The strategy conversation you can only have here
When I woke up Saturday morning to do the Totalsports my flu took a back seat for the race. While I was racing my body clearly decided it needed to put all energy into the racing and flu would have to wait.
On the drive back from Kleinmond on Saturday afternoon, Dee sent a text to say that Nina, my youngest had been taken out by a stomach bug which turned out to be a gastro flu like thing. Amy proceeded to go down with the same thing and although my symptoms have been mild, I’ve been coughing and feeling dizzy for a couple of days now.
I decided to take it easy on the exercise. This training is always a bit of a balance between pushing my body enough to be making it stronger but not so much that I get sick. I normally get it right and the training programme I follow from Mark Allen is designed around a ‘train smart’ approach rather than a ‘no pain no gain’ approach.
When I took Amy to to the doctor yesterday I asked about training for myself and doc’s advice was to watch my heart rate. If it shoots up then stop otherwise keep going. So this morning I headed out on the road to do a 50 minute run.
Most of my exercise is done at between 118 and 128 heart rate. Really what I’m doing is training my body to be able to go as fast as I possible can for 12 or so hours on the day of the race, while maintaining a heart rate that allows me to keep going rather than bomb out and bonk as it’s called when your body runs out of carbs.
The run went well and besides a bit of coughing my heart rate was good and I managed just over 9km in the time. This evening after supper I climbed on my indoor trainer (road bike on a magnetic resistance wheel which simulates cycling) and did 90 mins. Indoor and without the wind I tend to leave about a litre of sweat under the bike.
Both ride and run went well and tomorrow I’m going to get back in the water and do some gym. This week-end I’ve got fit in a long ride and run amongst Dee and my 10th anniversary which is tomorrow.
Right now some sleep.