March

HUSBAND, FATHER, WRITER, PAINTER and ageing athlete who hasn’t quite hung up the lycra.

MARCH

Tuesday 1st March.

1hr early morning turbo. Good hard effort. Long hard FTP intervals 6mins with short 1min recovery.

Lunchtime 30min turbo
Spin easy with 1leg drills.

30min v.v. easy run on treadmill. Av.7kph. Ankle felt delicate but not too sore. – not much above a walk though.

Total 2hrs – B1:30, R :30

Wednesday 2nd March.

1hr Early morning turbo. 1st half easy, 2nd half moderately hard with five random big sprints for the hell of it. 20C just a few sips of water.

1hr Mid morning hard turbo. Big gear just below threshold effort. Av, Cadence 69.
2nd half long intervals at 6mins hard 1min easy. A couple of big sprints to finish.

Lunchtime Swim.
40mins easy continuous effort. Felt quite tired. Usual Wednesday swim partner not around so snuck off for a recovery Jacuzzi steam and sauna, Felt the benefit of it too.

30 treadmill run late evening.
Very slow but happy to be running again. Always enjoy running and get a lift from it no matter what speed. Ankle/shin felt OK but delicate.

Total 3:10 – S 40min, B 2hr, R30min

Thursday 3rd March

30min Lunchtime treadmill run. Very easy 8kph. Apprehensive but felt OK.

30 Quick hard afternoon gym/weight session.

1hr Turbo Evening. 25C Av Watt 250.
Started relatively easy and built into it. Finished feeling good.

Calibration of trainer read -2.5. Going to keep a record of this calibration figure. It might help me compare different sessions. There is a good bit of variation between every calibration run these days. For the last five years it had always been well into positive numbers but since Christmas it has moved around between 0 and -4.

Total 2hrs -B 1hr, R 30min, S&C 30min

Friday 4th March

1hr turbo morning 22C. 1 bottle Water.
Interval session. Have not done nearly enough of this session recently.
15min warm up.
15x2min max efforts with 1min easy recovery in between. All done from a seated start and down in the Tri bars. The saddle not hurting nearly as much now that it sharing some of the load with the elbow pads. Good session pushed hard on all and felt strong for most of the 2mins and finishing.

30min Easy evening run treadmill. 9kph Felt OK and it was hard not to hold back on the speed button but kept the pace low. Felt OK no pain.

30min rowing machine post run. Steady/hard effort.

Total 2 B, 1 R 30min S&C 30min

Sat 5th March.

1:30 Morning swim. New Ross
Main set 4x400m good steady/hard effort all between 6:20 – 30. Steady effort. Gentle push off wall. Concentrating on holding form not flogging myself. Short rest between.

Spent the afternoon putting the TT bike back together and fiddling with my TT position.

https://youtu.be/Ud–YC-ciT0

Over the years my position has changed a bit. Mainly due to permanent marker marks on the seat post washing off, not remembering how many spacers went where when putting it back together after transport etc. The new shorter cranks I put on just before Mallorca need to be considered as well. I may have been a little conservative with my setup in recent years and I feel its time to change things a bit too. It’s a work in progress and I won’t really know how the experiment is going until I get out on the road with the bike. I need to look at my cleat position too and I have a strong suspicion they need to be set differently for each shoe. There is something odd going on (and always has) with the symmetry or flexibility of my two lower limbs.

Total S 1:30
Check out the video and if any obvious issues jump out with my setup I would welcome your feedback.

Sunday 6th March

3hrs Early morning turbo (mothers day) 20C 3bottles water.
1st ride on TT bike since September race and 1st time using new position.
1st hour felt very unusual. No strength in legs. After an hour I raised the saddle slightly but not back to as high as it was before the tinkering. Immediately it felt better and as hour 2 and 3 progressed it began to feel familiar again. The lower front end was very noticeable though.
Finished the session (which was a steady continuous 3hr effort) strongly. Keeping the head up and looking forward needs to be worked on. My neck tired quickly in this lower position.

1hr Late evening Turbo.
24C Calibration -1.7 Av. Power 252
Hard effort and hanging on to hold average for the last 10min.

1 hr Brick treadmill run post bike. Still warm 1 bottle water.
V. Slow to start. Building to 10kph. Felt OK ankle held up but couldn’t risk going any faster. There is a crack down the middle of the running board so can’t really go much faster anyway if I was able.

Total 5 -B 4hrs R1

Weekly Total 17:50 -S3:20, B10:30, R3, S&C 1hr

Week 11

Monday 7th March

1hr very easy treadmill run.
Shin a little sore finishing.

1hr club swim.
Tough. Some TT’s. A bit quicker than previous time we did this shortly after Christmas. Making progress – slow but steady.

