24th September 2013 - Palace to palace and all that

A busy few days here and just a quick recap for the purposes of posterity.

Firstly, I took a scheduled rest day on Friday after a solid week of training.  I wanted to give myself time to recover before the challenge of the Palace to Palace 45 mile cycle event on Sunday.  The rest day did me good.  So much so in fact that I decided to take another rest day on Saturday.  Thus it was that I lined up on the Mall early on Sunday morning and cycled towards Buckingham Palace with two full days of rest in my legs.  And boy was it worth it.

I absolutely LOVED the ride.  I wore my heart rate monitor but paid it no attention for the whole way around.  The early miles were interrupted often by traffic lights and junctions but we were soon into Richmond Park and able to get into some serious rhythm.  I'd never been to Richmond Park before but I liked it a lot.  I cycled past a stag!  No, really, like a genuine boy deer with antlers an everything.  It was AWESOME! :)

Coming out of Richmond Park there were more areas of traffic but generally the gaps between stops were longer and longer the further the race went on.  At one point an automated traffic sign showed my speed as 19 mph.  Very satisfying!

At roughly 30 miles in the course turned hilly and it certainly did become a test.  Mostly though I aced it.  I averaged 161 bpm on the HR monitor so not really a sustainable rate but for sheer fun it was the business.  I was passed by only a few riders and, pleasingly, the ones that did pass me looked very smooth and strong and were on pretty nice bikes.  My bargain bucket bicycle did a pretty darned good job!  I finished the event in 2:55 hrs thus beating by 5 minutes my goal time of 3 hours.

I cramped up pretty bad at the end and Emma had to help me stand up at one point!  I will definitely do this event again though - it was tremendous fun and I've been well and truly bitten by the cycling bug!

There's no rest for the wicked and on Monday I dragged my tired and sore legs off to the swimming pool.  I took plenty of breaks and swam quite slowly but I made it up to 80 lengths eventually.  The alternate side breathing drills went well and by the end it was becoming second nature.  Hopefully I will soon be able to work on the next drill in my plan - thumb to thigh.

And thus to tonight.  Just over six miles, keeping my HR below 126.  It was the usual slow shuffle and amazingly when I checked the Endomondo records I made it back home in almost exactly the same time as I had done last week over the same distance.  To be precise I was 2 seconds faster than I had been last Thursday!  Interestingly though I did improve my average HR over the same distance and time.  It was 121 bpm tonight against 123 last week.

And that's me caught up on the blog front.  Oh, I did some press-ups (100 to be precise - get in!) and some stretching too.

Till tomorrow.  Peace, out.

TODAY
Run Distance: 6.22 miles
Swimming: 2000 m
Cycling: 45 miles 
Hiking: 0 miles
Workout time:  6 hrs
Press-ups:100
Core workouts:0
Stretching workouts: 3

TOTAL
Run Distance: 17.25 miles
Swimming: 3850 m
Cycling: 59:36 miles 
Hiking: 6 miles
Workout time:  12:23 hrs
Press-ups:206
Core workouts: 2
Stretching workouts: 4 

Thursday 19th September 2013 - Your inflexible friend

I started today with some press-ups.  I've got a half-hearted ambition of completing the hundred push ups challenge.  I took the test the other day and did 26 press-ups straight up.  This let me skip straight to week 3 of the challenge and I followed the plan of doing reps of 14, 18, 14, 14, and finally 20 to finish.  It sounds good to say I did 80 press ups today.  The reality was pretty unimpressive as I heaved and sweated barely lifting my nose off the carpet by the end.  Still, who cares about reality as long I can create an illusion of fitness!

I followed up the press-up-fest with some plank work to try to build up my core.  I think they are called planks but I have a nagging voice in my head that says they are called 'bridge' exercises.  Anyway, I digress.  Basically the problem I have is that my middle needs a lot of attention (ooh err) and every time I do these core strength exercises I shake and vibrate like a ringing phone.  Despite all that I actually enjoy them.  They really hit your stomach muscles and the side-plank one makes me think that one day I might lose that roll of fat and finally start to look a bit more like the guys on the front of Men's Health magazine.

Running wise I did a little over an hour of down in HR zone two (sub 126 bpm for me).  It's still devilishly tricky to stay below that rate and my movement feels cumbersome and far too slow.  However I'm determined to persevere with it.  I made some improvement over Monday's run and averaged 11:30 minute miles.

I finished the night with some stretches.  I used this routine (below) and learned in the process that I am about as flexible as a block of granite.  Years of running and cycling without stretching have taken their toll and now I have a horrible flex-deficit.  I'm bendily challenged.  I'll never be as flexible as the woman in this video but it would be nice to touch my toes again one day!

That's it for tonight.  Peace, out

JUST THE FACTS:

TODAY
Run Distance: 6.22 miles
Swimming: 0 m
Cycling: 0 miles 
Hiking: 0 miles
Workout time:  1:30 hrs
Press-ups:80
Core workouts:1
Stretching workouts: 1

TOTAL
Run Distance: 11.03 miles
Swimming: 1850 m
Cycling: 14:36 miles 
Hiking: 6 miles
Workout time:  6:23 hrs
Press-ups:106
Core workouts: 2
Stretching workouts: 1