Easter Breaks.

Despite the threat of death due to high blood pressure, training carried on as plan and in fact exceeded plan for last week.

I got out for a 3 hour ride on Saturday and a half marathon on Sunday, thereby logging over 2 hours extra for a 14hr week.  Felt reasonably good on the run, although flagged a bit towards the end.
My planned swim on Monday evening was scuppered by a closed leisure centre, evidently they shut at 6 on a bank holiday.  They just need to update their website telling me that.  Email already sent.

This morning's 1 hour run was subject to change because it was peetling down at 5 o'clock, so I got the rollers out for an hour but that was unfortunately cut in half due to a puncture and I couldn't be bothered to change the inner tube at that hour. Still, half an hour is better than nothing.

That leaves me in a bit of a dilemma for tonight - do I do the swim to catch up on last night's?.... or do the run I should have done this morning?  In an ideal world I would do both, and in hindsight I should have gone for a run when I returned from the non-swim last night.  In all probability, home events will decide what I do.  We go on holiday on Friday so that will be a rest day, but I should catch up over the next 7 days overall.  Hopefully they have a swimming pool I can swim in.

Under Pressure.

Thursday saw me getting a typhoid jab from the nurse for our holiday in Egypt - we go on Friday.  Whilst there, I asked if she could take my blood pressure.  I felt a little guilty asking, but the gauge was there on her desk just begging to be used.  The jabs were a non-event, didn't even feel them despite the needles being 2 feet long.

Anyway, blood pressure taken - 3 readings, one on the left, one on the right, then one on the left again.  Evidently this gives more accurate data.  She pondered a while before telling me the news - 150 over 90 which, I was informed was too high.  High!!  I was expecting too low, so it was a bit of a surprise.  All she could advise was to eat less salt.  Very useful.
I have to go back in a month to see if it was a one-off or not, then maybe borrow one of their machines to take regular readings over a week.

All in all, a little bit worrying.

She (or I) couldn't offer any explanation for the high reading.  It was OK 7 years ago according to my medical records.  I have a reasonable diet (in fact, very healthy since this training kicked in), have no known family history of heart issues, and my exercise regime is not small at the moment.
A quick read on the web (dangerous, I know) offers advise on how to reduce high blood pressure: Eat more fruit (I'm already on 2 apples a day minimum); take regular exercise with periods of high intensity (I definitely for qualify for that); eat less salt (I rarely add salt, and generally eat non-processed food).  So that's no flipping help!

That same evening we visited some friends of ours, and one of them being an ex-nurse took my blood pressure again.   ..and it was normal, or at least near normal, whatever that is.  Panic over.

However, I've since remembered that my uncle did suffer a heart attack 18 months ago, and he was a regular exerciser, so I probably do need to keep an eye on it.  I might invest in a machine to try and find out what circumstances drive it upwards.  He had a couple of stents fitted I think, so there's a chance I have similar - sounds like a bit of web educating required.

Sleep needed

After Wednesday's ride to work and back followed by an early hour's run yesterday, I felt completely drained and fell asleep on the settee around 8:30 last night.  I reset my 4:30 alarm an hour forward to get a bit more sleep, so I'm hoping I feel a bit better this evening.  It was the same last week after biking work, so I need to adjust the plan to e.g. not do an early morning straight after the ride.

Looks like I might only get the one swim in again this week which is not so good, an not what I intended.  Must try harder!

Zig and Zag

Fairly decent ride home last night - 43+ miles in all but I was feeling it towards the end.  This morning I managed to drag myself out for an hour's run, and it felt quite hard work.
I have noticed that running the morning after the ride home is the most arduous, so not sure whether to amend the plan to avoid this, or keep doing it to get used to it.  What a dilemma!

I went via Washinborough last night for a change, crossing the Witham a a footbridge coming out at Cherry Willingham.  There's no direct road home, so had to zig-zag as I headed North.  It wasn't apparent how ziggy and zaggy it was until I downloaded the Garmin....

Half way there.

I can't believe that I'm half way into the 30 week plan.  15 weeks to go, and at 30 weeks to go it seemed soooo long in the future, and now there's only half of it left to do!

As for last week's training, I finished spot on the 12hrs 50mins planned - something I wasn't aware of until I logged the last run.  I was actually an hours' swim down on plan, but did a bit more running so the totals were right even if the balance wasn't.  For me, the extra running is probably the best idea as I concentrate of getting the running form right and avoiding the dodgy knee syndrome.

A fastish 26 mile bike on Saturday followed by a 7 mile run was hard work.  Friday evening I did a 10 mile tempo and felt really, really good so I guess that impacted on Saturday's efforts and yesterdays 10 miler was steady but felt reasonably OK.

