Sorry, sorry, I a writing this late I know!
So last week was a good one, maybe not quite as good as I had ambitiously planned, but nonetheless good.
I had really tight calves for the first half of the week after my half marathon on Sunday. I didn't post it last week, but I picked up my TT bike last week. It's a Canyon Speedmax Al, ok I know it isn't the most expensive bike in the world, but it looks class and I am sure it will be fast when I finally get a chance to ride it!
So onto actual training. Monday I cycled on my road bike for 38km in the evening. It still gets dark pretty early in the ride, but I really enjoyed it. On Tuesday I got up before work and did my 11.6km route at 4:51/km pace, quite decent, again I started a bit slower but soon got going and even had some at marathon pace or above at the end of the run. In the evening I cycled to mombach to swim… That was the low point of the training week for me, I was slow, I got leg cramps and to be honest with you, I just couldn't be bothered with swimming. I love the feeling of being outdoors when I run or ride, I get so bored swimming back and forth. Anyway, enough of my bitching, I swam 1.5km wuhoo!
On Wednesday I decided to do my intervals on the track. I have been doing 7x1km for a long while now, but I thought I would switch it up a bit and do a little pyramid. So I did 1km: 3:35 – 2km: 7:32 – 3km: 11:48 – 2km: 7:38 – 1km: 3:42. I went off too fast and could have come back as fast, but was faster than I had planned so didn't push it. It was really good, except for all the parents who stand on the running track for no reason and seem to get a kick out of blocking runners going past!
Thursday I ran before work again, it was a bit slower, but just a nice easy 4:57/km pace. I was a bit tired on Thursday evening, so had the evening off.
Friday I tried out the after work long run. I will spare you the details, but my stomach was almost as bad as last time I did my long run after work 🙁 With a good few pauses I ran 30.7km with 10.7km at just faster than 3h marathon pace in the middle. It felt quite tough in the marathon pace part, but the route I run is far from flat. I recovered really quickly after the faster part so could easily jog it home at 5:00/km pace.
On Saturday I met up with Jochen and Dimi for a cycle. These rides are always a test as they are pretty aggressive riders! It soon became clear that Dimi had come through winter with the best legs, and that Jochen isn't quite on form yet, and I fell in the middle, but not far behind Dimi. The climb to Ebersheim after 100 cold km, was interesting, I had decided to give it some as had everyone else apparently! Dimi shot off as he does, but I started to gain back to him, unfortunately once the gap got to about 10m, it stabilized and I couldn't get on his wheel, like I said to Jochen in the ride, we'll get him later in the season! The ride ended with 111km at 28.1km/h for me, a nice ride just spoiled a bit by the cold and wind.
Sunday I ran a few km in the morning, but my stomach was still playing silly buggers, so I came home after 8.5km and called it a week. I decided that I need to look at my diet to solve this ever worsening stomach problem. 1st test is, no more sweeteners, no more multivitamin tablets, no more oranges, no more quark 🙁 and no milk in my coffee at work. Lets see what that brings.
Running: 74km (592.3km YTD)
Cycling: 161km (958km YTD)
Swimming: 1.5 unenjoyable km (24,25km YTD)