Lunchtime run

After a full day of rest and, at last, a decent night's sleep, almost 10 hours!
Felt re-freshed. Time to get back out on my legs.
1 hour and 7 minutes for just over 8 miles. Was an easy-paced run today, was more about running time rather than breaking records! Felt good, no real problems. Was steady and gets me back into the groove, maintaining aerobic fitness level.
My running plan for the next 5 weeks is 2 mid/long runs a week of 8-10 miles and 1 short run of about 3-4 miles. That's it. No need for me to go the full 13 miles distance in training. And I'm not looking to improve on my speed, just merely to strengthen my endurance. My short run, however, will serve to keep me at a decent pace.
So for the rest of the week, it's a swim wed, thurs, fri. Bike to work thurs and fri, which will only be about turning my legs over, and a run on thurs. Saturday will just consist of a very gentle bike ride of about 50 minutes and a very gentle run of 20 minutes.

Oh, and my new wheels have arrived at Bikelab!!! Look at them up there on the right!! Lovely!!
Just waiting for the tubular tyres to arrive and then I'll take in the Plasma and get them fitted!!

Pictures from Tidworth Tri

Nearing the finish line!	Posing for the camera!
Setting out on the run	Working hard holding up the traffic!!
Total focus in the aero position. Well, it's that or - 'I'm totally knackered and need more air!!'

Tidworth 'Fast Twitch' Triathlon

400m swim, 15 miles bike, 4.5 mile run.

Well, today was hard. I was a little jaded, even after a reasonable pre-race night's sleep. Got there nice and early to get organised. Changed into tri-suit and got marked up and went for a 15 minute ride along part of the bike course, looked ok, good road. Back into transition to set my stuff out. Rummaging through my bag I panicked, where's my race belt! I am always well organised, and check and triple check everything, I knew it was there, but I must have forgotten it. Striaght to the stall where tri gear on sale. Yes they had a race belt, £5. Paid my money, opened it up, and what was the next thing I saw in my kit bag...... yep, my race belt. Typical! Not a good start! Anyway, panic over, I got set and then ambled over to the swim.

I just wasn't focussed enough on the swim, and didn't really put as much effort in as I could have. That said, my time was 7 mins 57 secs, so no major problems, slow and steady, my target time was 8 mins. Getting out was hard as the raised diving start blocks were built into the end of the pool and all along it, so it was a long way to climb out, which everyone struggled with!
Then into T1 for what was a reasonably quick transition. I was 8th out of the pool in my wave, and 2nd onto the bike. But alas, one elastic band which holds my shoes in place did not snap, so I had to slow down after setting off to snap it free with my fingers. So not a great start to the bike leg. And after a steady climb in the first 10 minutes, my legs felt dead! No life in them at all. Really quite sore when I tried to put the pedal down, and that continued for a good 25 minutes. It was until the last almost 30 minutes had gone by until I started feeling my legs were working as they should. That said, I did 39 minutes approx for the bike leg, averaging just over 21 mph, which was reasonably ok. But again, could have gone much quicker were it not for tired legs.

So into T2, quick this time straight out onto the run. And boy I really felt my legs hurting by this stage, and I was tired. And this was no easy run either, very hilly. A long slow climb for the first mile, which really sapped my strength, then downhill for the next mile, steady for another mile, then hit another long slow climb, and then downhill to the end. By this time the sun had really come out(it was around 10am when I finished, and I was glad I was finishing when I did. Still managed to finish ok, with a spring in my step. And to be honest, I felt reasonably ok after the race. And now 10 hours later, I feel fresh and well recovered, and my legs don't feel too bad.

Times were ok, nothing special, although, yet again, very good bike time. Run was a little disappointing, but would have been better with fresher legs. This race was done on the back of two long training weeks, so I'm not too concerned with the result. Just pleased to get another race under my belt. More experience to take with me on my journey!
Overall, finished 52nd in over 200 racers. I was 16th quickest on the bike of those that finished. There were a few DNF and DQs. All in all another good race, if a little disappointing time-wise. But I put it down to experience and will consider it a damn good training session!!

