seeing if I could ride consistently at a set intensity factor. I  decided on 0.70 IF as this is more on the conservative side, and it would be interesting to see what sort of pace that would translate to.

The numbers that came back were pretty pleasing. Firstly, I was able to nail the correct IF. It started out a little high with a few early hills but I was able to keep it nice and consistent after that, and with a few Horton loops near home I actually got it under 0.7, which was very cool. 19.4mph average speed so something in the region of a 5:35-40 bike split, depending on wind and heat etc. It would be good if I can keep knocking my ftp up over the next few weeks and see if I can bring that projected time down a bit. I might feed these numbers into Best bike Split and see what that gives me. The golden question, can I run off the bike at this intensity? Yes, pretty comfortable with being able to, although my niggly right calf has come back so I'm laying off running for a few days.

I've had a couple of really good swims this week. Friday's swim was 30x100 broken into three sets with the middle 10 being off 2 minutes and all the reps around my CSS pace of 1:46. The last time I did this session I was bent over double at the end of the pool, seeing stars. This time, it was a lot more comfortable; a feeling of being nicely over-exerted rather than 'fu*k, I'm going to die.'

Hounslow 100m TT (well, 62 miles of it)

I never learn. I never bloody learn. Three hours into the Hounslow 100 time trial on Sunday and I've gone out way too hard, again, and I'm wondering why everything hurts so much. To be fair, when I saw on my Garmin within the first 20 minutes that I was cycling at an IF of 0.86, I did realise this and did make the decision to keep on, thinking that it would be an effort that I could maintain until the end.

But of course, I couldn't. The wind was getting up steadily during the morning and it went from being a bit annoying to damn hard work. The terrible road surface finally got to me too. I was having a massive internal battle, knowing that I really wanted a good 100 mile ride under my belt as part of my Ironman preparations, but at the same time actually hating every minute of the experience. The more the wind blew, the harder my deep section front wheel was to control, particularly when orbiting the Farnham roundabout.

 Eventually, the decision was made for me when the bumps in the road actually caused my rear mech gearshifter to come out of the end of my aerobars. I was frankly delighted to have a legitamate reason to pack. I was also absolutely covered in energy drink from the continual ponding the bike took

 With 22mm tires on my race wheels, the bumps were always going to be difficult but I had coped with them well in the 12 hour last year. I think a combination of them along with the feeling of barely able to control my front wheel at times sapped all my mental strength to cope.

It wasn't a complete disaster. It was still a hard 60 miles covered with a 40 minute brick run off the bike; to date, my first brick of this training cycle. It was a little uncomfortable, but with a final IF of 0.83, it was to be expected and was at IM pace.

Sh*t seems to be getting real.

The results are in - again

So far, so good.

A CSS test yesterday morning in a relatively quiet pool lane, which saw an improvement in my CSS pace from 1:49/100m last time, to 1:45/100m now. Best of all was my 400m time trial which has improved from 7:09mins to 6:54mins, and it felt a lot more comfortable and I think I could have squeezed a bit more out. Even so, that's really good to see.

Climbing the ftp staircase

I followed this up with a ftp test this morning. Getting up before 6am to smash yourself to bits on the turbo takes some motivation, but thankfully, my motivation is pretty high at the moment with eight weeks to go. I'd been a bit disappointed with my last couple of tests, seeing it fall from 274 watts to 250 and with the fatigue I'd been feeling I wasn't sure if I'd improve it much, so was properly chuffed to get back up to 274. It's good to see the training paying off and I'm hopeful I can squeeze out a few more watts over the next 6 weeks before the taper starts.

All of a sudden, it all seems very close.

Fighting Fatigue

It's been a scheduled rest week and boy, have I needed it. I've felt like $hit all week with my usual fatigue symptoms hitting me really hard. I can best describe it as like having a mild hangover with a low level headache, sore stomach and extreme tiredness. The really horrible part is getting over 8 hours sleep but still waking up shattered. No one said Ironman training was easy. So after the last fortnight of 13 and 14 hour training weeks, this week was cut back to 10 and all of it was much more steady state aerobic stuff rather than hard intervals. It was topped off with a very steady 3 hours in the Surrey Hills with Simon, this morning. He was dancing on the pedals going up Ranmoor,  Combe Bottom, Leith Hill and Crocknorth, while I lumbered up a good few seconds behind, but it was a good social and low stress ride which didn't take too much out of me by the end.

