T -188 Swim and Cycle - Saturday 23rd August

Friday's run was dead dead dead - but I was able to salvage the swim by fitting it inbefore the bike and it also gave a bit of T1 practice.

Swimming at home in the 15m pool again I was struggling after half the warm up set and miserable by the time I'd finished. I seemed to have no strength in my arms and I wanted to give up :(. I then did the TI drills - this time without fins and they were really good. My legs were a lot more 'floatable' and it gave me a bit of a breather.

The main set was meant to be a fartlek 6x100 25 easy, 25 hard etc. Because of the pool I made it 6 x90 15 easy, 15 hard etc. I died. It was horrible. 2 longer reps is a lot easier than 3 shorter reps and I was into serious oxygen deficit by the time I'd finished each set of 6 lengths. I was gocus on power in the pull rather than raw speed and it was really hard by the end to start each new set. But I did and I feel good because I did.

I skipped the kick set and the fins and avoided cramp. I also notice a few things about my stroke. My feet tend to flutter now kicking and I can actually time the flutter to match the stroke or miss it. I thing this is new and an improvement. The other thingt that I noticed during the hard sets was that there seems to be a wonderful motion just out of my reach where the hand that pulls is balanced by a hand that is reaching forward through the water. There seems to be a symetry and a yoga like balance to the move - but it only becomes semi obvious when I'm working really hard.

Out of the pool and onto the bike. I couldn't find anyrubber bands to hold my shoes in place so I used sellotape. So couldn't get my feet into the shoes. Failed to guide the bike and almost headbutted a billar that I almost cycled into trying to sort things out. Need more practice - and perhaps new pedals - the SPDs seemed to make it really hard.

On the road and I decided that after swimming for an hour and a half I'd take the bike easy especially as my swim was meant to be a breakthrough session. I headed out along the LDP heading for Rawang. Instead i ended up cycling through Kepong and onto Jalan Ipoh. I turned north and at the Kuantan tturning turned back left towards Sungau Buloh - then backonto the LDP. The route was blissfully flat and just what was ordered. I stayed in the same gear all the way round (until the hill just coming back into DP anyway) and had a great ride up tothe DP Tol. High Cadence, lots of power, lots of speed, no effort. Wow. Bloody pleased with that.

Actually really pleased with the whole session. 2 1/2 hours of really good workout.

Got home had a huge breakfast - including finishing off the second bottle of go juice - and went to bed for and hour. My upper body hurts but what a session. One of my best :)

Bike computer screwed up though and no cadence - again!