Nutrition was a bit hit and miss today, did not have a lot. Some electrolyte drink, 250 ml energy drink on the bike, 1 PowerBar gel towards the end of the run.1 PowerBar gel before the swim.

Finishing time - 1 hour 23 minutes 16 seconds.

Half Ironman UK

At last I have found somewhere to stay!! Everything has been booked up, but I have managed to get accommodation for 4 of us. Wife, little boy and nanny are coming along as my back up team! Chief cook, chief masseuse and bottle carrier, and race tactician!!
I've got 5 days leave booked off work, 3 days before the weekend and two days after, give me time to recover. Although I shall be resting/recovering for at least 2 weeks after.
Really getting excited already about doing it, and it's only 8 weeks away now. Well in my build phase of training now, incorporating races, which will give me confidence going into June. Last hard training session before 17th June is on 3rd June, when I am running in Poole 10k. I will be using this as an extended training session and doing a 1km swim followed by a 30km bike early in the morning and then run in the afternoon.

You can make a donation to Rotary International, as I am competing for their charities in this year's Half Ironman UK. Just go to my sponsorship page.

Wednesday Evening bike

77.9 km (48.4 miles)
2 hours 59 minutes. This incorporated two 5 minute stops at the end of two loops.
ave hr 140 bpm
ave speed 28.9 kph (17.95 mph)

I rode over to Southbourne to join up with riders from Zoom tri club. They do 3 laps of a 7 mile loop from Boscombe Pier to Hengistbury Head, along the coast. A nice route. Fairly easy paced ride. Stop at the end of each lap to re-fuel. I got there late and was playing catch up, eventually got them at the end of the first lap. Rode strong tonight, felt good. Certainly did not overdo it, not really pushing hard, but riding well within myself. I'm conscious of turning up fresh on Sunday.
Will swim tomorrow, run on Friday and rest on Saturday - maybe a gentle bike ride just to turn the legs over.

Note to self - cut back on the milk shakes with added protein powder. I have put on a little weight, albeit only 4 pounds, but I need to be around 13stone 7 when June comes along. I'm 13st 12 at the moment. Incredibly really, when I think back to 15 months ago and I was 16 stone 3 lbs!!

Tuesday evening gym and swim

15 minutes warm up on treadmill. 15 minutes of intervals on the rower. 30 minutes steady easy pace on the treadmill. 25 minutes swim, broken into 200m blocks, finished with good 400m swim.
Good session, fairly easy on the legs although when I pushed it on the rower they did feel a bit tired. I think my legs still feeling the after effects of a hard week of training last week. 2 big weekends in a row. But should be ok tomorrow. Out for a bike session tomorrow evening, but will not go hard, just easy session, saving legs for Sunday's race.

Sunday brick in the sun

Another good brick session today, and what lovely weather. Chance to try out my new tri-suit, and great, feels good to ride in, good to run in, a little warm I think for in the full-on summer, but very comfortable nonetheless, and will be ideal for early morning swim starts with these pool-based sprint tris I'm doing.
Stats first.
Ride:
Distance 18.6 miles
Time 52 mins 11 secs.
Ave Speed 21.4 mph (34.4 kph)
max speed 32.9 mph (52.9 kph)
ave cadence 88
max cadence 105
No heart rate measured.

Legs tired to start with, as this was done straight into it, using first part as a warm up. After 30 minutes I started pedalling smoothly and speed went up, legs felt good and I took off. First 10 miles in just on 30 minutes, crosswind and generally uphill. last 8.6 miles in 22 minutes. Next week's Tidworth Triathlon is a similar distance bike and I'm hoping to go quicker then, as I know I have a lot more in the tank to push harder and I will have fresh legs, as this week I will taper gently, ready to go hard on Sunday 22nd.

I came off the bike and changed to run shoes and set off on a short 3 mile run. The bricks are just for me to get used to running off the bike. I'm not concerned with doing mega long runs after coming off the bike, I'll save my legs for the longer training runs to come. 21 minutes for just under 3 miles, so my pace is increasing. The warm weather is definitely helping as my whole body feels more fluid and flexible.

