Week 17 Review

Week 17 was an easy week. An opportunity to recover from two harder weeks and an opportunity to recharge the batteries before the next two harder weeks which would entail a fairly tough week away in Lanzarote.


The Schedule for the next 2 weeks looks like:

Recovery Ride Sunday 31st Jan

The weather was indeed as bad as predicted and as expected and as feared. The social ride was done as a solo recovery ride on the turbo. Followed the BRR03 turbo session from the Tacx website which I include in the graphic to the right along with the heart rate trace for the session.

My swim session in the evening comprised 5x 1k. Freestyle full stroke on the odds, freestyle pull on the evens. Session took 81mins in the 25m UEA pool. Took the total for the weekend (and the week) to 9k. Sort of makes up for not swimming in week 16.

And then again there was Snow - Turbo Brick wk 18 Saturday 30th January 2010

Had a relaxing massage from Jude Durrant Thursday lunchtime and then received the following text message from the coach:
"Saw your blog today don't do the swim what you missed on tuesday tomorrow."
I had been planning on squeezing that missed session in on the Friday morning. Then due to working late and then it snowing by the time I got home I was too late for the Tri-Anglia Committee Meeting and definately too late to get a recovery ride in before the meeting. Instead I just spent the evening chilling out at home with the cats.
I can't get over how much snow we've had. We've had the third dose. Good job today's session involved the turbo trainer in the garage, but again run efforts are a bit restricted due to slippery surfaces under foot. The session involved a fifteen minute warm up, then a hard 20minutes (280 watts) on the bike then straight into a 2400-3000m run at 6:30-6:45mpm pace (I did 7mpm thanks to the conditions) a quick breather then 10 mins recovery spin before repeating the run and bike efforts. Then a 10minute cool down.
This evening I'm heading for a swim. The session I have in mind is 4k comprising 800m warm up, 4x 300m with 30s rest, 8x 100m on 1:40-1:45 (we'll see how I'm going), 16x 25m on 30s then an 800m warm down.
Had been planing to treat tomorrows easy ride as a social ride. With snow and ice, I think I'll change that to a turbo recovery ride and then a second good swim.

Turbo Wk 17 Wednesday 27th January 2010

4x 10minutes at 300watts on the turbo this evening as my first bit of excercise this week. Went a whole load better than expected and feared. Numbers from the session were pretty similar to when I previously did this session on 14th January.
Massage tomorrow, and perhaps if I can get up early enough a swim to make up for missing Tuesdays.

Week 16 review and Wk17 + Lanzarote Preview

Week 16 was billed as a hard week. I certainly found it hard even with softening a couple of sessions and missing a few, though work assisted with those ommisions. No swims this week. Struggling because I'm tired, though can't help wonder with the number of bugs going round if I'm fighting something off. But as negative as I was with my rides at the weekend, and you'll note how slow I've been with updating the blog, I have to conceed that I did get out there and those miles are in the bank. Certainly the running is strong which is the main aim. Just need to get over mental set-backs and get out there again for some more. Fortunately this week is a recovery week as per the schedule below, and I'm being allowed to take the first half of next week easy so that I can get in some quality bike sessions whilst in Lanzarote for a week from next Thursday, the current schedule for that is included below.

Long ride Wk16 Sunday 24th January

Was meant to participate in the VC Norwich Reliability ride with strict instructions to latch onto and hang onto the fastest group. I really didn't feel up to that and didn't get out of bed in time to join in.
Instead I went for a solo ride with the aim of 3 hours at 18mph. I was barely able to average 15mph. My body just didn't want to work harder than 70% of heart rate max and the legs didn't want to turn over faster than 80rpm. The mind was not in a good state. Thought about stopping at my Mum's and asking for a lift home. Felt like pulling over and laying on the road side to cry. Can't recall ever being so keen to get off a bike.
Not a bad little 45 mile route and discovered that the Carrot Cake Clif Bars are jolly tasty.
Decided against doing the 30minute timed swim in the evening that I'd asked my mother to lap count for me. Instead I treated her and my brother to take away curry.

Long Ride Wk 16 Saturday 23rd Jan

Was very fortunate to have the company of Gary Wootton and Jonathan Briggs for a long ride. The schedule nearly put them off riding with me. The target pace was "too rich" for them. As it turns out it was too much for me too. I felt tired and it was hard work. We went upto the North Norfolk Coast to find some hills and devised a twisty route.

Immediately followed that up with a 16 minute run. A transition run (t-run). Aim had been 2 miles so without a measured route to follow decided to run for 8minutes then turn round and run back. The legs really didn't want to know and it felt awful. Was pleasently surpised to discover I'd covered 1.9miles.