The Mock Exam

Next week is the first of the quartet of events that make up the title of this blog - the Ashbourne Duathlon.  On the basis that things are a lot less scary if you've done them before, I decided that today would be the day when I did my 'mock' - a practice run of next week's duathlon.

So, at 7.55 this morning I left home to run, with cycling gear and bike all ready to go on my return, and my trainers would be left by the front door ready for the short run that follows the cycle.  Thanks to an app called Cyclemeter on my lovely new iPhone I was able to track all 3 parts of my 'mock'.  And, with the exception of the last half mile, when the curse of the cramp struck, I went pretty well, and would be delighted if I repeated the performance next Saturday.

I'm not normally one for putting facts and figures in the blog, but as I was practicing for a race (and not in any way because I'm rather chuffed with the first two legs) I'm going to make an exception today.

Run 1 (reasonably hilly):  6.44 miles, 51mins 33 secs, 229m ascent, ave 7.5 mph
Cycle (moderately undulating):  25.4 miles, 77 mins, ave 19.9 mph
Run 2 (flat): 2.6 miles, 24 mins 20 secs, ave 6.4 mph

Apart from in a 2-man time trial where we had the benefit of slipstreaming each other I've not got that close to averaging 20 mph over 25+ miles, so I'm genuinely pleased with that effort, but I did pay for it on the final run, as you can see from the average speed figures. 

There's not going to be any high intensity stuff in the training this week - I find it counter-productive in the week leading up to an event.  Plenty of stretching and core exercises, a gentle run or two and some very moderate turbo work, that's the order of the day - let the body convert the training of the last few weeks into performance next weekend.  It sounds like I really care doesn't it?  Well, that's true to an extent - I don't really mind where I come compared to others, but a while back I set myself the target of finishing in under 3 hours.  I don't think that's possible given that time for transitions is added in, but I'll give it a go.  News of that next time...