Within a week of Majorca that’s my first bike event completed – the yarco’s promotion of the “Good Friday 10”, a simple out & back 10-mile Time Trial against the clock. Not quite the mileage I need for October but it’s a start. Suzy had started off just after 8 o’clock, she was unimpressed with her time of just under 30 minutes, however I reminded her of her chest infection and constant wheezing and how she shouldn’t even be riding on a cold day – still, I know what I’m like so I’d still be annoyed.
Next – my turn.
The morning was quite cold and my hands had started to hurt during the warm-up. In fairness not much flesh was showing, only my knees as I had my long trip socks and long-sleeve DAP kit on, but still, it was cold. I knew once I was into “racing mode” I would soon warm up and forget about the cold anyway. I started very conservatively barely raising the power above 350w, usually it’s about 700-800w just to get up to speed but I knew my lungs were still struggling from Majorca and the chest infection I was still taking medication for. Sure enough within a mile I was coughing and splutering, so much so I was contemplating stopping right there but I tried to calm myself down and continued trying not to go over the 285w I had set myself to do the night before. The wind wasn’t helpful either way and as such it was just hard both ways. At around 7 miles there was a drag I call “the pigs” and this put me into the red, coughing and spluttering so much I gagged and promptly threw up all over the road, 30 seconds of composing myself and back on it for the finish – 23:49 in the end. I didn’t embarass myself with a top 20 position but plenty of folk happy they scalped me.
Even from my first blog several months ago I know I have to accept that my abilities are reduced compared to some riders as I’m geting older etc etc. and I know my training is set up to take on 112 miles (eventually) so intensity is less…..so, short efforts like these are difficult to adapt to. BUT….it’s still annoying I can’t get competitive like I used to. It doesn’t bother me as much as it would years ago if someone who’d just climbed on their bike two weeks ago beat me but it still bothers me that I get beat by riders I’d usually beat – my competitive spirit still there I guess!
The next day was the “Nelson Knee Knobbler” – a simple (ha!) 5km run on the beach. This event organised by DuneRunner, based at Caister Lifeboat Station, heading north for 2.5km and then to return. I started the run with Suzy and my boy and it was clear the sand was very soft and running normally was impossible. Every step was a slog and the sand was almost like quicksand as my feet were disappearing into the ground every step. Within a kilometer William stopped and walked and soon Suzy told me to carry on as this was not what I needed to do if I was to complete my 45 min run as planned. I did so and then began to trawl other runners throughout the rest of the run – finish time was about 33 minutes (10th place I think!) and then I ran round Caister for a further 12 minutes to make up the 45 minute quota. I returned to find William throwing up and faces of concern from Suzy and her Beccles Tri team mates Jo & Darren. It’s clear the 3 week rest from any running and his immersion into his first ever running event (with a number on) was too much for him. A quick sit-down and a drink of juice put some colour in his cheeks and he was ok.
Sunday saw my structured 90 minutes of tempo riding adapted to a social ride with Suzy and the Beccles Triathlon Group. As it turned out the pace was steady heading out to Beccles and a few bits of tempo thrown in too. A quick coffee & cake stop at In A Spin in Loddon and a tempo/threshold push into Beccles kinda mixed things up a bit.
The afternoon was all about Tour Of Flanders on Eurosport, I have a romance with Early Season Belgian Classics – next week’s Paris Roubaix, the Queen Of The Classics, so I won’t be doing much when watching this apart from eating waffles and drinking Leffe beer! But first there’s a small issue of a Half Marathon in the morning. I haven’t done one of these properly for nearly 5 years so this should be a giggle. My best was 1:21hrs and my last was about 1:37 so I’ll be hapy to just plod round at “Ironman Pace” nipping in just under 2hrs. It’s training after all – not racing. And there’s a small issue of a swift 25 mile Time Trial the afternoon before on the Newmarket Bypass. I’ve been accepted to ride in this very fast event, some of the country’s best “testers” will be out there so it can’t be an easy ride, i’ll have to give it full beans (lungs willing).
So, all-in-all a fairly “ok” week, considering the chest infection, the blood tests, the chest x-ray, the suspected blood clot on my lungs, the medication, the events, all went well!
The advice given will always be “take a few days off” but there is an increasing urgency to make sure that boxes are ticked, sessions are completed as per the plan. Otherwise there would (in my mind) be that increasing uncertaintly that I will not perform as expected. So, I’m just getting on with it, run by run, swim by swim, ride by ride.
Geeks data: 483TSS (quite low considering). 90 Fitness. 90 Fatigue. 4 Form (not a minus for a change). 10 miles running. 7hrs biking. Just one 1000m swim.