So much for a recovery week......

so this week was pretty much a recovery week, finished off with a tough weekend.

Mid week was very steady, 2 rest days, a couple of gym sessions and a couple of very light steady turbo sessions. I did however do the Anti-Turbo spin on Monday night on the fixie, where i was somewhat outgunned in the gearing department (cue a visit to the bike shop for a larger front sprocket for Trixie!)

i also got in the pool on thursday night for 30mins, the back felt good, so i'm gonna start building up the pool sessions from next week!

The weekend was an absolute cracker, best on the bike this year on saturday, as we all slogged our way up and over Slieve Mann, i rode reasonably well on the climb (for my standards), holding around threshold the whole way (173ish bpm) for 22mins.

The route form the summit back through aughavanah and aughrim was stunning and fast, so the average speed picked up nicely, all finished up with a manic sprint at Burkes... had to be done.

http://app.strava.com/rides/4491432

So yes i probably did overdo it on saturday to be able to post a decent time in the 10mile TT on sunday, i woke up feeling pretty cack to be honest, and really wasn't looking forward to 30mins of hell on the bike. Still i dusted off the TT bike, for her first outing on the road this year, put the deep section wheels on and was ready for the TT.

A couple of the "Big Guns" were out, Scotty "Too Hotty" Graham looking concerned as the Derminator rolled up on his P3, John Connaghan was also going to pressure the youngster. Needless to say youth prevailed, leaving us old boys in his wake....

I ended up 5th, 27:30, which was pretty cack to be honest, i have to be realistic, i've only really been training hard since Xmas, and wasn't expecting too much. I now know how much i have to do, the weather was ok, so on par was 3 mins down on last years 10TT time, then again that was 2 months later in the season, and i was on form from the IM training last year! Oh how much difference 12 months (and a few KG's extra can make)

one positive from the TT is that my CP20, or 20min Power was 5 watts higher than 4 weeks ago, so moving in the right direction.... :-)

Totals for the week:
Bike - 6hrs
Swim - 45mins very easy
Strength - 2hrs
Total = 8:45

Next week, Base 3, Week 1, target 12:30 total, 9:30 bike, 2hr strength and 1hr swim.....

Onwards and upwards!

Hills... Hills.... Hills....

This week i was mostly climbing hills....!

at least that's what it felt like. Great weeks training, with over 10hrs of cycling and a couple of hours of strength work. I got back to the weights (proper weights, not fannying around) this week, 2 sessions. Legs were pretty sore after the first session on Monday.

Did a 2x20min hard interval session on the turbo on Monday night, @85%FTP, then a great MTB spin which took us over the summit of Carrick, and down the NPS downhill route. Lots of mud and great fun.

Wednesday another turbo session, this time 5x6min intervals. Thursday a rest day, manic in work, swim coaching and the New Members evening didn't make for much rest but hey!

Friday a really light 50mins on the turbo then a weekend of climbing.

Saturdays spin was arguably one of the toughest spins I've done in a few years, starting with Kiliskey, Slaughter, Shay Elliott then the climb into Rathdrum, fortunately one of the group had a technical on the last climb, so we bailed the final climb to aghowle and picked up the pace on some well earned flat road from Rathdrum to Wicklow. 70km and 1000m of climbing!

Sunday i met up with Mark and Beth, for an MTB spin over Carrick, we stayed out for 2.5hrs. Stunning weather, icy in sections but a superb day on the hills.

All in all a really solid week on the bike. 2000m of climbing! legs are pretty sore now.

Rest n Test week next week, going to move my FTP test to wed night, so i can ride with the club again on saturday.

Back held out well this week, missed a couple of stretching sessions, but will make up for them next week, as i'll have more time. Going to try the "Anti-Turbo" spin tomorrow evening!

Miami Nice....

Forgive me father, its been 2 weeks since my last blog.....

last week i was travelling with work to Miami for a conference, a very hectic schedule with little to no time to train! i managed 2 gym sessions (in the same day, Wed), and a very short spin 30km on Saturday, before the effects of the Jet Lag took over to ruin my Sunday!

The week before was a solid one with 9.5hrs on the bike, and 11.5hrs overall.

The back is certainly getting better, i'm able to drive to work in the mornings with no pain now (mornings are always the worst, as everything tightens up overnight!). I'm going to hit the pool for a short swim session on Thursday this week, just 15mins to see how everything feels.

The rest of this week is back to the program, Base2 - Week 3, with a target of just over 12hrs on the bike.... will be interesting to see how close i can come to hitting that, and a couple of hours strength / conditioning work.

Its great to see the lighter mornings and evenings starting to take shape, felt like a real hint of spring this morning driving to work!

Signing off for now.... Gonon!