I've decided October is the month that I pull my finger out & get back to running :-) No (more) excuses or laziness!
Wednesday
AM - up early (again) for an cadence-based interval session on Betty while watching part of Dirty Dancing - another of my favourite movies :-) Let's just say the session proved to be tougher than it appeared on paper!
PM - headed to the pool after work to do the 1.6k swim that I was supposed to do on Monday but was too lazy - um, I mean tired - to get out of bed to do. Despite the outdoor pool being much more 'refreshing' than the beautiful warm pool at Southport, I really enjoyed this swim. It was one of those times when it all comes together - my stroke stayed long even during the efforts and body roll was good (something I struggle with abit given that I was taught - many many moons ago - not to roll). Oh and it was scenic ;-) Happy days !
Thursday
PM - gym session (including 5mins run, woohoo!) then home to do my daily physio-ordered stuff & a baked dinner courtesy of mum :-)
Friday
AM - another interval session - 52mins in total - on Betty on the trainer. 8 x 3mins efforts hard with 1min spin recovery were on the menu today. Yikes. After last night's gym session my legs were just about ready to drop off by the end of the session.
Saturday
AM - long ride - 51.24k in 2:28 (aver 20.6km/hr)
I've never ridden on consecutive days but this week's events (principally Tuesday morning's flight & Sunday's plans) left me with little choice. So I made sure that I was properly recovered after Friday's session.
Though today was not my longest ride (either in time or distance), thanks to the conditions it was by far my toughest. We left Rooty Hill to head to the M7 bike path at about 10.45am. For a change of scenery, we headed north & turned around on the T1 bike path not far after the end of the M7 bike path. It was hot & still - ick! Not long after the turnaround the westerly arrived (too late for us to get the benefit of the tailwind). Nice - a strong head wind. And then it become a crosswind when we followed the bike path as it headed south. By the time we made the final turn for home somewhere beyond the chicken farm, there were really strong (cross) wind gusts which pushed the bike sideways toward the guard rail - ick. I've never ridden in conditions like that. It was a bit scary at times. I didn't care about the time or speed anymore, I just wanted to get back to the car in one piece.
Of course the weather gods hadn't finished with us yet & so decided to add a duststorm to the equation. About which time I'd had enough & yelled out (much to the amusement of R) "bring it on weather gods!". After getting home, I discovered that the bike legs in some of the races at the Club Teams Champs at the Regatta Centre in Penrith had been cancelled due to the wind. Wimps ;-)
Needless to say the fact that our average speed was down wasn't surprising. I had planned to head to the pool to do my long swim in the afternoon but was too stuffed after the ride so I will have to miss that session for the week.
PM: daily physio-ordered stuff
Sunday
4 weeks to the Gong ride. OMG. I'm really nervous about this. Not so much the distance but the hills.....man, I really hope I don't have to get off & push. How embarrassing that would be....
AM - 20mins walk including 5min run. Legs feelin very fatigued after yesterday's ride.
PM - daily physio-ordered stuff
7 comments:
Running ? Yay !
Hey that Gong ride should be a snap. Looks downhill on the map. ;-p
Wow Jen - impressive training regime. I'm exhausted just reading about it! That bike ride sounds like very hard work to me!!
ok well i'm pumped after reading this!
except a bit confused where your finger has been and for how long it has been there but i digress.
putting in some great k's on the bike - the gong will seem so easy.
i'm looking forward to it now too and i dont even ride any more!!
About bloody time too :-p
As for the hill out of Audley... they don't call em "push" bikes for nuffin :)
You may well find Jen that the break from running did you more good than harm.
I'm looking forward to seeing your progress. Does this mean you're thinking about doing the next 6ft track race?
Jen,
It seems from the CR thread that your greatly risking your life doing the Gong ride *wink*
You'll be fine. I may even join you guys!
Good stuff Jen,
Betty looks pretty cool, and those Gitane used to go pretty well for guys like Laurent Fignon, Bernard Hinault et al.
The Gong ride, belive it or not never done it "officially" although have a few a few times riden the same route on other days. Most of the time in my cycling life on the Gong ride was spent in a van fixing up bikes. Heres hoping its not blowing heavily from the south, one year it was pretty atrocious....
Apologies for the long absence, good to see you are still going!
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