Mistakes ... I made a few!

They do say that you learn more from your mistakes than anything else and if this is true I should be an expert on training after the last few days.

Today's ride (Sunday) was a total disaster. Saying that, nobody was hurt (or killed) and so disaster might be too strong a word but it felt like it after I plodded home at 3km/hr after only an hours ride.

The failure of the ride can be (I think) attributed to 4 main mistakes made in the preceding days. It could also be attributed to mental weakness during the ride but I think sometimes it's wise to cut these things short and live to fight another day.

So ... my mistakes in chronological order were:

Mistake 1

Friday's swim was supposed to be for distance and technique rather than speed and I was supposed to take it easy and just get some swim time in the bank. So what did I do? I tried to beat the previous day's 2K time of 39:53. I went all out and took 59 seconds off the time. It felt great and I was so pleased that after only a few times in the pool I was able to get my time down to where I want it to be. Big mistake. I was shattered in the afternoon and wasn't really feeling like doing my Friday night long run.

Mistake 2

So after the overdoing it in the pool I set out on my long run (14K). The further I got into the run the better I felt and I forgot about being tired and was really enjoying it. It just turned into one of those runs where it feels effortless and you feel like you can run forever ... and this was over the part of the course that is relatively hilly.

The return road runs parallel to the hilly road but is almost perfectly flat. I made the turn, took a gel and felt 'fast'. I started to up the pace a bit and it felt great. The Garmin was showing Sub5 minute K's. I knew it was too fast and I slowed down a bit ... but the music on my i-pod kept getting to me.

I had Bono singing Magnificent in one ear telling me that he was 'born to sing for me and lift me up' ... and run faster apparently and I had a fellow blogger (who shall remain nameless) in the other ear telling me to 'slow down you bl@@dy idiot, long runs are supposed to be SLOW!'.

Unfortunately Bono won and I kept up the pace and ran the last 5K at about my 5k pace. Fortunately nothing went 'snap' and my legs felt strong and I felt 'high' for about an hour after the run. After that I felt shattered and had to fight to keep my eyes open for the rest of the evening ... although that's not that unusual.

Mistake 3

I love making curries. I have been striving for that texture you get in the restaurants. I could always get the flavour but I have only recently perfected the texture. I made a (smacks lips while writing this) gorgeous Chicken Madras for me and Jo Saturday evening.

I thought it a bit risky having a curry the night before my long ride but we had it early and so didn't worry too much ... and I think it would have been OK if I had left it at that but ... we had ice-cream for desert and I had a bit too much for my own good. We needed it to cool down our mouths.

Still felt OK though. I think the actual mistake of Mistake No3 came when I was putting away the left overs (I always make a big batch for dinner the next day as well) in the fridge later that night just before going to bed. It looked so good and curries tend to mature a bit after they're cooked and I just had to have a bit of a taste to see how it had 'developed' ... so I had a bowl (just a small bowl mind!). Gorgeous!

Mistake 4

I woke up early Sunday morning ready for my ride. My stomach felt awful from the curry/ice-cream/curry combo and my legs felt trashed from the 'too fast' long run. I had rested well Saturday but I didn't seem to have much energy this morning. I couldn't face a proper breakfast but managed to eat a bit of a banana.

My main mistake this morning was not wearing appropriate clothing for the weather. It had been warm the day before and I presumed it was going to be the same today. It seemed quite nice when I looked out of the window and I went with a short sleeve top. Couple of minutes into the ride I realised the mistake when the wind picked up to gale force and the rain, which felt like icy sleet, blew horizontally into my face. I was freezing.

I tried to pick up the pace to generate some heat but my legs protested (something about being tired from Friday!) and I couldn't get my HR up at all. I did a 10K loop and went home for some warmer clothes. I nearly canned the ride then but decided to get back out there and at least make it to 2 hours.

After about an hour in total I was done and just wanted to get home. If I had been doing a long out and back I suppose I would have been forced to stay out longer and I would have plodded on but I was staying close to home and it was easy to head back. It was a failed bike ride but it's only one session in a 10 week block. No big deal. I was going to run off the bike but there was no way that was going to happen. I'll put it down as a 'learning experience'.

It was a disappointing end to a really good training week. I managed to get three swims in, two great bike interval sessions on the windtrainer and a great, if a bit too fast, long run in. A good bike ride today would have made it a perfect week. Unfortunately that will have to wait till next week.

Next week's goals

1 bike interval session on Tuesday

3 swims but only one 'fast' session - NOT on Friday

3 runs including a long, SLOW! run on Friday. I will up the distance a bit so that I can't run too fast.

A decent Sunday morning bike ride of at least 2 hours.

No Saturday night curry!

Can't wait!