Still cycling

Well Monday was a cycle commute to and from work trying to get something done each day. Normally when I pick up an injury I have 4-5 days in denial feeling sorry for myself and drinking. But have tried to avoid that.

Crap night’s sleep with the dog bizarrely whining all night in her cage. I refuse to relent (bit like controlled crying for the kids when they were tiny) but Kirst cracked after 2 hours. Meant I woke this am feeling knackered. Drop Claudie for the bus on the scooter in the driving rain and, feeling completely down, decided to punish myself on the indoor trainer by doing “The Wringer” as the Zwift training session. It’s a killer - 30s intervals at max Watts (470W, based on my old FTP) with decreasing rest periods. 45mins all up. Sweated so much I almost fainted getting off the bike. But got some happy hormones from punishing myself.

Decided this should be the plan going forward. Like July-November last year, mix the running with cycling but include some high intensity stuff in there. It causes no injury reaction and still tests the HR.

Some running and some cycling

Friday was a brief 8km to Shelly and back coming home to find Timmy in the house eating a chicken lunch. At least the leftovers fed Ruby for the afternoon. We had the inaugural England v Ireland golf tournament at Wakehurst in the afternoon. The Irish, unburdened by Enda way who was a late pull-out, could rely on their better players to sneak a win against Team England. Great afternoon despite the crap weather. Durante and I then met Darren, Enda and Micky at the Wharf Bar, drank way too much which left me hungover on Saturday am.

Rather than do the sensible thing and have an easy day on Saturday, I’d arranged to do 500’s with Darren. Could only manage them in the afternoon although did get up to take Maggie to Parkrun at Curly where she ran 21:50 with Zara her bestie. Anyway, chased Darren in vain but on 7th rep started to feel the right hamstring tighten a bit. Was getting worse on 8th rep so upped stumps and limped home. Think I got it early so hoping it’s only 4-5 days rest but it’s very tight when trying to touch my toes.

Woke up Sunday feeling sorry for myself but while walking the dog I decided to sort my bikes out and jump on straightaway. I’ve got Westpac Tour de Cure and L’Etape in March in any case so need to get some bike fitness back. Went on the indoor trainer as it was wet outside, decided on 4 Box Hill loops on Zwift (67km with 1,000m+ vert). Got two loops through and was getting light-headed from loss of fluid sweating. So stopped half way through 4th loop at 51km (170W Ave). Ok start, just need to keep it going.

400m reps

Didn’t fancy hills which was on the HuRTs calendar so headed over to Rushcutters with all my mates for 400m reps. Had seen Brad for a massage in the am which wasn’t ideal but left hip flexor is still sore so needed some work. He seemed a bit exasperated by my running plan and told me that if I insisted on doing 400m reps at least start them easy. So that’s what I did.

Started at 86s and worked down to 76s. Think (hope!) my lap was a bit long but regardless, it was a session done and reasonably controlled.

Long cool down to end of Darling Point before heading home for 13+km all up.

67kg. Seem to have put a kg on over past 2 weeks despite consistent training. Maybe body adapting to workload?

Plod slog 20km

Late out so it was a solo effort. Couldn’t face the return wharves route, couldn’t be arsed to climb Oxford St to Centennial Park so did Hickson Rd, Pyrmont Wharves then over Anzac Bridge (my favourite Sydney bridge btw) and around Blackwattle Bay. Feel like you’ve covered a bit of ground when you do this route.

Legs felt like dead weights so it was super slow (made an effort in last 2kms to get the average under 5mins/km) but at least HR averaged only 131bpm so didn’t take too much out of me. Becoming a convert to HR effort based on being able to run well last year off low mileage but with tough bike interval sessions thrown in.

20.24km all up.

Back to the Blog

Have been getting the achilles under control (lots of nerve stretching seems to be the key) so just trying to get some consistency in my training again.  Set the goal before Christmas of getting 10 weeks straight of 100km+ per week under the belt. So far, so good and have completed 5.

Was very tired after the weekend’s efforts yesterday so had a rest day (my 2nd in 40 days). Had a great day walking with the family down to West Head beach though then Bec’s belated birthday dinner at Freshie Mex.

(Photos from yesterday).

This morning rode the motorbike to the City with Mags riding pillion to watch the Oz Day 5km.  Lauren won the women’s by a country mile (16:01) while Joe Burgess pulled ahead of Matty Hudson at the end to win the men’s. Run of the Day was Ollie Cashman making a huge leap forward running 15:04 and beating some good names. 

Today was stinking hot (36C) so ditched plans for any sessions and just did my favourite 17km loop with plans to jump in the harbour half way around.  Ditched even that plan when I saw how busy everywhere was. 

Slow and just managed to get under 5min kms average for the loop (1:24:42 or 4:55’s).

Sunday back to routine

Out to meet Darren, Dicky and Ben at the pool at 6.15am to kickstart the old routine.  Battery died shortly after so had to annoy Darren and Dickyveith constant updates on distance.  First 10km felt like a marathon but easier once we headed to Curl Curl.

Left hammy very tight in final 5km but got 26.5km done in just over 2 hours.

ANSW Relays

Arrived early with the Striders tent and for Maggie’s Under 12 relay at noon. She ran great, going second leg and looking strong on the hills which bodes well for her District XC in 10 days over a longer distance (3km).  She ran 8:28 and was 5th fastest on the day with her team picking up a silver medal.

Then started to get nervous for my race. Rejoov had a strong +35yrs team with me first leg, Eoin, Jerome then CT. I’ve raced once this year so was pretty unsure as to how I’d go. At least had Crossy and Jack running the same leg so people to look out for.

Headed out quickly just ahead of Crossy and Jack but with 2 big groups ahead.  Pace was face (that first km always is) but felt ok. Then Crossy comes past on the back field and I try to stick to him but up the hills he’s too strong and gaps me. Great cheers from Timmy, Mags, CT, LJ, Strommy and Elle though. Some guy from Athletics East (James Costello) comes by at about half way and from then on it’s just a case of hanging on with nervous glances at every turn to see where Jack is.

Finished in 13:49 (same as CT, 4s behind Jerome and Eoin just over 14 - but admittedly I had the easier leg). But we dominated the Over 35’s so I got a nice gold medal to go with Maggie’s silver.

10km all up and Mrs LJ came through with the best scones!

Thursday back into it

Tiger has been setting longer Thursday’s instead of speed so headed down to Rushcutters for some company and just ran loops easy. Fortunately found Q, Jerome and Andy doing the same thing so ended up running with them. 20km in in 4:34’s.  was slower than that until around the 14km mark when, running solo, a short blonde chick with tats came flying past. Looked a bit like Vic Mitchell but wasn’t. Anyway, speeded up to try and work out who it was and ended up running just over 4min kms from then on.

MLR’ish Wed

Got the call from Timmy so did a very easy 15km up to and around Centennial Park with him and Brendan F joining us. Another perfect Sydney autumn day for running and once again feeling bouncy and fresh. Enjoying niggle free running for the first time in 18 months and it’s so enjoyable.

4:43’s.