Training Log Archive: Whitesheep

Planning a long weekend running in ethiopia after a conference in september. Just got this message:

"We can certainly build a core session in, perhaps at Haile's gym, where there is always a good chance of meeting the little big man himself - and I have rarely been there without an Olympic medallist present."

:-)

Event: Ride London 100
 

Have just done something I wish I'd thought to do a few days ago. Cycling training for this ride: essentially nothing apart from the odd commute for 10 months, then 2 months of around 250 miles. I should have been really conservative.

RideLondon 100
Not exactly as planned! I think I had overestimated how much quality/relevant training I'd done, and underestimated the effect of a fairly intense 2 week work trip. So I only got through about 25-30 miles before I blew to pieces and limped the rest of the way home.
The splits tell a story!
0-17 miles - 43 mins - 36 kph. That is too fast for me full stop. It felt OK but I should have checked my watch and realised.
17-26 miles - 29 mins - 32 kph. That is probably the pace I should have been targeting, although I doubt I could have maintained it.
26-47 miles - 1hr 28 mins - 23 kph. Ouch. Dark times.
47-75 miles (incl. diversion) - 55 mins - 24 kph. Still dark.
75-85 miles - 37 mins - 27 kph. After 2.5 hours in slow motion I'd recovered a bit and it wasn't so bad.
85-finish - 57 mins - 26 kph. Ditto.

It all started off very nicely with Ben. We picked up a few groups, but they were generally going a bit too quickly for me. I could manage on the straights but then going round corners I lacked the power to get back up to speed and would usually fall off the back. Ben kindly dropped back with me but in the end it was obvious he needed to go on. Actually in a way it was a relief when he did as by that stage I really needed to slow down.
Then what followed was grim: cycling through rivers of water, often into headwinds, with about 2,000 people (judging by commentary at the finish) overtaking me over the course of 3 hours, or about an overtake every 10 seconds. I wasn't even close to being to hold on to anybody's wheel. It was nothing more than a battle to keep going.
Just ducked under 5 hours moving time, having set that towards the end as a little target to work towards. +10 minute for my chip time as I stopped to lend my pump to a guy who'd punctured 3 times and used up all his canisters.

oddly enough I felt really good on the spin over, as well as on the little spin on saturday.

Definitely got myself a little achilles problem and will need to add in a bit of stretching/strengthening to help sort it out.
Last couple of days in India too busy to do anything.

Super slow mo, got a a sore l achilles. Maybe a bit too enthusiastic with the 7 minute workouts.