Riding sideways

Good final day of solid training today, one last hit out brick before taper time.

The ride part of the brick didn't go super smooth. Besides carrying a bit of fatigue from yesterday's long ride, the weather this morning was something like gale force winds dotted with an occasional squall. Lovely. In hindsight it definitely was not the sort of morning where heading out with a disc and a deep dish wheel was a good idea. Whoops.

The thing is that with not having raced for around 8 months I am a bit nervous about my gear. Particularly as I have a new bike now. So today I was really keen to give the gear another hit out in race set up. Call it one last final check to make sure it is all going to play nicely together. With that in mind I convinced myself that heading out with an 88mm front wheel would be okay. Surely it can't be that windy I told myself. Turns out that it was that windy.

As a result the ride part of my brick was a little uncomfortable to say the least. In fact it was so windy that at one point early in the ride I was forced to take shelter from a squall since I just didn't feel it was safe to keep riding, I was all over the shop. Once the squall passed I was able to get on with the session, but I still didn't spend much time on the aerobars. There was just too much swirly wind around. Not ideal.

Still, not a total loss, I feel the bike part of the session achieved what I was after. Even if I wasn't able to be on the aerobars much I was still able to confirm that the wheels fit the bike and spin freely etc plus the rest of the set up seems to be working well too. Also, whilst I may not have been travelling as quick as I would have been if I had been on the aerobars, I was able to work at the required power levels, so the work got done. In the end the bike part of a brick session is intended to fatigue the legs before the run, and today's ride definitely did that.

So that bought me to the run part of the brick. With all the wind I was definitely happy to be off the bike, however, I was a bit anxious heading into the run. With fatigued legs and big winds I had a bit of negative self talk going on, I just wasn't sure I would be able to hold the programmed pace. Perhaps it was an attempt to prove something myself, or perhaps it was just enjoying the strong tailwind, but whatever the reason, I started off the run quick. I was pretty sure I was going to fade hard, particularly once I turned into the headwind, but to my surprise I was able to hold on. Hold on is definitely the right term, I was close to the limit, but I made it through the 14km. In the end I think it ended up being the fastest 14km I have ever done. It is certainly the fastest 14km I have run the day after riding 180km. Very encouraging session to have heading into taper.

With that session done the work part of my preparation is over. Now it is time to start thinking about packing and remembering where I left my passport. Now, where did I last see it...