Solid training week

Last week was a really good week training wise, back to work so getting some 'free' training by commuting in on the bike most days and running in 1 day. I'm now not scheduling any training in the evenings (apart from a recovery swim on a Monday) due to work starting to get busy so it is nice to be able to hit all of my sessions even if the total number is lower than it has been.

After a few weekends of poor weather, and poor health, I decided to bring the ride time for my long rides on a Saturday back down a bit to make sure that I am not overdoing it, plenty of time for mega rides when the weather improves.

I woke up nice and early on Saturday wanting to get going on the bike but could hear rain hammering down on the windows. The BBC reliably told me that it was going to be fine once the rain cleared so I waited for 30 minutes and headed out. Was no longer raining but wet roads needed some care. I was planning on 4 hours 45 mins of riding and set out with the intention of taking on some hills. Things were going well, enjoyed a couple of decent climbs although had to come back down the other side very carefully due to slippery roads which is no fun and the skies were nice and blue. As I was on my way down towards Tonbridge on a road that I hadn't ridden before I was greeted by a rogue cloud that decided I would like a hail storm for a bout 20 minutes not only soaking me right through but also quite painful as you are being pelted in the face by lumps of ice, was pleased when that passed although my feet never regained feeling from that point home! Erika gave me a slightly strange look when I got home, my face was covered in muck off the roads, that would explain the odd looks I was getting from people in their cars!

Sunday's long run was good, same time as last week (2.5 hours) but this time I tried to move my heart rate up a little within the zone that I was aiming for, in the end my average HR was only 1 or 2 beats higher than last week but I managed to cover an extra km so the run was 28.5km in total (17.8 miles). I was on for an even split but the last couple of km before home are uphill so I lost about 90 seconds there, was pretty tired when I got home though.

Training totals for the week were:

Swim - 7.6km (4.75 miles) - 2 hours 44 mins
Bike - 254km (158.8 miles) - 10 hours 10 mins
Run - 44.4km (27.8 miles) - 3 hours 51 mins
Strength work - 20 mins
Total training time - 17 hours 6 minutes

I'd like to get another run in during the week as I only did 2 runs but was generally happy with the structure and fitting it in around work (although the alarm clock is not currently my friend)

Erika is getting back into running again with coach Rob writing the program so we're off to do a 4km time trial this Saturday. I haven't tried to run 'fast' for ages so it will be interesting to see what I can do, we used to run that sort of distance as a time trial regularly in Melbourne (although there was a big hill in the middle of the course) but back then I was doing a lot more work on running quicker rather than purely focusing on developing the endurance. Being ultra competitive I will still give it everything, will be going for a 5 hour+ ride afterward though so that could be interesting.