Back in the saddle

With the fall running season over and the pain cave finally constructed, it was time to get back to training. After my 40k TT in late August I had done a handful of rides on my road bike before stopping entirely by mid-October. Not by design, but just because things were still busy with the move and construction projects that it just didn't work out to be able to ride. It was disappointing as fall is a beautiful time to be out on the bike, but I was in a run-focus anyways.

I was dreading that first FTP test, as I knew I would have lost a bunch of bike fitness. My FTP likely peaked around 235W in August, and the result of my test, which I think I paced properly, put my new FTP down to 220W. So that's a drop of around 7-8% over 3 months. The good news is that two weeks into structured training I'm feeling like my bike fitness is coming back.

It was also time to get back into some structured swim training. My swimming in September-October was sporadic and I wasn't really keeping tabs on my times. It was a bit of a rude awakening to get back in the pool and start doing some sets by the pace clock. I've probably lost a good 6-7 seconds per 100m off my threshold pace. Like the bike, I'm seeing some improvements already and am swimming much better than I was 2 weeks ago. I haven't done anything hard over 100m yet, but I'll know I'm back in swim shape when I can do 6:45 400s. It'll be interesting to see how long that takes.

Rattle Me Bones 10k

Funny how things rarely go quite as planned. I was hoping for my September-October run block to culminate in a 10k, and there were a few options for late October/early November. I decided the Cookie Run on November 5th would work out well in terms of timing, and as my oldest daughter is in Sparks, there was a bit of a tie-in there since the event raises funds for Girl Guides. The event also includes a family fun-run type deal, and Lily was excited about running in that with me, so it seemed like a great fit.

However, I'm a procrastinator in general, and also am wary of injuries and illnesses (and the fact that race fees are rarely refundable). So I waited to actually sign up. I kept meaning to but didn't get to it, and when I finally did, the event was sold out. Time to revise the plan. The good news was that the Rattle Me Bones races were happening on October 30th, so I could still get a race in, just a week earlier than planned. And the event also includes a 1km family run, so Lily could still run with me.

Unfortunately I came down with the flu right before the race and spent friday night shivering under a mound of blankets and duvets. I was feeling better on Sunday, but also knew it likely wasn't a good idea to push it in this race, especially since I've never raced a 10k before. So I put goals aside and just raced by feel - running at a comfortably hard clip that I felt I could sustain for 10k without going too far into the red and exhausting my flu-depleted body.

With 361 people starting, it took a while to get into the clear and I settled into what I thought would be a good pace. Within about 500m it became apparent that there was a guy in a bright orange shirt about 200m ahead of me that was running about the same speed as me, so I figured that would be a good carrot for me and I set about slowly but surely running down. It wasn't until 5k that I did, where we turned west on Industrial Ave and into a nasty, cold headwind. I stuck close behind him for about 1km then pulled head. He stayed with me for about another km then passed me pretty decisively. It was on an uphill and I wasn't confident I'd be able to burn a match or two matching his pace on the climb. I did reel him in a little over the last 2k.

Garmin has me averaging around 4:13/km, which is slower than my original goal pace, but after the illness I was hoping I could hold between 4:10 and 4:15, which I managed to do without looking at my watch. Funnily enough the official time had me coming in at 41:12 (chip time of 41:06) which is a time I would have been happy with if I was healthy. However, Garmin has the course as 9.66km, which would explain the time. However, the race is an "accredited" 10k, whatever that means, so who am I to argue? Almost going sub-41 and finishing 28th out of 361 is better than I expected to do given how I was feeling two days before.

And Lily got to run her first "race" and she seemed to have a great time. That was ultimately the most rewarding part of the day. On top of this, she seems to have great form. Check it out:

We're still settling into our new house and I don't have a pain cave set up yet, so I really need to get on that ASAP. Hopefully next week I'll be able to have my trainer set up and see how much bike fitness I've lost over the last couple of months, and I'll be shooting to get back into the pool regularly again too.