Consistency

If there is one thing that will improve your fitness, strength, stamina, endurance and overall health and well-being it's consistency. Keep doing those sessions. Obviously keep them varied, interesting, keep adapting and working on your weaknesses and over time the improvements will come. 

This is true for all sorts of things. And I am practicing what I preach. Since last Friday, I ran 3.5 miles to Forest Fit, we did a solid training session there and I ran back. Sunday I cycled at tempo on my old training bike for 1 hr 40 mins, ave 22mph and then ran at half marathon pace for 35 minutes, about 5.5 miles. This felt good. OK, not monster quick, but for me, my legs are coming back into some sort of shape and I felt good. Monday, I got on the turbo for 40 minutes and did two TT efforts of 8km each, with spin recovery inbetween, each 8k hard effort was 10 minutes. Now this felt really good. Consistency. Tuesday, circuit training and a little bit of jogging throughout the day with work. Today, Forest Fit and a run back home and then on the rollers for a 30 minute spin. Time Trial tonight if my brakes are here! If not I will be out for another solid training ride. 

If I can find a cheaper triathlon race to do in September I will be getting back to swimming. If not then I might just do a few efforts over the coming weeks in the sea, now it's warmed up( a bit!). I will continue biking solid with quality run sessions during the week. And Puddletown Circuits and Forest Fit will keep me strong. And that provides me with plenty of variety.

Consistency. It works.

The weekend is here...

...after 3 days of solid biking and a couple of workouts. Cycling legs returning, and getting some speed back. I went to time trial on Wednesday and decided to bin it after 10 minutes of riding out to the race, and just got in a solid training session. 1 hour 5 mins, averaging 25mph, felt good to ride a bit harder and more like I know I can. 

Forest Fit and a run tomorrow and more biking over the weekend.

Training week update

Since last week. Sore knee for a day, but ice, rest and stretching fixed it. Tight glutes, sore back from lots of riding. Again, stretching fixed it. Biked and ran on Sunday, 30 minutes hard and 5k run, bit slow at 20 minutes and 5 seconds, but it will do as a bit below par, bit of an infection in the waterworks. All good now. 90 minute ride yesterday and followed by a circuit session this evening. 

Bike tomorrow if weather good or turbo and a run at some point. Then to pick a race to target in July/August but race fees are so expensive now just not sure what to do. Might time trial tomorrow evening if I feel good. 

Tuesday is round quick

Puddletown Circuits tonight! Should be great fun, 7pm for general exercise class and 8pm for Man Circuits! 

So, since last week I have mostly been riding my bike, getting in some quality miles, a little running and a few short workouts, Forest Fit included. 

Some speed is coming back into my legs so hopefully back to time trialling as soon as I have got some confidence in my ability back. Feel a bit smoother on the bike, but still not right and must just relax more, and let me bike fitness happen. Just forcing it a bit and cannot get comfortable! 

So easy day of training today for me, back out on the bike tomorrow.

Tuesday training

After a rest day on Monday I was keen to get back on the bike, but the weather had other ideas, as it has today.
So I hopped on turbo and banged out a tough 80 minute session. Legs feeling back into some sort of biking shape. Bike fitness is improving, after a disastrous 10 mile TT 3 weeks ago and a slow ride at Dorchester tri. 
Last night was Puddletown Circuits, two exercise classes, one for general exercise and the second something I have entitles 'Man Circuits'. At the end of the second session I was finished! Great workouts.

Here's what we did at 8pm.
Warm up with general stuff for 5 minutes then:
1 minute of each exercise, do all exercises, rest for one minute and then repeat.
Circuit 1:
Squats
Skipping 
Press Ups
Hamstring Extensions
Reverse Lunges
Burpees

Circuit 2:
Deadlift
Bunny Hops
Single Arm Row
Clean and Press
Mountain Climbers
Bag Lift

Circuit 3:
Box Jumps
Shoulder Press
Step ups
Band Row
Farmer's Walk
Bag Crawl and Push

Cool down.

I can safely say if you work this as hard as you can it works everything. Takes about 45 minutes altogether. Job Done!!!! 

Solid weekend

Friday - 2 hours easy paced ride on bike over the Purbecks, nice and sunny but very windy out and about. 

Saturday - Forest Fit session including a couple of hill and then a 6 mile extended run home after the session. Very hot and sunny. Great morning's effort. 

Sunday - 33 miles at 22mph, followed by 5 mile run at 7 min/ml pace. Nice steady effort, at ave HR of 143bpm.

So bike and run fitness is definitely improving, after a really good week. I managed a little afternoon snooze yesterday, just to recharge the batteries. Easy Monday, might squeeze in a swim. Forest Fit in the evening, Puddletwon Circuits on Tuesday, Forest Fit Wednesday, and lots more biking to be done. Hope to time trial on Weddnesday evening, see how I get on. 

Consistency is King!!! 

Solid week continues

So another couple of sessions in the bank this week.

Workout 1. 

AMRAP for 15 mins:
10 front squats with slosh pipe
5 clean and press
1 climb rope, no legs

Basically do the above little circuit as many times as possible in 15 minutes. 
I managed 6 and had to cheat on the last climb and use my legs, arms were gone!
Then I rode 30 minutes quick on the rollers. 

That was Wednesday. 

Thursday I got out for a 2 hour ride over most of the good climbs in the Purbecks. Legs are tired today! Run later and possible sea swim, if it warms up a bit. So far so good! 

Biking

Out again today on the bike for 50k, legs feeling good. Warm, sunny and a bit windy, but lovin' the weather at the moment, and making the most of it while I can! :)
Circuit training tonight in Puddletown, I am taking a new class there, see this flyer for more information.

