After a rest day to let my butt recover from my first cycle ride, I decided to hit the hills today. A lot of the passes are still closed and won't be open till June, but there are still plenty of hills around. This is Switzerland, not the Netherlands, after all.
In the winter I went cross country skiing in Einsideln and Studen a fair bit, and the countryside around there looked very pretty. For this reason I decided I would head there, then see how I felt, and carry on further if I could. I reached Einsideln without any problem at all. Despite the fact this is only my second cycle ride of the year, the running has really given me strong legs and a great cardiovascular base. I have read various articles saying that the transition from running to cycling is much easier than the transition from cycling to running. One of the reasons cited is that cycling doesn't prepare your legs for the impact of running. Runners on the other hand don't usually quite the power to push up the hills on the bike to begin with. The advantage I have in this regard is that I was not a skinny runner and don't have chicken legs at all.
I have never been to Hock-Ybrig before, but I know a lot of people go skiing there, so I figured it was probably a bit higher than Einsideln and headed up there. Just after the cable car there was a gravel track which headed in the direction of Druesberg and I followed this for a while, but obviously I was slipping and sliding a lot on my road bike with it's slick tyres. My Garmin was reading around 3,700 feet so I decided I would keep following the track until it hit 4,000 feet, which would mean a good start to my hill training regime. When it hit 4,000 feet I turned round and headed gingerly back down the gravel track. If you have ever tried riding a racing bike downhill on gravel you will know that it feels like the bike may slip from under you at any time. Luckily it didn't and I got back down fine, although at one point a girl was riding on her MTB uphill and because you can't turn easily on gravel I was heading straight towards her for a while. She probably thought I was playing a game of chicken, but I can assure you that I wasn't.
Going down the hill back to Einsideln was of course pretty easy, although there was a very strong headwind and it would have been a killer if it wasn't downhill. Once I got to Einsideln I decided I would stop for some food there, in the vicinity of the monastery. Being used to burning a couple of thousand calories during my runs, I am shocked at how many calories I am burning now on my bike. The reason of course is because I am spending much longer on my bike - 6 hours compared to 3 hours. But even then, apparently I have burnt 4,264 calories today and that is a lot. I didn't go crazy with the food and just ate a pizza, an orange juice and a piece of tirimasu.
Of course the way back from Einsideln to Zurich was pretty easy as it was downhill to the lake and then flat along the lake. I didn't push it too hard along the lake, but I was somewhere around 30km/h, which is a nice speed. There didn't seem to many serious cyclists out today along that side of the lake, and I was pretty much overtaking everyone.
Once I got home I was keen to see how many vertical metres I had climbed, as I was hoping it would be more than 1,000m. When I connected my Garmin to the laptop I was pleased when it read 1,326m of vertical ascent, and a horizontal distance covered of 125.24km. I have been panicking a little that I left it too late to start training for the Marmotte, by focussing solely on my running up until the marathon last week. But after today's ride I am filled with some confidence that with 9 more weeks of training I can complete the Marmotte for my third time. The Marmotte will be 50km longer than today, and with 3 and a bit times that amount of climbing, but it is amazing what 9 weeks of good quality training can do.
Current areas to work on are getting my back and butt more used to cycling, losing a few kilos, and increasing the power and endurance in my legs.
Monday, 25 April 2011
Saturday, 23 April 2011
Dusting off the cobwebs - first bike ride of the year
Hi folks
Well 6 days has passed since the marathon and I now feel recovered. So much so that I can sit on my butt no longer. The Marmotte is only just over 2 months away so I need to start my bike training as soon as possible. I decided this weekend would be the start.
I haven't used my bike since last autumn so I wasn't sure how I would get on, and was wondering how much my running fitness would translate into bike fitness. Quite well as it turns out! I chose a route that didn't have too many hills as a good intro. I have to remember that although I feel recovered my body is still getting over the stress of the marathon internally.
The route went towards the airport and then out into the countryside towards Dielsdorf. Actually this is the route we used to do every Monday night after work in our informal UBS cycling club. The problem was that as I was heading back into Zurich my Garmin showed I had only done 40 miles and I really wanted to do something closer to the distance of the Marmotte (approx. 174km with 5,000 vertical metres of climbing). So once I got back into Zurich I headed down to the lake and decided to do a lap of the Zurichsee (around 70km).
There were lots of cyclists out on their bikes along the lake. Most of them are pleasure cyclists but there were a fewer faster ones. I overtook a couple of guys and then they started drafting me. For those of you not too familiar with the term, drafting is when someone cycles in your slipstream and when you are going at a decent speed it can make it about 20-30% easier for the person following you, especially if there is a headwind. The effect is so noticeable that you often think the guy infront is going too slow and then when you pull out to overtake him you lose the slipstream effect and realise you have got no hope in hell of overtaking him.
As I knew I had a couple of people drafting me I decided to give them a good draft and picked up the pace. From Kussnacht to Rapperswil I was doing 35km/h most of the way. By the time I got to Rapperswil I needed to stop for some refuelling. So I headed down to the lake and stuffed my face with an orange juice, a power gel, a protein bar, a banana split and some macaroni. Now that may sound a bit extreme to some of you in terms of calories, but looking at my Garmin it says I have burnt 4,686 calories.
