There's that wall

Sometimes, on a long ride, there comes a point when you realise all is not going to plan. For me today that point came at about the 65km mark. Unfortunately, at the time, I was still 55km from home.

The ride this morning was always going to be a bit of a test. It was my first proper long ride since getting back from Indonesia. A couple of weeks away from doing 100km+ rides takes it toll it would seem. On top of that, I suspect I had a bit of yesterday's TT left in my legs this morning. It certainly felt that way with 50k to go.

The ride started out well enough, a series of hill repeats to take the zap out of the legs before doing a series of intervals. On top of that, the weather decided to help out as well with a number of short, but cold, showers dispersed across the morning. At least between the showers there were a number of chunks of bright, even warm, sunshine. So it wasn't all bad.

As I said the hill repeats when okay, and even the first few intervals went fine, but by the time I started the 5th interval I had started to hit the wall. After that it was less about effort and more about survival. At least I had a tail wind for a big chunk of the return journey. Without that I am not entirely sure I would have made it. But the time I completed the 120km and rolled into my drive way I was solidly in painville. A bit of a turn around after the very satisfying TT yesterday, but I am not reading much into it. These hit the wall sessions happen occasionally.

Other than a long ride, I also went for a bit of a run today. Not a long one, just 5km, but significant because it was continuous and also because I put a bit of effort into it. No personal bests or anything, but I was pleasantly surprised by the pace I managed to hold. Not entirely disastrous, something to build on at least. The really good thing though was that my groin, adductors etc seemed to hold up. Certainly not much pain while running. Not all clear yet of course, since this run was only fairly short. The real test will come with longer runs. But I am certainly happy with the progress.