On the bike, the story has been the polar opposite however. Whereas I can now hope to swim and run faster, I am suddenly faced with the need to cycle much slower to keep my heart rate in the correct zone. This has been tough for me to achieve. Firstly, training on the bike has become more boring, partly because of the endless hours in the saddle in all weathers, and also in part because the reduction in speed makes you feel as if you’re not really getting anywhere! A lot of this boils down to the fact that the sensation is that I am not making any real effort to try and go anywhere quickly, and in all honesty, that’s pretty much the whole idea! Instead of killing myself to get up a hill at speed, we are now working on taking more time and trying to “cap” the heart rate to remain fresh for the rest of the ride and the marathon which follows. As frustrating as this is in training, I must mentally keep “my eyes on the prize” and focus on the long-term goal. Even at slow speeds however, I struggle to keep my heart rate down when climbing a long hill with a 15% gradient! Perhaps it’s just my physiology, perhaps my status as an amateur cyclist of just 8 months who still lacks the required muscle endurance. Maybe one day I’ll crack it!