 Puddletown Circuits

Back to Training

So after a week recovering from sinusitis and fatigue I got out on Sunday morning for a 45 minute run and then today a strong 70km bike. What a difference the weather makes. 

I shall be trying to get in the sea more when time allows and getting more regular riding in, allied with some quality run sessions. Swanage triathlon and maybe a couple of smaller races later in the year and with any eye to preparing to take on a couple of 70.3 races next season. Certainly with added strength and conditioning and feeling a lot fresher this year, I feel I have the potential to go faster than before even though I have now got to the ripe age of 42! More to come! 

Dorchester Triathlon 2013

At last, a race report from me for 2013! 

Well, I hit this one with minimal training. 3 swim sessions in the 2 weeks before, 2 interval run sessions and 2 time trials with a couple of longer rides. 

And full of sinusitis and feeling rough! Not the best preparation. But I had paid my money and thought, just go and give it what I can.

Lovely sunny day. Really well organised at the new Dorchester Sports Centre. 8:50am start. I had a pretty good swim really, didn't push too hard, and got out in 6:35 for 400m. OK, not quick, but for me only 20 seconds down on my best effort.  Got out onto the bike which was a nice loop, one longish climb up to Hardy's Monument and back down. 24km ride. And oh how I noticed I had no bike legs! God it was slow, 2 guys went past me and usually I would respond but just nothing in the tanks. The uphills felt so hard and just couldn't breathe hard enough( the jog before hand to warm up felt terribly hard as well!!). Descended quick into T2 and got into running when got hit by cramping calves, not happened before but I am assuming a little lack of conditioning and not enough bike to run sessions. Ran it off in half a mile and then pushed on as much as I could. Nice run, tough hill up Maiden Castle and back down to a well attended finish. 3.5 mile run in the end. I ran 23:30, so not bad considering no specific training done. Bike was 37:30, slow, more work needed. Finished 6th on the day with a time of 1:09:00. less than 2 minutes off 2nd. So all in all not a bad day and I'll take that result. It's really nice to know that the strength training I am doing is obviously having a positive effect. Now if I want to go faster, two things I must do. 1. Not get ill!! And 2. swim more, bike more and run more! Simple! 

More races planned for this year, once I have shaken off this nasty infection I have now got! All this health and fitness!!!! :)
Must say, excellently organised race and recommend their events to anyone. 
http://www.totalbuzzevents.com/

Results here: http://www.fullonsport.co.uk/fos/index.php?module=results&eventId=4117&action=results

Special mention to Vanessa Kimber and Jerry Apetino who took on this triathlon and put in monster performances, well done you guys!!! :)

Puddletown Circuits

New exercise class for the coming summer months. 

http://www.stevebpt.co.uk/PuddletownCircuits.pdf

Forest Fit

Contact me via email or the blogsite for more information.

FOREST FIT

1 hour of exercise in Wareham Forest

Improve fitness strength mobility and general health

3 sessions a week

Mondays 6:30pm

Wednesdays 9:30am

Saturdays 9:30am

All ages (16 upwards) and abilities welcome

Sika Trail Car Park Wareham Forest

£5 per session pay on arrival

Get Fit

Have Fun

Bring something to drink.

Still kickstarting 2013 and it's nearly April

Training

I'm trying to kickstart 2013. 

Turbo, 1 hour yesterday, moving through the gears, steady riding. 
Workout today, 20 mins continuous effort, no rest, various exercises, bag lifts, burpees, front squats, bench, rows, pull ups, kettlebell swings, press ups. Random order, freestyle. Knackering!!!! 

New Year New Challenges

Well, it's been some time since I have been on here. Main reason is I have been doing very little in  the way of specific triathlon training, not seen a pool in months, gentle jogs now and again and hardly any bike rides( mostly due to rubbish weather!). I've been strength training and lifting weights and pushing in the FOrest Fit sessions so I am in good shape. My diet is very low carb and this is keeping me nice and lean, bodyfat % maintained over winter at a good 11%. 

Just before the festive season I managed to pick up some nasty virus that left be absolutely fatigued and bed bound for the best part of 4 days. SLwoly recovered with a nasty cough and now just about back to 95%. 

I have resumed some more regular training and the body is responding well. Still shorter efforts and each training session rarely lasts longer than 50 minutes. Weights sessions are 20-30 minutes max(twice a week), and turbos at 40 minutes( done 3 since the start of the year). Running between 20 and 40 minutes and that's it. Mostly steady paced with some hard intervals thrown in. 

Today I did 40 minutes on the turbo, and then ran for 25 minutes at a good pace, 6' 30" min/mile pace and at this time of year and with little running in the legs Ill settle for that. More importantly I really enjoyed it!!! That's key, sometimes sessions are tough and you don't feel good and just get through them and move on knowing you've done the necessary work. But when you feel good it's a really nice feeling. And recovering well afterwards. 

As for new challenges this year, this will be mostly work related as I develop my personal training business and promote the way of training, work/life balance and healthy eating, and generally making activity and a balanced lifestyle easy to manage.

But like I always say this has to be FUN!! 

Regarding triathlons, I've not completely given up and I will probably do a couple this year. But it's getting so expensive these days, and at nearly £50 for a sprint tri, I can't justify paying that just to get a t-shirt or a voucher for a shop you'll never go to. Unfortunately I need a bit of incentive to get out and race. Maybe some prize money for the top 5 finishers would be an idea, would certainly get me interested and motivated to get out and train harder. They do this with Cycling Time Trials for amateurs so why not in triathlon. I'm sure with the help of sponsors event organisers could come up with some decent prize funds.

SO back on it now, I'll be posting more on my blog, keeping up to date with training and racing and other stuff, so if you have anything to add please get in touch and let me know. I do provide coaching and training for athletes of any standard, particular focs on strength and conditioning so if any readers want more info just ask!!