Its all about the bike

3 min read

This week is definitely all about the bike as I finally took delivery of my much awaited Planet X Stealth. This is the bike I plan to use come June the 26th to get me round the epic 180km course of IM France. As my first TT bike I have high expectations on what kind of performance benefits it will have, but as it only arrived on Saturday I have only had the opportunity to test it out for one quick 60km ride. Sadly my speedometer battery died so I couldn't gauge the performance increase and the weather was pretty awful so I don't think I pushed it that hard but it felt quicker and maybe that psychological aspect will also aid me in France? I did take me a good 30 minutes to get the handling under control as it has a totally different feel to a road bike, but once I settled into the aero position on a good road I really felt like I was screaming along. My neck was sore at the end of the ride and I still need to adjust my position to find the best combination of comfort and aerodynamics but I do think this will be a huge benefit to my performance this season. I am under no illusion though, in reality it is not just about the bike, I really need to put in some strong training efforts to make sure that I can cover the distance come race day.

new bike

So sadly I have to sell my old road bike to finance this new project. My lovely boardman has taken me on some great rides over the last 12 months and its a shame to see her go but "c'est la vie" , after all it is just a bike as my wife said !!

Swim

My swimming over the past 2 weeks has been fantastic, I am finally seeing some improvements and on almost every session recently I have recorded a PB. I hope this is down to my increased swim volume and continues but overall I am really happy with my swimming at the mo. This week I did 3x3km sessions and broke 50 mins for a straight 3km swim, completing it in 49:42 (a 30 sec PB)

Cycle

As I mentioned I finally took deliver of my new bike - 1 long ride over 60km on the stealth, crappy weather but nice to be outside instead of on the turbo where I spent a further 2 hours this week. Unfortunately I don't have the same enthusiasm about my cycling ability as I do my swimming at the mo. I put this down to a really dreadful winter and reduced volume. I hope as it starts to warm up and I can get out properly again this will improve.

Run

A steady week with 3 sessions. Slightly reduced with an overall volume of 3 hours. I find that I am not fatiguing so much now on longer runs but I have definitely lost some of the pace I had. I hope that I can find that again at the end of my training block, but for now I am just focusing on improving endurance and that seems to be working.

Only 2 more weeks of base training left and then the real fun and games begin ! I also want to say another BIG thank you to everyone that has sponsored me so far - I have reached a massive £600 this week and am really grateful for all your support - THANKS !