Another swim, bike, run session

Today everyone seemed to turn up for the swim.  I realised on my way to Corsair Bay that I actually didn’t want to swim with the "muppets".

I needed to put in a solid 30 minutes which meant I had to do my own thing.

When I arrived I knew that Nadine was out there somewhere already.  Just a 1hr20min swim before jumping on the bike for 180km.

Boy did my session look easy in comparison.

I decided I’d do the same as last week, though when I looked the green sailed boat appeared to be further out.  I guess that’s the trick the high tide plays on you.

I had my Polar watch this time so thankfully it worked and took my HR which I thought was pretty high given it was a swim – 157.  Now with Biking at an A1 intensity it begins 155bpm.

I finished one "lap".  Out to the green boat, across to the smaller white boat, head back a bit to get to the maroon sail boat and then head back to shore.

I was very surprised to see it took me just over 16 minutes.  Darn, it meant I had to repeat the whole thing since I had a 30 minute swim planned.

It’s starting to sink in

I’ve harped on so much about how badly I suck at descents.  I’m like a broken record.  I wish I’d get over myself sometimes.  I want to hear a different tune.  I want to be good descending and cornering.

I can’t blame the bike.  The bike is wonderful.  The bike responds to what I tell it to do.  I’m just telling it the wrong thing!

I realise there’s two things I do VERY badly.  I’m scared to pull far left which I should be as I approach a corner heading right, and I look at what’s directly in front of me.

I haven’t figured out what my problem is with pulling left before cornering right.  But I do know that if I look ahead of me, around the corner (as Kelly once told me leading up to le Race 2 years ago!!) that things seem to take care of themselves.

Now I’ve known about the looking ahead thing for a long time.  I’m just a stubborn silly woman.  I think I’m looking ahead, I pretend I’m looking ahead, but really I’m still looking at what’s directly in front of me and glance ahead *sometimes*.

So why mentally do I know and accept logic but not apply it?

The road to redemption

Today I had a 2 hour hill ride.

I went from work (Riccarton) to the Sign of the Kiwi, along the Summit Road, down Evans Pass into Sumner then home.

I managed to ride to the SOK the quickest I’ve ever done, just over 22minutes from the bottom of Hackthorne Road.  I’m pretty pleased with that.

It wasn’t easy and I was tossing up stopping when I got to the SOK because I was a bit tired, but I also know if I stop I tend to mess about a bit and really I should just have a continuous ride.

My descending is much improved over the past few hill rides, but there wasn’t any strong wind today.  It wasn’t the best descent I’ve had.  I still held onto the brakes a little longer on some bends than is necessary, but all in all it was OK.

I don’t know what’s going on with my feet.  Both were sore and I can’t seem to relieve the pain by trying to sort of pull my feet up and off the pedals.

It almost makes me want to cry it’s so bad.  I’ve got another appointment with Simon on Monday so I’ll be asking his advice.

At this stage I find it difficult some days to walk bare feet around home because of the pain along the outside of my right foot in particular.

When I run I can feel it along the outer side of both feet.

Something is very definitely not right.  I don’t know what caused this to happen and I don’t know what to do to help relieve the pain when it comes on.

It was just a 2hr ride yet the last 20 minutes were almost agonising on my feet.

Good news is that I managed to drink more than I usually do.  I think I’m starting to understand my bike a bit more when I’m just riding with one hand.  Still my bottle cage is causing me some grief.  It’s quite tricky to put the bottle back in, and if you’ve sucked and caused the bottle to buckle or lose it’s proper shape well all sorts of bad things happen i.e. it just wont sit in the holder correctly.

I don’t know that I really need a side entry bottle cage, as it is I tend to try to put the bottle back in as if it’s a normal holder.  I find that to put it in from the side means I have to bend more and have to line it up perfectly.  I’m not quite that coordinated it appears.

And I’m thoroughly sick and tired of my Sigma HR monitor.  I’m on the look out for something new.

I gave in. What a wuss

Before the group ride I went for my 20 minute run (with intervals ranging from Rec to A3).  My leg felt very foreign, like it wasn’t a natural part of my body.

I guess it was more from the work Sally had done on it.  It just felt so odd.  Sort of uncomfortable but not really painful.  That’s good.

Then it was the CP cycle group.  I gave in at the thought of going up Highcrest Heights in Westmorland.

I find it so exposed up there and every time get buffeted about on my bike.  I end up gripping my handlebars so tight and tense up.  I understand the concept of "floating" as Richard described last week, but my brain doesn’t send the right signals from the bit that controls fear, to the physical part of me that controls the bike, nor the tiny miniscule bit that stores my faith.

So was it better to give in to it or have another crappy descent where I feel like I failed.

What’s the saying about better to try and fail than something a rather?

I almost fell off my bike tonight.  We up Pentonville Close.  It turns into another street on the right which has next to no housing.  We do repeats up here, but then off this wee street is another street on the right, well that’s just a street with nothing at all.  But it’s a very short and sharp street.

Richard had us going first spinning up the main street then in a harder gear and lastly in an even harder gear but this time turning right to go up this little short sharp bit.  Well I was in too hard a gear.  My revolutions all but stopped and I was so worried I would fall off my bike.  Naturally I was last and everyone waiting for me, so I had an audience.  No one came rushing to my aid to grab the bike which I’m not sure would have made me feel better or not. 

Thankfully I managed to unclip, I don’t know how because I was pretty much at a stand still.  Phew, it worked out and I didn’t disgrace myself or damage my bike.  I’d have tossed my bike above my body as I fell.  Or at least have thought I had the skill necessary to pull off such a feat

I reckon this January has been much windier than most.  Richard reckons it’s due to the warmer weather.  Quite possibly.  I don’t have a degree in whatever it is you get when you study weather patterns.  See, I can’t even think what it would be!

Whatever it is, I wish it would go away because it’s slowly chipping away at my confidence and it’s feeling a bit fragile as it is.

I’ve damaged my Goose Foot

I know, it sounds horrible right? 

Some people have two left feet, but we’ve all got goose feet.  You might not have known

The bit on the inside of my knee that I’ve been trying to describe is my Goose Foot.  Yes it has some fancy name that I can’t remember, let alone begin to try to pronounce.

Yet again I was in awe of Sally’s ability to just roll these strange names off her tongue.  Because the Goose Foot connects to some other weird named thing that’s all part of the hamstring.

Really, everything’s connected.  You remember the old song, the thigh bones connected to the <insert bone name>.

Good news is it responds well to acupuncture.  But Sally said she just wanted to thrash it first and she certainly is very keen in her work because it was extremely uncomfortable.  I had to find a happy place.  Thank fully she has lots of new photos around her wall for me to look at.

More appointments are planned, though I hope it’s sorted soon since Sally is off to do the C2C and I’ll be left stranded – like all her patients.

The other good news is that I can carry on exercising, it shouldn’t hold me back.

CP outdoor class tonight followed by a run.  I’ll let you know how I cope on the hills (terribly if past weeks are anything to go by) and running.

And for once I don’t care if it’s a horrid NE wind because I’ve got the car so wont be biking home straight into it.