Monday, May 3, 2010

Week 17-2010 Summary

A solid week, but I need to focus on something

MONDAY (Hong Kong): Run 10K@4'30" pace. Obviously I had the legs shattered by the TTT race, so I took it as a very relaxing run. The good point was that the Polar Index was 81...

TUESDAY (Dongguan): at 5.30am I saw that the temperature was incredibly 17C, so I had to seize the chance for as good run.
I drove to the forest and then a very good 18km run on gravel roads @4'20" pace (which is extremely good considering that is a dirt road with ups/downs). Felt great.

WEDNESDAY (Dongguan): road bike ride 40km easy around the town

THURSDAY (Hong Kong): run 13km. Felt a bit tired, but the air was also very polluted and humid (Air Pollution Index 140 !!).
It was good to be back after 18 months to one of my favourite routes of 2008: a long loop on the backside of MaOnShan town and then return on the seafront.

FRIDAY: busy with work from early morning... + long drive. No training

SATURDAY (Hong Kong): I joined a group of very good cyclists and Triathletes (just to give an idea: either winners of local cycling race or Kona-qualified Triathletes) for a strong ride along Lantau Island.
First 45k on the flat at a good speed and then we tackled the steep hills leading to the Big Buddha.. I was not much in mood for extreme suffering, so I took it easy on the first 2 climbs.
The road was anyway so steep that even taking easy was a 175bpm average...
On the last climb I felt more in suffering mood so I pushed hard and clocked a 179bpm average for the climb (which is a monster with 11.5% average gradient), topping at 188bpm (which should be around my max on the bike...)
Once the climbs were over, someone was not done enough and started new fireworks: from Tung Chung to the car park in Disney we hammered the last 10k at 40kmh with attacks and counter-attacks. At the end I felt in need of a stretcher...
Overall: 100km with 1700m of climbs...Ride details here

If someone asks me why I consider running much easier than cycling.... I will bring him/her with us next time....
As I was discussing with a very strong Tri guy during the ride, to run a good marathon is enough to train consistently and do many solid runs at decent pace. While to train for cycling, you must kill yourself during training; unless you really die on the bike, you are not training yourself enough.

SUNDAY: I overslept and missed the slot... a real pity

Total: 140km bike and 40k run. I must rump up the running to 70k in the next 2 weeks

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