End of Week 12, Start of week 13, Midweek update!

I am running late… again!

So last Thursday I already had run, and said in my midweek update that I wanted to go swimming. Well that thought didn’t stay in my head for too long, because by the time I got home, I didn’t want to swim anymore! I was a bit tired so took the evening off. On Friday I did my long run straight after work. Without the stomach problems that had plagued my last 2 long runs, I managed a 32km run with 10x 1km marathon pace/1km easier pace in the middle. There were some hard uphill intervals which I pushed through to keep marathon pace up, and one in Zornheim where a 4:15km wasn’t happening, not up a 7% hill!

I felt fine after my run, and on Saturday I wanted to cycle a bit and swim. I ordered a new cassette and chain for my road bike, so decided to put them on my bike. Now I am not the world’s best mechanic, but I was happy to get the cassette off easily and get the new one on, no problems.. Then the chain. I opened the old one, took it off, put the new one on and went to close it, except that I had to wide links facing each other. I couldn’t take another link out, because then it would be too short, so I tried to re-add links in. After a bit of a fiddle I managed to snap the chain tool, so I couldn’t ride my road bike. I was really really peed off, so ended up doing nothing all day Saturday!

On Sunday I cycled my TT bike to Undenheim to meet up with Dimi for a long ride. The weather was a bit chilly and breezy, but not bad. I was happy to be able to stop in Undenheim before he got there, as my bike was so badly set up for me it was hardly rideable! With the saddle about 4cm further back and 15degrees higher, and the back brake closed(!!) I was good to go. We cycled south over quite hilly terrain near Rockenhausen, with the wind, before turning back towards Mainz, against the wind. The last hour and a half were hard work, but sharing the work we managed it quite well. Dimi was fast on the hills again, occasionally putting me in difficulty, but by the end of the day it was pretty level, I tried to drop him on the Wolfsheim climb, but couldn’t quite manage it, damn! End result was 125km at 28.9km/h, a good ride.

Embarrassingly, I didn’t swim at all this week. I really couldn’t bring myself to do it, I need to get back into it somehow, but it was a bad week for swimming.

Running 74.8km (667.1km YTD)
Cycling 125km (1083km YTD)
Swimming 0km (24,25km YTD)

So as I am writing this on Wednesday 25.03, I am already well into the training week of week 13.
On Monday I did my 7x1km intervals on the treadmill. I felt great and my HR was lower than normal, so I increased the speed to 16km/h. I also did the last 1,5km as one interval. I was feeling very happy with myself, but then I clicked on the gradient and am now not sure if I was running at 0% or at my normal 1%. If it was 0% then it wasn’t so great, at 1% it was a great workout!

Last night I cycled to swimming! I swam 2km, all not crazy fast, but it wasn’t too bad really. I will try to get to the pool again sometime this week, though as I am going to Hamburg from Friday to Sunday for a stag-do, it could be difficult.
I am planning on doing more track intervals tonight. I haven’t decided what exactly, I think maybe the 1-2-3-2-1 pyramid that I did a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow I might cycle, otherwise I won’t be cycling at all this week. That wouldn’t be great, but the clocks change this weekend!! WOOHOO, then I can actually ride in the evenings. I am really looking forward to it. I want to kick start my cycling season with some 250km weeks, I hardly managed any last year, so getting them in early this year would be good.

Friday I will run before going to Hamburg. Saturday I hope to be able to sneak away and either swim or go to the gym, same on Sunday, though I get back at about 5pm, so I could go when I get home.

I entered Bonn marathon, it’s only 3.5 weeks away now. I want to find a race on Easter weekend, but I can’t find anything that I can get to and from easily… If not I will try for a big cycling weekend over easter, maybe with a running time-trial to keep me ticking over. 3 hours is looking on, and last year 3h would have been 2nd best man in my age group, so I would have won 100€, that would be awesome, I’d basically be a pro!

Back on Sunday!