6.7 miles - 1 hour
These runs of an hour are just becoming the 'norm' now it seems. The great thing, is that they appear to be getting easier. I remember that only just a few years ago, my heart rate would be through the roof doing the same time and pace. This is good.
Long Run - 1hr15 - 7.95 miles - 147HR
An early start, which was hard to do, but I'm so glad I did get up as the run was great.
I spent the majority of the run in low Z2 but the pace was pretty good at around 9:40/mile. I even managed to up the speed for the last 0.95miles of this 7.95mile run in order to gain my fastest mile pace of 7:20/mile. Okay... so I nearly slowed down to a normal pace after about 0.25miles but then I saw my neighbour walking his dog so I just had to keep going.
I may just be able to fit in a swim later.
This was the first time I've actually cycled in and back from work and it panned out quite well. The cycle in was easy going (you don't want to get too sweaty before work) and allowed time to concentrate/experiment on technique whilst the journey back was for proper training. This means that it's now not even 6:30pm and my training for the day is done. Awesome! The extra cycle in will be good extra training as well, I'm sure.
What else can I say other than that it was a great run. 40 minutes in zone 2 followed by 12 in Z4 and a jog to bring me home & take the time to a round hour. After leaving the heavy rain/hail thunder storm at work I was glad to see that it was dry at home with clear skys. This just made the run all the more worthwhile and seeing some fairly late 'Mad March Hares" box & fight each other it was soon time for the 12 minute sprint. This went extremely well and produced my fastest mile time to date of 7:22. Unfortunately though, it also meant a bit of a sore right nip. All is good though. I'm still smiling.
Today's session was a brick session. I was meant to be swimming in the morning as well but I just couldn't get out of bed.
The ride felt really good to start with, I was all refreshed, the speed was good and it looked like there was going to be a good sunset... Then the puncture arrived.
For some reason I seem to get these a lot although this is my second on this new bike which, when I think about it, maybe isn't that bad. The change took just over 10 minutes to complete and then I continued on. Because of the puncture, I made the ride time longer as the plan did say for a 45 minute ride and I think I completed this. As for the average moving speed, this turned out to be about 16mpg but I'm hoping this doesn't happen on race day.
An awesome run off the bike made up for it all though. Yes, the back of my knees felt tight but the HR stayed down and the pace kept increasing. Overall, I covered 2 miles and managed a pace of under 9min/mile. Awesome. I'm happy.
The intervals in today's run were meant to be three lots of 6 minute sprints with a 2 minute jog inbetween but I didn't program the watch properly so it just gave me last week's efforts instead.
Five lots of 3 minute sprints was still good though, and even gave me a 10k pb, according to the watch anyway (I'm sure I've gone faster than 56 minutes before). I still feel quite springy, which is a great feeling to have, after this effort so now just need to ensure I do my school work and keep this confident feeling into the rest of the week. 6.7miles in an hour does make me happy.
It's been a while since I've posted but I may just have my mojo back for this.
We're now in week 11 of the training, which means it is officially "build phase" time. Tuesday's session was an hour run to include pick ups. My session also included some hills which I think is always good practice.
Started with an hours swim session and finished with a little brick session. All in all, it's good to be back running again.
Today was the first run in quite a while and it actually felt quite good to be back. Only being for 30 minutes, it wasn't that testing but it was after a 30 minute bike.
Another session done (45mins) but I'm beginning to get a little bit worried about my running legs and doing enough training.
I know that it's still early days but it's going to be another week with no runs and plenty of bike rides n order to try any get the legs on the mend.
A new week and a new session... the tri club's swim session. More focus on technique with new drills to try out in the week.
With the legs still slightly dodgy, I think I'll stick to the bike and swims this week.
Should be fun.
Another run with Siân but this time I stayed with her all the way.
I could begin to feel my quads (possibly it band) part way through and I don't think I could've gone much further than the hour/5 and a bit miles we did as I'm really feeling it now.
Next week I think I'll have to stick to the bike and really get on that foam roller.
Thankfully, Siân is all onboard with #OperationIronman2016 and took Rosy swimming this morning in order to allow me to head out on the bike while it was still light.
The session was only an hour and three quarters, and therefore only a fraction of the total time I'll be spending on the bike, but I almost cut it short. Not because I was tired or finding it hard but because I knew I had plenty of other things to do. I didn't cut it short though and it was only because I know that I have to do this training otherwise I will not finish the race in time.
"Respect the training!" is a phrase that keeps going through my mind as the training will be far harder than the race itself.
Long Bike Ride has been completed. An hour and three quarters at an average of 14mph, the minimum speed I need to do.
Another day with only a swim session being completed. I really didn't want to run, incase it made the quads worse, but now at the end of the day I think they feel my children better.
The swim session with Born2Tri was another good session. A good focus on not kicking too hard and focussing on twisting at the hips.
No bike for me today, due to sore quads after a run on Tuesday in the freezing cold, but I did have an awesome swim.
2500m in just over an hour is the main information but this was also as a stand alone swim with no toys whatsoever.
Love it.
Week 4 ended with an hours run, a 2 hour bike and an hours masters swim session at Halstead Swim Club (HSC).
Overall it was another great week with 4 swims. The only issue with these swims is that one of them was a technical session with the tri club (B2T), while another was with a coach from the HSC and another was a masters session, also with HSC. This basically means that I only had one other swim session where I was able to work on my stroke and really focus on it. This is something that I really must sort out next week as I would love to have 2 sessions to myself, then have a training session with B2T and a session with HSC.
More on this to come I feel.
