Instead of going to the pool this morning I decided to do a brick session (bike then run) to see how I’m getting on with the training for the Bedford Classic at the end of the month. I decided to try and do the whole bike leg on the big ring to really give my legs a work out and to try and force the pace a bit of the first five miles when I’m normally just spinning along warming up.
The bike leg was the usual loop from Cottenham, Wilburton, Haddenham, Earith, Willingham, Rampton and back to Cottenham. I stayed on the cow horns until Haddenham, partly to warm up and not blow the legs too early, once most of the way through Haddenham I went onto the tri bars and stayed on them until Willingham.
It was quite hard between Haddenham and Erith as there was the usual head wind to content with, but I stayed on the big ring, which I’m very pleased with. Once I turned from Erith to Willingham I was able to go up a few gears and I fairly zipped along, I even kept the gears high going thought Willingham and onto Rampton as it felt really good.
In no time I was back into Cottenham and a quick change into my running shoes. After the long run I did last Tuesday, I decided to take the bum bag with me as it had 500ml of isotonic drink in it. The run went well, it was a bit strange at first due to the bike, but this is good as I’ve not really experienced the jelly legs you get during the transition from bike to run.
On the back leg of the run, I could fell that both my calves were suffering a bit, especially the outside of my left calf. So I didn’t go quite as far on the run as I would have, but I was still out for twenty five minutes or so. Not sure how far I went as I’ve not taken a bit of string to the map yet.
When I got back from the run I looked at the bike computer and was pleased to see I’d managed to get round the bike leg in under an hour. Earlier in the year it was taking me an extra five to eight minutes to get round, so there’s been improvement there. I was gutted to we I averaged 19.8 miles an hour, only 0.2 away from the magical 20 miles an hour average speed that I know I should be doing at the very least.
| Stats | |
|---|---|
| Time | 59m 54s |
| Distance | 19.82 miles |
| Average Speed | 19.8 mph |
| Maximum speed | 29.4 mph |
