The long way round

This evenings idea was a quick leg stretch of 20-25k on the bike. I was hoping to keep it to a short and quick run due to me running a half marathon race on Sunday and I wanted to save my legs for that. Unfortunately I decided to go a different route and then my natural sense of direction let me down and after getting lost twice I ended the evening in the twilight after doing a rather overworked 62km in 2hrs 29mins.

A nice distance of course but it wasn't planned and as a result my legs ran out of juice around the 50km mark. I felt it creeping up on the legs after about 50km and then by 55km I knew I'd burnt out all the energy in my blood.

The last 12k was run purely on grunts and guts. I was totally washed out at the end but I knew it was due to the lack of energy rather than the distance. I certainly could not have ran once I parked the bike. I could hardly stand up if I'm being honest. I'll be adding an energy gel to my emergency bike kit to avoid this in future. I can also declare my nether regions took a nice beating.

A couple of energy drinks, a shower and my dinner and I'm feeling fine. Average speed of just under 25kmph over a normal route. The road surface made a huge difference and where it was new tarmac I even managed to go up some inclines and keep it well over 30kmph. When I'm riding in the cycle paths and its rough its hard to keep that pace up as the bike is shaken all over the place.

Bad light stops play

Home around 6pm. Getting dark so little or no opportunity to do anything big, my idea was a quick bike sprint to stretch the legs. A 17km circuit in 40:43..Not too quick but its another 17K under my belt. Average speed about 22.7kmph.......My bike adjustments from yesterday felt overdone, I need to bring the seat back up a bit and move the bars down a bit. I think I could go up the hills quicker but was slower on the flats. It was definately more comfortable. I was obviously sitting a little more upright so this increases wind drag. I did feel though that I got better leverage on the pedals going uphill though. 17K felt like nothing distance wise.....which is a good thing

Fine Tuning

I was fine when I got up this morning after yesterday and no real stiffness or pain. I fixed up the bike as I planned. I dropped and pushed back the saddle a little and lifted the handlebars a bit. Adjusting the pedals wasn't quite what I expected as they were both close to the lightest release torque...Getting the feet in and out of the pedals is obviously more of a technique thing .

Today I swithered about going out on the bike but I wanted to recover and rest my knee a bit as I have a big run next Sunday. I went to the gym before breakfast to do some toning and a little stretching. It was very busy with people no doubt thinking about getting rid of the pounds they picked up ski-ing.

I did 250 bench inclined situps as they help your core stomach and back muscles which help with climbing on the bike. Its the most I've done in a single session. I did some free weights and some machine weights on my arms, chest and shoulders which should give me some help in the swimming. I finished with 10 minutes leg pressing 40kg to help stretch my legs a bit.

I'm currently switching between Old Firm CIS Final and England-France Six Nations match. In reality I want to go out on the bike...

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.

All dressed up and nowhere to go

I finally got my new pedals and shoes. I got Shimano Ultegra pedals as they matched the rest of the crankset and Specialized Road Pro shoes in Red/White to match the bike. I picked up a spare tyre and a puncture repair kit which includes CO2 inflation device so you don't need to blow it up by hand. Throw in a couple of bottle cages and its costing me the sames as a big lunch with Brownie and not just my half......

I did a quick 20k circuit but in reverse this time , the time was 43:40(new record for the 20K circuit) and it felt quite easy. The shoes made a huge difference right away, it probably felt as much of a step difference as the change of bike did.

The soles are solid carbon and very very stiff. This helps transfer all the power to the pedals and so into the wheels, so when you push you go forward without the usual training shoe flex absorbing the push down from the leg. You notice it the most on the uphill sections. The downside is when you wear them off the bike you are tottering around with tap shoes on. Think tottering Tara Palmer-Tomkinson after a night out on the champers....

There is a problem though. As you know if you've read all the blog that I've never really had a grown up bike other than a mountain bike that has remained pretty unused and of course I've never previously had the joy of pedal cleats and cycling shoes.

