Tuesday 29 July 2008

Overdoing it?

Have been meaning to update this for a couple of weeks and am now struggling to remember exactly what i have done!

What i know i did do, according to AA route planner, was 104.7 miles of cycling on 13th July. I set off from home, over the Erskine bridge and up Loch Lomond side to Arrochar. The return journey took me down Loch Long and over the hills to Coulport. I just followed the road ahead through Kilcreggan, where i seriously contemplated getting on the boat back to Gourock. I didn't though, and carried on through Garelochhead, Helensburgh, Dumbarton and back over the bridge to get home. I was out for 6.5 hours and this included some stops for photography and pishing! My hope was to do 100miles in less than 6 hours, and i did. This was a favoured route when i did my Ironman prep a couple of years ago.

The week leading up to this effort was a mixture of mainly cycling with a little swimming, cautious running and a couple of hours walking with 10kg on my back. A total of almost 13 hours for the week.

Week beginning 14th July:

Monday: About 25miles cycling

Tuesday: 1000m swim then 4 mile run with the dodgy calf becoming dodgier.

Wednesday: 32 miles cycling

Thursday: about 7 miles walking with 10kg on my back

Friday: rest

Saturday: 104.7 miles of cycling. The above route in reverse(not cycling backwards).

Sunday: 10 mile run. Calf felt like it was going to explode. Not nice. About 14.5 hours in the bag this week.


Monday 21st: about 22 miles cycling

Tuesday: 32 miles cycling

Wednesday: 1000m swim

Thursday: rest day. Was becoming rather crabbit. Wonder if the long bike rides had anything to do with it!!!

Friday: 20 miles cycling

Saturday: 7 miles walking with 12kg on back

Sunday: 40 miles cycling. About 9.5 hours this week.

I may wait till next week before another attempt at running.

Monday 7 July 2008

Another week down

Since last here i took a rest day on Monday then did 32 miles on the bike on Tuesday.

Wednesday had me back at the physio and he said i should just get back in to whatever i feel like doing. So, i had a 2000m swim after an amazing comeback at running a whopping 3km. I used the first1km loop to warm up, did plenty of stretching, then finished my final 2 loops of the local Battery Park. I ran on the grass hoping to minimise the impact but think losing a bit of my belly will be a better impact minimiser. My calf felt a wee bit stiff towards the end but no major fallout.

On Thursday i planned to do another couple of hours on the bike but the weather was honking worse than usual. I went to the gym instead. 15mins warm up on the stationary bike, 1hour on the cross trainer, 30mins on the stepper and final 15 mins back on the bike. I was taking it easy with an occasional burst of intensity to relieve the boredom. No leg problems.

Friday had me back at the battery park. I used the 1st lap to warm up, stretched(a lot) then did a further 9km. It felt good to be back running a distance of note. No leg complaints. it's all going to smoothly now.

On Saturday Elaine and me went for a walk. Not a gentle stroll but a manly walk. I decided to handicap myself by putting 10kg of stuff into my backpack. We covered about 11 miles and my quads were feeling it towards the end. A good reminder of a need to get more of this sort of thing done in preparation for next year.

Sunday, felt like going for a long bike ride but just lay down until the feeling passed. i'm stuill feeling a bit fatigued today but will endeavour to do something after work(where i am not writing this!!!)

My knee feels a little spongey today but nothing terribly significant, i hope.

Total swim 2000m
cycled 64 miles
walked 11 miles with 10kg napsack on my back
ran 13km

Total time of about 8.75 hours.

I need to improve my diet.