Monday, February 28, 2011

February week 4 Training

Staffled again right at the last minute this week! I managed a measly 5.67 hours training this week...yes thats all, total rubbish!

Monday & Tuesday I was feeling pretty rubbish through lack of sleep due to various reasons - a monster sleep on Tuesday night left me feeling good Wednesday though so a good fast run (for me) for 5.2 miles around town!

Thursday: - Swim in the morning with a couple of others did 500,400,400,500,400,50 for some quality swimming

In the evening I joined a friend for a 6 mile run - few GI issues so it was a struggle more than a joy but nice and easy so an't complain

Friday - back in the pool for 3*1000 swim - none of it fast - about 6.57 per 400m but I was strong and steady and am more than capable of 1 hour 5 minutes for the actual swim on race day!

Friday evening I was due to swim again but felt really dizzy about an hour before - turns out it was just lack of food - decided to rest and get ready for the weekend!

Saturday - was really looking forward to a good cycle followed by a good race on sunday! I got up early and drove to my parents to cycle from there as I was meeting some others for lunch afterwards! Out on the tri bike for the first time this year on the Forestman course - 2 miles in I was climbing a hill and a big crack and the back wheel locked up - rear mech properly tangled in spokes....what a waste! Two weekends in a row I have been foiled by proper stupid things! Annoyingly I had no swim kit and didn't to run so it was a total wasted Saturday when I was due for three hours training!

Sunday - crap sleep, kept thinking I'd be late for the race! Morning was lovely though cold but set off to the race, registered...found out it was 14 miles not 13.1...ah well suited me really!

At the race start we went straight down a big hill and then straight back up the otherside - good wake up call! Thankfully a stile the otherside meant a quick rest while we all queued - then it was up the road for 1.5 miles before turning off on to the forest tracks - its a hell of a course with some pretty steep hills but nice on the flats - I went out too fast but after Saturdays impromtu rest I decided to hang in there as best as possible and keep going - on the flats I was holding about 7.40 pace which is very quick for me - I walked on three of the steep hills - which was just as fast as running and kept my legs okay!

Didn't receive the gels I ordered so I had grabbed a fry's turkish delight as energy to keep going....interesting but it seemed to work just fine and gave a little boost in energy here and there! A solid last mile and I was done, 10 miles in 1.22, 13.1 in 1.47.50 and 13.85 in 1.53.06 which I am happy with - I have never ran that fast for that long - on a flat course I may even surprise myself!

So a good finish to a crappy week - should have been closer to 10 hours training - so with this week and last I am about 7 hours short for the month which isn't ideal but I am feeling fine so can push it in March! 20 miles awaits next sunday...we'll see how that goes! Its flat but I've never ran that far so a gentle 9 min/miles should suffice!

Monday, February 21, 2011

February Week 3 Training

Despite a dodgy stomach for most the week and an obscene hangover I got most of my training done and in the bag this week! The stomach I think was due to a change in diet - trying to take on more carbs - it didn't work so I'll happily ignore that one!

Monday - 6.4 mile steady run with a friend, nice pace and felt right as rain

Tuesday am - 2k swim almost all with the pull buoy and felt fine with it - good consistent times which will stand me in good stead!

Tuesday pm - down at the running track for 12 * 300 - really enjoyed this and will continue to do it, with warm up and down was about 6 miles in total so a good and refreshing way of getting more running in!

Wedensday - 55 minute turbo session of 5 minutes hard and 5 minutes easy, good session and will use it again for sure!
Thursday - Went to rugby training for some more fast running - good way of getting the legs turning and endurance!

Saturday - what a nightmare, went and joined a new lot of riders who are quite good I believe, had 75 miles planned, made it 200 metres before I flatted and then spare valve was buggered so I strolled on home! Fixed the bike but decided to run instead - knocked out 10 slippery muddy and hilly miles which were surprisingly hard!

Sunday - got up early after a heavy saturday night and joined some others for a steady spin down to the coast and back - it was flat which was a good thing for me! Got some good intervals in though despite still being drunk I think!

So a total of 9.5 hours which was slightly below target but the punctures and crappy run on Saturday was definitely not cool! I'll make it us this week and have a half marathon on Sunday and then a 20 mile race the following Sunday!

See you then...

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Running in Circles....

....is generally what I am not very good at! An A to B training run is good for me - running in a big loop is not good, I get bored! Anyway this has nothing to do with that....last night was my first track session!

I'd never considered hitting the track before, just didn't really see the point - I'm not trying to go fast in the ironman race thats for sure - just survival will be good enough for me! However one of the morning pool people said you could just turn up pay £1 and have a go! Beats doing my normal 1 hour loop around town anyway so hey, why the devil not!

