Easy can be hard

Well the world is back to rainbows and puppy kisses. Amazing what a bit more sleep can do for you.

Very early night last night and a solid attempt at sleeping meant that I woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed this morning. The world is alright again.

The good sleep set me up for a nice run this morning too. The run this morning was a exercise in control. Daryl specified a pace and the aim was to stick to it. The trick of course being that the pace was deliberately steady, all part of Ironman preparation for later in the year. Running hard is easy, well it hurts, but it is easy to make yourself do, all you have to do is run hard. Of course you will probably fade away if you try to do it for too long, but it is easy to begin with. Running with control can be a lot more challenging I find. Holding yourself back, not going out too hard, having a consistent pace. The mental control to resist the urge to go harder can be tough to maintain.

Given all that, I am quite happy with how the run went this morning. I wasn't able to nail the correct pace the entire time, but I got pretty close. Very pleased with the heart rate over the session, indicating that it was well and truly a controlled session. On the whole the my average heart rate for running has continued to get back under control to the point that I can run steadily without it pushing my intensity through the roof. Nice to have the easy running returning to actually being easy. For a while even easy running was taking quite a bit of effort. Being able to run at that lower intensity will prove vital as the distances get longer.

With the run done there isn't much more on the cards for me today. Back on the Kickr in the morning for another solid session. Tomorrow's session is the same as I did yesterday. A couple of hours moving through what I like to call a 'power ladder'. Basically climbing through increasing power levels. It was a hard, but not killer, session yesterday and I would expect similar tomorrow. The goal power levels are sort of within my comfort zone, but you end up sitting there for a long time, which is where the challenge arises.

We have had some lovely late Autumn, early Winter weather here this week, clear, cold and dry, which is perfect for being out on the bike. Once again I was tempted to do tomorrow's session on the road, but this sort of session really does benefit from the control that the Kickr gives you. It is very hard to find a stretch of road that will allow you to sit on an exact power level for 10 minutes. Like last week, I am very keen to get back out on the road, but that might have to wait for a bit later in the week.