Today’s training was a brick session; 45 minutes on the bike followed by a 30 minute run I was hoping to get out into the amazing evening sunshine, however with a few home chores I just missed the light and so took to the rollers indoors, which I haven’t done for a long time. All was going fine and boredom was beginning to settle in when something really strange happened. As I was adjusting my position (backside which was going numb) I realised that I was out of the saddle. Now this may not seem like much of an achievement but for me it was quite a moment. On rollers the bike is finely balanced with no momentum to keep you upright so you have to be constantly re-adjusting your balance. On a forward and backward plane you have to ensure your pedal stroke is smooth so that you don’t ride off the front roller. Now it may be just a confidence thing but I am dead chuffed all the same. The implications are that in future during the long winter months I will be able to manage long sessions without have to stop to give my numb glutes a rest. The second interesting fact of the day (to me anyway) was the run. As a rule my heart rate jumps to 156 when I start to run (the hill may have a part in this) and stays there far beyond the hill and for the next 10 minutes or so before clicking back to 136. Although if I insert an interval of Z4 once warmed up my heart rate will come down very quickly. The implications of this peak shortly after starting is the un-necessary use of muscle glycogen so reducing potential endurance. So this evening I started downhill and noticed a steady 130-136 heart rate with no peak. This is probably down to 2 things; firstly I was already warmed up on the bike and secondly the downhill section didn’t demand the extra consumption of oxygen. To test this on my next run on Friday with no bike warm up I will run downhill to start with to see if this makes any difference.
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