Things Just Got Serious...

They've only gone and started rationing Neighbours! It's now only showing Monday and Friday. Not sure I'm going to get through this....

Completed stage 3 of the Tour this evening on the bike. Didn't tread the boards as my left ham is a little sore. Back on it tomorrow hopefully. It was a good group ride. Got in with a group of ten or so and we rode pretty solidly. The group broke apart on the climb up the volcano before coming back together again on the descent. It was then a solid push through to the line with a decent sprint to finish. 23km. 

Solid Days Workout

I'm going to be fitter than ever after this pandemic runs its course. My seventh day of running in a row followed by a pretty hard effort on the bike. The run was a 30 minute steady effort, stage 2 of the Tour of Watopia. The bike, 40 minutes later, was also stage 2 of the ToW and I worked pretty hard throughout. I could feel my legs burn at points during the 30km ride. I wasn't racing it, just group riding but I didn't want to get dropped - which threatened here and there. Feeling pretty knackered now. Almost certain to be a full rest day - from training at least, still gotta got to work of course.

A Run With Mo

My sixth run in a row was a group run. The largest field of treadmill trotters, some 450+ of us from all over the globe, that I've run with on #Zwift so far. Have to admit that I didn't see much of Mo. I could see his leader beacon at the start line but apart from that he sped into the far distance...

I was feeling it in my legs from the previous five days of running but nothing was aching or sore so I;m happy I'm not over doing it. Today's distance was 6.4km. Not sure what tomorrow's training will be. A run? More likely a ride as I cleaned the chain yesterday - it was pretty filthy - and the near silence of a clean cassette is extremely satisfying.

All T-Rex'ed up and ready to go in the start pen...

Fifth Run In A Row

Hill reps tonight. Been a while and it was a good work out. Eight 250m efforts at 10% elevation with the same as recovery. Despite only being 250m it was quite hard to sustain - and there's nowhere to hide on the treadmill. I almost stood down at six but quite quickly, during the recovery, manned up to complete the full set. Felt good to have stuck with it. And now we're into the weekend and the big question where to run. Will it be Yorkshire? London? Richmond. Ooh the suspense....

They Weren't Too Bad...

So after a decent pair of workouts tonight I had a crack at doing something with lost packet of quinoa. Quinoa and bean burritos.... and to be fair they weren't too bad considering they were fully vegan - which is just as well as I have another two day's potions heading to the freezer.

Back to the training. I hit the bike straight after work. The commute was pretty light... from the upstairs office down to the gym. I plumped for the short sharp stage 5 Tour of Watopia race. 17km and mostly flat. I was towards the back for most of the race, in a group of five. Into the final short, sharp climb, I blasted off the front to win the internal battle of the five. The reverse volcano - not to be confused with the reverse cowgirl, that's something entirely different - suits my style with that short climb within 600-700m of the finish.

I then had about 90 minutes to recover ahead of stage 5 of the tour on foot. Not a race, just a 30 minute group run, with about 150 of us treading the boards. Let's be honest I was never going to be gunning it, started slowly and nudged the pace up little by little. I finished reasonably strongly. Could probably have pushed it a bit harder but I didn't want to risk over doing it. I've more training planned for tomorrow to make it five in a row.

Third Day In A Row

Over to the other side of the world tonight, to the private virtual island that is #Zwift's Watopia. I increased the pacing slightly and edged out the distance to 7km. I'm aiming to run five days back to back for the first time in a goodly while. I won't be overdoing it though as the pace is all very steady but I aim to slowly increase pace and distance over the coming weeks and months - now that I'm not going to be able to make my return to the mountains for, I sadly suspect, at least several months if not  quite a bit longer. Unprecedented times...

Virtual Globe Trotting

A short run in Innsbruck yesterday. Today I was over to New York for a couple of laps of Central Park's Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir. Only 6k at a modest pace but every little helps. I'm being sensible, keeping myself pretty isolated in case I'm needed more front line in the battle to keep water coming out the taps because it's almost certain we're far from the peak. Ending on a more positive note, where will it be for tomorrow's run...

Starting To Feel More Like It Again

After feeling somewhat knackered last week, I'm starting to get back into it - albeit slowly. A virtual bike session yesterday and a virtual run today. Didn't set anything overly taxing and it went by a bit too easily so I shall increasing the effort levels...

