Weeks 40 & 41: Review

Catching up once again, but that was largely because there wasn't a whole lot to report last week. After going out for my 50K ride on that Monday morning, I felt a bit weaker than usual. At the time, I wrote it off as just being tired from the way too fast 18 miler the day before (part of week 39). Unfortunately, later that afternoon it became apparent that I was coming down with a bit of a cold and that was likely the culprit for the lack of energy.

As such, I was pretty much shut down for the remainder of the week. Aside from sucking all of the energy out of me, it was difficult to breathe so I figured that heavy aerobic activity wasn't really a great idea. Fortunately, I was feeling well enough on Friday to get back into it, so I went out for an easy 4 miler. The heart rates were still a bit higher than normal which indicated that it wasn't entirely gone.

The next morning I headed out for a 50K ride to see how well I could handle cycling. Fortunately, between the great weather and the well rested legs the ride couldn't have gone much better. In retrospect I could have easily done a much longer ride, but as I headed out later than usual (played it safe and waited for the temperatures to come up) I didn't have enough time left to extend it once I was out. Regardless, it felt great to be back in the rhythm of things again :D

On Sunday, the family was doing its Canadian Thanksgiving stuff and there wasn't enough time to fit in a long run. It was just as well, however, as not having run much the entire week a long run was likely not the best idea anyway. Fortunately, I did do a good deal of walking at the family gathering so the day wasn't a total loss on the fitness side (didn't bring anything to log it, so I have no idea how much).

As such, last Monday I got back into the normal routine and headed out for my ride. The weather was great, and as the fall colours were pretty much in full force around here I took a slightly longer and hillier route and put in 56.3K. Given the weather I really should have headed out in the morning and made it a proper long ride to make up for the last week, but the family stuff the day before lasted until pretty late so I was lazy and slept in ;)

The rest of the week largely went as planned until Friday. I had intended to go out for a 50K session, but the wind was absolutely brutal and I ended up turning around at the 15K point to head back (clocking in a total of 30.5K). There was a steady 55km/h push, which while hard, I could have dealt with. The problem was that the gusts were getting up in the 70+km/h range and made it difficult to track a safe line. Given the traffic levels on the major roads (which I had no way to avoid for a longer ride), I was concerned about my safety so I elected to head back.

Once I turned around, however, those brutal headwinds turned into some incredible tailwinds. Along the stretch of Jane that I was fighting to hold 20km/h on the way up, I was running in the high-50s and low-60s with minimal effort. I would have loved to push harder, but I was already in my highest gear (50x12T) and spinning at 120rpm so there was little that I could do (will have to consider a 11-23T cassette when it comes time to replace this one). Fortunately, at those speeds a bike is pretty much as steady as a rock so it was easy to track a perfect line down the side of the road.

Saturday's 54K was quite windy as well, but fortunately without any gusts it was just a matter of fighting through it. I ended up having to take a few breaks along the way, and my average speed was somewhat unimpressive, but thanks to the wind it was a good hard session.

This Sunday was again busy, so I deferred my long run until yesterday. Given the lack of running the previous week, I limited myself to a 13.1 mile route although I did select one with a few more hills than normal. I started out easy, but the legs wanted to go fast again and with all of the inspiring results that friends got at the Toronto Marathon the day before I gave in and let them push a bit. I'll focus on slowing down my long runs again next week, but it felt good to do a good long hard run without fighting it the whole time ;)

Week 40 Totals:
Running: 6.4km (1.0mi)
Walking: 0.5km (0.3mi)
Cycling: 102.1km (63.0mi)
Swimming: 0.0km (0.0mi)
Total: 109.1km (67.8mi)

Week 41 Totals:
Running: 47.7km (29.6mi)
Walking: 0.8km (0.5mi)
Cycling: 173.0km (107.5mi)
Swimming: 8.6km (5.3mi)
Total: 230.1km (143.0mi)

Year to Date:
Running: 1777.9km (1104.7mi)
Walking: 80.5km (50.0mi)
Cycling: 4137.5km (2570.9mi)
Swimming: 264.7km (164.5mi)
Total: 6260.6km (3890.2mi)