Over 10k visitors and a long ride

Wow - today the blog went over the 10,000 visitors milestone - I must say I am a little amazed!! Okay some of them will be from accidental clicks/webots but a lot of them are repeat offenders - if you are one of them - THANKS!

So "a long ride"....as I had a few mins waiting fro a Kwik-Fit man to turn up to sort the tyres on Liz's Volvo I thought I would put a few notes down on my longest (outdoor) ride this year. On Sunday I went out and did what seems to me a slow 50km/2hr ride. It did however include a number of local hills (some of which might almost be called climbs...) hence the low speed - also I was doing a set program of:

30min W/U Easy

5min easy effort (RPE 11)
5min tempo effort (RPE 13)
5 min overgearing (RPE 17+)

The full route can be seen here:



But I thought I would focus on a few of the best bits (hills). The first 30mins is a gentle climb to the A505 and then the ride properly starts with a steady climb to Barley (the first hill of the day). This begins easily and winds up in the last 200m or so:

Once into Barley the route takes a left and heads for the only windmill for miles - obviously at the top of a hill!

This is a simple steady hill which is just long enough to make you puff if you are in the wrong gear - as I was!!

However it is at this point the toughest hill of the day appears - just down hill a little and then up to the infamous Passo d'GranChisell

The last 100m of this is deceptive - all in all a good climb. After this it is a relatively simple bike route which zips down some good descents (ruined yesterday for me as someone had smashed a glass on the road so a few bunny hops saved me...) and skirts along beside a river (where I saw a family of hares - very cool and fast!), before going up again to Wendons Ambo, a really short climb hidden round a corner:

 

After this it is a simple run back to home via some fast main roads - including my favourite stretch between Littlebury and Great Chesterford - great tarmac quality and lots of false flats. The data showed some good efforts on the hills - I use a CycleOps PowerCal HR strap (Powercal at Wiggle) - I was seriously sceptical about it (There is a great review here) but I have to say I am constantly amazed how it computes an extimate of power - I have checked against my calibrated turbo and RPE and it all seems pretty much bang on - seriously impressed!

Anyhow - back to reality, today was a hard run (see below) - nothing in the legs - probably as I worked hard yesterday but at least tomorrow is a core set (and I have a couple of days off to spend time with the girls - they are on school holiday) :-)



Thanks for reading.

The last few days and my longest ride this year!

So this was my longest ride (and possibly THE longest ride before the 70.3 in Galway!) - the plan was:

60min RPE12-13 rpm around 95(EZish)
30min max effort/top gear (54-12 on my bike)
40min  RPE12-13 rpm around 95 (EZish)
20min max effort/top gear
30min spin down

All was good, the bike felt amazing I was riding the HED3s front and rear on this ride with no problems (well apart from how hard they are compared to spoked!!) and I came in to home just as my daughters were going out for  a walk with my parents and the dogs - so they got to see me on the bike too :-)

Nutrition went well too - 1200ml of ZV Zero drink (no cals/rehydration) and 4 ZipVit gels (60g of carbs/gel) diluted 50:50 with water - 1/30mins.



Immediately after the ride I went out on a ascending brick run:

10min @ 6:10/km pace
10min @ 6:00/km pace
10min @ 5:50/km pace

it felt great - I really struggled to hold the pace back on the first 2km :-)



So that was the weekend - good training and on Sunday I became Godfather - to one of our friends little boy, Jonathan - v proud!

If only yesterday's swim could have gone as well! the training was planed for and aerobic skill/effort set:

WU: 400m, 300 Ez, 50 moderate, 50 tempo
DR: (Ez!) (400)
1 x 50 (Record stroke count and time)
1 x 50 3/4 catch up
1 x 50 Single arm
1 x 50 6 beat kick and switch with fins
1 x 50 swimming with fins
1 x 50 Paddles and fins
1 x 50 Paddles (keep kicking)
1 x 50 (Record stroke count and time).
MS: (1800)
9 x 200 TEMPO +
20s rest in b/t
CD: 100 - put stroke back together, EASY

....nice and complex!! however I got through the warm up and the drils and then the wheels came off...I am still not sure what happened but I developed pain in my distal biceps area which radiated down my arm - not good! I had to pull up on 200 number 2 and I limped back to the shallow end - i swam down doing 200m of 6beat kick with fins - very unhappy. I saw my GP and I am now referred to the physio - I reckon it is a nerve impingement or cramping/spasming in the long head of triceps (more likely) - more stretching before swimming needed I think!

This morning I got out for an aerobic run - again at ascending pace. This time the plan was:

15min @ 6:10/km pace
15min @ 6:00/km pace
15min @ 5:50/km pace

Which for some reason I found harder than after 3hours on the bike!! Really strange but there you have it - sometimes I just cannot get my head into it and today was one of those days!



Oh well busy few days coming up, I have lots of swimming and running left for the week but then at the weekend I am off to Hong Kong for a short meeting (fly out Sunday, Arrive Monday, Meeting Tuesday/Wednesday and fly home - arriving back on Thursday!) so training WILL be limited...

Later I.