Week 5: 30 Jan-5 Feb

Monday
PM. Erg 12km inc. C2 Challenge Series 10km/38:20.9 (1:55.0) r25 __hard, RaceHR157(167)
Splits 19:09/19:12.
Signed up for a 10km session on RowPro. After a fast start I settled at 1:55. There were a couple of guys just a little faster than me and once they’d got ahead I let the split drop a bit to 1:56, between 5 and 8km. Managed to pick it up for the last 1000m though. Kept the drag at 145.

Tuesday
AM. Swim 2700m/45, steady
AM. Physiotherapy. Chris seemed happy with where I’d got to. I’m still not moving the arm completely independently of the shoulder but it’s pretty good really, considering it’s only 12 weeks since my accident; any further improvement will happen more gradually now. He gave me a couple of new exercises to do, and signed me off from any further appointments.
PM. Run 12km/59, steady, HR143
Left knee didn’t seem too bad and I quite enjoyed this run despite it being barely above freezing.

Wednesday
PM. Erg 12km, inc., C2ChallengeSeries 2500m + C2CTC 5x1402m (2:20 rec.), Brisk__ HR139(163)
w/u 2500m = 9:49.0 (1:57.8) r22
5 x 1402m = total 26:18.9 (1:52.6) r24/25 __ HRmax163
w/d 2km
Did the Challenge Series 2500m as a steady warm up before attacking this month’s CTC 5x1402m. Straight into the first rep I could feel a bit of tiredness from Monday’s hard 10km so I played it a little safe.

Thursday
AM. Swim 3500m/59, steady
Didn’t feel like doing much more than a steady, long swim after last night’s efforts.
PM. Run 13½km/67, steady, HR141

Friday
PM. Turbo 34km inc. 3x10min @290W (10min @220W rec.) hard ___ HR139(155)
Average power 252W, cadence 92, Tacx gradient +3
Perceived exertion for this session was the same as a similar workout last month, but HR was ~10 beats lower. Maybe I need to re-calibrate my perception! (and do some shorter, harder efforts to raise my 10-minute power).

Saturday
AM. Turbo 39km/1:19:55 (29.3km/h) 234W cadence 93, gradient +3, steady easy __ HR141
I wasn’t sure whether tomorrow’s half-marathon was going to go ahead, with bad weather being forecast overnight, so I did a steady morning turbo and then faffed about the rest of the day. Two or three inches of snow fell late on in the evening and the race got cancelled. Perhaps I should’ve gone to the gym in the afternoon after all.

Sunday
AM. Run 17km/1:35, steady, HR143(159)
XC around Shotover, in the snow. Three laps of the MTB circuit and three laps of the playing fields. Hard work, and I managed to twist my left ankle in a hole again (under the snow the ground was ice-hard). Starting to get quite slushy on the sheltered downhills by the time I was heading for home.

Hours 9:41
Not much in the way of long hours this week – the weather’s not been great for getting out on the bike – but I’ve managed some intense sessions instead. We’ve had a bit of a cold snap, and although my cycling club mates got out on Saturday morning (for instance) I’m still wary of the road surfaces after my November tumble and keen to play it safe on the turbo trainer. Saturday evening’s snow was a bit of a surprise which unfortunately led to Sunday’s Watford half-marathon being cancelled (not that I think I’m in any great running shape at the moment, but it would’ve been nice to have a bit of a work out over that distance). Managed to twist my left ankle quite badly again on Sunday, s0 I’ll need to baby that for a few days. Left shoulder/arm seems to be coming along nicely and I’ll be back up to full strength on the weights work very soon (if I can get to the gym!)