Yes, I've reached the milestone of my first 20-kilometre training run - and it was not a flat one either, with some 500+ metres of ascent. It's a few weeks until the second anniversary of starting my comeback and the time has absolutely flown by. Progress has exceeded my expectation. I didn't think I'd ever get back to the levels of fitness I once had. I'm not there yet, mind, but I will get there...
..Wednesday night's group ride. A cracking 46km tempo group ride on Zwift. Despite being in a big group I was pushing on the front like a time trial. Two 23k laps with a decent cat 4 climb near the end of each lap - my killing ground. Despite not pushing to the absolute limit - except for the climbs where I ground it out hard each time, I still managed my 2nd best ever hour power, and that was literally only a couple of watts shy. If I knew I was so close to the power hour I'd have put the hammer down. Bodes well for my fitness.
Treadmill Tuesday was longer intervals, treadmill Thursday was a ladder of faster efforts 60s down to 150s and back up. Friday was an easy ride - albeit with my best ever 30s power sprint. After that, I was feeling a slight ache in my left achilles do I didn't go for a long run yesterday. Up today was a short - but pretty fast - run on the treadmill followed immediately by a Zwift climb portal blast. Happy to have claimed the Polka Dot Jersey on the Col du Rosier. It's not often I claim a Zwift vest so I'll take 'em when they come.
So the long run wasn't such a long run. The unexpectedly snowy conditions meant it was soggy, boggy and slippy. My feet were wet through in the first five minutes - and four minutes of that was on the road. The steeper sections where energy sapping on the way up and 'fun' on the way down. To top it off, one of the main tracks had four large trees down, meaning a scramble in the boggy undergrowth to get around. All of which meant things started to ache, so I cut the run to just over 10k. Anyway, it was something a bit different to be running in the snow.
Up today, with the sun shining brightly, it would have been rude not to have got out there, so I ran a quick out and back of just over 6k in a decent time.
Earlier in the week, I ran my fastest set of six 1k reps at 4:08. That pace is significantly than my current 5k pace, so I'm happy things are moving a pace - boom, boom - towards taking my 5k into the 21's... Wednesday was a resumption of the monthly work run. For one reason or another it hasn't happened for a few months but hopefully back in the calendar now. And interspersed here and there a few Zwift sessions on the bike.
Looking forward to my rest day tomorrow.
With the weather improving.. I mean, with the weather as $#!7 as ever, I can't put off building the long run any longer. I'm aiming to build my weekly long run by one to two kilometres per week with the aim of getting towards 20km by June. With that in mind, I headed out for 12km today and came home just shy of that, clocking 11.6km.
It was a good run. I tried to force myself to run nice and slowly - but as usual, I ended up steadily putting in more and more effort. It culminated in a crack at the Hope Wood East Side Climb KOM. I missed the target but only by 3s, down from 10s on my previous attempt. It won't be long until it is mine... Looking on Strava, I actually think my watch beeped for the finish too soon, as Strava has my pace tailing off before the end of the segment where in reality I actually picked up the pace in the last 50m. Suffice to say I shall be running through the line for an extra 50m next time to be on the safe side. I thought my days of vying for KOMs ended a decade ago, and I know they're only local ones, for the locals but having claimed one last year I'm definitely going to claim a few more.
The rest of the week has seen a couple of good treadmill interval sessions. Medium reps Tuesday and shorter, faster ones yesterday. Zwift-wise I destroyed my virtual Cheddar Gorge climb time on Wednesday and it was a medium pace ride Thursday.
For today's run out and back along Barrel Lane. It was meant to be a steady run of about 10k. It started off that way. The first couple of k's were solid but comfortable. I started putting in little efforts and before I knew it, I was churning along at a good pace. I wasn't on race effort but I was certainly no longer cruising. As I hit the halfway turn around, I decided to see if I could get inside 50 minutes without redlining. I sustained the effort on the way back.
I completed the 10k in 49:08 which is only a minute 20 off my PB from Blaisdon and today's route was 50% hillier. I was running hard by the end but nowhere near my all out, edge of oblivion race effort. I feel pretty confident that my current PB is only going to last until my next road 10k race...
Other training, after my two rest days, was a solid speed pyramid Wednesday on the treadmill, ramping FTP intervals on the bike Thursday and a steady 5k 4% inclined treadmill run yesterday. I am definitely recovered from the fatigue that caught up with me last weekend.
It's been another solid week of training. A steady run Tuesday followed by a couple of more focused interval sessions on the bike and treadmill on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. They were medium to high intensity rather than at the limit as I was mindful I was hitting the Parkrun today to gauge where I am on the 5k front. A course PB maybe? It's not an ideal route for a PB but stranger things have happened...
