I will start by saying, I am not going to try to get back the 1.5h I missed last week. They are gone now and I am back on plan. I have 17.5h planned this week, that is more than enough without add ons.
Monday
76.6kg – Cycled to swimming and swam for 70 mins. It was crazily full for some reason. People don’t do the full 400m warm-up so I actually had to start at the very back and work my way through the 15 person lane throughout the session. It wasn’t a tough swimming day, there was too much traffic for that. Cycled home after.
Tuesday
Calves were still sore, but maybe a little better. 77,4kg. I didn’t fancy running on bad legs, so I cycled on the TT bike. I rode for 90 minutes covering 48km. My legs felt so weak at the start, when I got to Schwabsburg I expected to see and average speed of 27km/h or so, but it was 32km/h, so not too bad. I felt better on the way home, I think the legs were getting looser.
Wednesday
77.0kg, calves still sore but I can and will run on them today.
Straight after work, I headed out on the TT bike. I caught every red light possible, which was pretty annoying. My legs didn’t feel great but I could still push a bit when needed. I had installed my Profile Design FC25 just before setting off. One of the main things for me was being able to have my GPS/power right before my eyes. It was wobbly as hell, but still the positioning is perfect. Cycled 38km in 1h15
I put my bike away, changed my shorts and headed out for a 30m Brick run. My pace was far too fast at 4:25/km, but it felt controlled. My legs are still sore though.
Thursday
Still feeling tired and weighing 77kg. After being at CIMT all day, I got home and messed around with my bike for a while. I installed the latex inner tube in the front, and my disc wheel at the back, as well as re-wrapping the bars in a slightly more aero way (I hope).
I was hoping that swimming would be easy, but it wasn’t. We started with plenty of backstroke, that is leg intensive for me. Then after 1600m or so, we did 10x50m at out best pace that we could hold for all reps, about 43-44seconds for me. That was ok, but then we swam a bit easy and he gave us an 8x50m on the same interval as before, but less rest! I was struggling at the end, but survived with only some 45second lengths at the end.
Friday
My legs are starting to worry me now. I am tired and only very slowly recovering. The weekend is looking full, so it will either all be done very easily, or it will be painful. I got home after work and ran 1h15 at 4:40/km. It was pretty warm and my right calf was hurting quite a bit, but I got through it ok. I hope it gets better soon.
Saturday
I got up and was back down to 76kg, before dropping the big kids off at the pool too! I cycled for 1h30, I’d put a latex inner tube in the front tyre for the Wörrstadt TT but I was constantly scared that it would blow out, it isn’t worth it. My actual problems were that I skidded out my back disc wheel when heavily breaking, maybe the brakes are too tight, or because they were new tyres. Anyway my average speed was poo at 30km/h, but my average power was also poo so..
Later I ran/walked for 1h45 in the sun. It was pretty warm but ok. I was hitting an ok pace without pushing it, so I just jogged it round and did 1h45 at 4:51/km average. I didn’t swim, because I didn’t go into town.
Sunday
I woke up at silly o’clock and ate breakfast, before setting off to Wörrstadt for the time trial. I was sweating like a pig on the way there, but got there in good time (22km in 50 minutes). See the Wörrstadt TT race review here:
Afterwards I needed to cycle 2h to get to 4h total riding time. I couldn’t ride in aero with my bag on as it was very uncomfortable, but I rode nice and easy for 57km in 2h. I was happy to done at the end, I was pretty thirsty and hungry.
After a sleep and a storm, I got up and went for a 1h run. I needed to run for 1h to get to my 17h30 for the week, so I just took it easy as it was warm and really humid. It was fine and my average speed was 4:50/km for 1h with a low heart rate of 134bpm average.
Overview
This week was a slog. Recovery from the Mainz half marathon was a lot tougher than I expected whilst training on. Up until Saturday my legs were feeling dreadful and even today they were feeling less than 100%. I feel like I am coming around now though, so hopefully after a swim tomorrow, I will be back on form. My right calf is a bit injured, so intervals could be tough, but I think cycling should be my focus for a while anyway, running a 3h30 in Roth should be easy, if I can cycle well enough.