Testing times

So following on from my last post I said I would take a week or so from running, which I did. I also did the early morning Threshold turbo session - TrainerRoad's Goethe.

It was strange doing such a session first thing, a few minutes after waking. This season most of my training has been in the evening and my body had to wake up rapidly this time. HR was lower than usual but was to be expected. It was nice to know the workout was done and out the way. This freed up the evening to go to a tri-club curry night, with a coaching discussion.

Wednesday was an active recovery turbo in the evening, followed by the first cycling Time Trial of the season on Thursday. I woke with a sore throat, and it had got worse by the evening. Work had overrun, and I left the house in a panic. I'd planned to cycle a lap of the course as a warmup, but in the end did some small loops. Not enough unfortunately. All I could do was shiver.

I signed on the line and was given #22. The first lap was OK even though I knew the last part of each lap was in to wind. The second lap became a lot harder halfway through. Post-ride analysis from my PowerCal shows the best 20 minute power was minutes 0-20! It was a real struggle to put out any power towards the end. Normally a TT is hard, but this was something else. After crossing the line I had an easy pedal up the road and back again, got in the car and went home, still cold. The time was horrendous and not what I had expected.

My NP for the TT was 259W and the AP 256W. More than both duathlons but not by much. Overall I was 10th of 22 riders, and the 14 knot wind didn't help. On the plus side I tried out a visor I'd bought for my TT helmet back in August! Reminded me a bit of flying, with the visor that far from my face - I'm used to riding in sunglasses.

All evening I was shivering and my muscles were sore. Friday I awoke with a headache, sore throat and sore muscles. Not happy, and didn't do any training.

Today was much better and managed to get out in the sun (yes, sun!) for a nice run, mostly track and trail. A bit further than 8km; some tenderness in the Achilles to begin with but it soon dissapeared. A tad tender afterwards but nothing to write home about. 

Next week is a busy week with travel so aiming to bike long tomorrow, bike Monday before work then run Tuesday before work. Back to track on Wednesday, though not too hard a session.