Good to get back to it

A good solid day of training today, which was particularly gratifying after the week I have had. A nice long ride this morning. There were just some long intervals on the program and no hills so I decided to head down the freeway for something different. It ended up being a good choice, with the cycleway along the freeway being nice and quick.

Pretty damn chilly though this morning, with the Bureau of Meteorology officially declaring it 'Stupid Cold', or so I heard. 'Stupid Cold' is just above freezing, but only just. There was one point there where I was pretty sure my ears were going to freeze solid and then just fall off. Needless to say I was wearing pretty close to everything I had for this morning's ride.


It was one of those rides where you start off thinking, okay headwind, tail wind on the way home. Then partway through you think, I am pretty sure it is a headwind but this seems a bit quick for a headwind. Then by the time you turn you are really hoping you have been riding into a headwind and are not about to turn and find yourself riding straight into one. I have ridden down the freeway before and found myself riding straight back into a headwind, but not this morning. Thankfully this morning my first impression was correct and I had a lovely 55km of tail wind riding to finish off. Very nice.

Off the bike it was out for a short 7km run. This was supposed to be a quickish run and I thought I would push it a bit to give the hamstring a test. It passed. Ended up doing a PB for 7km which I was not expecting, but was very reassuring.

All up it was a good session for getting my mind back on track and reassuring me about my progress.

I thought I would use this mornings session as a chance to experiment with some refueling techniques. Generally on a Saturday ride (and races) I use a combination of electrolyte drink and gels. But this has been giving me issues for a few races now. This time I thought I would try just drinking water and taking gels by way of getting fuel. By the way I was feeling on my run I am thinking this isn't a great option either. This is something I really should have sorted out a while ago, but I have kind of been hoping that the issues would sort themselves out. They haven't and so now is a good time to fiddle. Next week I will try something else, not sure what yet, possibly some high energy food with a bit more substance.


The other training activity for the day was as trip to Claremont pool for the Swim Smooth Saturday session. It was a bit of an effort convincing myself to head down there today after the flogging we got last Saturday. But you know that it is doing you good, so down I went. Thankfully this session was a bit easier. Still lots of fun, but not quite so much of a sufferfest. Nice way to finish off the day.

After all that it was a trip to the shops during which I treated myself to my guilty pleasure of a litre of milk. It was also a lesson in why you don't go to the shop hungry.

Don't go shopping hungry

I resisted temptation this time, but it was a close run thing.

The training program has tomorrow morning scheduled as a rest, which is very rare for a Sunday. I am really looking forward to it. A true sleep in, not having to get up for training or work. Of course my body will still probably try and wake me up at 5:00am, but I am sure we can figure out a compromise. Should be great.