Took it easy today. Went for a swim and did a steady 5.1km. I woke early to my alarm (never a good sign) and though my HR was 43 (only slightly high) I felt tired so set the alarm for another 2 hours and rolled over. I was wide awake in 90 minutes and my HR was down to 36. It’s possible I only needed the extra sleep but decided that only a swim today was the safest choice allowing some decent recovery. better to ensure a great weekend of training than try and squeeze an extra few miles running in.

Yesterday was a great day. My alarm went off at 4am and I jumped straight out of bed totally motivated to get out on the 78” gear and hammer out some laps of Regents park. It was bitterly cold so I really pushed it early on. I’d done 9 laps by the time I met up with Jo, Luis and Gabriel. Jo had a session:

3 x ( 3 laps – 1st at LT+10watts, 2nd at LT, 3rd at LT – 10watts)

We decided to join in – sometimes on Jo’s wheel others pushing on the front. The 3 guys generally just having fun changing pace and staying near abouts Jo to give her company and some motivation. On the first lap of the second set I hit the front and was feeling great. I managed to jump off slightly and normally would ease off to let the others get back on. This morning I guess I felt a little mischievous or perhaps just wanted to push hard for a bit but whatever the reason I kept pushing and got well way. I hammered out 5 laps getting myself completely out of sight and getting my average speed to 18mph ! Well chuffed. Ended with 59 miles. An extra lap would have got the 60 but the weather had turned, it was sleeting and we were getting cold so headed for breakfast.

At lunchtime my legs felt wrecked and was close to knocking the run on the head but decided to at least give it a go. As soon as I started running it felt like I was must be using completely different muscles as I felt totally fresh. Did a 9 mile run and after the first couple of miles warming up I was comfortably cruising at 7 minute miles. Got me thinking that I seem very lucky (especially as a triathlete) that I seem naturally to run very well off the bike. My best runs are often following hard bikes. Will be interesting to see how the London Marathon goes since my plan is to do a run taper the week before but crank up the swim and bike mileage so as to mimic the fatigue that would be present in an Ironman marathon. Off the back of this the hope is to still get a sub 3 hour marathon.