So I legged it home from work and got changed, quick bathrrom stop and scooted out the door - I only live a quarter mile from the track so I ran over there...turned out I had loads of time as it doesn't normally actually get going till 7!

Anyway chatted to some others I know and just warmed up with three or four loops of the track, everyone was dreading the workout coming up - it was going to be 12*300, now that didn't sound very hard to me - its only 3.6k, thats not very far at all, even running fast!

So we started with some drills, strides, bounding etc and then went into the main session - first one I started strong and finished about 3rd of 15 - I was going at about 95% I would estimate which was probably a touch fast, then it was 200m jog recovery. Towards the end there was more walking than jogging to be fair!

And so it continued, I hovered around the 55-58 second mark with the fastest being at 51 seconds for the last one! During the middle sessions I was hovering in around a group behind the 3 or 4 fastest so that I didn't go too fast and blow up! Having never done anything like this before I wasn't sure how long I could go for etc - turns out I was fine - though it was a brutal session - the 1/4mile jog home wasn't the easiest thing on beasted legs! I only mention the bathroom stop earlier as it did cause some discomfort whn going for it, so I'll remember to adjust for that next time!

There were some seriously quick people out there - though I could handle it and probably beat most of them over that distance the speed with which some of the shorter women were travelling was pretty impressive - I only say that as my stride over 300m must be a massive benefit compared to being 5' 2" or whatever they were! I expected to get whooped over 100m as they were pretty speedy off the line and it takes me 25m to get up to any speed!

So the first time on a track since school was a success - I really enjoyed it and certainly got a lot of benefit out of it! 300m still doesn't sound very far but we used to do fitness in rugby training which would be a length of the pitch and back 3 times or whatever the reps were! 300m would be over 3 times that - so a lot more beasting involved! I like the beasting though - when you can keep going even though you are hanging big time! Having said that next weeks schedule is 100,200,300,400,500,600,800,600,500,400,300,200,100, which quite frankly looks obscene! Again I'll have to play it by ear and just see how it comes - I've no idea how fast to run over most of those distances!

According to Garmin my fastest was about 4.19 per mile, which is scary to think that over 300m I can't get under 4 minutes....and to think some people run marathons not far off that pace....gulp!

So the total was just over 6 miles for the evening - much more benefit than an hour plodding the streets! They do some sort of track/long/xc session every night but I think just one track session a week will do.....I shouldn't like anyone to actually think I am a runner (shudder)!

Monday, February 14, 2011

February Week 2

All in all not the greatest in volume this week and no road cycling, but everything felt solid and well within my means.

Monday - rest
Tuesday - First swim for a couple of weeks in the morning - just sets of 300 and a bit more to make up to a mile - actually wasn't too bad considering. Went and joined in rugby training in the evening as I was down that way - as usual no problems and fitness shows.

Wednesday - 8.4 mile run in the evening - legs a bit sore but no issues with tiredness or anything kept it nice and steady all the way round.

Thursday - 1 hour on the turbo in the evening - 2*18min efforts - all felt fine and usual jelly legs afterwards - doing as much in the aero position as possible to get used to it.

Friday - big plans - zero result - didn't run at lunch and didn't swim in the evening as what later than expected - big fail!

Saturday - up early doors for a 12 miler with rucksack full of clothes & shoes - despite just a yoghurt 10 mins before and rubbish sleep this was fine - kept the intensity down by power walking on the steep hill sections which meant cruising on the downhill/flat sections was a good steady pace!

Sunday - after big boozing on saturday night I had planned a gentle hour or two on the bike in the afternoon but the weather was appalling with strong winds and literally non-stop rain...so when the offer of pub lunch came in I couldn't resist! Rest day a day early even if not really needed!

So nothing special this week, just solid sessions albeit too few of them! Looking forward to plenty more this week!   

Monday, February 7, 2011

February Wk 1

Overall a steady 8 hours this week - not breaking any records with that but the upside is I feel really fresh and ready to carry on, whilst seeing big improvements generally!

Monday: - rest day, still not quite 100%

Tuesday: - nice 10k run with a friend, we took it steady as he is building back up but it was perfect for me too, just nice and steady without any intensity, HR was right down and never felt pushed

Wednesday: - similiar 6.5 mile route, again keeping steady, though it was faster as I was on my own, again no issues and nice to get some consecutive training in

Thursday: - joined the lads down on the astro for 90 mins of hurtling around a faux pitch - try to run as much as possible and its good to get some fun faster work in - I don't include all of this as its not proper training

Friday: - Nothing, six nations started so that was that evening nicely wrapped up!

