It's been a little while since I last posted. I didn't feel like I wanted to write about last weekend's bike ride as it was a tough one. Mr Tuna and I went out with the aim of conquering 56 miles before the weather gets too bad; unfortunately the weather was quite bad. The sunshine was beautiful but the wind was very gusty; I suppose the good thing about that was that I got to practice my bike handling skills. We had done almost exactly 40 miles before lunch (in around 3h45), with 14 miles to go home that would take us in a little under the target distance. Unfortunately I wasn't feeling very well and didn't manage to really eat anything in the cafe. This had predictable consequences for the last 14 miles which consisted of lots of getting off, lots of tears, and lots of pleas with Mr Tuna to leave me by the side of the road and come back in the car. Oh well. In the end, he went off to get the car with about 6 miles to go. I carried on cycling as it was cold, missed a turning, and then things got a little interesting as before he left, I'd put on Mr Tuna's jacket, which of course contained his mobile phone. To cut a long story short, I did end up back at home, having a warm shower. Doing 52 miles didn't really help to convince me that I'd make the distance next September as it had taken 7.5 hours, but I reason that even if I wait until March to get going, I'll still have a good 5 months of weekend rides to build up the distance and speed. Hopefully I'll fit in a few rides anyway if there are nice days, and Mr Tuna is talking about getting a second turbo trainer so that we can turbo together. Delightful.
So, we'll brush that under the carpet and try to focus onwards. This week I have been trying to pay attention to my swimming. Tiredness and general low mood has prevented me in the last few weeks from swimming as much as I would have liked; back in January-February I was swimming 20k a week, recent weeks have seen around 13k swum. I'm on track to do 18km this week if all goes well. I had an excellent 4k session this morning, consisting of 1k of warm up and drills followed by my favourite 6x600s main set (actually, I only did 5 of the 600s) where you get to do something slightly different for each of the 600s. I've adapted it from a Swim for Tri session I recieved in April. So fingers crossed for the energy to get the last 6.5k done tomorrow before work and on Saturday lunchtime.
Beginners ride lined up for Sunday - several of us were clamouring in our facebook group for one earlier in the week. Managed to convince another new lady to come out with us - she was again determined that she was too slow, but reassured her that she could not POSSIBLY be as slow as me. Weather looks ok, so will wrap up and hopefully have a good one.
At least you went riding, Verity; that's a victory in itself. I haven't been in the saddle since ... uh ... last week maybe? Not good on my end. And it is the off-season, so remember to cut yourself a bit of slack. :)
ReplyDeleteAdmire all your cycling, as I cannot ride a bike!
ReplyDeleteI have been slow with my swimming this week, not sure why?
I know you are down on yourself but I'm blooming impressed! Seriously, you have done amazingly well with the cycling considering your first tri was this year on your commuter bike. Be proud of yourself. Like you say, there will be several months of training from next Spring so all this work now is more of a bonus.
ReplyDeleteMy bike is on holiday in my kitchen. I'm not over keen on cycling in the dark and with it now being dark by 5pm up here I'm using the car for work.