A good note

Well, things are going better.

- The shoulder is getting back into place. I was able to swim right from Monday.

- The calf (calves) are back in shape: I ran 3 times this week, somewhat moderatly.

So the injuries are done, for now at least.

The agenda was a bit complicated so I couldn´t ride twice to work. But I almost got to 12 hr, with some good quality. So I´m ok with it.

Running is back, need to do some abs though

 Healthy eating helps keeping the good trend: record low for the last 6 months, at least: 71,9kg.

Now, let´s talk about the quality.

First, in swimming. Interesting set, after 200 or 300 warm-up (at 6:00AM), we had:

- 5x100 max

- 15x100 moderate

- 10x100 best average.

All on 1´50.

Well, we (with Olivier) hit the spot.

I think though that he won the lactate award!

He nailed the 1st one in 1´06 or 1´07, but drifted to 1´15 or so in the first 5. Ouch!

On my hand, I was stuck in 1st gear, ranging 1´11 to 1´12. All out.

The moderate 15 were surprisingly quick, and not so easy: the lactate was still pumping... And the rest went way too fast!

Then came the last 10... See below the movie references. We were there, big time. I managed 1´12 to 1´13 average very steadily, even though the effort became greater and greater.

The cherry on the cake was in the last 100, in the last 25 Olivier managed to pass me. I couldn´t react.

I suspect heavy doping on the young one! :) 

 
Second, the bike.
Saturday ride was to be done solo, including a 100km in time trial position, at 80% of max heart rate. Basically ranging between 130bpm to 133bpm for me. I wanted to complete it in less than 3hr: more than 33,3km/h.
I started off feeling quite easy, spinning quite a bit. The first hour went like a charm, with may be a tail wind and/or more descent than climb: 37,7 km/h. Almost easy. Incredible.
The second hour had more climbs, steeper ones.I pushed the legs quite hard : steady on the climb, but strong in the descent and on the flats. The last 10km before the turn around, I had a headwind.
So I added a bit less the 36 km in the second hour.
I was now heading back, and the last portion should last 40 to 45mn according to my calculation.
Now the game was to keep the average up. In spite of the climbs (not so steep, I agree), in spite on the wind in some area.
That´s when the legs got the burn, the buttocks especially. Very tough. Pushing hard, thinking of the second lap of the Ironman (it will be 2 loops of 90 km). I have to bare through the pain if I want to finish the bike, ready to run...
In the end, 100km clocked in 2h42, at an excellent 36,9km/h average. I was very happy with that.
Until I check my heart rate data: only 126 bpm average. Now I´m thrilled.
The limiter is clearly the legs, still 15 weeks to prep them.

And the last note is that I start a 3 week traveling plan. That sucks big time for training. But I got the opportunity to run at 1500m altitude tonight. I did feel the difference, vs. the 900m of Curitiba.
Sleep and spare time for training will be rare... That´s life.