90-96 is the magic number

🙁 I had just about psyched myself up to enter Ferndown tri when my husband delivered some bad news… he is unable to accompany me as he has won a place in Bournemouth marathon, which is on the same day. I’m a little disappointed as I had hoped we could enter the event together and I had also suggested that we can enter our oldest nieces and nephews in the children’s event.

However, I have also got some thoughts in mind. Katherine has suggested that I might want to enter Cycletta New Forest, which is also in October (13th October). There are three options: 20km, 42km and 82 km. There isn’t much difference in their cost (only £4 more for the longest distance). I can’t help but feel that it’s therefore better value for money. Sadly, it will be before I can have a new bike, but I’m sure my hybrid will be fine.

Cadence

I was nervous about this morning’s RunCamp session as my glutes are still tired from Tuesday. Fortunately, it didn’t feel as bad as I thought it might. Again we tried running at different cadences – trying to match 150, 160 and 170 all felt very odd – I was much more comfortable at 180 and 190. Bizarrely, I have the highest cadence out of all of the runners at RunCamp, including Stu and Mike (who is an experienced triathlete and a fairly nifty runner). Maybe I’ve internalised Eric‘s wisdom (from Embrace Sports) more than I had realised.

I also asked Ant about cycling cadence. Apparently, for triathlons, it is good to cycle at 90 as well, so that your running and cycling cadence are the same. This means that the transition from bike to run is easier. I found this article on cycling cadence to be helpful: Cycling cadence in training and racing.

Running in the rain

It has been raining hard all day, and I was tempted not to go to the Thursday evening LRR social run. I tried to tell myself that it would be sensible to take it easy before Eastleigh 10k, but in my heart, I know I need to do far more training for Paris (although I’ve left it a bit late). Plus, I ate two biscuits and two GIANT slices of cake at work today. I need to try to burn a few calories… although I did manage to lose 1.5lbs last week 🙂

When I arrived at Oasis, I was surprised that only 9 other people chose to come out in the rain. We did a steady 10.6k run over to The Common and through the Sports Centre. I had a long chat with Paul about cycling cadence and resolved to change my Garmin to show cadence. Plus, I must search in the loft for my foot pod as I’m borrowing one at the moment.

Tomorrow’s challenge is my 400m time trial and then I’ll take it easy at parkrun in preparation for Eastleigh 10k. Here’s a photo of my sprint finish from last year:

God knows how I was brave enough to wear those skimpy shorts. People of Eastleigh, do not fear – they will not be making an appearance this year!