Oh Recovery Week!!

This week is recovery/taper week. As part of Tri Alliance's training, we work on a 3 week schedule - 2 weeks on and 1 week off.

I think everyone looks forward to these weeks especially if we have put in 100% into our training on the on weeks. The last 2 weeks have been good (not as good as this time last year) but good enough that I am attending as much as I can.

Last Saturday, I rode with the seasoned athletes group from Templestowe to Kinglake and back. I haven't ridden up Kinglake since Sept 2011 (my last Kinglake ride). As I was part of the Long Course (first timer) group, we were programmed to do long rides along Beach Rd. Because of it, I rode Beach Road for nearly 2 years, week after week.

Right from the start, I was riding by myself but it was what I wanted (and expected). Everyone else who turned up for training was a strong athlete and beyond my training calibre. I have ridden that route once before so the scenery was familiar and I was not too scared about being alone on the road. It took me a while to fire up the legs but once I was comfortable, I just rode at my own pace.

When I reached St Andrews, I knew that the Kinglake climb was not far off and mentally prepared myself for the slow ride up. I am not too phased about climbing but I do have anxiety about descending. Even though I have had some lessons in descending and turning, my anxiety was still as high as ever. I hate not seeing where I am going and I hate when cars/other cyclists are behind me. A few TA people rode past me on the way down and some coached me to be a better descender but no one understands how hard it is for me to descend down a hill and not having any control - mentally and on a bike. If I can see where I am going, I don't have any issues, my hands are off the brakes, it is the twists and turns that don't play nice. Others love it, I am just trying to keep calm and take the turns when they come.

At the moment, I am not feeling 100%. Not sure if it was from walking in the rain for 2 hours or just my body's reaction from the reduced training load. I didn't train on Tuesday due to appointment with dietician (who ended up cancelling 15min before appointment) and then Wednesday due to not getting enough sleep. Tonight's run session has been cancelled but I may just do a 30min slow jog.

This weekend's training consists of a Beach Road ride (a short one for me) and then Run Melbourne half marathon on Sunday. Fingers crossed that I survive that run because at the moment, my body is still not 100%.