I thought about much of the content this blog last week when I read an article on velominati:
http://www.velominati.com/la-vie-velominatus/la-vie-velominatus-train-properly/
The day before that article was published, I had something of an epiphany day in the gym. I had started what was meant to be an easy 30min recovery on the exercise bike. Aiming to just roll over 7-8 miles on easy to clear my legs out. About 10 or 11 minutes in I was already starting to struggle. My legs were aching and despite it being a simple recovery day I was paying for the previous few days of hard sessions. I was rapidly digging one of those holes that would result in walking off the bike like a saturday-nighter falling out of espionage. I decided I would just tick over till 15minutes and then get off and go home.
And then that little switch flipped over and everything was suddenly no effort. The pedals felt lighter, and turning 90 revs was no effort at all, the clock seemed to jump from 11 minutes to 20 and then 25 and 30 in the blink of an eye, all the aches disappeared and I was turning the watts up over 170 for the last ten minutes and feeling easier than I have since I have been back training.
The next couple of days were pretty much the same, big numbers, for low effort. And then the weekend arrived and for a reason that I still haven't been able to work out I had a fairly big relapse on Saturday. Still not sure why I have had such a bad week after that but managed to go swimming Thursday night and felt as close to normal as I have. Hopefully it is the same effect as the gym where I am through the hard lump and suddenly everything is easier again.
(500) Days of Summer is on again. It is about the tenth time this month that I have started watching it, and the first time I survived past the opening 25 minutes. Still didn't make it to 40 though.
Friday 16 March 2012
Wednesday 14 March 2012
Two steps forward, five steps back
Went out on the road bike in Sunday with a group. Was struggling on the hills and after 10 miles of suffering and still falling off the back at even the slightest hint of a climb I decided to get out while they went on for 50. Took the flattest and easiest route that I could to get back to the car. Was quite surprised and impressed that I coped on my own for the 45 minutes it took me to get back to the car. But that was the end of the good news, it has been downhill from there for the last couple of days.
I forced myself to go to swimming on Monday. I couldn't make up my mind if it was worth going before I left the house. I managed to get in the water and splash up and down for about 5 minutes. I shouldn't have bothered.
I have decided to drop out of the online course I was doing at MIT. I did week 1 of the homework using the instructions in the course material got less than half of the questions right. I did week 2 without looking at any of their course material at all and scored 100%. There are so many errors in their course it is utterly worthless. Disappointing that MIT are so badly organised, seems they were in too much of a rush to be first and forgot to do it well.
This was going to be a much longer post but I just can't be bothered.
Saturday 3 March 2012
When is a DNF a good day?
Today I decided to try and go out on my own. 'On my own' is a bit of a stretch. I found a race I could go to, that was organised by someone I trusted. I checked the entry list to make sure none of the people that threatened me would be there. I went down as late as I felt I could get away with still making the entry deadline. And half a dozen other precautions as well.
So I managed an 800m swim in 14:47. Same race last year I did 15:10 and previous 750m PB is 14:45. Considering the amount I missed it is good to be coming out with PB's in the very first event of a season.
Transition was similarly great, was out and running in under 27 seconds, and three places up on where I came out of the swim.
First lap on the run wasn't terrible, was losing time and places to the three that I passed in transition but I didn't expect anything else having only jogged 3 miles outdoors this year and 9 since the start of September. Lap 2 was a big downhill though. The cheering from Pittodrie had me working out what time the game would finish and what time I would finish. Realising that the game was over before I would be off the roads and that I would have to deal with the crowds was too stressful. Within about 400 yards I went from a slow but comfortable jog to walking and barely being able to breathe. From there it was all I could manage to tell one of the officials I was quitting and get back to hide in the changing rooms.
So a DNF, theoretically I should be upset. I can't even remember my last DNF (My training diary says it was a track 10k in 2010). And I am sure I have never considered a DNF to be a successful step forward before. I managed to go outside without a babysitter. I did have a panic attack, but only after I had survived over half an hour with a group of strangers in a room and had survived a decent swim. So overall, a good day out.
