Biking and Running in the Real World

I have to confess that most of my training seems to have been indoors lately. I’ve been on the turbo trainer loads thanks to TrainerRoad as it is much quicker and easier to fit in a turbo trainer session than it is to go out in the real world. It is also more controllable so the actual training benefit I get from it should be greater. I haven’t been running lately thanks to more knee and lower leg pain so instead I’ve been aquajogging, and it’s far too cold for open-water swimming here at the moment – the sea temperature is around 7°C (44°F) at the moment – so all my swimming has been in the pool.

Winter still seems to have us in its grip, the hills are covered in snow and there doesn’t seem to be much of a let up in sight. Spring is just around the corner though and there have been a few windows of opportunity so I did finally get in the real world the other day. Friday was dry and bright so I headed out for a nice easy spin on the bike around the local roads. The Turbo Training may be good but somehow it just doesn’t prepare you for the real world. I certainly wasn’t fast and it felt much harder than it should have. Maybe I was just tired, but I’m going to need to get out on the bike a bit more so that I’m used to the lumps, bumps, winds and weather associated with riding in Wales.

I’ve had a couple of physio sessions on my leg and I bought some new shoes last week so I’ve had a couple of test runs too. The first was an easy couple of loops around Ynyslas. I say easy due to the fact that I wasn’t trying to set any records or anything but it didn’t feel that easy once again. As with the turbo training, I’m sure aqua-jogging helps but its no substitute for the real thing. My knee and lower leg was a little sore afterwards but not as bad as it has been.

I then did a longer run on Sunday morning in the hills behind Machynlleth. Just me, my sore legs and the welsh hills. It was a lovely morning and the snow-capped hills looked glorious. I started off easy and my leg was a little sore, I then pushed a little harder on the two climbs and by the top my leg was actually feeling a little better. No doubt the endorphins had kicked in by then and were masking any pain. I managed to claim a couple of Strava segments on the climbs though. The descent back towards Machynlleth went by without incident and I had completed an eight mile run in an hour without too much pain.

I think I shall continue to aquajog for one or two of my run sessions each week for now and then gradually start replacing them with running in the real world.

Still no open-water swimming yet though so my run on Sunday was followed by a 4.2km swim in the pool and a bacon sandwich in the cafe and then some time on the beach with Morgan trying to get to grips with the slackline.