A Flexible Plan

Still suffering very sore quads from the Dandenongs trail run last Saturday, I did no training on Sunday or Monday. At swimming on Tuesday morning, even Clint admitted he was suffering the worst quad pain he could remember. It quickly became obvious this was going to become an unscheduled recovery week - which was probably not such a bad idea.

By Wednesday I could walk up and down stairs with only minor discomfort, so I decided to test out the quads with a short 5km run which went OK. Thursday was a public holiday, so I joined in the club ride on Beach Rd. After what felt like an excellent workout, I was about to head home when Clint convinced me to participate in a short handicapped race from Mentone to Sandringham. The race wasn't very long (just over 8kms), but it was a flat out effort into a decent headwind. By the time I turned to ride home I was completed wrecked, luckily I had a tailwind to carry me home. With the extra riding to and from home, the total distance ended up being 97km - my longest ride since mid Feb. In the last 8 weeks, my running mileage has been double what I've done on the bike, so it was no surprise that I had a fairly sore bum after a 3h15m ride.

I felt fairly average when I got up early Friday morning for swimming. Once at work it quickly became apparent that I had a head cold. I've been remarkably illness free for the last couple of years, so I'm guessing my immune system was weakened after being run down more than expected by Thursday's ride.

Not quite the consistent run mileage I was hoping for, but how many times do things actually go to plan. Next weekend is the Puffing Billy run, so hopefully I'll start to feel better soon and get in a few runs before the race. The week after Puffing Billy is the Bayside Spring Classic bike race. As evidenced by Thursday's ride, I'm nowhere near good riding form (which happens when you stop riding for a while), but I'll still try and race this event as best I can.

Looking further ahead, after the Bayside Sprint Classic I'll revert back to building run mileage with consistent easy runs. This will reduce the later stages of building speed, but at my age that is probably wise anyway. Originally I'd planned to do some Sri Chinmoy Fun Runs and the Half Marathon at Sandy Point. However Elaine is very keen to do some Trail Runs and the Salomon Trail Series is probably a better fit for our lead into the Sprint Triathlon at London in September.