The steeper the better

Not much time for blogging this week, I'm afraid: a heavy teaching load taking its toll.

Training wise, Tuesday was a day off, partly thanks to the after effects of my disastrous run the evening before. Yesterday was a hybrid session: an hour in the pool followed by half an hour on the spin bike. It was a good session, but the combination of the swim and cycle was pretty tiring: it's a while since I've done any proper combined training of that kind.

I had limited time to train today, and with the threat of rain in the skies I decided to pull my heavy winter bike out of the garage and do some climbing work. I only did 30 km, but almost all of it was climbing and descending. Maybe it was because I knew it would be a short ride, but I felt better attacking the hills than I have all year. Even on the heavy bike, with the standard chainset, I felt like I was flying on the steep inclines. A good confidence booster ahead of the Bealach and an indication that the training is paying off.

The weather looks like it will work out for me to pop up North this weekend and give the route a go ahead of the race. Hopefully the road will be reasonably quiet.

Please click on the links above and give to Project Zambia. I'm not doing this for fun, you know! (Well, actually I am, but as the Joker said: "If you're good at something, never do it for free.")