Mike’s Middle Distance Magic: The Highs & The Lows!

The week started with a good chat with Ray, planning the week ahead and looking at what needs to be done. I’m noticing more and more each week I don’t actually have “key” sessions anymore. They are all key in their own way, and this week is no different.

My running is really coming on now.  It’s by far my weakest discipline and still is, but to think eight weeks ago I was running with no focus and plodding most of my sessions around 4 miles, that this week I would put in two of my best ever runs is pretty unbelievable!

First up was Monday – the long run!  I didn’t think I could ever “glide” on a run but it felt great and I hit the 10 mile club on this one. A big milestone mentally as I absolutely smashed it on this one!

The other run this week was a pretty intense interval set. This workout stood out to me this week. I did one set of this workout a few weeks ago and loved it, even though it was a tough one. So this week what did Ray do? Give me another set of it of course with a 5 minute jog recovery between them. I used to dread any sort of speed session, but I went into this one rearing to go and I loved it. Albeit I could barely walk after it and my Garmin pinged up saying “62 hours” recovery. Mmm does Garmin not know what Ray has planned for me next, haha.

The swim, 6 x 200 was the main set this week and I was pretty consistent with it.  I enjoyed the swim and can see some improvement which I’ll take as I can only swim once a week. If I keep just small improvements and be able to finish the swim in races “fresh” I’ll be happy with that, so I’ll keep plugging away!

Now the title of this blog is high and lows and I suppose I best put the lows in, however I’m not seeing it as a low really. I planned my week great.  I managed to fit the time to do all my training in.  I felt good all week and I was rearing to go for my long ride. However my bike had other ideas! 12 minutes into my ride on Zwift I dropped the chain between my frame and chain set, snapping my chain and putting a nasty paint chip and scratches on my frame. Gutted is understatement! I was all set for this workout and that goes and happens.

I have one more session this week and it’s a VO₂ max session on the bike. So I’m frantically going to try and source a chain in the morning so I can complete this session. 6 x 4 mins at 265w is the aim.  The first time I did 2 reps, the next week I did 4 and I missed the session last week. So I’m going to absolutely destroy myself in this session and get my biking back on track!

Thank you for reading and il be back again to tell my tale next week.

– Mike Catton