First hit-out of the season...

It has been a bit up and down, feeling more down overall on the training front, but with K2 cycle race/ride yesterday as a good true test of where I am at.
For last week, swimming was OK, got in 3 swims, and broke 4km, so was happy with that. The swimming is going OK, I just need to get a 4th easier swim in a bit more regularly from now on in. Cycling power output has been a bit crappy after being sick, so put off doing the time trial that I need to do. The weather conspired against the long ride last weekend (must be a holiday weekend!!), so I thought I would sneak it in on Sunday instead of the long ride. I was feeling pretty average, not that motivated, legs sore, tired, hungry, [put in more excuses here...] etc etc. Did the warm-up and that sort of went a bit better than I thought it would. Started off and felt I was going at a comfortable solid effort, but sort of not really in the groove (seat uncomfortable, knees and feet achie etc). I was going a little faster than I thought I would/should and slowed myself down a couple of times, not wanting to blow up early on. Then just after 10km - POP! Not just - "oh, this is starting to hurt, I better slow down", a maddog special - something from which nothing can be salvaged! All over at 10.8km, just as the pizza's arrived, off the bike - it is all over! That does not happen often for me, but when it does, it is spectacular. I think I will need to rethink my approach a little, especially in conjunction with the other major hiccup of the week. Thursday I did "3 sessions in one day", which should be no big deal, as I did not go hard out in any of them. The swim was OK, apart from having to do a set of 50's on the :40 (pull). The bike and run were later in the day. The bike went OK - should have been a moderate effort at higher cadence on the TT bike, and went by power, and the HR was a bit higher than I was expecting, but was not sure if it was the cadence or the detraining from being sick (I now know it is the later). The run soon-ish after the bike started out feeling very good, and finished "happy to be home and sitting on the couch"! I was hoping to get through the day feeling quite comfy in all the efforts - so there is a fair bit of work to do there. Two and a half hours for all the sessions, and I want to ramp that up to 4 hours in the next 4-5 weeks - which maybe a little ambitious. We will see. Running was sort of OK. Knock a few easy runs out, which really were just ticks in boxes, and only just making ticks. The long run was a confirmation that my shoes are stuffed. I will have to check, but I am sure it is only 6 weeks of running in them, and not that much running either! Legs felt OK, but feet were hammered after an hour and 20 minutes. Much more and I think I would do serious damage. So did not push my luck. Another line on the to-do-list. So for the main key sessions - if I am generous - 3/10! Bike TT- dnf, long ride - dns, brick swim-bike-run - felt like a fur ball the cat had thrown up for the 3rd time, when it should have been quite comfortable and achievable, and long run - short due to preventative maintenance... sigh...
This week I had K2 (a nice hilly 200km bike race) which I was feeling more and more under prepared for. From memory last two times I rode this - I punctured at 15km and 195km, and the other time I did it on around 100km per week of cycling and blew spectacularly at 100kms. I was feeling it was going to be another reality check, which after last week I am not that sure I needed! The way the week went work wise, I decided this was going to be an easy week, which fitted in well with the K2 and moving into the next block of training. So it was a couple of swims, two bikes (spin classes), and a couple of runs (group sessions). So if I am not recovered - I am in trouble!
So now K2 is done and dusted. I was pretty happy with the result in the end, ending with what I thought I was capable of if I had a good day and the race went my way. What I was not expecting was the amount of suffering that I would endured - it was really hard to get through! The major issue was cramp - with cramping kicking in at 90km. I felt OK energy wise and had eaten, and drunk well - so I am pretty sure it was electrolytes. I managed to manage the cramp so it was going away, and coming back just periodically.
Tactically I tried to stay reasonably close to the front, and expend the least possible effort doing so. So that was focusing on being in a good position in the bunch, and not doing more that required on the hills. The hills were still solid (to say the least), and I was pretty cautious on the descents - I did not need to take any risks! Unfortunately there was a very nasty accident on the second main climb - when an idiot driver attempted to overtake the bunch on the climb, only to be confronted by a milk tanker coming down the hill, and then caused the damage when he cut into the bunch to miss the tanker! It certainly took the shine of a great event that is well run! At that point the front of the race attempted to keep things reasonably slow, so that those caught on the wrong side of the crash could "get back on". Then it was suffer into the wind, and "get through the climbs". Just after 90km is the hardest climb of the ride, and as I had twinges of cramp - it "do it at my own pace" front the start. I kept an eye on the power, and try to keep around 300-330watts, which is under threshold for me - so solid be not "burning too many matches". Got dropped by about 30 riders straight away, and picked up a few on the second half of the climb. then lost a few more on the descent, but was OK with that. Then put a solid burner in on the flat to catch a small group in front that had a couple of good riders in it. The next 50-60km has a lot of flat, so not really the time to ride on your own! I got a little grumpy with a few in the group - when they would not lap through. But once we did start lapping and the group grew to around 20+ riders we were cruising along quite well. It was a nice cross-tail wind - which was good! At this point I was in the second bunch - with around 25 riders in the front group. Once the group was moving along quite well, I went and hid myself down the back of the bunch and ate and drunk and just looked after myself. The group did start to break up, with a small group of the stronger riders going off the front, and I thought about jumping across to them, but I was a bit too far back in the bunch and they were not really getting away, so I felt sitting in the bunch conserving energy for the last big hill of the day was a better option than lapping out at a solid effort in a smaller group. The last hill is around 10km, but not really that steep, but still 45km to go when you turn to go up it. I had sort of come right a bit by this stage, and was glad I had picked up extra water along the way. Started the climb easy, worked my way through the bunch early on, and then ended up on my own. Then pick up the group that had got away, and ended up in a smaller group riding up at a comfortable steady pace. I was pretty happy that I was keeping going well, although cramp was still an issue, and just wanted to be done by this point. Picked up a couple of water bottles at the last aid station (about 800m from the top of the climb), and then managed to get dropped by those who I was riding with! I am not sure if they put a burner in or it was the extra 1.5kg of water I was carrying, but did not feel my effort had dropped. Oh well... I quite like descending on my own, not worrying about being cut of by someone out-riding their ability. But when I saw 20km to go, I was sort of hoping it was 5km to go. A couple of guys picked me up and we suffered together doing what-ever laps we could. I think we all appreciated the company, and were happy to help each other out. Unfortunately a bigger group caught us just before the finish - but I was not really in the mood for a sprint. Fortunately not many others were either, and I rolled over 4th in our group in 5hours 46min for a very solid hilly ride! Pretty stuffed and still twinges of cramp for the next hour.
Day after and the body is not in great shape, back and ITB's the main issues. But will try to suffer through some sort of run. In hindsight, it was probably a good result! In fact I did set a couple of power output records - so it was good. Best 5min and 10 minute power outputs since I have had the power meter. Having said that, the power meter did give up on the last climb (flat battery I think), and the heart rate monitor really spat the dummy and had a total melt down (black screen and intermittent beeping). Not sure if it is me - but I don't actually have much race data - all the toys seem to fail on race day!