This week has had plenty of ups & downs, the big event looming on the horizon and the increase in training, albeit volume as opposed to intensity has started to take it’s toll on my body. I came into the week with a niggling hip injury which made walking pretty hard in the few hours after a run. The run itself is ok, it’s when I rest immediately afterwards – it’s like my hip flexors don’t want to work and I end up lifting my pelvis into each step – a bit weird but it disappears after a day…until the next run. Suzy tells me to go get a massage but I keep puting it off as I can’t seem to find the time in my busy training schedule to have an hour off in the evening (and subsequent day off for recovery from the massage) so I’m currently the king of procrastination!
Monday seems to be my new day off – after that swim at Holkham and the 70-mile headwind ride home it’s probably a good thing. It looks as though Saturday is my long run and Sunday my long ride from now on.
Tuesday was a shorter tempo ride – only one hour. They usually sit around 90-120 minutes but my cycling schedule is set to have an easier bike week, usually one in every four weeks so it’s a little less volume this week on two wheels. The run afterwards on the treadmill seemed to take forever, I guess running outside gives you plenty to look at including traffic, people, scenery etc. The gym doesn’t do that so I just zoned off to my “80’s Hits” compilation and did the 30 minutes brick run with very little impact on those spongy treads.
Wednesday was the third & last in the Wroxham 5k series. Suzy was stuck in London so initially her mum was going to take her place – there was a double booking so that didn’t happen. Instead I was “Billy no mates” from Beccles Triathlon Club so I decided to run 5k beforehand and then just “go hard” and see what happens. I always had in the back of my mind that 3 years ago at Gorleston Park Run I did a 21:26 and since then I had never got anywhere close to it – this perhaps was a chance to?
I calculated that if I did 4.15 k’s I could beat this by 10 seconds so I thought i’d juts try it to see…….1k in and it was a 4:03, 2nd it was a 4.05, third was a 4.10…. “I’ve blown it, i’ve gone off way too hard” was my thought process on the 2k striaght road back into Hoveton. My legs were jelly and people around me must’ve wondered what on earth was going on with my breathing! At 800 to go I stopped and almost instantly was barked at by Mark Turner from Great Yarmout Road Runners – “what are you doing, don’t stop, just jog it out” so I carried on but never jogged – just tried to go hard again….21:02!
What on earth just happened there? I PB’d by 20+ seconds when I’m supposed to be Ironman training – what an idiot, what an acheivement, my hip! lol
Thursday saw me go off to the local TT again to push myself on the bike for 24(ish) minutes. I didn’t feel too great going out to the event – my warm up of 18 minutes pretty much takes me to the village green where signing on takes place and all of my intensity segments in my warm up were a struggle to achieve. A local lad who’s currently in Belgium “pro’ing it” turned up so it was clear we were all going to look rather amateur in the next hour – and so he did with a new course record of 21.12 taking another 17 seconds off his own time he set last year. I came in some three minutes down at 24.28 taking the last 2 miles very steadily after having nothing left after Herringfleet Hill – up until that point I was on a “Power PB” but the wheels well & truly fell off. Too much in two days i’m afraid 🙁
Friday was supposed to be a run at dinnertime but due to my hip and being ultra-busy at worked I made the call and didn’t do anything.
That evening was a river-swim organised by Marcus Nichols from Beccles Tri Club at Geldeston Locks Pub – i’d never been there before so didn’t have a clue what to expect, additionally I had never swam in a river so this was going to be an interesting evening!
Suzy was with me and we all congregated in the pub garden, donning our wetsuits and walked to the mooring pathway where holiday-makers no doubt stop for a quick drink before continuing their journey. People started diving in, I hadn’t dived into water for years so clambered in at the side of the river looking like a complete amateur. Away we went, heading for beccles, it was amazing, looking at the reeds and wildlife as I swam down the river for about 20-minutes before turning back and hitting the pub for a pre-ordered Haddock & Chips and a locally made still cider. My boy William was with me too so I loaded him up with J20 drinks beforehand told him to look after our stuff while we were on the river. He was looking forwards to his first fish & chips ever and loved it – another culinary success for a child who is rather particular about his food!
Saturday was a 75 minute run with an additional 30 minutes as I missed yesterday’s session. As always this finished with the Lowestoft Park Run. The day was looking to be quite hot so I set off at 7:30am going to Carlton Colville, Gisleham and the round the back/country-way to Pakefield where I finished off with a 24:18 at the park run – quite easily to be honest. Well…with a 21:02 under my belt I was a 5k specialist! lol
Unfortunately the hip was playing up afterwards so walking was an issue – a massage is booked now! I also had a tear in my running shorts and the tear rubbed the inside of my thigh so I now have “chubb rub” as Karle would call it – so walking like John Wayne was quite clear Saturday afternoon whilst I watched Suzy do her 10-mile TT on Bungay Bypass. She did really well considering the crosswinds hampering both the outward & return legs. The wind was gusting in places and for a small rider that’s always problematic – she was definitely affected by this and was “scalped” by a few riders she normally beats. Onto the next!
Sunday was supposed to be a 30-mile Time Trial round the local lanes but this was cancelled due to no-one from the promoting club doing it. So I thought i’d do a group ride…..no. My team mates were all away or racing. Other clubs/groups were completing a 200 mile sportive in Norfolk or The Marmotte in the Alps so again I was “Billy No Mates” and decided to do a 4hr ride in the sunshine although my plan said I needed to do only two and a half hours. I thought i’d head out to the Norwich Tri taking place that morning but by the time I passed it was all finishing up so I decided to just flyby and get on with the continuous ride in preparation for my 100 next weekend. Because of the heat I stopped to fill up my water bottle – just for a minute or two at Ludham before continuing home and finishing in just under 20mph. I had set out to ride at IM pace(ish) so I did what it said on the tin.
The hip was ok and the legs a bit shot, the back was giving me a bit of an issue later that afternoon. Fatigue isn’t that high but I think it’s a case of doing too much intensity earlier in the week and then expecting my “endurance” switch to kick in later in the week – which it struggled to do.
This week is just training, no races as such, the 100 is on Sunday so I’ll taper a bit for that. Another river swim Monday evening – no fish & chips though 🙁 Maybe even a sea swim on Saturday after Park Run. No local TT for me Thursday as I’ve got that much-needed massage booked after work, I might go out and marshal a corner or something – giving it back so-to-speak.
Training Peaks Geeks Info:
Fitness – 115. Fatigue – 131. Form – -10.
11 hours training – 777 TSS.
4000m swimming. 33k running. 200km bike.