Training Log Archive: Leon

Haworth sprint prolouge - 1st, 15:46

Up all night coughing and blowing nose.
Abandoned plan to do Burnley parkun but thought I would sweat it out doing this.
Did not feel up to it really, was running at about 85% but it felt like 110%
Slight errors to #2 and #4, then #10 got stuck in thick undergrowth and had to back out onto trod trampled by everyone else I found. Should have stuck to thoughts of going right round on hard path. Otherwise no map issues, surprised to come first feeling so bad physically.

Some very light trotting, plus control collection afterwards

Penistone Hill chasing sprint - 8th - 20:03

A tricky area, two big mistakes.
Plus first two far too hesistant adjusting to 1:7500 so stopped short on both.
In past I would have ran straight past, still trying ti find right balance.
Overtook Dave to 3, but he cut gap by cutting across sheep trod I didn't see.
3-4 was good
4-5, first big error, looking at GPS ran right up to it without seeing it, so diverted west and stumbled across Dave also lost, so assumed he must be right and it was nearby to this area. After a bit of running about decided to stop and look at map and eventually got to the right place after several stops.
6 a little hesistant but OK
7 in order to keep running ran down quarry and up side, could have done with staying high
8 9 10 11 12 fine as evidenced by the splits, but helped by the number of runners now about
13 went AWOL, for some reason crossed past lake instead of turning right at the lake, can't explain why I did that and struggled to realise where I had gone wrong at this point, except it's obvious once the race is run
Jogged in after that as knew Dave had gone past me.

Up all night in hotel in Southampton with horrendous sore throat and cough, felt bad since an hour into boat from Caen. No morning run then

Big effort up the hill from hotel into Avranches, only to discover the station was down the hill on the other side of town. Not sure I could have avoided it. 4th on the segment, but the French don't seem to do Strava

Google maps helpfully pointed out the tow path down the river (or is it a canal?) from the town to the port, so in order to get something worthwhile done today, decided to nail it (with rucksack). Only problem was the wind was straight in your face, strongly. Became very hard, very quickly. But I stuck at it, decent effort.

TT to the TT
Mont St Michel was approx 30m away from motel in St Malo and we faffed a bit before we got going. Andy started to crank the pace up, but once we hit the sea road he really cranked it up, and I was hanging on tucked in behind at a solid 21mph. Tried to go on drop bars but right knee really didn't like this. Overtook loads of cyclists until two Frenchman pulled out from a side road. After a little Tour conversation between us they said they would take us to Mont St Michel, and off we went, at an even higher pace, in a chain gang. Poor Martin was out the back door as soon as we hit 23-24. I managed a mile at the front at 24 and was absolutely gasping. Great fun though. We did about 7-8 miles before they guided us down some country lanes where the road quality was A65-esque so we had to slow down. Got their before first rider, which was an unexpected bonus

Cycle back from the 8k point in the TT to the motel in Avranches. Endless cavalcade of camper vans. Plus the wind in our face the whole way, organisers quite kind on the riders really. Got to hotel just as Saxobank minivan pulled into Ibis opposite. Mr Contador got out. Evidentally still loved by the Spanish. Looked quite pissed off, perhaps his diet wasn't up to scratch today?

Run round edge of St Malo
Felt very heavy legged
Not much to see either, but didn't risk running further

Lap of Jersey - steady cycle
Anti-clockwise, pace wasn't easy, some parts were quite hard, but you are never in for a easy ride with Andy. Some interesting little climbs, lovely views, blue skies matched with blue seas. Stopped for a coffee after 30m. Worked hard last 9, felt good.

Treadmill tempo
Decided to inject some solid quality into training, with added Aircon courtesy of the hotel gym.
Progression 5m as follows
6:32
6:02
5:40
5:20
5:20
Nearly upped it again for last mile but decided might not make the 5
Pleased with that though

Got the boat to Herm, and decided the best way to explore was by running round its sandy paths and trails, a beautiful place. Boat was packed as you'd expect in a heatwave, most people looked suprised to see a runner but one of the leaflets I picked up told me of the Herm fun run next month. Run was steady but undulating and the sand made much of it harder than normal.