Day 121 of 210

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.

Day 118 of 210

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.

Day 117 of 210

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.

Day 115 of 210

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.

Day 45

Started with an hours swim session and finished with a little brick session. All in all, it's good to be back running again.

Day 44

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.

Day 37 - Turbo Time

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.

Day 36 - a new week

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.

Day 34 - long bike

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.

Day 33 - swim only

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.

Day 17 - lessons learnt

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.

Day 16 - Turbo No Run

Being a Tuesday I was meant to be having a run but I have really been feeling my Achilles getting worse recently. As a result of this I kinda felt it was prudent to give the running a rest for a while (the longer runs at least) and instead jump on the bike instead. The only real issue I have with this is the fact that it is far too dark to cycle in the mornings before school and by the time I get home it is also far too dark.

Now then, yes I know that I could put lights on. And yes, I know that I could cycle to school. And yes, I know that I could just go for a bike straight after school and do my school work some other time but this just doesn't work. I don't have any lights that are actually good enough and I don't want to get into school all sweaty and horrible. There is an obvious solution though, even though it isn't quite the same as going on the road... TURBO.

The turbo I have is in the garage and can be a little bit noisy but it works, it efficient, as far as I know, and will do the job. As soon as Siân and Rosy went to swimming I was in the garage peddling as if my life depended on it. After doing a very short video for the vlog and plugging in the music I was on my way. I mixed up the tempo of my cadence in line with the chorus and verses of the rocking playlist (mainly 30 Seconds to Mars and Lenny Kravitz) and tried to keep my heart rate as close to 146 as I possibly could. Bizarrely, it was the fastest turbo session I've done and never once did I really want it to end before the time was up, in fact I went over the 45 minutes I had wanted to do.

In total I was spinning my not so little legs for just over 47 minutes at an average speed of 11.9mph that meant that I would've traveled 9.32 miles. This in itself is not that good a speed but on the turbo for me it is great and I'm sure it will stand me in good stead for later on in the training program.

If you hear strange noises coming from my garage, please just walk on by... I'll be getting all hot and sweaty with my bike. See you all soon.

Right Intention - (15 days till training commences)

HELL YES!

I'm sitting here on a Sunday with a massive 224 days to go until IMUK but only 15 days till I officially start my training.

Previously during training for larger events, I have lacked motivation at certain times and have focussed too much on one aspect of my life too much (work life/family life/personal life). As a direct result of this I have lost sleep while trying to catch up, become lethargic and missed training days or important family times.

THIS WILL NOT HAPPEN THIS TIME AROUND.

Over the following few days I'll be setting up a routine that will help me become motivated, refreshed and ready. It starts now with creating the right intention for my training, a right feeling for my training. That feeling/intention is quite simply "HELL YES!" - I must remember what I'm doing this for and that I'm in it to become an Ironman, to be called an Ironman and to earn "bragging rights forever!"

Weekly Round Up - 233 days to go

Swim = 0
Bike = 0
Run = 0

So, not the best week for training or exercise but there have been some positives… There must be some… I’m sure I’ll think of one in a minute or two.

While Siân went into hospital for her nose operation, something to do with the sinuses, I made use of the time to take a proper look at my training schedule. There are now 24 days to go until my training starts properly and these past couple of weeks I’ve been getting free sports massages on my achilles. I’m sure that it will certainly help but I feel I must return to running soon, the more I think about it the more I know I cannot get injured during any of my training. Some time ago another sports therapist gave me a whole load of exercises to do on my achilles, I haven’t done any yet but I know I must start.

Half Term Training - 271 days to go!

It's half term and with the extra time I find myself having available to train, I've completed two sessions in one day. The first being a lovely little swim session that I cut short to 45 minutes and the second being a 45 minute indoor cycle.

Whilst swimming I was really trying to focus on my pull in order to make it more efficient. I started with a 400m warm up that I completed in just under 10 minutes. A 100m sculling drill was next after which I did another 400m but this time focussed on pushing my arm all the way to the end of the stroke to result with it flicking out the water. I really don't know if this is a good technique or not (especially as it took me just over 10 minutes) but I wouldn't mind to keep experimenting with it in the future as I need to really get my stroke rate down and to be more efficient. My average stroke rate during this set was 14spl and 19spm. Apparently my best rates were 11spl and 27spm. Up until this point I'd always thought the stroke rate is more efficient the lower it is, but looking at the data I'm now guessing that if I have a high 'stroke per minute' yet a low 'stroke per length' then that is optimum. Time to get back in the pool, because when I completed another 400m it then took me over 11 minutes... I need to get my stamina up.

On a slightly different matter, there are 271 days until "Operation Ironman" and, even though there are still two months until I will officially start my training, I'm feeling the pressure. I know it is going to be a hard journey and that IMUK-Day is going to be even harder, but this no-mans-land of  time/training is just plain strange. I'm feeling that I should be doing more to get to a good level of fitness prior to the 'Base Phase' of my training yet I also feel that if I do too much training I will suffer some sort of burn-out and end up not putting in the full effort needed to complete the training.

Thinking about it, the only way forward is to be proactive. At home we're in the process of redesigning the house, so many hours have been spent tidying, moving and redecorating. The office is pretty much done now so my next step is to also look at my training schedule for December and work up to that level of training whilst still trying too enjoy it.

Be Brave, Be Strong, Be Bold. See you later.