Friday 1 February 2013

Wed 30th January: bike/swim/run


Today was a long, long day!  Was up early again to cycle into work – it was a nice, but chilly morning (it would get colder by evening though!).  I cycle down an old, disused railway track for about half the journey, which is really nice (when it’s light – there’s no streetlamps) and it’s very popular with runners, walkers, cyclists etc.  It’s also one of my main running routes as it links St Albans and Hatfield for about 6 or 7 miles.  Was chatting to Ray as I stopped for a quick swig from the water bottle and he said they are planning to re-develop the arable land in the area and build houses on it.  Was quite shocked and saddened by this as it will probably mean the end of this lovely track and the fields around it.  I signed the online petition/comments section on the council website (they made it very difficult to find the plans!).

Went for a swim at lunchtime and worked on my front crawl.  I found out that the Uni triathlon club train there on Wednesday lunchtimes and Tri-Force members could also come along, which is really good.  So I can get an extra coaches session in during the day now as well – although I’d only be able to do about 30 minutes before having to head back to work!

After work I went out for a medium-distance run of 9 miles.  It was nice to have clear roads again and no snow or ice.  A 1.5 mile slow warm up, followed by a 6 mile tempo run, and another 1.5 warm down jog.  It was a nice temperature but the wind was incredibly strong, which made running very hard work!  Part of the route was running about a half mile up parallel to the dual carriage way and then doing a 180 and turning back and running in the opposite direction.  The outbound way was fine and the wind was behind me, but turning back was really difficult!  The plus point was that I saw Matt after about 2 miles running in the opposite direction so we waved each other on.  I saw another runner later as well, always cheers me up.  I like friendly runners and cyclists who say hello or even words of encouragement!

My average time for the 6 mile leg was about 10:20 min/miles which was a bit slower than what I hoped to do but then again I was not expecting the 20+ mph winds.
Cycled home – I was totally knackered by this point!  As I rode the last half mile home, which is uphill, several cyclists overtook me – there was a time trial going on that evening and they were doing several laps of that road, turning back at the roundabouts at each end.  I’m not sure which club it was, probably Verulam Cycling club, but they often use this route and are at it all through the winter.  A couple of them say hi, which was quite encouraging after such a long day!  It was nice to finally get home and relax!

Total training

Bike ride to/from work (8 miles)
30 minutes swimming
9 mile run

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