Saturday: - had two hours run planned and so thats what I did, weather was pretty windy and wild but not cold so it was a good run around some paths/trails and roads I'd not been on before. I had a dead leg from Thursday but this wasn't too much of an issue although I couldn't find any speed in the legs so I only covered 12.4 miles in 1 hr 57 minutes, but there were lots of hills and I never felt uncomfortable in running terms, thought about carrying on but decided to stick to the plan!

Sunday: - 3 hour ride, I was meeting with a group 12 miles away from home, so I had a good ride down to meet them, although the head wind was pretty beastly, a good loop with them, I stayed up the front for a lot of the time so got plenty of work in and the final 12 miles on my own were nice and quick with the tailwind scooting me home! Enjoyed a nice tea stop midway through as well! No real issues again and maintaining a 17.5 average in that wind is pleasing, although faster than I had planned! That would be a steady summer ride but at this time of year in that wind I am happy! Felt a bit tired at one point but my homemade flapjack and a gel set me right!

So leaves me feeling pretty good, in other news the confirmation came through for the London Marathon so I am focussing quite heavily on my running and cycling at this time, the extra sleep from less swimming is a definite bonus! Weight continues to fall as well!

My new trainers, K-Swiss Blade Light Run just seem to get better and better regardless of how slow or fast I am running - there are light and comfortable - I took the elastic laces back out and the original ones back in and that stopped the toungue on the left show scruching up (my lacing not the shoe)!

As for my compression tights...I am undecided as yet - they do work but they aren't worth £50 thats for sure! The week ahead is going to be mostly running with a turbo session thrown in for luck - the weekend will be a write-off really as having a big drinking session on Saturday, I hope to be able to have an hour or the bike on sunday though as a hangover recovery!

Friday, February 4, 2011

This weekend and other animals..

I'm really looking forward to this weekend....and I feel I need to share it with everyone!

Tonight is the start of the Six Nations...the greatest Rugby tournament on the planet! Before all the Southern Hempishere people get shirty I don't mean in terms of quality necessarily but in terms of atmosphere, tradition and passion - it makes the hairs stand on end! Even if you don't like rugby watch the teams run out tonight at the Millenium Stadium and the national anthems....it is a pretty awesome spectacle! So that is tonight taken of, preceeded by a beer in the local in memory of the late great T O'C!

Tomorrow I am planning a long run of at least 2 hours/13 ish miles - nice and steady to pull me along - I only hope my dead leg from last night clears away in time! I may push it on a bit if I am feeling strong and see where I end up - I am mindful of my 20 mile race coming up and having not run further than 14.5 before!

Sunday will be a bike ride, I am planning a nice steady 3 hours but it will depend on the wind, its blowing pretty strong all weekend so may dictate what the conditions are like! I am planning on putting the tri bars back on my road bike just in case any headwinds pop up!

The two runs I have done this week have felt really good, beasting myself through January has really paid dividends (now that I am over my massive slump) and my cruising speed is about 30 secs per mile faster than at christmas! So that is definitely a good thing! I still haven't swam in almost two weeks but will get back in to it next week...I promise !

Anyway weather (geddit) or not the weekend turns out as planned remains to be seen! In the meantime enjoy your weekend!!

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

VLM and other stuff...

So I have just had it confirmed that I am in for the London Marathon on April 17th....cue mass panic and monster motivation! Thankfully panic works as a great motivator for me, although regardless of this I was feeling better anyway and looking forward to some more training!

I did a slow 6 miler with a friend last night and reminded its nice to just run rather than push to go faster all the time - this is what I need at the moment in my training so lots less intensity is the name of the game right now! This also works well for meeting up with other groups who ride slower than me - I can just tack on more miles either end!

As for running - well this can continue as is - a few short runs during the week and a long one at the weekend (although this will change to the week later on)! I have a half marathon on the 27th Feb which is a tough and hilly course, I then have a 20 mile flat race the week after which will be a real test for me - I have never ran more than 14 miles before! Still I am looking forward to it much more than before!

As for the marathon itself - this will be a purely training jog round the course - I can't see myself doing it again for a year or three at least so I would really like to soak up the atmosphere and enjoy it - an average of 10 min/miles all the way round should be plenty to see my healthy round with no fatiguing but we'll see how that goes in training!

I've been eating more over the last few days and have lost weight obviously (?!) which is a bonus but its now back in to training so we'll see how that goes! Just 8 hours planned this week which is nice!

Ciao