The Wall

I really hit the wall on my ride this morning. In this case I am talking about a metaphorical wall, as opposed to some of the real things I have hit on my runs before. It doesn't seem to happen very often, but this morning I just had nothing there. The riding itself was okay, but when I tried to up the intensity for some of the intervals.... nothing. I didn't even get close to the goal speeds. In the end I just focused on intensity and getting through the ride. I completed the intervals and the ride, even if the speed wasn't what I was looking for, so that is an upside to it all.

I am not sure why I struggled this morning, but I suspect it is at least partly due to the fact that I have done quite bit of time on the bike this week and most of it in the last few days. I think what I felt today was pretty much just fatigue. In the end moving the ride from Wednesday to Thursday, whilst necessary due to the weather, might have had more repercussions than I realised. I am not getting myself to concerned about it, since other than this morning, the riding has been going well. I am pretty sure riding fitness can't just disappear over night, so I don't think this is an indication of anything more fundamental or long term. The legs are just tired I think. Afterall it has been a pretty tough week.

Adding to the unpleasantness this morning, the ride was particularly miserable. Scattered showers is the term I think, which pretty much means that it only rains for short periods at a time, but those short periods just keep on coming. As a result the roads never got a chance to dry out so there was always road spray. There was just enough breeze to make it unpleasant, and on top of that I got a puncture. This morning did seem to be a bit of a puncturefest, I saw heaps of people by the side of the road changing tubes this morning. That fact didn't make my puncture any more fun.

This afternoon it was down to the pool for the Saturday afternoon session with Swim Smooth. It was good to get there and put this morning's ride behind me. As is typical for the Saturday swims, today's was a tough one, but it wasn't an absolute gut buster, although we did have 4 sprint 50s at the end which set the lactic burning.

Back on the bike again in the morning for a bit of a ride/run session. I am hoping the scattered showers might have cleared by then. I could do with not having a repeat of this morning.