Unfortunately this lack of road bike experience became apparent as I reach the first junction. I slow down to stop to let the road clear. I've been on the bike 5 minutes and have forgotten I have the shoes on and of course my feet don't come out the pedals right away. My body panics as the bike starts to fall over as my feet remain fixed to the pedals. As I'm falling down in slow motion my calm head is saying , twist the foot you idiot.....crash ....too late. I'm on the ground like a beetle on its back with bike up in the air with me still firmly attached.....no damage done to me or the bike. I probably made the builders day who were working on the building next to the junction, not to mention the guy in the white van who was behind me.

Cycling Skeleton make sure you have the sound on..Pretty cool animation.

I'm winding myself up for a bike ride this weekend.....not sure to where yet but I'm thinking 50k.....we'll see if its possible. More on this later....I'm having a huge steak for dinner tonight so thats a good start.

I was in the UK yesterday and picked up a new MP3 player as my old one is eating batteries and keeps re-initialising itself. I got a Samsung YP-U4 . It was pretty cheap(20quid) and has 2gb so plenty of space . I just use it for the running of course as its way too dangerous to use it on my bike.

Slow Progress

20km on bike on Wednesday night. Took a different route , roads still bad. Time was 57 minutes...not great...Flights all booked for Alloa half marathon on 22nd.

Early bird gets the worm...or not

I was reading a Training Book in bed last night and was motivated to start a new regime of early morning training, the thinking being that up an hour earlier every day adds 5 hours training to a week(I don't get up early at the weekend)... So I set the alarm for 6am. Thinking I can bang out a 25km bike ride before work.

The alarm goes off at 6 and its still dark, very dark and I can hear hailstones outside. I quickly turn off the alarm so that Team Kennedy manager doesn't wake up and put her boot on my backside to get me out of the bed. I get up at 7:15....

I head off to work thinking its been a missed opportunity. I take my swimmming gear with me and the idea being a short sharp session over lunch or when I finish work. The sports club is only 5 minutes from our office so its pretty convenient. I've not had a training swim for a few weeks but I have been training otherwise so I wasn't too concerned. I knock out a 100 length session in 40:13. Nice time for 1.75km. The first 20 lengths were painful and pretty tiring but I soon got into my stride and despite splashing the old ladies who were walking up and down while doing the breaststroke I was pleased with my performance. A quick shower then back into the office for a chicken Rogan Josh with rice straight out the microwave, followed by a fruit salad and a smoothie.

I picked up a new pair of trainers today as my old ones(bought last June) are starting to rip and the soles are worn flat. I just bought the same ones but one size larger to try and cut back on blisters on the longer runs. Nike Vomero 3+. See lovely photo above.

I get home around 6pm and am thinking a quick 10K might be on the cards to break in the new shoes. I get changed and get out there. The first 4K fly past and I know I'm setting a great pace. Its raining a little but not too cold. There is only a slight wind so I keep the hammer down and keep pushing. At 7KM mark I'm as high as a kite, totally flying and I decide to go long and do the 17km route. If you could bottle that high you'd be a millionaire in no time.

I bang up the 2km of Pave and check in a 10K time of 48:20. I go left and head down the N5...no wind tonight. That makes a pleasant change. I'm at 12K mark at 58mins. I still feel good and have been pushing the pace the whole way. Unusually I've not really lost my concentration at all during the run and the music has been a great help in me keeping the pace up. Those boys from Keane helping me round. Even a wee touch of Vanilla Ice bringing a smile to my face. I should apologise to the locals for singing at the better moments.

I finish the 17K in a rather pleasing 1:23:02......I'm ready for Alloa. Just need to book my flights, problem being is Saturday flight is full so I need to take Friday off work to travel over. I'm staying at the Chateau McDonald in Langbank :O)

My weight has went up in the last month and has settled around 75.3kg. Thats 2kg more than at the start of Feb.