Tuesday 20th April - Cycled to work again but would be my last for the week due to it being freezing cold on Wed and Thursday morning. Needed Deicer on the car. The trek home was very slow for my standard and only averaged 16mph. Went swimming again to keep that side of my fitness up.
Wednesday 21st April - Running at Springhill School's Track. Started off with a mile(4laps) warmup then a 1.6km run, 1min 30 rest, 2 x 800m 1min 15 rest, 3 x 500m, 1 min rest , 4 x 400m, 45 secs rest , 5 x 300m 30 secs rest, 6x 200m 15 secs rest. Bit of a killer session that as Im not used to quick sprinting-ish short sets. I think I pushed Lee quite hard as he said he was going to take it easy as he had a half marathon on Sunday but as I was going the fastest I have ever done, I don't think he wanted to get beaten :) so he ended up pushing himself for every set. Just 2 laps for warmdown.
Thursday 22nd April - Rest day. Aching only a little from running usually it cripples me for a few days.
Friday 23rd April - Footie day. Aching more from the running and after this 1hr 30min session my legs were worse. Managed to do lots of running all over the pitch especially longer sprints as the pitch was huge for the number of players we had.
Saturday 24th April - Rest day and boy do I need it. Legs, arms, chest, stomach everywhere was in pain OUCH!
Sunday 25th April - Big cycling day!! Or so I thought. It was my long weekend away from work so the missus and I agreed Fri was us and baby day, Sat was me and the wife day and Sun, Mon AND Tuesday were do what I want days! How I managed to negotiate that one I do not know. Maybe she saw the weather forecast before I did! I had it all mapped out. 3 days 300 miles.
8am I was due to set off and meet with the fast Mossley gang. It was wet and raining but I heard that the weather was due to brighten and warm up later so I held back til around 11 ish. In the mean time I quickly changed from cycle to swim gear and went to Rochdale baths for a swimming session 9-10am to pass the time and maybe the roads would have dried up.
30 lengths warmup then a pyramid of 2-4-6-8-10-10-8-6-4-2 lengths with 15 secs rest! and I used a pull bouy through out to firstly strengthen arms and secondly to simulate the added bouyancy as if I was wearing a wet suit for open water swimming.
Next was 8x100yrds on 1min 40s fast then a warmdown of 4 lengths. Total number of lengths was about 120. Good training session as an old training partner from Aquabears turned up and
piled on the pressure. Not many at the pool either as there was a triathlon at Chirk which most of the Tri club were doing.
I was going to do my own ride in the end. Im liking the Edenfield Rd climb at the start so that's where I went and the even bigger Bacup/Tod road was next at a height of over 1300ft above sea level. Despite the battering my legs took during the week they were feeling good today but it did take a good half hour to lose the niggling achyness.
I had bought a new stem for Jamis, one that is adjustable through 60 degrees so that I can get in a really super aero position, even being just on the levers. Also changed the 25mm tyres for the ones on Scottie the GP4000s and attack as I have some shiney new Michelin PR3 for Scottie.
With the new aero position comes a couple of little drawbacks. The shoulders,neck and forearms were taking up most of the upper body weight so started to ache but not so that it was unbearable and I need the saddle lower as I sit further back so legs were slightly overstretched. As I headed up towards Halifax via Tod and Hebden the sun shone boldly onto my new Rochdale Tri Club gear which in turn made me feel like I had to go faster. It is a really nice kit, the bib shorts have the best pad I have ever used and the s/s jersey fits like a glove. I went to Halifax and as I hit the centre I had averaged 19.6mph for about 36miles with 3000 ft of climbing. I turned around and wanted to go the flattest and quickest way home so that I could break the 20mph barrier. No problem I thought, what can stop me? A bastard thunderstorm with accompanying tornado... That's what!!! As soon as I turned to head back home it suddenly materialised leaving me a quivvering drenched wreck.
I gave up the fight for a 20mph average and just wanted to get home ASAP. My fingers started to go numb and my forearms cramped up due to the new bike position and the coldness. I didn't put my over shoes on and my toes were blue too, Im guessing. I hit Walsden and after thinking that that was no point in putting my waterproof on I thought it might warm me up, which it did perfectly. When I finally arrived home, it had dried up and the sun was out again but what depressed me was that I waited for the rain to stop before I headed out in the first place so that my bike wouldn't get dirty and it ended up in the worst possible state that I have ever seen her in. She had a brand new chain on which I had to take off and thoroughly degrease and deshittify.
Distance 68miles
Average Speed 18.7mph
Ascent 5000ft
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