Jackie D - Week 17

Week 17 - starting Monday 8 January 2007

Another enjoyable week, much like last week in terms of training time except long bike went up to 1hr 45min and long run 1hr 40min

Thought it might be of interest to start putting total hours down now. I know they are going to creep up from here and it will be interesting to look back to these times:

Scheduled hours 10hr 35 min
Actual hours 11hr 35 min

Oh dear that sounds like I have been naughty and done too much but it really wasn’t like that - honest! My two swims are scheduled for an hour each but I made masters both times this week and their schedule takes me just over an hour and a quarter. The other “discrepancy” is the fact that I did my full gym routine for one of the strength sessions this week which took an hour rather than 40mins.

Talking of strength, I upped the weights this week, even with doing the 3 sets of repetitions. I am getting stronger!

I did all my cycling inside this week. For my Friday long bike (1hr 45) I could have gone outside. It was grey and dreary but certainly rideable, but, I decided that making myself ride inside would also be making myself work on some mental stuff. Oh the preparation! It was just as bad as packing for a vacation. Chairs either side of trainer to hold everything - tv controls, dvd controls, internet radio speaker, extra water, choice of food, a couple of magazines, training schedule, papers with HR zones, kitchen sink….all this on top of the usual stuff that goes on the bike - HRM, stop watch, Gatorade. Anyway in the end I didn’t even turn the TV on!!!!! The first hour (after 10min warm up) was nicely taken up with doing 5 sets of the drills that Mary had set me, which I started every 10mins and took total 7 and a half to complete. Then for the rest I kept in z2 except for last 5mins when I let my HR drop to z1. And I kept my brain occupied by listening to UK Radio 4 on the internet. Womens hour and science program (OK had to jump off bike and sprint to computer to change program at one point!). I will definitely try this again because listening to talky stuff seemed to make the time go by faster.

The same day as the above cycle I also did a 40min strength session in the gym and that evening has been the most tired I have been to date. I went to bed at the same time as the kids at 8.30pm! After just walking upstairs to tuck them in I had to sit down as my legs felt so tired.

Anyway, the next day was rest day so perfectly timed and then the last day of the week which is the group long run in the rolling terrain of Mendon Ponds Park. Still dark when we start at 7am and I think this was the first time that the temperature was below freezing. The run itself was fine until about three quarters of the way through when it started sleeting and this made the road a bit slippery. Needless to say my pace dropped a bit. My Garmin worked properly for the whole run so I am convinced the problem last week was because I had the “signal picker up thingy” pointing downwards. I didn’t feel cold at all but at the end I looked down and found myself covered in ice!

Onwards we go!

27 WEEKS TO GO