Training Review - Week 40 - 26 Sept to 2 Oct

Monday I woke with all sorts of aches and pains from Huntly. My hip was pretty stiff but I didn't have a reasonable alternative to commuting on the bike. Once I got moving it eased off a bit but as soon as I dismounted at the office I had an obvious limp. That took most of the day and a borderline overdose of ibuprofen to ease it off enough that the ride home was relatively painless. 

Can't say the same for swimming though. Started well but then had some major cramping problems and despite several attempts to stretch and carry on they just got continually worse until I was forced to quit.

Tuesday I woke up to a rainstorm and decided that having cleaned my nice bike I would resort to the winter bike for my commute. I switched the lights from my nice bike, gave the tyres a quick check and headed off. About 4 miles in I noticed I had picked up a slow puncture. A quick grope under the saddle and I realised I didn't have a saddle bag, so no spare tube. I decided as it was a rear puncture and was going slowly I would be safe to carefully roll it in to the office. 

That went fine until I arrived and opened my bag, and it turned out that while I was grabbing my light some part of my brain had also grabbed the saddle bag and stuffed it in my rucksack, before promptly forgetting all about it. I decided that I will covert that bike to a proper winter commuter so rather than repair the puncture and ride home I pushed it to the train, and ordered some commuter-style 28's from Wiggle. 

Wednesday the weather wasn't great so I took the mountain bike rather get the nice road bike dirty. I also managed to lock myself out in the morning without my garmin so I had to resort to the Strava iPhone app instead.  

Thursday I took the option to run to the office in the morning. A bit of a headwind meant that it wasn't a great run but I at least managed to run for an hour with no pain. 

Friday I has a bit of time before a training course at work so I managed to sneak to the pool early and get in an easy session of 4x500m. That finishes off my swimming numbers for this week and at least means the last 3 weeks I haven't been falling any further behind the swim numbers. 

In the afternoon I spent a good couple of hours converting my road bike to a full winter commuter spec with new 28mm tyres and a replacement set of mudguards. I also managed a short stretching and rollering session in the evening to try and loosen off before Saturday's race. 

Saturday was a trip to Keith for the first race of this year's North District Cross-Country League. I started a bit too fast for the first mile (6:43), paid for that for the next 3 (7:12, 7:21, 7:14), but the last 2-mile lap I got into a couple of races against similar paced competitors and was going pretty well and making up some places. The last two miles (6:44, 6:46) were pretty good. I also did a bit of a warm up and cool down, but not a lot.

Sunday I took the opportunity to go out round the woods behind my parents house in Elgin in the morning. Just an easy half hour to ease my legs out after racing. Once we got back to Aberdeen I decided it would be a good idea to give the commuter-used bike a quick test ride before taking it to work on Monday morning so I rolled it round Dyce just to check that everything was ok, and to just tip me over this week's bike miles. 

Late in the evening I also did my weights and core session and a little bit more yoga just so that I could have my first complete week for a while. 


Target totals - Swim 1.9 miles. Bike 36.4 miles. Run 13.9 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.

Monday - Commute to work 7.1 miles in 28 mins.
Commute from work 7.0 miles in 32 mins.
Swim with TPT  1,000m in  32mins.

Tuesday - Commute to work 6.9 miles in 44 mins (with puncture). 

Wednesday - Commute to work mtb 7.2 miles in 32 mins.
Commute from work mtb 7.1 miles in 38 mins. 

Thursday -  Run commute 6.9 miles in 62 mins.

Friday - Swim at Bucksburn 2,000m in 43 mins. 
Stretching and rollering session. 

Saturday - Yoga session 12 mins.
NDXCL Keith 6.0 miles in 42 mins
Warm-up / cool down 0.6 miles in 7 mins. 

Sunday - Oakwoods jog 3.1 miles in 31 mins.
Winterised bike check - 2.8 miles in 23 mins.
Weights, core and yoga (20 mins).


Actuals - Swim 1.9 miles (3,000 m). Bike 38.1 miles. Run 16.7 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 stretching / rollering session. 32 mins of yoga 

Cumulative (Cumulative target) [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 73.0  (79.6)  [91.5],
B 1708.1  (1615.0)  [2018.8],
R 578.9  (572.3)  [646.6].