Best Laid Plans...

Well, last weeks fourth week of 'hard' training in a row before an easy week, didn't happen quite as planned! My body just wouldn't work!

I normally don't lie in at all and struggle to stay in bed past 0730, but last weekend I didn't get out of bed until 11 o'clock!! If ever I needed a sign that I was pushing things a bit, then that was it! So I realised that I had to change my plans and just take it easier for the first half of the week.

Monday was just a swim of 6 x 400m at a moderate effort followed on Tuesday by an early morning turbo session of pyramid intervals. Tuesday evening was a 30 min treadmill run with some core and lots of stretching.

I was still feeling really tired by Wednesday so I dropped my morning session and just did 4 x 500m in the pool after work.

I started to feel a little better on Thursday so pushed hard on the turbo with 4 x 15 min tempo efforts on 5 min rest. This was done on my race bike and although my glutes were a bit tender the next morning, the new saddle height set up feels good.

Friday was an early (0530!) 1 hour of fartlek running on the treadmill. During the run I felt fine but later that day I began to feel my right lower calf tighten up. I gave it several impromtu massages throughout the day and a few stretches on the stairs at work (for which I had to take a fair amount of banter!), which seemed to help. That evening, during a 3km swim, it felt a little sore on the first few push offs so I just pushed with my left leg to try and protect it. When I got home I massaged, stretched and iced it up.

I decided to rest on Saturday and kept working on trying to fend off any possible worsening of my calf 'tweak'.

Sunday's long'ish' ride of 3 hours was done on my race bike, over a fairly flat course, where I managed to stay on the aero bars for most of it without any discomfort. It feels great to get out on my race bike and put the hammer down after a long winter on my old and heavy 'work horse'!

This week I've been working nights and as I have a race this coming Sunday (Stokesley Du) I've just been training once a day, mainly brick sessions.

To give my calf an extra day of rest, on Monday I ditched my run and just did 16 x 100m in the pool.

As the weather has been awesome this week I've had the race bike out..a lot!

Tuesday was 90 mins bike followed by a brisk 30 min run. The calf felt great on the run, but again, it stiffens up later on(?). I keep icing it, up to 3 times a day and it seems to be hanging in there!

Wednesday I biked to the pool for some drills and speed work. I was petrified at leaving my race bike outside the pool in York! I had 2 locks on it and begged the pool dude to keep an eye on it. All was well when I returned, but I'll not be taking my race bike to the pool again. I spent the whole swim session worrying about the flipping thing!

Today I did some short, sharp brick work...3 min hard on the bike with a 2 min run then 5 min rest. Repeated this 4 times.

Thankfully the calf seems fine but just to be sure I'll not run now until the race on Sunday.

I've never competed at Stokesley before but it looks a fairly flat and fast course. Hope this lovely weather holds until then!

Train smart,race well.