Double hard bastard

A good week of training under the belt albeit one without a longish run or bike ride. Picked up a couple of new sessions including the one I did this morning...

3 x 10 mins as 15 secs on 15 secs off. I'd been told to stay in the same gear for the whole session and aim for a cadence of 120. Surprisingly enough the PT actually worked for the whole session which is great because without it I wouldn't have had much of a clue as to what I was doing and probably wouldn't have got so much out of it. The warm up involved getting my HR up to 160 and then... POW, the efforts begin. Got the feel after the first few that 400 watts minimum for 15 secs repeated would make for a good target. Depressing to think that some Pros put this power out for hours rather then seconds...

Halfway through first set HR is creeping up to 175, sweat everywhere, not sure I can do another 50 of these. 2nd set HR still creeping up, having lost faith in the PT HR reading I'm using the trusty suunto. It has a measurement of training effect for each session and also EPOC values. These are also creeping up. Bogeys start flying about halfway through the 2nd set and I'm spitting on the floor of my garage trying to make the efforts just slightly easier. 3rd set, even after the 5 min recovery I'm feeling awful straight away, the album I'm listening too runs out and some dreary song comes on after effort number 43/60. Walkman is flung to one side, that sort of music isn't helping. I'm battling against the clock and coming off second best, 15 seconds seems like forever on the effort and I barely notice it for the recovery. The cadence and power numbers are staying where they should be but the legs are not my friends. Last few efforts and I get a visit from a neighbour asking to borrow a saw. It's all I can do to point a finger at a box where he trys his luck. I realise that I'm down to the last two efforts and then I'm done. Thank **** for that!

Schizophrenic weather...

Russian blizzards or Mr Blueskies? The weather doesn't seem to be able to make it's mind up. That said Mr Blueskies seems to like the weekends, which in the grand scheme of things suits me just fine. The last three weeks that I've been out at the weekends have all been on the "posh" bike, my trusty faithful focus. It's soo nice compared to the commuter bike that I ride during the week. Today's outing was really good even with the two punctures, was out with Mr B, the king of pain! Managed to keep up with him to the top of Toys which is a first. Came home via White Hill Lane which is a bit of a bitch, 20% gradient for anyone who's not familiar with the North Downs/Surrey Hills area.

Training wise things have seemed pretty good after the cough/snow/NY triple combo. A more dedicated athlete would have found a way to overcome but I sat back and let the storm pass. That was a while ago now and I have manged to get some higher quality runs in as well as bike commutes, turbo sessions and some almost regular weekend rides of generally sedate intensity levels. Having mentioned crappy weather earlier it does seem as though you can almost feel Spring. It's got to the point now where I'm riding too and from work in daylight. Bonus! It certainly felt like I'm begining to at least feel the benefits of a long steady winter's training. The easy commutes aren't the most glamorous of rides, but they have , for the most part, been consistent, frankly I think that's the key. All will become clear though as the season progresses...

On the horizon for now is the Ballbuster at the end of March (I'm entered and paid up so I guess I'm doing it), a trip to Majorca in early April and perhaps the Dragon Slayer Duathlon and the ACC Broadbridge Heath 25 towards the end of the month.

Would like to have done a lot more running and be a bit faster but such is life, at least it's still the early season and there is another one at the end of the year. I think with a decent spring/summer I might be able to crack 3 hours...