Hard Workout

Tuesday 21^st July 2010

Hard workout on the bike yesterday. Legs were tired from running but it was time for a bigger effort on the bike. The tiredness wasn’t just mental because it was impossible to get the heart rate up high. Nevertheless the workout went well in that I was able to step up a gear and keep a good speed. Cadence went down a bit, but previously there wouldn’t have been enough strength to keep up this speed in a higher gear anyway. I can feel the benefits of an improved power to weight ratio – probably a combination of more strength and much less weight. Weighed 69.3kg this morning – compared to 74kg in May.

Bradley Wiggins is currently complaining about his constant mediocre form on the Tour de France – which is reassuring for me. He had previously claimed to have prepared for the tour to perfection – and it just hasn’t worked. Last year he was in much better form and claims that it was a fluke – in that it wasn’t planned. This all makes me feel much better regarding my own unexplained disaster in the Marmotte. I guess that sports science has a long way to go yet.

Wednesday 22^nd July 2010

Slept a bit poorly due to some leg pain – particularly in the right quads – no injury, just pain from tiredness. Decided to limit the day’s exercise to swimming only. Well, I certainly must have changed something because from the moment I started to swim my deltoids hurt. It took a few minutes to figure out if they were injured or not but as it didn’t worsen I assumed that it wasn’t an injury. After about 10 minutes the pain in both shoulders had gone completely – so the muscles were in need of warming up. Have never felt pain there before (except through injury) so this was interesting. Looks like I need to build strength now for the swimming now that the crawl stroke has basically been sorted out. Swam 600m this time with no breathlessness or struggling. Will add to this distance as feels appropriate and once I’m really sure I’m not injuring myself.