I have to admit it went a bit wrong yesterday. It was meant to be an easy recovery ride completion of Stage 7 of the Tour de Zwift (bike) but I royally ballsed that up. The start came - and then it went... My virtual avatar refused to move as the field of 652 left me alone to my thoughts. Thoughts like, f~*% why aren't I moving? Cue twenty seconds of faffing to realise I was connected to my footpod - not a lot of good in a bike ride.
So, I got connected and set off, dead last. I almost got off as it's a bit boring with no other riders around, but I continued, thinking I'd catch up if I pushed a little, but I didn't want to go too hard. After a few minutes I was at the back but no longer last. Even at an easy effort I was moving through the field. I didn't really realise it at that point, but the racing part of brain had kicked in and I was little by little putting down more and more power. Suffice to say, by the end I was up to 175th and eye-balls-out, hitting pretty much my PB 30-minute power average. Doh!
Anyway, I decided to get up and do the Mallards Pike Parkrun knowing I was probably going to fail but I didn't think I'd be far away as my legs felt surprisingly good considering the hammering I'd given them yesterday. I had my course PB pacing worked out and decided to stick to it. Lose time to the first half climb and then gain it back on the descent home... I hit the halfway point, puffing like a bastard. Heart rate 178 but importantly, inside the schedule by a few seconds. I then hit the accelerator and nailed the descent to hit home in a new course PB by 48 seconds but better yet, a new PB by 19 seconds. 22:11. It is not going to be long before it starts 21..,..
Up yesterday was my first run for a while on what I call the Longhope three peaks, on account of it having, yes, you guessed it, three peaks. May Hill, Brights Hill and Huntley Hill. The biggest climb, from the A40 to the trig on May Hill, is about as close to a fell running hill as you can get in the forest (but it's not really that close). I wasn't far off my time from 2015. I think I can break that later in the year as I was slipping around in the mud on parts of the climb.
Things got slower in the last third on the second and third climbs as it got boggier and boggier. I almost went down on my arse a couple of times but managed to 'ski' myself upright. Anyway, it was a solid 10.5km with a surprisingly decent amount of ascent at 410m, in a time only a few minutes down on my best from 2015 and most of that lost time was down to the mud-fest. Definitely a route I'm going to see more of - but maybe once things start to dry up a little later in the spring.
Up today was another stage of the Tour de Zwift and I didn't go all in, although I put in hard efforts, above FTP, in patches. A sort of fartlek session but on a bike. By the end, a 4km climb to the finish, my legs were cooked.
My training earlier in the week saw me complete a reasonably steadily ramped tempo 5+k on the treadmill (2%incline) Tuesday. Followed by a hard effort on the Zwift (bike) Wednesday, Stage 5 of the Tour de Zwift. The route was a simulation of part of the 2018 world champs in Innsbruck, and a cat. 2 climb. I took it easy till the climb then hammered it. I started to cramp slightly into the final km but managed to keep pushing and get over the top in a new time of 25:16, over a minute inside my previous best effort. I pulled a rest day Thursday as my legs were suffering a bit from the previous days cramping and Friday my legs felt like they needed a fraction more recovery so it was just a lower than tempo 5k on the treadmill, 3% incline. Rest day tomorrow and then back on it.
An easier week of training with today's race in mind. Up Tuesday was the 3rd stage of the Tour de Zwift on the treadmill where I ran intervals 300-400m on, 150m off with a final hard effort kilometre to the line. Wednesday was stage 3 on the bike and below FTP in the first half, and above FTP in the second. Took a rest day Thursday before an easy stage 4 (bike) in the tour yesterday - although I did go all in on the sprint segment on each lap (3 in total), and I mean all in! It was only 300-400m. Not everyone sprints so it doesn't really count, but I topped the leader board and set myself some new all-time 15s power numbers.
Up today was, of course, the Craig yr Allt Winter fell race over near Caerphilly. 6.4km with 350m ascent. Conditions were pretty good. It didn't rain and it was way hotter than of late, a balmy 3°C. I surprised myself how well I went up the ascents, especially the first. I was able to run most of the way to the top with only a couple of teensy-weensy walk breaks - and I do mean teensy-weensy. Now the third climb... well that was a bit different as by then I was bloody knackered, although I did force myself to run whenever the gradient eased a little. "come on, we can run this bit.....".
I finished just over three minutes quicker than the only other time I've run this race, five years ago, so I'm happy with the result. Can't grumble at 30 seconds faster per kilometre.
It's been a lower intensity week of training but not without some strong sessions. The highlight was Tuesday's kilometre reps. They were substantially inside my current 5k pb pace but there is room to go faster still. Wednesday, I rode the second stage of the tour de Zwift. A two lapper, I sat back on the first to sit towards the back and then hit out above FTP as a time trial to see how many places I could gain. A thoroughly hard effort. There's been a few other runs and rides with the other notable session being today's climb portal ride. I was feeling yesterday's run in my legs but still managed to get within a minute of my best on the 630m of elevation simulated 9km climb up Bealach na Ba.
It's now under a week to my first race of the year...
