Training Review - Week 31 - July 31 to August 6

Monday I started with a pair of easy commutes. I was still tired from Saturday and trying not to put too much more into my legs before TT on Tuesday night.

Swimming in the evening was a disaster. I had problems with my back from the start and by the end of the warm-up I was having problems with my shoulder as well. I forced myself to do about a third of the session by trying to work one-sided but even that was making my back worse. 

Tuesday I decided I would take my last chance to get my 10-mile TT target for the year. I headed out to Garlogie despite my back still bothering me. I managed to dodge the rain shower and headed out to warm-up but found that the gear shifting fault I had at Inverurie and thought I had fixed, was actually not fixed. Apparently it only shows up when I try to put high power in to one of the top 2 gears. After my warm-up I had another quick attempt to manually correct it just before the start. 

I lasted about 150m from the start as I worked up through the gears till the first gear jump, another 5m before the second and by the third I had already sat up and was trying to figure out how far into the field I could actually launch the bike if I gave it the full David Millar. Fortunately the part of me that had to sleep in the car at the weekend because I couldn't afford a hotel room realised that hurling two grand's worth of carbon fibre into a field was unlikely to improve my current situation and I rolled the bike back to registration in a lower gear. 

When I got home I put the bike up on my workstand to recheck the gear alignment but it looks like there is nothing wrong with it. As the issue only appears under high load there is no way for me to actually figure out what is wrong. If I can't find and fix the fault before Westhill on Sunday I may have to ride my road bike instead. This has not made me a happy bunny. Not only has it cost me the shot at my TT target but it also might be an expensive fix.

Wednesday I should have gone to Knockburn Aquathon (Dear Apple, I want to use the word Aquathon, stop fucking changing it to Equation!). After the previous two days and with an empty petrol tank that I can't afford to refill I decided instead to skip it. I did ride to work and back. Then I went out for a quick test of my realigned TT gears, and found they were no better. When I got home and had a bit of a strop, but then a bit more investigation and I identified a single bent tooth on the big chainring.

I removed the chainring and went to the internet for replacements. Having found some accessible but unreasonably priced alternatives and some imported, affordable but not going to arrive for a month alternatives, I took the existing chainring to the garage, and stuck it in the vice to try and straighten the tooth. That made absolutely no difference so I tried again a couple of times to grip the single tooth and bend it. That worked a bit better and after a couple of attempts I had it lined up. I refitted it and took it round the block. All smooth and seems to be as good as new.   

Thursday I did a jog round Dyce before getting the train to work. The idea of the shorter run rather than a full 7 mile commute is that I can run faster. Only I can't at the minute. My back and hip mean that anything more than a light jog is impossible regardless of distance. At night I tried some stretching, rollering and yoga which seemed to help.

Friday I rode to work and back and any good work on my hip and back were undone. I had planned a run at lunchtime but my hip wasn't going to approve of that. In the evening I gave up watching the farce of television coverage of the World Champs athletics in favour of more yoga.

Saturday I had a rest day with a little bit of yoga and some stretching. 

Sunday was Westhill Triathlon which will get a post to itself.

Shit week. Swimming was crap. Missed my last chance at my 10-mile TT target due to a mechanical that I noticed a fortnight ago and failed to address. Missed my last chance at my 750m swim target. Nowhere near my run or swim weekly targets and because of that now behind all of my stretch targets.



Target totals -  Swim 2.0 miles. Bike 56.0 miles. Run 14.0 miles. 
1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga. 

Monday - Commute ride to office 7.1 miles in 29 mins.
Commute ride from office 9.2 miles in 47 mins.
Swim with TPT 750m in 36 mins.

Tuesday - Warm-up 3.0miles  in 12 mins.
Mechanical 1.0 miles in 5 mins.

Wednesday - Commute ride to office 7.1 miles in 27 mins.
Commute ride from office 7.1 miles in 33 mins.
TT repair test (fail) - 0.7 miles in 7 mins.
TT repair test (success) - 1.5 miles in 7 mins.

Thursday - Morning run 2.2 miles in 20 mins.
Stretching and rollering.
Yoga session 25 mins.

Friday - Commute ride to office 7.1 miles in 29 mins.
Commute ride from office 9.3 miles in 42 mins.
Yoga session 7 mins.

Saturday - Yoga session 10 mins.

Sunday - Westhill Triathlon
Swim 750m in 12:42
Bike 13.1 miles in 42:26
Run 2.7 miles in 18:23.


Actuals - Swim 1.0 miles (1,550 m). Bike 66.2 miles. Run 4.9 miles. 
0 short core, 0 short light weights and 2 stretching / rollering session. 42 mins of yoga.

Cumulative (Cumulative target) [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 88.3 (83.0) [95.5], 
B 1,386.7 (1156.0) [1387.2], 
R 571.3 (515.0) [582.0].