Have just about covered everything during this Wednesday. Started of with a 2k swim first thing in the morning which was followed up this evening with a tidy little brick session. The bike was obviously on the turbo again but it all felt surprisingly good.
Bring on tomorrow.
Fantastic stuff, back to running today and the 30 minutes turned out 3.5 miles. My average heart rate was 156 which means the training effort was pretty good.
The route was a pretty good one as well that included 78m climbing. A good little session.
Due to the sheer lack of training yesterday I had to complete a two hour bike session on top of the hour run I already had to do. This all went according to plan although the bike was amazingly cold on the feet (I really must make sure I get something to keep them warm). The run was great because Sian was also with me and it's always great to be running with her whilst chatting away.
Once the 5.5 mile run was out the way and I'd defrosted from the 30 mile bike, I realised that I'd also planned to attend a masters swim session with the Halstead Swim Club. So, today was a very full day and it was also the end of my third week of training. My achilles is good to run on and I'm finding some good stretches to complete after running and cycling.
Time to hit the sack now and get some rest.
Being a Saturday , today was meant to be a long bike day (1hr45 to be precise) but I had also organised for CJ from Total Sports Therapy to take a look at my achilles. The appointment was at 11:30am and originally I had thought that I'd be able to go for the bike before we went there. I hadn't really thought about it properly though, as after getting up nice and early, I realised that I wouldn't make it back to the house till about 10am and that would just not leave enough time to have a shower, get ready and pop into the local bike shop (Lobbs) to talk new steeds. Needless to say then, that there was no bike ride for me today. Instead I figured that I would be able to do a nice slow hour run with Sian and then head out for a gentle two hour ride on my own. On top of this, I also want to go swimming with Halstead SC tomorrow as well.
Back to the physio though, after having a brief chat with CJ she took a look at my legs and other than being a bit tight they are okay. I was starting to get a bit on the worried side about them, worried that I would not be able to run 26.2 miles on its own let alone after a 2.4 mile swim and a 112 mile bike. Thankfully though, CJ explained that as long as I stretch after running and general training, as well as completing some exercises in between I should be fine. That is as long as I do the training properly and don't go too hard or too fast too early. Just to be on the safe side, I'll also be making other appointments to see her once a month, especially as my quads and IT bands are tight, along with achilles.
Big day tomorrow and it's almost 10pm, time for me to hit the hay.
Today all started at at 5am, the alarm went off in order for me to complete a 60 minute turbo, instead of a 60 minute run (I still don't want to run too far with my Achilles feeling a little bit dodgy) but like the lazy arsed triathlete I am, I snoozed it until it was too late. Therefore I had to try and fit it in after school and before the swim session. I pretty much managed to do this (45 minutes at about 12mph on the turbo) and then I went straight onto the swim session.
The swim was a coached session by Born2Tri and was really just focussing on the arms and legs. Once my legs were sorted it was straight onto the arms. They were teaching about having your hand enter the water a lot sooner. In fact, pretty much just after your head. It feels kinda unnatural but I'm guessing it makes it more efficient. The other part is about entering the water slightly wider. I really must ensure that I keep going to the pool and practise this in the pool and hopefully the first chance for this is going to be at another coached swim set at Halstead Swim Club on Sunday.
Enjoy everyone. Train hard and race easy.
Today was another turbo bike session due to the time I got back from work and how dark it was.
I feel that I've been spending a lot of time in there recently due to the achilles issue but I'm sure it'll all stand me in good stead for IMUK.
Anyway, the bike session was good, 45 minutes and just over 9 miles.
Today was an early start with a great swim session. The pool wasn't too busy, in the hour and a quarter I almost made it through the entire swim set (I completed 2.2km) and I managed to get some good footage on the GoPro.
After work it was straight to cooking and then onto the turbo for the beginning of another brick session. This was not so good though, training so soon after dinner just did jot agree with me and to make matters worse, the HR monitor wasn't working for some reason.
I struggled through the 30 minute bike session, averaging just over 12mph, but whilst on the 1.8 mile run I blew chunks.
I think this session was more about mental training in order to keep going rather than anything else.
Even though today was a rest day, it was a little bit of work because it was back to school for everyone after the Christmas break. This'll be the first week of my training with work involved as well and therefore it is essential that everything goes well. As long as everything works well this week, I know it'll work for future weeks as well.
My left achilles is beginning to ache a little more at the moment so depending on how it feels tomorrow, I may well just do a little bike session instead, we'll have to see.
May have gone a little fast but the hour went by quickly and the miles were good. Admittedly, my legs are aching more than usual but I do have a rest day tomorrow so I'm sure/hoping that the time will heal them up a treat ready for week 3.
Thinking about it, they're probably aching because I was stopping to take photos/videos of the sunrise and then going slightly faster to catch up with where I should've been. This isn't helpful, I know but the sunrise really was good and I haven't seen one in ages.
Despite all this (59 minutes worth of running during a 61 minute session) I still managed 5.9 miles at an average pace of around 10:22/mile. Obviously, there is no way I could keep this rate up for the full 26.2 miles (especially after a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike) but it is almost a quarter of the distance and I still have another 28 weeks worth of training to go. I read somewhere today that racing the ironman will not be the hardest achievement of your life, but training for it certainly will be. I can definitely see this one coming true, Train hard, race easy.
No swim training for me tonight, instead there was a lovely curry and three beers that meant I was way too full to enjoy it. Next time I must remember not to order so much... I don't need it.
A new year and a new training session. Today was just a 45 minute run but it ended up being just over an hour as I also ran up to Colne Engaine, where the party was last night, in order to help tidy up a little more.
Pace wise, I think it was pretty good, under 11 min/mile and I still felt fresh afterwards.
