Sunday, March 30, 2008

Solid work

Phew.
What a week! Some solid training done and I even managed to fart around the house and get some things accomplished in that department too! Everytime I 'attempt' a home improvement project it always gives me so much more respect for the pro, something that would take them 30 minutes to do takes me 2 days and 6 hours of labour! As with training, I guess every so often one must suck it up and get 'er done.

As I mentioned in the previous post, I had the week off, so the whole week was pretty much dedicated to plumbing and training. Plumbing is boring, let's talk training!

Monday: easy day, 1 hr spin and a 8k run

Tues: hard day. swim 3.5k. 2(10X100m free on 1:30. 1:22-1:25 avg lap) Aerobically, swimming feels good, it's just my spindly weak ass arms that are holding me back. Run: 11k (hill repeats). Bike: 1.5 hrs. 3X15 min climbs. 1st at 280w, 2nd at 290w and last one at 300w. A good day.

Wed: easy. spin 1 hr and a 8k run

Thurs: hard day. swim 3.5k same main set as above. Run 17k. Bike 1.5 'steady' @ 250w. A tough day.

Fri: easy. spin 1 hour.

Saturday. The Alton 'Leg Frier'. Stuart came up and we did an easy swim, followed by a bike LT test on the computrainer and afterwards did some run hill repeats. An excellent day!

Sunday: Legs weren't that cranky, ran 22k in 1:48. A good way to cap off the week.

Totals:
Swim: 8.8k
Bike: 7 hrs
Run: 76k

Saturday revisted:
Stu arrived at precisely on time and in short order we unloaded his car and were soon on the way to the pool. I'm always amazed at how easy it is to get along with a fellow tri-nerd. Oh sure, most of the talk is triathlon related, but really what shines through is passion. That's just one of the thing that makes our little niche so appealing, the people and the passion. I guess that's 2 things. Oops sorry for the tanget.. back on topic.

The swim had two goals. 1) log some easy mileage and 2) give any 'helpful' critique to Stu. The critique business was my job, now whether or not it was 'helpful', well that's another story.
On to the bike:

A standard CP30 test. (20 min warmup, 30 min TT, cooldown) I know, I know, doing a time trial test on the tail end of a big week may have not been my smartest move and by the 12 minute mark I almost bailed! The legs were complaing ... loud. The only things that kept me going was 1) I put this training day togethor and would have been so embarrassed if I quit and 2) just knowing Stu was nearby kept those dark thoughts at bay. So I soldiered on. The results:

308 watts, approx avgerage heartate 162. A FULL 10 beats below my usual LT!! This tells me that yes, my legs were pooched from the week's work. I just could not get the HR up any higher. I would hazard a guess I might be able to add 10w or so on fresh legs. Perhaps a retest is in order...

After Stu finished up his test, which I might add, he did very smartly, we hit the local hill, ran some repeats and capped of the day with a 10k'er. Actually, we capped off the day with a pint, which in case you didn't know, is a fantastic recovery drink!

Here's a pic of Stu about to begin his LT test. Don't tell him, but I'm going to steal his bike.



Cheers!

4 comments:

Cliff said...

Darren,

looks like u had a blast yesterday. Stu's bike, Cervelo P2C??

Hehe, u must be tough to hand the last 18 min after you want to bail :)

Good thing Stu is there to keep you motivated.

Any chance u consider bringing your bike outdoor soon? I saw a few cyclist today and I was wondering to take it out even if the weather is not too...favourable.

On a second note, are you free this Sat? I like to have my LT bike test done as well. Very grateful for you offering ur place and ur computrainer.

Crackhead said...

Nice work!

Aaron said...

Mmmm, bike porn......tasty.

Anonymous said...

Great day, thanks Darren.

Tell Sally that the sandwich was delicious : )

My legs now know what 250 watts feels like on a computrainer as opposed to my Tacx flow.

Now, about that photo... you couldn't have done a little photoshop retouch on my spindly legs before posting?