The joys of pedalling the road to no where!

It was long ride day today; I had planned to do 6 hours but circumstances changed and had to stop at 5 hours.   It isn't an issue really as last week I did 5hrs 40 on my 5 hr ride day plus I'm actually going to get one extra long ride in due to the way my schedule works.  As from next week my long ride will be Monday or Tuesday; this will result in week 13; officially start of taper,  having my long ride at the beginning of the week;  I felt that doing my final long ride Tuesday 4th June was to long before the Outlaw;  hence the additional long ride on 11th June was better.  My taper will start on the 17th June instead.  

On to my ride;  I did the OTR Lake Placid followed by Quads on Fire (but this would be done in zone 3), to make it 5 hours I repeated the 2x8 mins and added 3x30secs to finish the 5 hours;  like we do on HC100.

I was up at 6.30 am, had a banana and a cereal bar, sorted my nutrition and started around 7am.  Initially I had a few issues with the tyre slipping;  I really must get a trainer tyre; to stop it I had to increase the tension,  not much but was pushing around an extra 10 watts for the same speed.  

I love the lake placid OTR but I do struggle with high cadence low resistance work and especially first thing in the morning; it resulted in a lower speed over the first hour then I would have liked.   Once I've done some heavier gear work I seem to be able to increase my cadence on the lower resistance work.  I loved the last hour;  felt great.  

I then went on to Quads on Fire and basically pushed top end zone 3 for the next couple of hours;  I repeated the 2x8 mins set and added an additional 3x30secs at the end; I felt brilliant throughout,  my HR didn't go out of zone 2 and I really don't feel like I've covered 87 miles.

I also did a short 20 min run straight of the bike and felt great.  

Lol I might not be saying that tomorrow :)

First Triathlon of the Season

Today was my first triathlon of the season;  and I'm not afraid to admit I was scared lol

Yesterday my quads were feeling tight and achy; this morning they still felt sore; nevertheless race day was here so time to quit moaning and get on with it :)

I had a bowl of cherios dry and then throughout the morning consumed about 250ml of H5 and the same in water;  took a gel+ when heat 3 started.Now I need to sort out a warm up routine;  I didn't do any; I'm never really sure what to do!

Swim - 1500m - 29.20

I'm really happy with this;  wasn't really sure how this would go;  apart from the Inverness jaunt;  I'm only swimming once a week and due to Iain not being well this week, the swim didn't happen;  so no swim in 10 days.   I decided not to tumble;  I wanted it more realistic for the OW swims, obviously the drive of the wall aids us.  It was in a way a messy swim; the guys had put slower times down which resulted in about a dozen stops, it'll be interesting to see the swim data later.   I felt really strong throughout,  so well chuffed.  

T1 lol well let's say it wasn't good;  its a very short transition run!

Bike - 42km - 1 hr 44

Mmmmm now I knew this was going to be difficult for me;  its a very technical course and my lack of skills resulted in a time probably a good bit slower than it should have been. 

It was quite a hilly course;  they had to change it last minute due to roadworks,  thou it still has the big hill in and there was a lot of debris and loose gravel on the roads due to the heavy rain the day before.   I felt really strong up the hills but going down was a different matter;  lol I was slower then going up!  But there were parts of the course were I could push it and in times past I would have been on my brakes on these too; so that's an improvement;  however,  one good thing from today, is I now have the confidence to go out and tackle the hills round here and the decents are not as severe :)

My transitions need work, there weren't the smoothest lol

I set out for my run and felt great; I was wearing my garmin and I consciously had to back off;  I took a gel+ early on and had about 250ml of water at the turnaround;  I hadn't managed to take any more than a couple of sips of H5 on the bike due to my handling issues.  I was really thirsty so I actually backed right of to get the water into me;  I eased abit on the last mile more due to my periformus problems,  it hadn't been bad but could feel it in the last couple of miles,  I was holding 7.55s average and ended up with an average of 8.06.  Got a massage lined up for Tuesday that should sort it.

Even with the below par bike; a 3hr 7 is the fastest I've done an Olympic Distance. 

This is me heading out for my run :)

HC100 Week 9 of the Spinervals IM Plan

This is only the 3rd time I've done this and I do enjoy it;  lol in our Spinervals way!

Stats - 100 miles - Average Speed 18.2

My alarm was set for 6am as I wanted to get a good chunk in before Iain woke up;  he should have been at pre-school but has a cold so he's at home til Monday.   Fortunately he's not really ill with it;  so happily watched telly;  came and chatted with me and played play station for the last 3 hours of it;  he's such a fantastic wee boy :)

I've only just started making a conscious effort to do early morning sessions so really wasn't sure how this would go straight out of my bed.  I had half a powerbar and a gel plus; was on the bike at 6.15 and lightly spinned for 10 mins listening to coaches notes;  I haven't counted this in my workout tally.

