It’s early Monday morning and I’m about to head off for a run before the club swim session. Not that I’m putting off starting but thought I’d make a start on this entry. It’s been a huge weekend of training. Here’s the raw figures:

Saturday – 16 mile run, 135 mile bike

Sunday – 5.5 mile run, 155 mile bike

Back from my swim now. Managed to do just over an hours run ahead of the swim. Felt very tired in the legs but it eased a little after about 30 minutes. Running back after swimming felt very good. The session itself went well. Main set of 5 x 400m on 6 mins holding your stroke count. For the first time in ages I felt in control when swimming fast and I had some power in my arms and shoulders.

Back to the weekend. Saturday morning I got up early and headed out for a long(ish) run – I felt great and did it at pace covering 16 miles in 2hours. Back home it was a very rapid turnaround as I’d agreed to meet Jo at Box Hill cafe at 9.30. During the run it dawned on me that getting there on time certainly wasn’t a ‘gimme’. I got set off at a little after 7am having not had any breakie. Just beyond Putney I ducked into a bakery and got two sticky buns and ate them as I rode. All fueled up I was able to crank up the pace. I pushed like mad, ending with a spell maintaining 12-13mph up Box Hill – arriving bang on 9.30am. I’d had to average 17mph to make it.

Jo went to sort out her new Time Trial bike and I headed for more miles now at a more steady pace. 5 minutes in I bump into Henry and we cycle together for a while. So much for easy pace – Henry’s easy is hard work for me. Was good to have a natter though.

The set up of Jo’s bike was troublesome so i ended up doing lap after lap of Box Hill popping in each time to see how it was going. We finished with 3 laps at pace together before heading to a local american diner for an awesome (and massive) tea. I ended with 135 miles in 8h48.

Despite the hour going on I still managed to get up and get a short run in Sunday morning before joining Jo and Kevin to ride out to Hemel Hempstead where they were doing a 21 mile run. I continued and did a massive loop out towards Milton  Keynes and back in through Potters Bar. Very pleased that I cycled just over 6 hours before having any food ! It ended up an exhausting 10h23 ride of 155 miles. I fell to sleep the instant my head hit the pillow.