Battered by Tabata!

This week is an easy recovery period, which is handy seeing as my calf started to bother me. It is improving but a few more days recuperation should see things back to normal. As I have done for the last 2 years, I commenced my aerobic ramp tests. I do these every month to monitor progress. The idea is that I ride on the turbo, starting at 13 mph, and every 3 mins I raise the speed by 2 mph and up the gear yet keep the same cadence. After each 3 mins I also log my heart rate. I go up to 25 mph and then stop - total of 21 mins. It should all be aerobic and just start to hurt at the 25 mph point. When I started this procedure over 2 years ago I topped out at a heart rate of 175 for the 3 mins at 25mph. Yesterday I topped out at a heart rate of 154. Quite an improvement. The pic is me with turbo set up outside Henlow Gym. It sort of looks like I am lurking within the bike sheds!

After doing the aerobic ramp test I decided to sample the Tabata intervals that I mentioned a few posts ago. Here I go flat out in the hardest gear for 20 secs then take a massive 10 sec rest! I then repeat this for 3 mins. Man, this destroys the legs and sends the heart rate sky high! As I was not running off the bike as I normally do, I was happy enough to dip into barf zone. These Tabata intervals will be good in the future!

Today was my 3rd Swim Shack visit. Oh dear! This visit really made me realise that I am not a good swimmer! The example shown to me on film made it all look so easy, whereas I was very bad at the new balance drills! Each session I attend takes me closer to full stroke swimming and I feel sure that by mastering the basic balance techniques I can improve. However, I need to be patient and take small steps. I have some funny DVD footage of me half drowning and I will see if I can load it on the blog!