Transition was similarly great, was out and running in under 27 seconds, and three places up on where I came out of the swim.
First lap on the run wasn't terrible, was losing time and places to the three that I passed in transition but I didn't expect anything else having only jogged 3 miles outdoors this year and 9 since the start of September. Lap 2 was a big downhill though. The cheering from Pittodrie had me working out what time the game would finish and what time I would finish. Realising that the game was over before I would be off the roads and that I would have to deal with the crowds was too stressful. Within about 400 yards I went from a slow but comfortable jog to walking and barely being able to breathe. From there it was all I could manage to tell one of the officials I was quitting and get back to hide in the changing rooms.
So a DNF, theoretically I should be upset. I can't even remember my last DNF (My training diary says it was a track 10k in 2010). And I am sure I have never considered a DNF to be a successful step forward before. I managed to go outside without a babysitter. I did have a panic attack, but only after I had survived over half an hour with a group of strangers in a room and had survived a decent swim. So overall, a good day out.
Friday 2 March 2012
Working for the chain gang
First time out on the road bike since a couple of rides in August last year. Successfully put my bike back together, and no skipping gears or sticking brakes, so marking up the cables before I took them out worked a lot better than expected. 2 hours to do 28 miles pretty good going, so happy enough to have survived that, especially after just under 2 hours on the mountain bike the day before.
Managed to go out with a new friend and a few of her friends last week. Saw a couple of people I used to know, while I was out. Resisted the urge to run away and just about kept the panic attack under control, which I was quite impressed with. Got a few funny looks from my friend so obviously she figured something was wrong with me but she wan't sure what it was and I wasn't up for telling her. Also managed to resist the urge to punch or glass him, or to tell her some of the more interesting aspects of his dating history. If she wants to be second-hand to a string of prostitutes that is her look-out. I was advised not to write that, but it is true so fuck it, and anyway there is no need to take my word for it, it wasn't like he kept it a secret.
That my one attempt at going out socially had me so stressed and in a state for the next couple of days meant that I haven't tried to go out again. The nearest I got was getting a friend to take me to the apple store this morning with my broken phone and then to the beach with Dexter this afternoon and even that left me stressed out for the day.
In numbers the last three weeks have been mostly good. Have lost a couple of kilos again, back down to 72, which is a bit disappointing. But in the 22 days since I last posted, while I have clocked up a pitiful 11.7 running miles (all treadmill), I have also managed a half-decent 118 on the bike (28 road, 15 mountain, 75 exercise bike) and a slightly short 2.5 in the pool.
I had an opportunity to go out to try and run tomorrow or sunday but I haven't been able to arrange a babysitter to look after me so will be sitting in front of the TV all weekend again instead.
Managed to go out with a new friend and a few of her friends last week. Saw a couple of people I used to know, while I was out. Resisted the urge to run away and just about kept the panic attack under control, which I was quite impressed with. Got a few funny looks from my friend so obviously she figured something was wrong with me but she wan't sure what it was and I wasn't up for telling her. Also managed to resist the urge to punch or glass him, or to tell her some of the more interesting aspects of his dating history. If she wants to be second-hand to a string of prostitutes that is her look-out. I was advised not to write that, but it is true so fuck it, and anyway there is no need to take my word for it, it wasn't like he kept it a secret.
That my one attempt at going out socially had me so stressed and in a state for the next couple of days meant that I haven't tried to go out again. The nearest I got was getting a friend to take me to the apple store this morning with my broken phone and then to the beach with Dexter this afternoon and even that left me stressed out for the day.
In numbers the last three weeks have been mostly good. Have lost a couple of kilos again, back down to 72, which is a bit disappointing. But in the 22 days since I last posted, while I have clocked up a pitiful 11.7 running miles (all treadmill), I have also managed a half-decent 118 on the bike (28 road, 15 mountain, 75 exercise bike) and a slightly short 2.5 in the pool.
I had an opportunity to go out to try and run tomorrow or sunday but I haven't been able to arrange a babysitter to look after me so will be sitting in front of the TV all weekend again instead.
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