Big week coming up

This week will be a test week, so as long as the pool is not too crowded I'll be doing another CSS swimming test tomorrow. To be honest, I doubt there will be that much change from the last one, but there might be a slight improvement. Tuesday will be an ftp test on the turbo. Again, there should be an improvement and I'm really going to focus on hitting my scheduled turbo sets hard. At the end of this week is the Houslow 100 mile TT. I still can't decide what intensity I should ride this at. In theory I should stick to my <0.75 IF Ironman cap but it is a race so I might well go up to 0.8 IF and see where that gets me. I've also been tinkering with my position, aiming to get lower and longer and this will be a test to see if it will be sustainable.

Running's back on track. My left achilles is grumbling but it's under control so I'm confident that I will get back up to around 16 miles / 2 hours by the time I need to start tapering. I went out and did 13 solo miles in around 7:30 miles so I had finally completed a run a bit faster than my projected Ironman shuffle pace and I really enjoyed running just thatt little bit faster.

Ironman Bike Pacing

I'm trying to get a bit more methodical about how I pace the bike at IMCH. My two previous experiences at long course racing were chalk and cheese. At the Forestman, I significantly over-biked and by the time I rolled into T2 I was completely cooked and it led to a nice five and a half hour run / walk (mainly walk) to cover the last 26.2 miles. At the Outlaw I probably under-biked. I say probably because I don't really know, but I got off the bike feeling relatively fresh and was able to run the first 16 odd miles before cramp and fatigue set in. I had done virtually no running in the run up to the race so I believe that the problems I had in the second half of the run were more to do with lack of run conditioning and run volume rather than going too hard on the bike, but really, I'll never actually know.

I've owned a power meter for the last year and other than my 12 hr TT last year, I have not used it in real time on the bike; it's mainly been used for looking at my power after a training ride, so I started hunting round for how best to use it on the day and in my long training rides over the next 10 weeks. I want to be able to bike as fast as possible and then run as fast as possible. Ideally, I'd like to run a 3:45 marathon off the bike which is a big ask but I know I can do it if I prepare properly and race with my head, so the first part is to get the bike pacing nailed. But how?

Well, the internet is a great thing. I remember reading a while ago a great blog post on the Training Peaks website here; it's a very good read if you're preparing for an Ironman.

The crux of it is this table;

Across the top is the rider's Intensity Factor (IF). Very simplisticly, it's a percentage of the rider's functional threshold power, so riding at 75% IF (or 0.75) is 75% of their ftp (average best power of an hour). The numbers in each box are the Training Stress Score (TSS). This is a number that gives a value to the training stress for each activity as a function of its intensity and duration. Using this table, the aim is to keep your ride in the grey zone as this should mean that when you get off the bike the rider should be able to run.  If you push too hard and go into the orange and red areas, basically, you're stuffed. The general consensus seems to be that one should aim to keep between 70-80% (70% if not so strong on the bike, moving towards 80%  with more experience / bigger ftp etc)

So today I had another long ride planned but this time I set up my Garmin to not only display my actual power but also the average IF over the course of the ride and it proved very enlightening. First of all, I was bloddy shattered. I had two big weeks of over 12 hours; not a lot for a lot of IM athletes, but for me, they are big weeks. As I get older I need more recovery and when I rolled out this morning I could tell I was pretty tired. I'd run 10 miles yesterday and while it had been a pretty easy and relaxed run, it was still in my legs. I had planned to meet with Simon and Dale and within 2 minutes I could tell that they were going to be way faster than me. They were waiting for me a few miles up the road and I told them to go on without me because I was only going to hold them up and I just wanted to go at my own pace and effort. The IF displayed on the Garmin was 0.81 when I stopped with them, so already well over the IF needed for a well pace IM bike. The boys blasted up the A24 and I got on with the task of seeing if I could get the IF down.

