That Hurt a Little Bit

Decided on a speed session today and I picked one I wasn't sure I could complete - I did but not without a smidgen of 'cheating'. I pushed it harder than I have for a long time and found myself struggling to keep on the treadmill - hence the slight cheating but better than than not complete. Despite it hurting, it felt good. To know I pushed out of my comfort zone. Going forward I'm going to keep pushing myself. I can see it's got to hurt if there's going to be a gain. Definitely going to repeat today's session and hopefully there'll be a little less cheating the next time....

The 2020 L'Etape du Tour Begins...

The tour has gone virtual and a ton of the real teams are taking part. In parallel with that the virtual L'Etape has also started and I climbed my way to stage One. I've not been up to riding the Classic KOM route for a while so it was a bit of a shock. The 600m+ climb was hard - but pleasingly satisfying. In all it was a 30k virtual ride of just over seventy minutes.

There's more tour for us to ride along with this week as stages 1 and 2 of the virtual tour are launched, followed by stages 3 and 4 the week after and 5 and 6 the week after that. Stage 6 culminating with multiple laps of the virtual replica of the Champs-Elysees. Some running tomorrow...

"Quick" Blast After Work

I wasn't feeling any after affects from yesterday's reboot so I decided to try my gradual pace ramp treadmill 2 miler. After a brief warmup I set the pace and jogged on... Managed a minute faster than my previous, set in the week before that which shall not be named. Pleased with that.

Finally, Mended Enough For a Run

Apart from one very gentle jog, I've not run for almost two weeks - since I decided DIY was a good idea. To be fair, I am pleased with the results of my DIY efforts so I feel the pain was worth it. It's definitely a sign I'm getting too old for that shit.

Back to tonight's run on the treadmill, it went pretty well. I was expecting to be utter pants. To feel beyond sluggish and generally struggle like f*(%. As it was I repeated one of my stock sessions and, rather than finding it hard going, I could actually have upped the tempo. I was well within myself. I could feel my hamstring just a little but nothing that I'm worried about. Overall I'm very pleased and ready for the next session...

So Some How I Strained My Hamstring

Thank f*(% I'm done with the DIY for the time being. It's positively detrimental to health! So anyway, I tried a few minutes on the treadmill but it was stressing my sore hamstring too much. I then popped into the saddle and that was much better. It barely troubled me so I selected the Crit City race, 14 laps, and off I went. An enjoyable affair. I was at the back, of course, but worked hard to bridge to the next rider up the road from lap to lap. I also put the power down on the short climb on each lap, to treat it as a bit of a work out. All in all a good training session come race.

Mammoth Ten-Hour Training Session

Or replacing the office carpet as some might refer to it. Either way it was a long one. Plenty of leg work and some good upper body stretching and got it all done in a single day this time. Don't feel quite as achy as last week which is a good sign. After a half hour break I fired up the Zwift - and then fired it back down again as I realised quite how knackered I was. Definitely proper training tomorrow, I promise...

More Effort Tonight

A short TT ride on the nice flat time trial course. I started out with a few kilometres of easy riding before upping the effort and trying to maintain power towards my FTP. I wasn't all out as my legs still have a slight tinge of soreness - how long has it taken me to recover from the trauma of DIY? And worse yet, I'm laying a new floor in the office on the weekend so likely heading straight back to painville.

The legs were still surprisingly sore yesterday and I only managed a very gentle treadmill trot, to keep the impact low. Couldn't face missing another day but in reality it wasn't exactly training but I felt better for having done it.

Very Easy Zwift Tonight

I've mostly recovered from the trauma that was DIY with the exception that my quads are still really sore. Not quite sure why that is. Too sore to muster for a run so it was a few very low power, low impact pootle of a couple laps of the virtual London Classique route. Nice and flat. Nice and easy does it. It's been too many days since my last run but I can't be running until the soreness has gone - or almost gone. Hopefully tomorrow...

Job Complete and I'm Fully Wrecked

It feels like every muscle in my body is aching. I'm pleased with the results of my labours but by god it was hard work. And to add insult to injury, despite being on the home straight, it still took me five hours this morning. I'm not going to be able to go for that run I was hoping for because I can hardly move. Who needs a gym when there's diy? I suspect I'm going to be struggling tomorrow.

Halfway and Bloody Knackered

F' me, laying wood flooring is hard work. Got my bedroom carpet infested with some sort of carpet eating little bastards hence the need to replace it. My back is aching and overall, I feel knackered. I was at it for almost six hours and only managed to get it laid to halfway. Although, it was the hardest half with all the fiddly bits. I'm not expecting the second half to take as long tomorrow - and hopefully it won't be so knackering as I felt so wiped I aborted my run today. I'm expecting to sleep well tonight.

Down t'pit

The sewer pit.... It's been a while since the last failure and it chose today for the latest hiccup. So after arranging an emergency tanker pump down I had to climb down into the depths of pit, got covered in sh... and managed to reconnect the pipe to the sewer connection point, which had come loose. It's not the most pleasant task but needs must.

On to more pleasant things, after much time in the shower, I got onto the treadmill for a incline workout. A reasonable session before once again hitting the shower. More training up tomorrow.

Decent Little Effort

It was a sort of inverse pyramid today. Started with the fastest rep first, 1 minute (fastest pace of my recent training) and then 1 minute recovery, followed by 90s slightly slower and another 1 minute recovery, then 2 minutes a fraction slower with the recovery before a final two and a half minute effort a tad slower again before taking things back up. Running at a slightly faster pace is starting to feel a little bit more normal. Going to continue with the Zwift programmed workouts to keep some structure and keep it interesting.

Yesterday I put in a reasonable effort in the Crit City bike race on Zwift, 16k. Managed slightly higher power than of late but didn't feel it in my legs today, so all good.

Turns Out It Was 12 Reps...

So I had the session programmed in as 10 x 400m with 200m recovery. The pace I'd set was about right. Over the first four reps my heart rate crept up and stabilised out at 167 at the end of each one. I was happy to see my way to the tenth. Only then did I realise there were two more to go. My heart didn't sink as I felt I could manage them. All in all a good session.

Top Tip For Social Distancing...

If you're finding people aren't respecting your 2m social distancing here's a top tip. Get yourself online and buy a big pair of y-fronts for a couple of quid, mark on a big skid mark and wear them as your face mask. Never mind a 2m distance, you'll find you'll get 22m of social distance...

On to more important matters, I managed a decent session tonight on the treadmill, Zwifts Michigan #1 session. 6km of steady and faster sections of 3 or 4 minutes with the very fastest sections reducing the time to two and one minute. Felt within myself. Going to hit the #2 version next time, which increases the effort times but keeps the speeds the same.