Stepping Up The Game

It's time to start getting in the miles, kilometres, oh god, whatever... distance.

Running - 0m/km

Bike - 30km ish

Swimming - 2km

I'm hoping the break from running will benefit me in the long run. I am doing plenty of exercises and stretches to strengthen the knee to hopefully avoid injury when I do start feeding it into my training. Single leg work is great for isolating the weaker sides and helps with developing stability and strength.

GET OUT OF MY HEAD

Seems to be the phrase I choose to scream at myself when trying to maintain an average 171-189 wattage on the bike erg on level 4 for 6 minutes, multiple times. I have argued with myself and had paddies that have meant I get off the bike before reassuring the pain is temporary. My theory is, these times will get shorter and less frequent that I can actually bypass the emotional brawl I experience smack bang in the middle of training.

The Cannondale has gained more trust from me the past couple of weeks. A brief ride around Pevensey on Christmas day that involved sets of traffic lights, challenged my clip in and out ability - albeit it was a few hundred metres clipping out for preparation to stop and a roll and vocal plead to turn green to the set for a drama-free ride.

Turbo training is hard. Keeping disciplined for a long duration to keep a pace and ignore the leg burn as well as zone out the ultimate arse ache. I set myself a task to ride two sets of 25 minutes, pedalling in the first section between 75-80RPM and lowering to 65-70RPM for the next 25mins. I watched pretty much the entire duration of Karate Kid. Classic. Not sure that wax on, wax off would be relevant to my training, but I joined in anyway.

I have seen the most improvement in swimming. The techniques, including 6-1-6, sidestroke and bilateral breathing have made such a difference to my efficiency in the water. Using swimming aids isn't particularly my favourite, but I trust the coach and I'm aware that he's wanting me to focus on particular aspects of my stroke, rather than being focused on how hard I'm kicking. The sessions are taking around about 45 minutes - I haven't dove into the Garmin readings of pace/stroke rate and all of that just yet.

2020 coming at me. Watch this space.