The previous night I had put my gels;  powerbars, water and high5 drinks ready.   Started the first disc about 6.30; I felt surprisingly good; after the 2nd 10 mins effort however,  I decided to move everything downstairs;  as my training room is opposite muchens bedroom I was worried about disturbing him plus it meant everything's at hand including most of his toys.   It proved a good plan as Iain seemed really happy with me being downstairs.  It did mean a break in the workout thou but it was early on.
After that the first disc went by smoothly and I ended up with an average speed of 17mph.

The second disc went okay;  I find the fact that the intervals are reducing in duration helps me mentally;  I also never think further than the set I'm currently doing,  rather than how long is to go.  At the end of this disc I did decide to do a clothes change and it made me feel better but I did find after each break it took a couple of reps to get back into it.  

Now the final disc I approach differently; I know I've still got 2 hours left but I done so many 2 hours rides I just think well I've done this long before and do a take on how I feel and I actually felt very good;  so knew I was going to finish but wasn't sure whether I could hold onto that magic number of 18 mph;  its a tough last couple of hours but the longer recovery can bring your average speed down;  I focused on keeping my recovery speed up lol not easy I really wanted to just lightly spin especially after the minute reps.  I finished with a 100 miles in he 5 hrs 30 and an average speed of 18.2. 

I'm so excited I really thought it would be next year before I managed this.   It was the longest I've done on my TT bike and though I didn't spend a lot in my aero position due to the periformus issue which didn't trouble me when I was on the horns; I generally felt quite comfortable.

Nutrition used;  I think my liquid intake could have been better;  I never needed a comfort break and developed a bit of a headache in the last hour too.

2 x 500ml water
2 x 500ml H5 4:1
3 H5 Gels with caffeine
4 H5 Gels
1 x Powerbar
1 x Banana

I don't think the powerbar will work for me;  think gels are easier and quicker to get the calories in.

The Mileage Block

Okay this week is week one of a six week mileage block and I've been working on the training over this week to get it into a structure for the next 5 weeks.

So far this week is going well and all being good I should be sitting around 15-16 hours;  Monday started with a very light spin and a short run; to be honest I've not counted it, as it was more of an active recovery and a chance to check that my bike is A okay (which it seems to be) after the weekend fun lol not!  My long ride will be 4 hours and long run 2hrs 30 and as this is my first week it'll be zone 2; a rule my running coach used in week one was nothing with any intensity just get the miles in;  which I'm applying to the long stuff this week.

The next 5 weeks should be around 18-20 hours; with long rides of 5-6 hours and my long runs 2hrs 30-40; I will do one 3 hour run but feel doing a 3 hour run every week is too risky with the year I had last year through the periformus syndrome.   I'm also going to take some of my old marathon training and incorporate a long steady zone 3 of about 90 mins and one of them will be replaced with a long fartlek that I used to do; basically run zone 3 for an hour then go into a progression of descending by minute intervals from 6 mins hard 6 mins at z3 pace down to 30s then finish with 6 mins hard 6 mins z3 pace.  Lol my coach had a great sense of humour putting that last 12 mins in after the 30s ones!

My long stuff will be done generally at the beginning of the week to accommodate the races I have lined up;  the duathlon that was cancelled I think was a blessing;

Races in 6-Week Mileage Block

19th May - Selkirk Olympic Distance
2nd June - OW Sprint Triathlon
9th June - Peebles Sprint Triathlon

I also have some Thursday night TTs but I'm not doing them all; I've decided they have to fit my training programme rather than the other way around.   I'll have some open water swimming on a Thursday instead of the TT or like in week one my long ride is on Friday so I binned the 25 mile TT lol plus the weather forecast was appalling for this night!

My long rides need to be accommodated around my family so to that end they need to be slightly different to the schedule;  basically my husband has agreed to take Iain to school on these mornings; he's going in gear he can run in lol poor kid; I'm getting going early so that I can get a large chunk done before preschool finishes;  I'll run down pick him up and he's going to run the mile back with me;he can easily run a mile in 10 minutes;  I'll then finish the rest of the session but even on the 7 hour one I should only have a couple of hours left!  Basically I' ll have done about 20 mins run in the middle :) 

So excited :)

Now the Fun Starts

Yesterday was a big disappointment when I had to pull out of my first triathlon of the season due to bike mechanics:(  But thanks to my good friends Kelly and Eddie Mendoza between them and Stuart we got it sorted and having been out for a short technical spin on it;  wow what a difference with the handling, I've often found the front a bit shakey but assumed it was me and it seems to have gone!

My next and final stage of my training prior to my taper commences today; when I prepared for a marathon I always did a 9 week build up of 6 weeks high mileage,  2 weeks speed and race week.   That is where I'm at now and I'm going to follow the same format for this final 9 weeks;  still using the IM plan but adjusting it a little.

I'm currently planning it out in terms of what days I'm doing what; today started with a short spin and run with striders as it is a holiday so planned in family fun which is nice as over the next 6 weeks I'm going to have to put my selfish hat on!