I've just done my last long training run before the Reading Half next weekend. I'm on a course in London all week, so won't get a chance to do any long sessions over the week, maybe a 10k at some point.
I'm struggling on all fronts...speed, stamina, and strength on the hills, and it's all really down to a lack of training. I only got the all-clear to start ramping up my distances in the middle of January, and got back to Road Runners a month ago. I've been increasing the distance way beyond the recommended 10% a week, and while I'm now reasonably confident that I'll get round, it's not going to be breaking any records, and I'm certainly not looking forward to the hills. It doesn't help that I entered the before my injury, and so have received a stupidly low number (125, out of about 17,000). At the time my goal was 1 hour 25, now I reckon I'll be doing well to get under 1 hour 35, which will be my slowest half ever (and almost a minute a mile slower than initially planned...)
On the plus side, over summer I'll be doing triathlons, with the first one booked for May. I now have all the kit, and will be concentrating on the cycling stuff once the half is out of the way... the goal is to get up to the required 20k at a sort-of decent speed, and then focus on boosting up the speed while the weather is decent.
Fingers crossed I don't screw my leg up next weekend then...
Sunday 22 March 2009
Tuesday 10 March 2009
It's like learning to ride a bike...
...which turns out to be quite bloody hard.
The last time I rode a push-bike was about 5-6 years ago, when I used to trundle into work every day (about 4 miles) on a mountain bike. Back then I wasn't some kind of gym rat, and so wasn't really burning up the tarmac. As soon as I had a motorbike I relegated the manual option to the garage, and pretty quickly sold it to someone at work. I do vaguely remember that I was reasonably competent and confident on it, normally tearing in and out of traffic, whilst occasionally hitting it (well, once, and I gave the bastard a right verbal for it)...
...what I don't remember is having each and every undulation in the road passed straight up my spine, and a eerie feeling of exposure and extreme vunerability. I suspect that this is very much to do with having spent 5 years perched on a 200 kilo machine, coated in leather and capped with a large helmet, compared to a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and a shaped strip of polystyrene delicately strapped to your head. There is also a slight different in wheel width (about 8-9 inches, compared to the razor-like contact point on the new bike).
As a road (and racing bike) the setup is very different to a mountain bike as well. Some some insane reason the tyres are inflated to 130psi, which is like having iron bars. They absorb absolutely no shocks at all, and as the rest of the frame is also solid the end result is that my wrists and spine take everything. The dimensions of the frame force you to be low to the frame, giving little flexibility for body-weight adjustment to your balance, and the drop handlebars give less leverage. All in all it feels a very unstable setup (which of course it is...it's all designed for speed, not comfort).
The solution, of course, is practice and familiarity. I'm sure that once I have clocked up a couple of hundred miles it will all feel far more natural. I've taken the decision to remove the race pedals while I get familiar (the idea of being bolted to a machine you're not 100% happy on doesn't strike me as the greatest idea ever), and replaced them with normal toe-clips (which several hundred hours of spinning classes have introduced me to). Once I'm not thinking about the bike (and the wierd-ass gears...it took me half an hour to work out that the brake lever pushed sideways was the mechanism to change down...) I can start thinking about speed, cadence and technique, however until I have rid myself of the "I'm about to eat asphalt" mentality I guess I'm back to novice status...
The last time I rode a push-bike was about 5-6 years ago, when I used to trundle into work every day (about 4 miles) on a mountain bike. Back then I wasn't some kind of gym rat, and so wasn't really burning up the tarmac. As soon as I had a motorbike I relegated the manual option to the garage, and pretty quickly sold it to someone at work. I do vaguely remember that I was reasonably competent and confident on it, normally tearing in and out of traffic, whilst occasionally hitting it (well, once, and I gave the bastard a right verbal for it)...
...what I don't remember is having each and every undulation in the road passed straight up my spine, and a eerie feeling of exposure and extreme vunerability. I suspect that this is very much to do with having spent 5 years perched on a 200 kilo machine, coated in leather and capped with a large helmet, compared to a pair of shorts, a t-shirt and a shaped strip of polystyrene delicately strapped to your head. There is also a slight different in wheel width (about 8-9 inches, compared to the razor-like contact point on the new bike).
As a road (and racing bike) the setup is very different to a mountain bike as well. Some some insane reason the tyres are inflated to 130psi, which is like having iron bars. They absorb absolutely no shocks at all, and as the rest of the frame is also solid the end result is that my wrists and spine take everything. The dimensions of the frame force you to be low to the frame, giving little flexibility for body-weight adjustment to your balance, and the drop handlebars give less leverage. All in all it feels a very unstable setup (which of course it is...it's all designed for speed, not comfort).
The solution, of course, is practice and familiarity. I'm sure that once I have clocked up a couple of hundred miles it will all feel far more natural. I've taken the decision to remove the race pedals while I get familiar (the idea of being bolted to a machine you're not 100% happy on doesn't strike me as the greatest idea ever), and replaced them with normal toe-clips (which several hundred hours of spinning classes have introduced me to). Once I'm not thinking about the bike (and the wierd-ass gears...it took me half an hour to work out that the brake lever pushed sideways was the mechanism to change down...) I can start thinking about speed, cadence and technique, however until I have rid myself of the "I'm about to eat asphalt" mentality I guess I'm back to novice status...
Tuesday 3 March 2009
The long road to recovery...
So it's about 3 weeks to the Reading Half, which I've arbitrarily picked as my deadline for recovery from the rather persistent leg injury I've picked up. At the moment (touch wood-like laminate) I'm on track to finish without completely ripping up my tendons, however I'm not sure that the time is going to be exactly stellar.
On Sunday I completed my first 10mile+ run, covering 11 miles in just under 80 minutes. I reckon this puts me on course for a final time of about 1 hour 35 minutes, which will officially be my slowest ever run :-( I've started Road Runners again, and hopefully I can gain a bit of a spring in my step from the interval work that spans from there, however I doubt 3 sessions will be enough to get my pace from last year back... It's all rather depressing, how quickly all the conditioning and training falls off.
Over the summer I'm planning on doing some triathlons, and this week I should be ordering the bike and wetsuit. I haven't been on a pushbike since I did my CBT on a motorbike about 4 years ago, so I've got to get back into the habit of cycling. the plan is to do the commute to and from work 2-3 times a week (about 10 miles each way), so hopefully I can quickly rack up the miles and get a semblance of technique in place. The swimming worries me a bit less, as the distances I'll be competing over initially are well within my training set routines. Hopefully I can rack up some training in the wetsuit in my local pool, just to get the feel of the extra buoyancy.
On Sunday I completed my first 10mile+ run, covering 11 miles in just under 80 minutes. I reckon this puts me on course for a final time of about 1 hour 35 minutes, which will officially be my slowest ever run :-( I've started Road Runners again, and hopefully I can gain a bit of a spring in my step from the interval work that spans from there, however I doubt 3 sessions will be enough to get my pace from last year back... It's all rather depressing, how quickly all the conditioning and training falls off.
Over the summer I'm planning on doing some triathlons, and this week I should be ordering the bike and wetsuit. I haven't been on a pushbike since I did my CBT on a motorbike about 4 years ago, so I've got to get back into the habit of cycling. the plan is to do the commute to and from work 2-3 times a week (about 10 miles each way), so hopefully I can quickly rack up the miles and get a semblance of technique in place. The swimming worries me a bit less, as the distances I'll be competing over initially are well within my training set routines. Hopefully I can rack up some training in the wetsuit in my local pool, just to get the feel of the extra buoyancy.
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