When it all comes together
We've been training for the Taiwan 70.3 for about 9 weeks now. It's now the norm to have at least two double training weekdays and to only have one rest day a week. On Saturday mornings we haul ourselves to Tung Chung for our weekly long ride and go for brick at Shek O on Sunday mornings. In short, we've been doing a hell of alot of training!
I think all the hard work is beginning to pay off. Some examples:
1. Two weekends ago I did my first ever unassisted Cheung Tung road loop at a pretty decent clip (30+ km per hour?). This means no drafting behind a stronger rider. The headwinds are pretty crazy on that road as we are near the airport to it's quite a big feat.
2. Last Sunday, we had a club duathalon time trial (I.e. Run / bike / run) and I'm pretty sure I recorded my fastest run split from shek o to big wave bay for the first leg. On the bike I felt pretty comfortable too despite a tough headwind and sometimes crosswind. Wasn't easy running after the bike but it was still my 2nd fastest time for that run route.
3. I now can run at a constant pace OD 7:30 for the 1.37 km loop at the happy valley track. My times used to oscillate wildly (and even then 7:30 used to be a good time as opposed to the norm). But I've managed to be constant the last two times I've done this. Hopefully my pacing issues are sorted!
4. Generally, I've been riding very comfortably at speeds that were previously my "top" speeds and usually drafting or coming downhill.
I'll probably find out at next week's race whether this is all an illusion as it will be on the same course that I raced at in May.
A nice bonus is that I'm not as knackered as I was in the first month of serious training. I still need my weekly massage / foot reflex but at least I am not walking around like a zombie!
All in all, I'm pretty happy with how training is going. Hopefully i can keep this up till Taiwan!
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