Take two...

This week's picture was taken by H on her iPhone as our mate John Coleman pushed me off for my second assault on the same 50 mile time trial course within seven days. Last week my legs felt about as empty as they ever have in a bike race yet I managed to squeeze out a 1:58 and average just over 25mph... yesterday I was determined to give that result the kicking it truly deserved!

So... ?

Well, I kind of did... and I kind of didn't!

From the start to the finish I felt significantly better than seven days ago... my legs felt strong and pushing through each of the 50 somewhat windy miles I managed to nudge my heart rate back toward where it should be... averaging 149 and maxing out at 157 (compared to 141/150) and getting close to the low 150's average and low 160's max that saw me pb at the Circuit of the Dales back in April. Only having distance and heart rate on the display of my Garmin crossing the I had no idea what time I'd done... it felt MUCH fast than the first effort but had been really windy in places and was without a doubt a slow day...

Cruising back to the event HQ I flicked through my watch's memory reminding myself not to be disappointed if it wasn't the 1.56 I expected... 2:01:33 and a full two and a half minutes slower! Knowing that the conditions can make so much difference to bike time trials I put my disappointment to one side, replaced it with positive thoughts about feeling great, feeling fast and feeling strong and set out on a four mile run at my target Ironman pace... just under 30 easy minutes later it was time to check out the results and see how I'd really done...

A quick scan over the times of those who also race last week showed a fairly consistent 4-5 minute deficit over the previous event suggesting my ride would have been worth something between 1:56:33 and 1:57:33 on a good day... so all in all? A good day ;)

Other than that... I'm back in the pool / lake and with my nerve injury behaving itself am swimming faster with every passing session. Run wise things are fairly steady away, Ironman target pace (7:20-30 per mile) is feeling super easy with a very comfortable 18 miles done last week in 2:15 dead and an average HR of 137... I also seem to be running pretty well off the bike sessions. With three good training weeks left in my competitive triathlon life things are starting to get tough (5 hours on the bike this morning are about to be followed up with a 20 mile run) but I'm feeling strong and looking forward to Ripon Olympic Tri next weekend, the Yorkshire Cycling Federation 100 mile TT a week later and then Castle Howard Triathlon the week after that... in between I've got my normal massive brick session on the 13th of July (might reduce the run to ten miles rather than 20... I said 'might') and two more cracks at my Pool Triangle TT pb of 29:56 (I did ride a 29:58 this week so am there or there abouts).

In five weeks it will all be over... better make it all worthwhile ;)

T