Week 1 summary: 2–8 Jan

Posted in Cycle, Erg, Intervals, Run, Swim by oranj on Sunday, 8 January 2012

Monday
Lunchtime. Swim 2000m, steady
Left arm still fails to take a decent catch, but is stronger through the rest of the stroke. Averaged ~1:52 per 100m
PM. Run 10km/47, steady, HR149

Finished the town bike rebuild: new brakes off my old TT bike + orange cables + new bar tape, and SA 5-speed hub gear. It was tricky to work out the correct gear cable tension to get the hub shifting right but I think it’s OK now. Test ride to the pool and back, pretty happy with that, gear ratios OK.

Tuesday
AM. Physiotherapy at the JR2
The Physio seemed impressed with my progress – reminded me that 3 weeks ago I could barely raise my left arm above shoulder height. Gave me a stronger bit of elastic to work with, and some sculling exercises to do in the pool as well as some more flyes-type stuff, with the elastic and with weights. On my way through the hospital I enquired at the X-ray department if I could buy copies of my X-rays, but it’s gone up to £30 a set! (It used to be £10), so I decided not to bother.
Sneezed my way through work.
PM. Erg 11km. inc. RowPro 30min/7707m (1:56.8) r24 __ HR158(169)
First time on a RowPro session – there was a handy half hour starting at 17:15, just after I’d get home from work. Found out a few useful things – like the metres you do to warm up whilst logged into a session don’t appear anywhere (on the laptop or on the PM monitor). Had a good row though. One guy sped off at 1:49 and three of us rowed together. There were nine in the session, from UK and USA. It was good motivation, I can see myself buying the software.

Wednesday
PM. Run 13½km/67, steady, HR148
Another sneezy day at work, but managed to drag myself out for a steady plod when I got home.

Thursday
AM. Swim 2500m, steady
1:50 per 100m pace. Getting there!
PM. Turbo 52km/1:45:31 (29.6km/h) __ HR142(158) __ ave 238W, cad 95, Tacx gradient +3.
Done as alternate 8min 220W/2min 310W
Booked the afternoon off work but it was way too windy to be safe (we’d had gales in the night), so I sat on the turbo instead.

Friday
PM. Erg 11km, inc. C2CTC 7x777m (70 sec rest) = 20:33.0 (1:53.3) r24 __ HR141(164)
Solid effort, didn’t feel like I was too close to the limit.

Saturday
AM. Run 9km/45, steady, HR148
Out the door early before we packed the car up and drove to my mum’s in Devon for another xmas dinner.

Sunday
PM. Cycle 48km, steady, HR132
We got back from Devon while there was still a little light in the sky so I put some lights on the bike and went out for a couple of laps of the Oakley road race circuit on Otmoor.

Hours: 9:08
Shame I didn’t manage to get a +4-hour ride in, but a solid week and hopefully I’ll have a chance to get out for longer next week. I bought a RowPro licence at the end of the week, it seemed like it’d be useful to train with others online. I’ve got to start concentrating on my diet – breaking my shoulder and having a cold over xmas hasn’t exactly been kind to my waistline – I’ve got about 5kg to lose before the racing starts.

[Edit: hmm, trying to find a WordPress design that works better with a weekly blog - a stock design that's wider across the screen so you don't have to scroll down so much to read each entry would be better]