Ride on time

Had a good ride to and from work yesterday.  Set off around 5:15, 2 and bit hours later I'm getting in the shower.  Good job there was a spare towel - it was the last one - otherwise I would have been drying myself with wet clothes.  Note to self: bring a towel in just in case.

Total ride of 78 miles, so should manage my biking total for this week.  Might struggle with the running unless I can get an hour in tonight.  I intended to do a bit this morning, but after feeling absolutely knackered after last week's commute I reset the alarm 1 hour later.  We have a wedding tomorrow at 1300hrs, and the plan says a brick session.  Hopefully I can set my stall out and do it.

Wet Neck

Swimming last night - 101 lengths done within the usual 55 minutes.  There's a theory that you need to do swimming drills to improve your technique and therefore go faster in the swim, and I'm sure that's correct, but for me I feel I need someone to teach me rather than teach myself  using the appropriate kit and doing the various exercises correctly.  The Don Fink training plan that I am attempting to keep to advises 3 x swims per week, each with different drills, but I doing my own version of 2 swims per week and no drills, feeling that the drills and additional sessions is really for the 'improver' rather than the 'finisher' which is me.  Having said that, I am doing the 'competitive' plan from Uncle Don's book, so am definitely aiming top 10 in my age group if not higher.

Anyway, for now at least I'm, sticking to the 'swim long' training plan based purely on my need to be confident I can swim a long way without feeling too tired or cramping up.

This morning's session was 50 minutes of reps on the rollers which got me hot and sweaty, but failed to get my HR over 130.  4mins fast followed by 1min recovery about 10 times.

Freshen up

My rest day seemed to do the trick, and I was feeling much better for an early 7 miles on Monday morning.  A visit to my mother's in the evening curtailed swimming, so that's for tonight instead if I can get a meal before 6:30.

Another 7 miles this morning with a few PUs didn't feel too bad. Weather not so good, and I had half an idea to bike into work but had forgotten to put my lights on charge so that was a reasonable excuse not to do it.  The wind sounded worse that it was, and much colder than yesterday morning all combined to drive me towards a run instead.  I'll be biking in on Thursday all being well.

Weary

65 miles yesterday, followed by a babysitting session so I'm feeling extra tired today.  Not that babysitting was that bad, but I've done more than plan this week so I'm treating today as a rest day.  This means I can start the week off with an hours run tomorrow morning, although the weather is not looking good.

Fog, or smog?

Too busy at work to blog - how annoying is that :-)

There has been a pall of smoggy mist hanging over Lincolnshire and beyond since the weekend stopping the sun from appearing as was forecast.  Biking back from work on Wednesday should have been a pleasurable 40 miles in the late afternoon sun, instead it was a dreary, cold trudge home.
The only saving grace being the 4 hours ticked off in the training plan, so for this week at least, the cycling will be well over plan (6:45 so far against 5:45 planned).

I managed a decent 7 miles yesterday afternoon, followed by an hours swim at 9, so was feeling quite tired come bedtime.  This probably explained my dismal 9 minute miling this morning at 5 o'clock, but the smog is still hanging around so might have also had an impact.

It's supposedly clearing by this afternoon, but no sign of the sun yet at 12:30.

Bike to work scheme

First commute of the year this morning, made slightly easier by a favourable wind behind me.  Not too strong fortunately, otherwise going home will not be much fun.  It was quite damp due to a bit of foggy mist, and subsequently very dark, needing the front light on full to see where I was going.  It got light enough at about Welton to turn one back light (out of 3) off.  I hadn't noticed, but my super dooper eye wateringly bright re-chargeable back light was out by the time I got to Witham, don't know when it failed and not sure if it was down to to a poor charge or that's the expected duration on one charge.  Not that it's a problem as it's getting lighter, but something I need to watch out for - which is really why I have additional lights just in case.

The extra 4hrs of biking will see me well over the bike plan for this week, so I just have to get some swimming in sometime - probably Thursday evening.

Wet Neck

The trouble with rain, is makes you wet.  Only when you go outside, obviously.
That's what happened this morning.  It was pouring down at around 4:40 when I first ventured out, but when I had finished my equine duties it had eased off to a light showery version.  Unfortunately, the light showery became heavy downpour and I found out that my waterproof jacket was far from waterproof.

The good thing is that I got the hour ticked off (59:29 actually, but I logged an hour) and together with yesterday evening's 2:30 bike ride I've had a good start to the week.

I finished off last week with a 2:30 ride incorporating a Mother's Day visit to Immingham to see my dear mother, which didn't quite get me up to the planned 10:50, being just 20mins short.

I feel like I haven't done enough cycling yet, so now we have some lighter evenings and warmer weather I'll be biking to/from work as much as practical which should see me put some decent hours in.