After refuelling I hopped back on my bike and headed along the other side of the lake back towards Zurich. The pace this time was much gentler as my butt was sore as hell. I had to keep standing up out of the saddle at regular intervals to take some of the pressure off it. As Zurich came within site there was joy in my heart as I knew that I could rest my butt soon and take a nice long soak.
The total distance covered was 84.69 miles (136.30km), calories burnt 4,686, and total time including my food and drink stop was 5 hours 48. Not too bad for the first ride of the season and less than a week after my first marathon.
Time to rest now. Happy easter to all!
Well 6 days has passed since the marathon and I now feel recovered. So much so that I can sit on my butt no longer. The Marmotte is only just over 2 months away so I need to start my bike training as soon as possible. I decided this weekend would be the start.
I haven't used my bike since last autumn so I wasn't sure how I would get on, and was wondering how much my running fitness would translate into bike fitness. Quite well as it turns out! I chose a route that didn't have too many hills as a good intro. I have to remember that although I feel recovered my body is still getting over the stress of the marathon internally.
The route went towards the airport and then out into the countryside towards Dielsdorf. Actually this is the route we used to do every Monday night after work in our informal UBS cycling club. The problem was that as I was heading back into Zurich my Garmin showed I had only done 40 miles and I really wanted to do something closer to the distance of the Marmotte (approx. 174km with 5,000 vertical metres of climbing). So once I got back into Zurich I headed down to the lake and decided to do a lap of the Zurichsee (around 70km).
There were lots of cyclists out on their bikes along the lake. Most of them are pleasure cyclists but there were a fewer faster ones. I overtook a couple of guys and then they started drafting me. For those of you not too familiar with the term, drafting is when someone cycles in your slipstream and when you are going at a decent speed it can make it about 20-30% easier for the person following you, especially if there is a headwind. The effect is so noticeable that you often think the guy infront is going too slow and then when you pull out to overtake him you lose the slipstream effect and realise you have got no hope in hell of overtaking him.
As I knew I had a couple of people drafting me I decided to give them a good draft and picked up the pace. From Kussnacht to Rapperswil I was doing 35km/h most of the way. By the time I got to Rapperswil I needed to stop for some refuelling. So I headed down to the lake and stuffed my face with an orange juice, a power gel, a protein bar, a banana split and some macaroni. Now that may sound a bit extreme to some of you in terms of calories, but looking at my Garmin it says I have burnt 4,686 calories.
After refuelling I hopped back on my bike and headed along the other side of the lake back towards Zurich. The pace this time was much gentler as my butt was sore as hell. I had to keep standing up out of the saddle at regular intervals to take some of the pressure off it. As Zurich came within site there was joy in my heart as I knew that I could rest my butt soon and take a nice long soak.
The total distance covered was 84.69 miles (136.30km), calories burnt 4,686, and total time including my food and drink stop was 5 hours 48. Not too bad for the first ride of the season and less than a week after my first marathon.
Time to rest now. Happy easter to all!
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
Post marathon recovery
I didn't expect the few days following my first marathon to be easy, but at the same time I didn't expect quite the amount of DOMS (delayed onset muscle soreness) that I got the day after. On Monday morning I could barely walk down the stairs to leave my building on the way to work. Any steps I saw instilled fear in my quads.
By Tuesday it was getting much better, but then a mysterious pain appeared from underneath my right foot arch. It was strange that I didn't feel anything the day before, but maybe my quads were so sore that I just didn't notice. The pain is most likely just a sprain as the feet take quite some pounding during the marathon. When I had my sports massage I asked my therapist to take a look, and she told me it didn't seem to be anything serious.
Today I am almost walking normally again, save for a slight limp because of my foot. I will try icing it and taking an ibuprofen and see if it clears up. I tried icing it the other night but almost gave myself frost nip in the process. After doing some internet research it seems that frozen gel packs are not always as harmless as we may think, and several people have given themselves serious frost nip from using them for too long.
Below is my finisher's video clip from the race. The one thing I can't help noticing is just how much chunkier I am than the other runners finishing at the same time. When I go for my sub 3 hour next year I think I will really try to shift some more weight first.
By Tuesday it was getting much better, but then a mysterious pain appeared from underneath my right foot arch. It was strange that I didn't feel anything the day before, but maybe my quads were so sore that I just didn't notice. The pain is most likely just a sprain as the feet take quite some pounding during the marathon. When I had my sports massage I asked my therapist to take a look, and she told me it didn't seem to be anything serious.
Today I am almost walking normally again, save for a slight limp because of my foot. I will try icing it and taking an ibuprofen and see if it clears up. I tried icing it the other night but almost gave myself frost nip in the process. After doing some internet research it seems that frozen gel packs are not always as harmless as we may think, and several people have given themselves serious frost nip from using them for too long.
Below is my finisher's video clip from the race. The one thing I can't help noticing is just how much chunkier I am than the other runners finishing at the same time. When I go for my sub 3 hour next year I think I will really try to shift some more weight first.
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