Bike

I was in a real quandary this evening, whether to swim/bike or run.

Left work promptly at 5pm to be home for 6.30pm. Wednesday is late adults only evening in the Windsor pool, so that was tempting. The weather was too good to be indoors though. Wednesday is normally my midweek long run day, but that's usually in the park with Carol and Jon, and the thought of pounding the tarmac alone didn't appeal.

I've sent off my entry form for the Tour of The Hills 110km bike ride in 11 days, so with that in mind I decided to get some more miles in on the bike.

I did my usual cycle3 route, and once more tried to make good time at the beginning. This worked, and I also sprinted along past Dorney at 37km/h which I wasreally pleased with. Eventual time was

Time 1:22:??
Average 30.89km/h
Distance 42:??

which I think is another new record.

Only one sour incident - some idiot decided it would be fun to pour water at me from a moving car. RF52 YCB, blue hatchback, probably a Clio, you're a tosspot.

Row/Run

My usual 15 minutes of rowing followed by 15 minutes of running at LA Fitness. Calories burned according to the machines were 187 and 200 kcal

Swim

LA Fitness this afternoon, and started off with two lots of 10 lengths of the 15M pool. I was struggling at the end, and had a break in the steam room.

When I came back, my swimming was much better, I did another 10, and then did 20, and felt good enough for more though my shoulder twinged a little so decided that 50 was enough.

It's really odd that the final lengths are always the easiest. I was reading about the Olympics recently, and the swimmers have a practise pool they use before a competition. I think this is to give their bodies time not only to warm up, but to rehearse and relearn the strokes. 10 minutes swimming followed by a short rest seems to do the trick for me.

I've always worried about getting tired warming up, and therefore not being able to compete properly. This may still have an element of truth for running, but for swimming it seems to be a positive thing to do.

Bike

Went out at 8.40am again this Sunday for a nice longish ride - the weather was sunny and only a little breeze. Went to Windsor and did the White Waltham ride and up past Wargrave, Henley, Marlow, Bourne End, Maidenhead and Eton Wick, which came to ~70Km.

Felt much better than last week, and my average speed increased to ~29km/h for the ~2:25 hours cycle.

[exact times/speeds when I'm later.]

Swim

Tried a morning swim today at 11am at LA Fitness. I was alone for the first 10 minutes, which was nice.

50 lengths (15M) in groups of 10. And as usual, the final 10 were actually the easiest. I seem to take a while to get into my stroke.

Row/Run

Feeling a bit tired from yesterday, so took it easy with 15 minutes rowing and a 10 minute jog at 10.5 km/h. LA Fitness.

Run

Went for our usual run in Richmond Park (4-5 miles) - ~43 minutes today, it was really warm and sunny. We actually managed to start at 6.20pm. I am feeling quite strong at running, though knees and ankles were suffering a little at the end.

Swim

LA Fitness.

Did 40 lengths (15M) in groups of 10.