Jackie D - Week 30

Week 30 - starting Monday 9 April 2007

Scheduled hours: 4hrs 45mins
Actual hours: 4hrs 48mins

A quick update on the end of last week: On Friday before flying off to UK I had a bike workout planned….and there was snow on the ground. But the thought of getting the indoor trainer out again when I have just put it away….. I just couldn't do it!...so I dusted off a very old, very cheap (wheels go around and that's about it) mountain "style" bike, bundled up and rode outside for an hour. It was fun - it is so nice to be able to go along a snowy path with bumps on it and not worry about sliding or flatting etc etc. I must put a decent mountain bike on my wish list. Despite the cold I really enjoyed it. Probably only went about 2 miles though! And the pedals without clips (or cages) weren't as bad as I thought, in fact reasonably grippy.

Saturday luckily was a day off. Luckily because although we got to our destination (eventually, via a different airport than expected and an unexpected train journey!) our luggage did not - and so my workout gear did not. It was delivered the next day and so I could do my final workouts for the week - a run and a bike. I thought I would be borrowing a mountain bike from one of my parent’s neighbours but a wonderful surprise was that the lady across the road (who I have known practically all my life) allowed me to borrow her husbands racing bike. He died a few years ago but was a cycling fanatic and despite the bike being a little “old fashioned” (gear levers on cross tubes etc - just like my bike til last year!) it was a real pleasure to ride. I took my old clipless pedals and shoes and they fitted the bike so it didn’t feel like I was “making do” at all. I have actually thought up to now that a bike is a bike is a bike, with a few gadgets and weight differences but this just felt easy, quiet, responsive - it was a little weird feeling like this about a bike!
The terrain around my parents house can only be described as hilly! It is very scenic though, coastal views and cliffs and rolling hills.
My final run for the week was cruise intervals. Some of them felt like I was going to die as you just can't get away from hills around there. My timing was horrendous on one - I had just finished it and was faced with steep uphill for the first part of my "recovery". All good stuff right?!

So, onto the real week beginning 9 April. Wow, what an easy recovery week. A few outside rides, a few runs, a bit of home strength work and a couple of swims….and beautiful weather. Completely unlike England in April but it was shorts and T shirts weather all week. The kids even played in the sea for a bit (which, briefly, made me wonder whether I should have brought my wetsuit - brrrrr!).
Swimming was a pleasant surprise. Last time I swam at this pool they were not very geared up for lane swimmers and I remember only being one or two lanes and them insisting I could not wear my watch as no jewelery allowed in the pool because it may injure others (despite me being the only one in the lane and despite the fact that they had no timing clock working). Somewhere between then and now, which is only a couple of years, customer service has been at work. Now there were friendly staff, lanes marked for various speeds, equipment free to borrow including paddles, pull buoys, kick boards and different programmes to choose from for different levels. I just swam whatever I felt like on the first occasion but chose one of their programmes to follow the second time and it made the time go much faster.

Riding around the countryside near my parents was really nice, despite there being narrower roads and more traffic than I was used to. On one easy bike, with the wind behind me it felt like the bike just wanted to fly and I was holding it back, saying easy now, easy. It reminded me very much of when I owned my own horse who, when he set foot on a nice grassy field just wanted to gallop and I had to hold him back whilst he danced around, eager to go. May sound odd but that is really how it felt. Hopefully somewhere deeper, this means that the recovery week was doing it’s job and I am itching to get back to more.

On my final ride of the week I purposely planned a route that took me up a steep hill which I used to have to ride up daily (or walk) on my way home from school. I could still cycle up it but have to say it felt just as hard as I remembered! Still, it is nice to think that I am still as fit as I was as a teenager.

Sunday was travel day back to upstate NY. Luckily all planned training completed for the week as a big storm hit the east coast resulting in my Newark- Rochester flight cancelled and our journey ending up a lot longer than anticipated. We wangled our way to Toronto and darling hubby rescued us from there. Having heard the news on Monday morning with100s flights cancelled, I am just grateful we got home - even though it is a bit of a shock to arrive to snow! Where is Spring?


14 WEEKS TO GO