Tot S1, R1

Tuesday 8th

30min very easy treadmill jog. Planned more but sore shin forced me to stop.

Called into pool this morning but it was closed to public. Rest of day and night taken up with a rush design job that needed to be done straight away.

Tot R30min

Wednesday 9th

Similar to yesterday – still busy and no time to train.
Also a few family things going on that derailed my “lower carb” diet. But that was
always going to be allowed.

Tot 0

Thursday 9th

50min very easy run treadmill. Stopped slightly early as a precaution – slightly sore, but not too bad.

Evening 1hr Turbo TT. 27C 2 bottles water.
Position felt awkward to start. Started easy and built to hold 260Watts for about 45min. Calibration -1.4 F Felt good finishing despite the temperature.
Tot 1:50 B1hr R50min

Friday 10th

2hr morning turbo. 24C 3bottles water.
10min warm up.
50min Hard 270-280 watts.
5min easy.
20min 260-270 watts.
35min steady to finish.
Faded a bit for last 15min and felt tired. Calibration -1.5

20min slow jog on treadmill post turbo. Had planned to go longer but sore shin knocked that on the head.
Beginning to suspect this shin problem might be a little more serious than thought. Getting a bit frustrated with it.

1hr 30. Late evening swim (Enniscorthy)
5min warm up and a few drills.
45min steady at 1:45 100m pace.
15min paddles and pull buoy at similar pace.
15min paddles. Higher stroke rate and holding 1:40pace.
10 min steady/hard 1:35-40 pace. Felt good and stroke seemed to hold together throughout.

Tot 1:30S, 2B R:20 Tot 3:50hrs

Sat 12th March

5hr Turbo
24C Calibration -1. 5 bottles water, banana and two muesli bars.
Easy/steady pace. Watched the Ireland Italy and England Wales rugby matches. Normally I don’t watch TV on the turbo – unless it is a recovery session etc. Today was really about getting use to the TT position and in particular keeping my head up and looking forward. Without the TV I would tend to look down a lot. Obviously once I am out on the road training it is in my interest to look straight ahead.

Getting used to the position. Sharing the weight with the forearms helps with saddle comfort.

Tot 5B

Sunday13th March

1hr lunchtime treadmill. 7kph 6% incline 25C No water.
Anything over 8kph seems to aggravate injury. Trying new approach to keep it very slow and increase the incline and make sure the room is. At least I will burn a few calories. Legs a bit heavy from yesterday but shin not sore and it felt like some sort of a work out.

Late evening 1hr turbo. 26C No Water, Back on road bike with the clip on TT bars. Felt like I was riding a chopper. Very easy effort with some single leg pedalling.

Tot 2hrs, 1B, 1R

Weekly Total hrs 15:10 – S2:30, B9, R3:40

Week 12

Monday 14th March

1:30 Mid morning interval turbo session. 24C Two water bottles.
15min warm up.
20x2min max efforts + 1min recovery.
15min steady to finish.
Good hard effort. It does hurt but well worth the effort.

1hr run brick. 7.5kph 7%incline. Leg a little sore after twenty minutes kept going and it didn’t get any worse – possibly improved a little. Lovely day, would have loved to be running outside but just glad to be running.

1hr club swim evening.
Tough as usual but think I swam reasonably well. “Comfortably” hitting 1:30 100’s as part of longer sets.

B1:30, S1 Tot 2:30

Tuesday 15th March

1hr Evening Turbo. 25C 1bottle. Moderate/Hard effort.
30min Run post turbo. Easy 8kph 6%incline.

Tot 1:30

Wednesday 16th March

45min morning turbo.
Cool 20C No fluid Easy spin.

1hr15 Swim New Ross.
Warm up.
3x1km intervals.
Good steady swimming. Controlled but hard effort. All very consistent. Used the pace clock properly probably for the first ever time. Kept 50m splits between 45 and 50seconds. Good recovery between 1k intervals.

1hr Evening treadmill run.
9kph 9%incline. Minimal impact on shinbone because of low pace but incline ensured a bit of a sweat.

S1:1,5 B:45min, R:1hr

Total 3:15hrs

Thursday 17th March

3hr Bike 84k Morning
First venture out on the bike. Took it to Bagenalstown via Mt.Leinster 9stones and Carlow. Colder than expected. Didn’t drink or eat anything after a good breakfast. Felt surprisingly good. Pushed hard where I normally do especially on the main roads and hills. Stayed in TT bars for duration though it was hard on neck and shoulders.

30min run Evening outside on gravel track. Called away so had to stop early but leg felt OK. Kept the pace slow.

B:3hr R0.5hr
Tot 3:30

Friday 18th March

1hr Run
10k on soft gravel track. Very slow but comfortable no pain in shin – a good sign.

