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Wednesday 23 May 2007

Wednesday Training Time

Another good day today, a lot of effort expended so it will be a nice easy day tomorrow.
Lunchtime swim, 40 minutes of continuous swimming, but in amongst that were 3 lots of 200m really hard efforts. In fact at one stage, even though only for a length I kept pace with my 'swim coach' and was even pushing to go passed, but I couldn't keep that level of effort going for any longer, so just swam easy for a bit of a rest. Swimming is really improving since I got my kick going well and am better balanced and more streamlined in the water.

Bike ride this evening, and it was a good one. Very hard effort, took in 3 long climbs, first from Wool to Lulworth Castle, via Newtown Hill, not so steep the gradient, but a good 4 mile uphill effort which got my legs working hard. And before I forget, before that climb I was on a slight uphill straight stretch of 6 miles into a strong headwind. 2nd climb was just under 2 miles, from Lulworth Castle onto the top of the firing range. Much steeper this climb, but by this time my legs were working well and I felt very strong and powered my way up the climb, seated all the way and recovered almost immediately once over the top. 3rd climb was my old favourite from Swanage up to Kingston via Langton Matravers. Took this one nice and steady, and again finished strong at the top. I started to tire on my way back down to Corfe Castle, at around 34 miles. Reason being is I only lef thome with 2 Power Gels, a bottle of water and a bottle of Electrolyte energy drink. Not enough. I was sweating a lot in the warm evening air and I actually cramped up a little during the ride as well. I stopped in Corfe Castle at a pub where they kindly filled my drinks bottle with water! Yes, water, not beer!!! And I had a can of Red Bull, just to give me a lift for the remaining 8 miles home. I pushed very hard on the way back, shouting at myself to push harder and telling myself I was not feeling enough pain!! Obviously the Red Bull was working, and I powered home into a headwind at a really good pace, shattered but feeling great.
Stats:
time - 2 hours 30 minutes and 23 seconds
distance - 68.6km ( 42.6 miles)
Average speed - 29.4 kph (18.3 mph)
max speed - 58.3 kph (36.2 mph)
no heart rate as I forgot my monitor!
no cadence as done on Scott S30, which is riding really well at the moment. Need a new chain though in the next couple of weeks.
I think I will use this bike for Half Ironman, as the bike course is very hilly, and put my Easton wheels on it, as they are super light, ideal for climbing.
At the moment, I'm well on course to go under 3 hours for Half Ironman UK, 90km bike leg, as long as I get my nutrition right. That's the key.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That sounds an impressive ride - don't forget the recovery- mustn't peak to soon.

It sounds like it is just a hard getting the nutrition just right , the bike right, the shoes right and the 'outfit' right as it is doing the race!

Steve Birtwistle said...

I'm having a day off today, otehr than riding to and from work. Feeling a little tired and in need of a rest.
I've not got many more hard rides to do. probably 3 at most before I start tapering.
And yes, as I'm finding out more and more every session, there's lots to this triathlon lark!!

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