Just like that 2 weeks of my half marathon + riding training have flown by and I have ticked past the quarter way mark of my half marathon prep. I was definitely too optimistic after Week 1 and my training (especially on the bike) was pulled back for week 2. My TrainingPeaks did have 2 cycling workouts but due to life constraints and bad weather I was only able to squeeze one in. Overall week 2 was pretty light and unremarkable with the stats as follows:

Cycling:
Total Time: 1:15:00
Total Distance: 33km
Total Training Stress: 46

Running:
Total Time: 2:20:00
Total Distance: 28km
Total Training Stress: 393

Week 3 however, was a tough one, with nobody to blame but myself. A friend called me on Wednesday night asking if I was interested in filling in and playing a game of basketball for his team. This was after I had done 10 x 200 sprints the day before and failed miserably at my 3 x 15 minute threshold workout that morning. The failed threshold workout was my fault as I tried to hit targets based on my old FTP.

Anyway back to the basketball. I told myself to take it easy and remember that I hadn’t played in a number of years. Well that mindset lasted all of 10 seconds once I crossed the white line, it just isn’t in my nature to take social sports easy, ask any of my friends back in Melbourne. After 50 minutes of full court 4-on-4 with no subs I could barely walk back to the subway and knew this wasn’t going to be good for my training for the rest of the week.

Sure enough everything was hurting Thursday, including areas I didn’t even know I used playing basketball. I had to push my hard threshold run (20 mins escalating in intensity) back to Friday night because that was the first time I felt I could move somewhat freely.

I was definitely not recovered for our 4 hour tempo team ride on Saturday and after pulling a few turns down to Nyack Beach, I quietly sunk to the back of the bunch and was having trouble holding wheels. It was still a great ride with the team and I am super glad I got out there and gritted my way through the 4 hour ride.

Because of my failed threshold workout Coach Fetty asked if I could do my 5 and 12 minute power test on Sunday to see if we could get a better idea of where I was at with my cycling fitness. I borrowed Clay’s Feedback Sports Omnium Rollers (one of my favourite products ever) and did the tests back to back with a 10 minute break in between, all whilst watching the French CX WorldCup (sidenote: those races were awesome, watch them if you haven’t already). The power tests revealed that my FTP is down circa 50w (that explains the failed workout) but I have confidence that Coach Fetty will get me back to previous levels once I stop running.

After I had recovered from my power tests I still had my endurance run to go and I got that done just in time to settle down for the last quarter of the football to see the Saints get robbed.

Week 3 stats were as follows:

Riding:
Total Time: 5:36:00
Total Distance: 144km
Total Training Stress: 251

Running:
Total Time: 2:10:00
Total Distance: 25km
Total Training Stress: 356

The upside to all of this is that my body is actually feeling surprisingly good (after recovering from basketball) with a combination of foam rolling, plantar fascia rolling and good old fashioned stretching. I won’t be filling in for any more basketball games (at least until my half is over).