The Long and The Short Of It

I’m writing this on Monday after what was, for me, a great weekend’s training, which re-confirmed to me that what I have been doing since September seems to be having a positive effect, or at least it’s not holding me back, which is just as good really.

Saturday morning I had in mind to get out for a run, but after a tiring week opted to stay in bed instead, and go for a turbo trainer session in the evening instead.

My wife and daughter headed off to a nephew’s birthday party in Leicester whilst my son and I stayed home.  The party was at a kids play place and not the kind of environment he is comfortable with.  So we stayed home, went grocery shopping, made bread, made a gluten free coconut cake and generally bummed around for a day. 

Then in the evening, turbo time.  Not sure what to expect, but the intention was to set a marker for some interval sessions to come.  This time last year I would have been doing progressive intervals throughout the winter, but not this year.  The plan was therefore 5 mins steady warm up, followed by 10 mins “on”, 5 mins “off” x 3 with the final 5 mins easy as a cool down.  Total session 50 mins vs a normal TT lasting up to 35 minutes depending on the distance.   HR cap for the 10 minute work intervals was 165, in the big ring, resistance set at +2 or +3 if it needed it..

First task was to reinflate the tyre on the turbo trainer (now looks like a full puncture repair is required) before getting going.

5min warm up - easy 200W, HR to 136
10mins - 265W, AHR 153 , MHR 164
5mins easy, 200W HR recovery to 140
10mins - 265 W, A 161, M 165
5 mins - 200W HR rec to 147
10 mins - 265-270W, AHR 160, MHR 165
cool down 5mins 180W, HR to 136.

Overall Tacx 682 cals, Max 284 W, Ave 236W
Garmin 27.6km / Ave 33kmh / AHR 150 / MHR 165

Overall a pretty good session, when set against last year’s 2 x 20 mins at 250W with slightly higher HR.  I could certainly have done 15 minutes for the first two intervals, though the third may have been a stretch.  To me, that suggests that the base building work has done its job.

Then yesterday, I started the progressively increasing distance that I’m going to follow for my 70-miler in July.  The plan yesterday was 20-21km, and I plotted a route at about 20-22 across the fens by road and track.  Only problem was I ended up at 25km, a running PB for me and a definite PB in huaraches where I’ve only been up to 16km so far.    HR was mostly in control apart from a stretch of 3 km or so on very cut up farm tracks with heavy clinging mud really weighing down my feet.  This bit was also into the wind, which didn’t help. 

I’m beginning to get rather annoyed with my HR strap at the moment as yesterday for the first 3-4km it was playing silly buggers with the wind with the indicated HR bouncing up and down by 30bpm or more every time I went out from behind the shelter of a hedgerow or building.  I think the elastic in the strap is starting to give up after about 4-5 years or so and until it gets damp enough it’s slipping and sliding around.

Anyway, apart from that, the results were pretty good, as per the 3km splits below

1) 15:43.1 / 3km / 05:14 / AHR 155 / MHR 196 – spurious wind affected maximum, there’s no way my HR was that high at that pace

2) 16:23.7 / 3km / 05:28 / AHR 141 / MHR 158 – same as above
3) 16:25.0 / 3km / 05:28 / AHR 142 / MHR 150
4) 16:56.6 / 3km / 05:39 / AHR 145 / MHR 158 – sticky stuff, dragging at my feet, into the wind, should have slowed down
5) 16:43.1 / 3km / 05:34 / AHR 144 / MHR 152
6) 16:41.5 / 3km / 05:34 / AHR 144 / MHR 148
7) 15:58.6 / 3km / 5:19 / AHR 143 / MHR 149 – Back on the roads again
8) 15:41.7 / 3km / 5:14 / AHR 145 / MHR 150 – still on the roads
9) 7:15.8 / 1.39km/ 05:14 / AHR 147 / MHR 150

Total 2:17:49.2 / 25.39 km / 5:26 / AHR 145 / MHR 196

Overall I think that represents a decent weekend’s training and is a great marker to lay down for the distance stuff.  I hadn’t planned to be at 25km for another month and the only thing that stopped me going on was that I had told the wife I’d be home in time to cook dinner.

No decent pictures today either.  This is getting annoying now; I saw three deer lying in a field relaxing, but they got up and ran off before I could get a decent snap of them.  Plenty of other wildlife around as well, but all too fast-moving for me.

Plan over the next few months is minimum one harder session per week, maybe two, and a long run every other week alternating weekends with a 90min-2hr bike ride.   Plan for the 70 miler is to think more in terms of time on feet rather than miles run.