I have officially ticked past the halfway point of my preparation! My body has slowly been morphing away from a cyclists body and into a runners as any excess muscle mass and fat has been stripped away. My good friend Dr Paul Cullen noticed this when I posted a picture of me running and he was shocked to see how much leg mass I had dropped and he correlated it to my decreased FTP - is this a good hypothesis or not?

To try and stay injury free Coach Fetty and I have been keeping my riding to 1-2 rides per week with only Tempo work or below because my running sessions are quite intense. The hope is that my aerobic engine will be firing and once my running block is finished and we can pick up the muscular endurance side of cycling quickly again to refocus on the middle part of the road season with TBD! The run blocks have been increasing the intensity and duration for my endurance sessions and I have also been adding extra time and speed to my weekend long run.

Week 4 Highlights:

My threshold session for the week was 3 x 10min blocks at my goal 10km pace. Having never attempted a 10km PB before I actually set one according to trainingpeaks in this session at 4:35 min/km which did include rest intervals, I will have a proper crack at a PB soon.

Forever looking to mix things up I headed up to Central Park with TBD teamie Corey who is quite the runner, to punch out a Sunday long Run. Now Corey, who has ran a grand total of 5km post the NYC marathon, easily ran 16 kilometers with me at 4:45 min/km in perfect conditions.

Week 4 Data:
Riding:
Total Time: 4:26:00
Total Distance: 114km
Total Training Stress: 244

Running:
Total Time: 2:48:00
Total Distance: 34.5km
Total Training Stress: 408

Week 5 Highlights:

This was the week that the Polar Vortex hit! I managed to get in my Tuesday speed session as planned but I had to wait until Friday night for the weather to “warm up” (it reached 32F) before I could do my threshold run. Being a Friday night meant I had other plans as well so I got my run in, Citi Biked home and then went to a Escape Room with some friends. Not great recovery but fun nonetheless.

Saturday morning was spent watching the Elite Women race the CX worlds followed by an easy 2 hours of endurance miles in Prospect Park trying to stay warm and keep cadences high.

Now Sunday was momentous for me; the weather reached 60 and I was able to set my longest ever run; 18km at 4:45 min/km with the last 4 kilometers at sub 4:20 min/km. This run gave me great confidence that I can hit the half marathon distance but hitting my goal time of sub 90 minutes is still somewhat unknown.

Week 5 Data:
Riding:
Total Time: 1:57:00
Total Distance: 51.3km
Total Training Stress: 88

Running:
Total Time: 2:57:00
Total Distance: 36.1km
Total Training Stress: 309

Week 6 Highlights:

After 6 weeks of hard training, less than optimal weather and catching subway I started to feel a cold developing. The fear of catching a cold was compounded by the fact that I was heading back to Australia for effectively a long weekend and spending 44 hours is torture to me let alone doing it with a cold. I still packed my running gear and hoped for the best.

Miraculously despite the travel and lack of sleep, Day/NightQuil severe seemed to do the trick and I managed to fend the cold off! That meant I gave myself the ok to get a long run in with my boys whom I have missed dearly. We punched out 16km in 82 degree weather, dodging Danger Noodles (snakes) and soaking up a good dose of vitamin D. My body was not used to the hot weather and I hit PB heart rates for running for 1, 5, 10, 20 and 60 minutes. My good friend Riley Wolff who is an amazing photographer, my running coach and photography mentor, followed us on his bike (he ran a half in training that morning) and grabbed some amazing shots.

Week 6 Data:
Riding:
Total Time: NIL
Total Distance: NIL
Total Training Stress: NIL

Running:
Total Time: 1:36:00
Total Distance: 19.9km
Total Training Stress: 169