I did; but it took 70 miles. In particular, hills are a real issue. This is obvious but actually seeing the IF spike as the road went up each time forced me to keep backing off. On the flats the IF would creep down but very, very slowly. The average IF at the halfway point was 0.790 but by the end of the ride I'd got it back down to 0.776. Final stats here;

So, what does this tell me:
1. The IMCH bike course is 2 laps. The first half seems fast and flat around the lake followed by a  lumpy second half. My initial thoughts had been to time trial the first half fast and then ease off and recover on the hills. This is plainly not going to work. If I'm hitting the first half of each lap too hard I'm not going to recover enough on the hills to keep the overall IF down. If anything, I'm going to have to keep the intensity right down early on in order to keep the overall average to a level that will allow me to run off the bike. This is what I did at the Outlaw but now I have a metric to actually follow to ensure that I keep to a plan.
2. An IF of 0.77 is too high. While I backed right off on the way home, despite a stiff head wind at times, the initial higher intensity fast start, even though quite short, bit harder than I would have thought and my legs were pretty dead by the time I got home. I'm going to need to bike at below 0.75 to stand a chance of a good run off the bike and keep this as even as possible over the two laps.
3. I've got to get my ftp back up. While I was tired and had a run in my legs, the chance of a 5:30hr bike seems pretty remote and 5:45 seems more realistic. This is fine if I can run a good sub4 marathon off the bike.

I'm doing ok, but lots still to do.

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.

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.

Spare ribs

This week's been a recovery week and I had 8 hours of training planned. All was well until Thursday evening and a small spill on my bike on the way home. Nothing major but I've ended up with some bruised ribs that's making running and swimming very difficult / impossible. This next week was going to be a bigger volume week but I am now taking it a bit more gingerly and will be focussing on my Trainerroad sessions at the gym. I was just starting to feel that my running was actually progressing so I'm quite frustrated, but hey, these things happen. I can still get some good training done even if I have to put two of the three disciplined on hold. I'm hopeful that I should be ok for the Hampton Court half in two weeks' time. Before then, it's the Wheelers Sporting 14 TT where I hope to do quite a bit better than last year. I don't think I could have done much worse.

Early mornings

Zippy

So far, they’re going well, but it only has been a few weeks. It’s been great for my state of mind to not have to worry about getting something done in the evening, which means I’ve been more relaxed when I've got home from work, trying to figure out how to work training around the family. I’m also sleeping better because I’m more tired in the evening, but normal tired, as opposed to being wired up and fatigued at the same time. I was a bit blown away at the start by the sheer number of peole in the gym at silly o' clock; I thought it would just be me

My main issue has been the first turbo session on the wattbike last Tuesday. I managed to plan it that I would start a new TrainerRoad plan in the new year, which means a ramp test. Somewhere and somehow I managed to lose 30 watts, which is a hell of a lot. I think a perfect storm of being underfuelled, a slightly different poition on a quickly set up bike and just not enough htfu. Jump to this morning's 3x sweetspot session and it just felt far too easy, which shows that I got the test wrong. I had already bumped up  my ftp by 10 watts after the test, so it looks like it's worth pushing it another 10-15 watts and see how the sessions are.

I've managed to not injure my feet, so far.  however my back is extremely achy so I've been doing some gentle core work but it's a bit too late really. It's ok during a session but getting up in the morning and my general movement it not great. I should know by now that you ignore your core at your peril. I must do better here and devote some time to it.

Simon has been a star and lent me a pair of Zipp 808 clinchers to put on my Argon.  It’s finally come off the turbo so the plan is to keep it off and use if for training at the weekends on my longer rides and when the TT season starts. We went out for another ride down the A24 yesterday and it wasn’t particularly fast but it was good to be back on the Argon as Simon disappeared up the road. This is situation normal at the moment but hopefully I can start to reel him in as we head towards the Spring.