Bring on June 17th!!!!

Note to self - book accommodation for Half Ironman UK.

Saturday in the sun!

At last, some warm cycling weather!
Out I went , all fuelled up and plenty of liquid for a 94.1km loop, which I have done before. See previous post from January for the route, Blandford, Dorchester, Weymouth, Wareham loop.
Well, I got as far as Weymouth feeling strong and began the climb out of Weymouth towards Wareham, and bang, Everything felt tired. I had only a bit of energy drink left and a fruit bar. Had the fruit bar, most of which broke off and fell on the floor, and the rest of the drink, just not enough. I bonked big time. Just didn't take enough nutrition with me and I think I was not hydrated enough from the day before. For the last 10 miles I couldn't get my heart rate above 120 bpm, that's how tired I was feeling.
That said, stats for the whole ride were not too bad:
time - 3 hours and 4 minutes
distance 94.1km(58.5 miles)
Ave hr 144 bpm
Ave speed 30.6 kph (19 mph)

On the whole a reasonable ride, but I hate feeling like I don't want to be cycling, which is what I felt with 10 miles to go. I just wanted to climb off and go home, especially when there were a load of time triallists flying past me in the opposite direction. And I wouldn't actually have been that bad if I wasn't pedalling the last 15 miles into a headwind!
But I recovered well, had lots of fluids and my legs felt ok. Good rest in the evening and had lots of good food, back to normal.
Nutrition
2 x 750 ml SIS Electrolyte. 1 x 750 ml SIS Energy. I SIS Go bar, 2 Power Bar gels. I nutrigrain bar, bit of a fruit bar. This was on a warm day, 23 degrees and bright sunshine in middle of day.
I had less nutrition than on the same ride in January - see post for comparison.
Still I know for next time.

Note to self - Look back over records regularly, especially to see what nutrition has been used.

Friday training

Good day of training today. Run this morning, in my new Skins leggings, and what a difference they make. Legs felt fresh all the way on my run and at the right temperature, not overheating and not too cold. I highly recommend them www.skins.net
So was a nice easy paced run of 5 miles this morning. I then biked easy to work, legs feeling fresh, spinning with better pedal technique.
Lunchtime did 1600m swim in around 34 minutes. Nice and steady, pushed not too hard, but a good workout nonetheless, feeling it across my back and lats. Cycle back home after work. Good day of training, feeling strong. It helped reading Tom Holland's 12 week triathlete last night, saying how it's ok to train on sore legs, sore is ok. It's knowing the difference between good pain and bad pain. Obviously not pushing too hard on sore muscles, but sore is ok! It's when it turns to pain that is not just a result of a hard session and more of an injury-type of pain.

On another note, my race details came through for Tidworth Fast Twitch Triathlon on the 22nd April. Week on Sunday, not long to go. Some good triathletes doing this one. Trying out my new Tri-Suit, a Camaro Speed One, should be better for the swim as it has soft touch neoprene legs which will help keep me moe bouyant in the water, and should shave off some time on the swim. Also a bit warmer for this ime of year and the early starts, as it has short sleeves, and is a slightly thicker material than most other tri suits.


Note to self: work arms harder when running uphill. In fact, work arms a bit more on shorter runs at all times!

Wednesday Training

Sea swim today down at Swanage, water was lovely and flat and a nice cold temperature. After 5 minutes in the water, I acclimatised nicely and swam for about 25 minutes. That was enough for me. Took in some sun for a couple of hours on the beach and then headed home to change for a run.
Was out for 55 minutes at a good pace, roughly 7.5 miles. Good recovery.

I have just got hold of Skins compression wear, top and leggings and what a difference they make. I ran with the top and it kept me nice and cool, wicking sweat away. I have the leggings on afterwards as they are supposed to help with recovery, and I must admit, my legs feel very good with them on.

Cycling to work tomorrow and will cycle longer in the evening. Swim and run on Friday, long bike on Saturday, and a brick session on Sunday.