NO LOVE HANDLES ALLOWED!

'It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.' Theodore Roosevelt 23 April 1910

Thursday, 24 July 2008

It's Still Not Happening...

I got on the turbo last night and after a 10 minute warm-up got stuck into the 6 minute reps at 330 watts, with 2 minutes easy recovery at about 200 watts. Again, though, I just didn't seem to have the heart for it. It was hard (as you would expect) but whereas in the past I would just grit my teeth and get on with it I found myelf once again contemplating climbing off. I battled with these demons for a while and not even Iron Maiden's "Run to the Hills" on the ipod could dispel them. In the end I did 3 reps of 6 minutes and just to confirm the strange state of mind I currently find myself in I dashed inside, put my trainers on and went for a run. Now this is most unlike me! It wasn't quick and it wasn't long but for me to run instead of ride my bike is almost uheard of.

So today I have taken a rest day and taken the opportunity to review my training diary. I have done 7.7 hours of training over the last 4 days; in comparison my weekly average has been 7.3 hours this winter. The last 4 days consists of 40 minutes of swimming, 30 minutes of running, 30 minutes of core and 6 hours of cycling! Am I really traning for middle distance races?

The good news is that I have a late start tomorrow so plan to take Bandit for an early morning run in the park; will hopefully be out for at least an hour. Which leaves Saturday and Sunday for a couple of long bike rides; Saturday will be a steady ride out to Cambridge and back and Sunday will be a couple of hours of hill efforts. This will hopefully give me some confidence in my bike endurance that was lacking at both Bala and Cowman and allow me to balance my training a bit better over the next 2 weeks.

It's the Trentham Gatorade Big Half (or whatever its called) this weekend so best of luck to Reg, Sags and Jase.

2 comments:

Kelda said...

Sounds like a case of fatique to me, when you are finding it hard to finish/do your most favourite discipline that should tell you something.

After a big block of training/racing use the warm up session to assess how you are feeling if that is quite an effort then it ain't gonna happen in the main set, so stop and go do something else!

Don't underestimate the fact you are working and juggling family school holidays, plus sudden summer heat, it all takes it's toll, you're not a full time athelete like me, LOL!!!!!

After an epic 10 days including my more than HIM on Tuesday I watched the Tour all day Wednesday, couldn't even be bothered to sit in the sun outside, unheard of for me, but yesterday I felt OK again.

Listen to your body or it will rebel eventually!

K

Daz Sharpe said...

Kelda is right turbo, I had 2 days off completely from training last weekend and on the monday felt great for the rest, i've had a good weeks training this week. I hate to admit it but rest days are essential. Prior to the rest days I was feeling tired before every training session so knew it was time for a rest. Rest smart my man.