A Zwift Disaster

I battled through the traffic to get home to resume the Tour of Watopia on Zwift - wasn't actually that much of a battle. Having missed both ride and run stage 2 of the event, I was keen to resume and had the bike stage 3 planned for tonight. Cue a Zwift outage. Servers were offline. Disaster! Anyway, I was keen to get back on the training after having taken a few days off to allow my sore legs to recover from Sunday so did a manual 30 minute session. I pushed pretty hard and got a bit of burn in the legs but nothing too crazy. Hopefully the servers will be back up for tomorrow but it's still going to leave me with another stage to catch up... 

Not The Bath HM Half Marathon

In light of the increasing COVID-19 threat, I decided not to head to Bath despite it still being on. I suspect there will be quite a few others who made the same call. So instead I headed into the heart of the forest for a solo run following the Forest spring HM route. It was raining. It was cold but I'd collected my sponsorship for WaterAid and today was the day so a half marathon I 'ran'.

It started okay. I wasn't exactly setting the world alight but I was jogging along okay. Through 5k I started to feel a pain in my right hip. By 6k it was hindering me. I didn't want to wreck myself but equally hell would have to freeze over before we see the day when I don't finish a race I start - even if it was a self imposed virtual race. It was a pretty uncomfortable final 15k, stop, start, stop, start but I finished.

Easy Run

Still been feeling a bit off these last few days - no, definitely not Covid-19 before you ask. Add in a pinch of tiredness and I've skipped a few days training. No big deal as I'm on the ease down anyway but was aiming a run yesterday - which I managed today instead. Easy pace. The 6.4k of stage one of the Tour of Watopia complete. Not scheduling in anything in the plan before Sunday but likely be doing a very very gentle something at some point before then.

Start of the Tour

But the main question is when to do my last run and bike before the big day? It's been so long I can't really remember how I used to taper. I decided I needed to at least get stage one on the bike out of the way but didn't really race it. I'll likely try a very gentle stage one on foot tomorrow so at least I'll have both stage ones of the Tour of Watopia out the way. Probably skip stage two as it's too close to the main event on Sunday. Might be my last training session tomorrow but maybe a very gentle effort Thursday. That'll definitely be the last before Sunday...

As to tonight's stage on the bike. I started slow and easy but really got going. In fact, despite feeling a bit tired before hand, and the legs feeling a bit dead, by the end I was going as well as I have for a while - without really feeling like I was putting the hammer down. Maybe there's something to my secret beetroot pills...

Feeling A Bit Off

I am feeling better today but yesterday was a right off. Was feeling lacking energy. Had an early night and that has helped. Managed 8k on the treadmill today followed by a half an hour workout on the bike. Neither was super high octane but then I need to look at getting myself fully rested with just one week to go till Bath. That is definitely going to be a challenge but I will get round.

Set The Target Slightly Too High

After an easier half hour on the bike yesterday I decided to run a 3.2km tester tonight. After 1km warmup I set off. The target ramped pace was a little too high and I started to blow in the last k. Had to take a couple of pace drops but still ended significantly faster than the same session two weeks ago. If I set my pace targets a little better [read lower] I could have ended up with a slightly quicker time but irrespective of that, happy to have gone quicker. Still bloody slow in the grand scheme of things but it doesn't put me off. I will get there...

Following Yesterday's Bike Ramps...

It was the two legged version tonight. I decided to repeat last weeks session of six ramps but I increased each ramp by 100m this time. So it was six 600m ramps and it all felt pretty good again. Overall I feel the effort at the middle of the ramp, which was around about my target HM pace, was feeling easier to maintain. In reality, it's a bit late in the day to make much difference to the outcome of BHM-Day in 12 days time but it feels like I'm giving myself a good base on which to slowly build on from over the coming months. I might even target myself an autumn HM by way of a further goal...

Solid Session on the Bike

Opted for a group workout tonight. Warm up, cool down with four power spikes and four ramps. The end of each four minute ramp was hard but doable without coming out of the saddle. Definitely needed the 90 second recovery though as my legs were burning as I hit the end of each one. It felt satisfying to complete it as I knew it was going to be a tough one and I went in thinking I might need to nudge the effort level down a few percent. Didn't need to do that though, so I'm happy with that.