After a (well deserved?!) rest day on Monday I tried out my wetsuit for the first time in 8 months in our Tuesday night swim session… What a difference! Instead of swimming at a steady pace of around 2:00min/100m I ended up swimming 1:30/100m and it felt really easy. Here's hoping that the water temperature in the Worthersee this year allows us to use our wetsuits - the buoyancy they offer really helps with my sinking legs and consequently my hydrodynamic drag (water resistance!) is considerably lower.
On Wednesday I took my TT bike out on the road for the first time. It's ridiculously fast and inherently unstable. You crouch much lower to reduce your air resistance but as your arms / head / shoulders are directly over the headset any movements result in the bike wanting to change direction like a puppy on a leash for the first time - unpredictable and liable to have you falling face first without warning! I managed to tame it sufficiently to post a new record time - I'm now (currently) the King of the Mountain on the LJG to School segment ;-)
Thursday saw me sweat many more buckets on the turbo trainer, pushing a new record of 235W for 20 minutes and a maximum of 291W… Nothing to worry Sir Bradley at this point in time, but I'm growing the sideburns just in case he needs a stand in at 'La Tour' over the summer.
Pretty steady 4km swim on Friday followed up later on in the evening with a good 1 hour run on the treadmill - although I forgot my heart rate monitor (even though I'd worn the chest strap) so no heart rate data to pour over. Psychologically doing 4km every Friday is really good, it's giving me a lot of confidence that I can do the distance on my weakest discipline. I've still got a lot to learn in terms of technique but I know that I am capable of getting through the swim and onto the bike where I can hopefully pick up some time.
I wore some snazzy calf guards for my long run on Saturday - these help to reduce the excess movement (shock waves) of the leg muscles when running, heeling to reduce fatigue. I'm now a convert. My legs felt soooo much better than my previous run 2 weeks ago, still tired and a little sore, but devoid of the agony of the previous run! I'll certainly be wearing these on the 30th June.
Another decent bike ride on Sunday. It's funny that I now consider a 3 and a half hour , 60+ mile cycle a 'short' ride! Compared with last week's 110 mile ride, it was. Learned a few more things that should come in handy on race day - like replacing tubs and the need for CO2 canisters (rather than a pump) for inflating the tyre once on the wheel.
The farm tracks of South Lanarkshire took their toll and my bike was looking somewhat mucky:
Now, a clean bike is a fast bike, so out with the jet wash, bucket of soapy water and sponge and I've added an extra 2 km/hour to my next ride's average speed:
Not forgetting my trusty steed from the Etape:
So, that's all for now folks….
Or did I mention there are now only 40 days to go? Eeeeek!!!
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So, I'll sign off for now - and thanks to Caitlyn for reminding me to get more blogging done!
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