Hot Hills

A nice bit of a ride this morning.

With training following no particular program at the moment I thought this morning would be a good chance to head out with the guy from Break Your Limits for a nice little jaunt into the Perth Hills.

I say nice little jaunt, but when the temperature is heading towards 37 degrees for the day and there is a howling easterly wind, that is perhaps a relative term. Still the ride was pleasant enough, particularly early on. Even in Summer the Perth hills have some pretty spots.

As pleasant the hills ride was, I suspect 100km in the hills on a hot day was possibly over doing it for what is supposed to be a period of recovery for me. I have been told it is good to get some training in, but to keep the heart rate down and to not over do it for the next few weeks (until about Christmas). I may be feeling okay, but apparently internally my body will be pretty hammered from the Ironman last weekend and so I need to give it time to recover. Nobody obviously told this to Terenzo Bozzone as I see he just won the Bahrain 70.3. Amazing. What an phenomenal effort.

For us mere mortals, the body perhaps recovers a little differently. I was feeling okay for much of the ride today, but as I was getting to the end and the heat and fatigue were beginning to build, I was starting to feel less fine. Nothing drastic, I was just finding that my heart rate wasn't as low as it probably should have been. Possibly a sign that I have been doing a bit more this week, and this morning, than I should have been. I have been feeling good for much of the week, but I do need to remember to let myself recover. That is the point of this period after all.

With that in mind, I was thinking of going for a jog in the morning but earlier today a friend asked me if I wanted to go swimming instead. I briefly considered doing both, but I think I might just skip the run, give myself a sleep in and then just stick with the one session for the day.

There will be time for work later, I might as well make the most of this recovery period while I have it.