A good solid finish to the week

I have just finished today’s session. 4 hours on the bike followed by a 1hr run (writing this sitting in my “skins leggings” looking like a washed up ballet dancer). The run was slightly over the programme but I wanted to push myself. I have been getting a little anxious about the Beaver half in a few weeks time. I set out just after 6am and made the same mistake as last week. Cold hands for the first hour, I should have taken a fingered gloves and windproof, my shoulders were really cold. The first hour felt like hard work but things started to come together when I arrived in Windsor to ride the Windsor Triathlon course. Up to that point I had been averaging 16.8mph but by the time I had completed the 40k the average had crept up to 17. I retraced my steps back towards home clocking the 56 mile point at 3hrs 21mins. I was very happy with this and ended up finally at 4 hours covering just over 65 miles, so a slow final hour. Transition was a joke (as usual) and I took 6 minutes by the time I had taken my bike indoors, changed, taken a pee etc. (For next week I am going to set up a bike stand in the drive so that I can dump the bike and go. So it will have to be a tri-suit, which is fine for the bike but gives the neighbours a giggle when I run). The start of the run itself really challenged my belief about my ability to complete the Beaver, I was struggling to put one foot in front of the other. It was then that I decided that I had to complete the full hour. Aching legs was the issue, my fuelling strategy seemed to have worked (bottle of Gatorade, 12 min flapjacks, a Snickers on the bike then another Gatorade at the start of the run). Things improved after 15 minutes and by the time I had finished the run my confidence had lifted. The Beaver is 9 miles shorter that the bike I did today and if you take into account: tapering, the fact that this week I had flown back from Hong Kong and hadn’t slept too well all week it should be ok.