Step back, move forward…

This week was a step back week for me, quite simply I planned to eliminate doubles. Somehow the planets aligned and I managed to pick some snotfest lurgy. I felt it coming on last Sunday and then thought I had shrugged it off on Monday, but Tuesday morning I woke up with what felt like my head in vice so with a pragmatic head on I missed Tuesday’s run and missed Tuesday’s commute and stayed at home! Come Wednesday I was back in work but I skipped the scheduled swim. By Thursday I was starting to feel a little more human I passed on the scheduled tempo run and took a somewhat sniffy cougy fiver miler before dawn. By Friday I was feeling on the upswing and was back in the pool for a slower than usual 1800 yards. I switched out Saturday’s swim for a return to the tails and spent a glorious two hours running around the local trails at Chesebro Canyon.

This is an old picture but you get the idea!

With one day left of rest week I decided to ride short and fast and tack a run onto the end of it, the original plan was to head to the coast and hit PCH but after 30 minutes of being blown left, right, up and down and at one point I was blown clean into the middle of the road, it was no fun and was to be honest just plain dangerous so I threw the bike into the truck and headed inland. After a short drive I was out of the wind!

Here is quick video of the ocean, the waves are rolling in at around 6-8’, you get an idea of the windiness, there were some seriously scary gusts!

So Take Two. Four laps around a local lake, it measures a little over 5 miles and is essentially a square ride, one side is downhill and the other three are up, there’s not a lot of climbing but there’s not a lot of coasting either. The first mile was a bit fudgy as I was getting out a parking lot but I soon settled in. A little over an hour later I was done with 21 miles on the clock. Overall I was very happy with this as M2-15 was completed in 43:44 (19.31mph) my first Tri in 4 weeks has a 14m ride so hopefully I can hit 20mph+. I was hoping for 19mph+ as an average and prolly would have got it were it not for the start and few uncooperative traffic lights!

Ave HR 142 Ave cadence 93…me likey! Right on the red line of Tempo pace!

One thing I am noticing is that the hydration system is not encouraging me to drink, while its more aerodynamic to have the bottles mounted behind the seat I am not drinking from them! This is getawayable for shorter rides or cooler rides but cometh the Summer I am going to be blowing up left, right and center so I am rethinking my set up. After the ride I jumped into my Newtons and set of for another lap around the lake. Overall it went pretty well although I got a bit thirsty and went out a bit too fast but settled into my stride, it certainly was a lot better run than last week!

Picked up the pace in the last mile

So step back week is over and my cold is more or less gone…four weeks to race day, three to build one to step back!