Sat 18th March

3:50 Cold afternoon cycle 110K between Carlow and Kilkenny and back to Enniscorthy. Shoulders stiff from Thursday but the rest of me felt good. Consumed one muesli bar towards finish.

2:10 Evening turbo to warm up. Steady effort watching rugby internationals on TV.
25C two bottles water.

B6hrs
Tot 6hrs

Sunday 19th March

1hr Easy morning Swim. Pool busy.
Shoulders very stiff from the TT position over weekend.
Steady swim using pull buoy and paddles. Quite tired. Not a great effort or session.

2hr Afternoon Turbo.
Easy/Steady continuous effort. Bit of a coffee stop cycle.

1:30 Brick treadmill run off bike.
10%incline 8kph 25C.
Actually quite tough but with minimal impact on leg. Might have even got something out of this run sure sweated a lot. 1bottle water.

S1hr, B2hrs, R1:30.
Tot 4:30

Weekly Total 23hrs – S 3:15, B 14:15, R 5:30
A good week hours wise but would be better if I could manage a couple of meaningful runs and some strength and conditioning. Still nice to get out on the bike and feeling good on it too.

Week 13

Monday 20th March

1hr turbo. Morning. 21C No Water.
15min warm up. Took a while legs tired.
5X1min max efforts >400watt. 2min easy in between. Had planned 10 intervals but the pulling and pushing big gear efforts annoyed my sore shin. Decided on a high cadence spin for 30min to finish. Averaged 110 RPM. Way above my normal cadence. A bit wobbly to start but finished with a controlled pedal stroke. Power around 250Watts. Enjoyed this unusual (for me) session although mojo was very low to start really got into the high cadence effort.

1hr Evening club swim.
Longer intervals tonight. Good session though an upset stomach meant I had to step out for a few minutes and swimming wasn’t as comfortable as it should have been.

1B, 1S Tot 2

Week 14

Monday 21st March

1:30hr Turbo Morning

1hr Treadmill easy. Lunchtime
1hr Club Swim Evening

1:30B, 1R, 1S
Tot 3:30hr

Tuesday 22nd March
0

Wednesday 23rd March

1:15 swim Lunchtime
1hr Treadmill easy.

Tot 2:15

Thursday 24th March

2hr early morning turbo.
Felt tired. Done relatively easy. No music 2bottles water.

1hr afternoon turbo.
Biggish gear. Cadence Av. 72 rpm. Good effort. Av. Watt 256 Calibration -2.6 Was annoyed with earlier effort so put a lot more into this one.

30min Core and weights. Evening.

Tot 3:30 B3 S&C 30min.

Friday 25th March

Morning Swim Enniscorthy. 1h:15min 3K

Warmup
5×400 Av a tad over 7mins

1hr Afternoon treadmill.

20C, 10%incline, Av9kph. Shin felt OK for duration until I picked up pace a good bit towards the end then got sore.

Tot 2:15 1:15S, 1R

26th March Saturday

3hr turbo. 20C, Cal -1.4
15 warm up – increasing pace and effort.
Majority 240-250 Watt
Last 30min 260-270 Watt

Have been feeling a little ill lately. Kids brought a chesty cough home recently. Felt rough starting off but much better as I went along. Though drank 5 bottles of water despite room being cool.

1hr evening treadmill. Similar to yesterday. Sore chest and cough easing as I got into it. 10% incline but resisted picking up pace towards the end. Foot felt fine. 25C. Nice effort in heat.

Tot 4hrs 3B 1R

Sunday 27th March

1:30 Mid morning turbo.
Good tempo effort. Cadence Mid 80’s Av 240-250 Watt. 3 bottles water. 20C. Chest bad and sweat rate up possibly due to being sick.

1hr evening turbo.
Cadence high 80’s 2 bottels water. Sweat rate still excessive. Chest felt bad but improved as went along.

B2:30

Weekly total 18

Week 15

Monday 28th March
0hr Chest bad.
Marshalled at club 10k. Would be nice to be running again.

Tuesday 29th March

1hr Morning turbo. 

Very easy turbo. Felt as bas as yesterday but legs felt good though.

1hr evening treadmill.
2% incline 12.5k Felt good for 50mins then had to slow right down because of ankle. Chest bad too but cleared as went on.

2hrs 1R, 1B

Wed. 30th March

1hr evening turbo. Felt crap chest bad. Just turning legs over.

20min easy swim New Ross while kids on slide.

Total 1:20, 1B, :20S

Thursday 31st March

1hr treadmill 

c.10kph Changed to heel strike just to finish as it didn’t hut as much towards the end.

Still feeling crap. Also smashed my big toe on a step again and had a hernia confirmed. Needless to say a little pissed off with the way training is going recently. Doctor doesn’t seem too keen on my ignoring my hernia until possibly after October. Will think about it for a day or two.