Training together, apart

Now that Phil and I live together, we don't need to spend quite as much of our training time together.

But it's still good to run and ride together when we can, and our training plans are co-ordinated so we are doing roughly the same things one the same days. But running with Phil means I'm huffing and puffing and certainly not running in E1. Or it means he has to run so slowly he's practically walking, which leads to him getting injured because it throws off his gait.

So, we're finding new ways to train together, apart. We've been warming up together, then splitting up, running an out and back, then "cooling down" together, or trying to run loops that will mean we bump into each other part way through.

We discovered a goody the other day. About 2 minutes into our ride, Phil realised he'd forgotten the pump, so he headed home to get it while I rode on. I tried to hold a decent enough pace so he didn't catch up to me too quickly, while he hauled some serious ass to catch up with me by the time I got to the hilly loop that makes up most of our usual ride (he didn't succeed).... So by the time he joined me again, he'd worked a bit harder than usual and was happy to cruise up the hills with me (it helps that my climbing legs have come back pretty quickly)

Pride kept us both motivated while we were apart, and by the time we met I was feeling confident- stoked that I'd held him off for so long, and he was feeling chuffed enough with himself not to get frustrated with me. We got to spend the tail end of our ride gabbing away on the country roads, enjoying the late summer, late afternoon sun.

Training WIN!