Toasty

My legs are toast.

But in a good way. More like the nicely browned fruit toast with fresh butter type of toast, rather than the burnt, charcoaly type.

Even nicely toasted legs hurt though.

The toasting of my legs is thanks to what ended up being a fairly tough ride/run session this morning. 120km on the bike followed by a 7km run. As I mentioned in the blog yesterday, I was not keen on heading out and get rained on this morning, but similarly I wasn't that interested in spending 4 hours on the trainer. Thankfully though the weather mostly came to the party and so I was able to get out on the bike.

It took me a little while to get out the door though. As I was getting ready the sky was clearish, but on  the radar a front was very obviously coming in. In the end I knew I didn't have time to wait out the front, so I headed out anyway, telling myself it was just a small front and would be over quickly. However, as often happens in these cases, it never hit me. So for the first time in a while I manged to stay pretty much dry on a long ride.

I say pretty much dry because, whilst the front didn't hit me, it did hit the road where I was heading. So about half the ride was over wet roads. That made for some wet shoes and a very dirty bike. I remember this from this time last year. Perth is so sandy that when there has been some rain the paths are covered in a fine layer of sand. As a result, your bike gets covered in a fine layer of sand. A bike cleaning session in definitely on the agenda for this weekend.

However, it wasn't the front or the wet roads that made for a toasty session, it was the wind. This morning's session was made up of two long pieces. It is the sort of session that lends itself very well to riding south along the Freeway cycleway. The cycleway is straight, mostly uninterrupted and flat, perfect for long pieces. The downside this morning was that there was a fairly fresh northerly blowing. That meant it was going to be a lovely tailwind on the trip out, but a fairly solid slog on the way back. The Freeway route is great, but one downside is that if you have a headwind, then you have it for a long time. I knew all this before I headed out. I knew I would have a headwind on the way home, however the Freeway cycleway suited the session so well that I figured I would just have to live with it.

In the end I got through, but the trip home really took it out of me. I may have been a bit enthusiastic on the trip down with the tail wind and burnt to many cookies. But even with that, 45km into a solid headwind is just hard work. Put the two together and it made for toasty, jelly legs.

Off the bike I had a 7km run to get through. Given how the legs where feeling off the bike, it would be fair to say I was not super keen. I got through though. I didn't feel great, in fact it felt a bit like I was running like a muppet, but the pace was okay and I survived. As unglamourous as it sounds, sometimes that is what the run needs, gritted teeth and movement. The more you move the sooner you get to stop. Not ideal, I would prefer the run to feel light and easy, but you don't always get that. Today I didn't.