Its Hammer time !!!

When you are going thru hell the only choice is to keep going

Winston Churchill

So a big session was planned for this morning. The bike, the shoes, the pedals, the lungs and the thighs were itching to get out. I spent a fair bit of last night looking at the local maps but in the end I decided just to get the wheels turning and see where I ended up. I cycled round the local towns and villages. Plenty of hills and plenty of flat parts. A good workout and I really enjoyed it and at times I felt like cycling may be better than running. Especially on the downhill bits above 50kmph.

A few teething problems came up with the bike. Firstly the pedals are a little too tight when releasing the shoes so I need to loosen off the bindings. I adjusted my saddle a bit yesterday and obviously never tightened the bolts enough as the seat moved part way round when I had to brake hard to avoid some old woman who decided to overtake a bus as I was coming towards them at 40kmph. SO I know the brakes are working a treat.

About 10km later I heard something falling off the bike. I stopped in case it was part of me as I'd done quite a distance. I check and all my bits were intact and then I look at the bike and noticed one of the seat bolts were gone. I went back for a look and found it in the mud at the side of the road after a couple of minutes.

I take the opportunity to guzzle my drink and then get on the bike, strapping the feet in while holding onto the fence. I then have to extradite myself from the mud as the bike has sunk in...all of this of course while I'm firmly stuck in the pedals. I definately need more practice of getting in and out of the pedals as I am finding getting the second in while I'm moving tricky to say the least.

I've never been a great one for fine tuning things but I think I need to raise the handlebars upwards as I think I'm leaning just a little too far forward and I'm feeling a little stretched. I'll adjust it a fraction and see if it feels better. I decide to cut it short at 42.5KM so as not to do any permanent damage to the seat or the post. Time was 1hr 36min 15secs so its by far the longest bike session I've had and double the distance and and eventual average speed was around 26.5kmph.

I get in and I'm feeling OK. I know I've been out on a training run but I'm not exactly crawling up the stairs. I have a drink(black grape juice) and get my running gear on......yes of course...why not.

I set out with a 10K run target but not at any special pace, in my mind its more of a test of a transition from cycling to running than a targetted training run. I start out and I'm feeling OK. No real leg pain other than a little tightness at the top of my thigh. Its nothing serious.

I'm soon at the 4KM mark and heading up the hill. I start to slow down as soon as the gradient increases. My left knee is starting to feel the distance now and I'm imagining it heating up inside due to the friction of bone on bone. On the positive side my new MP3 player is going great guns.

I'm at the top and heading down again. I decide to go a little longer than 10K now as I've been too busy singing and therefore I've missed the turning to head back for a straight 10K and I don't want to just turn round in the middle of a street so I keep going and work out a route for a distance of around 15K and to be honest I'm feeling fine at that point.

I get to the 2km Belgian Pave section past the nunnery and its now raining and the wind is right in my face, its starting to get harder to keep a reasonable pace due to the conditions underfoot and its mainly uphill but the frequent passing cars keep my pace up as I don't want to look like I'm washed out.

I get to the 10K mark in 52minutes and head back down the N5. This time though I'll cut off early through the centre of Plancenoit towards the house and so cut off a couple of kilometres from my normal big 17.5K training route. It involves some stairs and a little running along a muddy path but in general its flat.

I finish the 15k in 1hr 17mins and I'm pretty pleased. I'm very tired at the end and my legs are sore but I'm not absolutely wiped out so I didn't overdo it. I head up and do some stretching and have a shower. I notice my stomach muscles have split into two distinct halves when I'm lying down. I have a wee valley running right down the middle of it now......I weigh in and I'm back at 73.5kg and 20.9% Body Fat....I've no idea if thats good, its just what the scales say.

So it was really a great days training which I really felt really good doing and I'm now feeling much more positive about the race. I do recognise I've still a long long way to go as the bike distance of 90km still seems enormous to me and my almost 3 hour training session today is only half of the time I expect the whole race in Switzerland to take......so I'll need every week I've got available just to make it.

I'm still aiming for a 6 hour round trip. The cycling is the only part at the moment where I'm behind the performance I need to be at to make 6 hours.