Loopy

A steady(ish) 76 miles yesterday, taking in the sights of Barton, Winteringham, and Gainsborough.  Just over 4 hours and felt reasonable OK throughout, except for my sitting area.  Not sure what to do about that - a new saddle might help, but what if it doesn't?  That would be a waste of money.  I'll see what there is on eBay first before I splash out.

Chinese Rolls.

Almost 1 hour on the rollers last night whilst my better half finished off a visiting errand and returned with a healthy Chinese just before the hour was up.  Hopefully the calories expended were equal to the mushroom foo yung, followed by bakewell tart and custard.

Calorie intake was a bit disrupted yesterday due to a planned hour at the dentist at 10 o'clock to sort out a troublesome tooth.  This meant that eating was curtailed until feeling was restored to my mouth, so I only had an apple, banana and an eccles cake until the aforementioned takeaway materialised.  I like to think that this does not constitute a 'meal' and explains why I was very hungry come 5 o'clock.

I'm a regular listener to IMTalk, a New Zealand based podcast that covers anything to do with ironman racing, and this week had an interview with an American professor explaining why keeping your 'nutritional balance' throughout the day was very important.  He seemed to make a lot of sense, and if he's right, my calorie intake yesterday was as bad as it gets.  Hopefully odd days like that won't make too much difference.

I got out for 10 miles this morning, taking in the sights of Kelsey Moor and then returning by the public footpath that goes into South Kelsey.  This was a mistake, due to the excessive rain we have had, and the uneven ground did not do my knee any good resulting in a bit of knee pain nearer home.
Note to self: keep on tarmac.

To make it worse, my Garmin appears to have lost this morning's run. Luckily I glanced at the end result (9.94miles, 1hr 29mins) so I was able to add a manual entry, but I'm not impressed with losing the data.

On reflection...

Lake swimming last night - felt a bit colder than last week but didn't affect my slow progress until I got back in the car and I couldn't feel my feet.
I wore my Garmin to find out how far each lap was - which was a waste of time because the data was all over the show (see below), it even stopped the timing at the opposite end to where I actually stopped. I can only assume it doesn't like the back and forward action of the arm and (I guess) there must be some reflective action on the GPS signal when it's under water.  It thought I had stopped for about 20 minutes and although I'm slow I don't think I stopped other than to stop the watch.

It did measure my time in the water accurately though, so my estimate of 800m per lap seems about right for my pace.

Lapping at the shore.

It's been raining since yesterday morning, and there's no let up so far.  Nothing too heavy, but enough to put me off a run this morning.  I got the rollers out again last night for an hour, setting myself 3 x 10 minute Z4 reps to pass the time.  I just managed to get to the hour without standing up too much. 

It's lake swimming straight after work, and even though it's raining, it's not cold so shouldn't make much difference.  Not sure whether to do 3 or 4 laps, but I have my Garmin with me so I'll see exactly how far round it is.  The estimate is 800m.

Watch this space.

2 x logs

That's the bank holiday weekend over, and apart from a wet Saturday that curtailed training a little, managed to keep to the plan overall.

Missed out on Saturday's run after a 2 hour wet bike ride, but got a 4hr bike in on Sunday followed by an hour's run.  This meant I was only 5 minutes down on the weeks plan, so I'm not losing sleep over that.  Mind you, I struggled to motivate myself for the 4hr bike, but felt OK doing the run.

Yesterday I got out for steady zone 1-2 loop of 13+ miles in just under 2 hours.  This felt easy, although I had to stop for an emergency pit-stop just down our lane - luckily no dog walkers around.

Weak end

Friday today, so that means a run before breakfast.  The alternative would be to wait until after work and find out I have other things to do and don't get out.
So, early run it was and I decided to do the longer 9.7 miles round by Kelsey Moor at around 04:50 arriving home in time to put the porridge on and get a S, S and S.  Had a slight niggle with the dodgy knee, but not enough to worry me.

Tomorrow the schedule says 4hr bike, 45min run and Sunday its a shorter 1:15 bike, 1:45 run.  The weather is forecasting rain tomorrow but OK on Sunday so I might swap these around.  I have my consumer unit to swap out tomorrow so time will be more of a premium anyway.

Breakfast Rolls.

It's raining here. It started in the early hours and kyboshed my planned whizz round the 26 mile time trial route.  Instead, it was an hour on the rollers that included a 10 minute zone 4 piece to keep me awake.
As it was, I watched the end of Anchorman 2 on my PC so it went fairly fast, although after 45 mins my saddle was getting a bit persistent and I needed to stand on the pedals as much as possible.

The good news is that I did the prescribed hour as per the plan.

The open water swim last night was very good.  3 laps round the lake seems to be about 2.4K, but not confirmed so I'll wear my Garmin next time to confirm the distance.  The water was lovely and clear and not at all cold.  A bit of a sore neck afterwards due to the wetsuit catching a bit, but I will try and get there on as many Wednesdays as I can - the only other option is the weekend so not really practical.

Digging in.

With just over 9 weeks to go, I feel the need to dig in re. the training.  To this end, I did an hour on the rollers last night (+7 mile run first thing) and a bike/run brick this morning with a planned open water swim straight after work.  The bike/run brick was not as hard as I was expecting, mainly because I had a reasonable night's sleep of about 6 hours and I was mentally prepared so I'll be doing that again next week. Well, at least that's what I'm thinking today.

The other thing that makes these brick sessions easier is the warmer weather.  It was shorts on the bike this morning + a base layer and cycling jacket.  The transition to running gear was just a quick change of shorts and jacket instead of the fleecy stuff that one has to wear when it's colder, or at least I do anyway.

It's my first open water swimming of the season tonight, and in fact my first open water training session ever, so if I set my stall out I should be able to manage this once a week.  Well, at least that's what I'm thinking today.

Time waits for no man.

An eventful weekend, training-wise.  Saturday saw me clip the clip-on tribars kindly donated by Mr H. onto Stella.  I must point out at this stage that Stella is my bike, sister to Madonna, but only comes out in Summer. Anyway, clip-ons clipped on, well, bolted actually and I set off for a 2 hour ride followed by a 1 hour run as pre my schedule.

The 2 hour ride was much better than expected, the tri-bars are really comfortable and I spent most of the time down on them hiding as much of me as I could from the wind.  When I did get on the hoods I felt like my arms were 6 feet apart.

As for the run?  Well, my planned hour was cut down to 40 minutes because I felt really knackered.  I think it was partly because I had not spared the horses on the bike, and partly because I had not taken on any food during it so setting out on the run was hard work.

To get back on track, I managed a 16 mile run on Sunday at a good 8:30 pace (average) and felt good all the way round.  That's the most I've run for about 3 years so happy with that.

It's now less than 10 weeks to the Outlaw and I need to get longer runs and longer rides in.  Finding the time is going to be a challenge.

Heartfelt.

Dragged myself out of bed at 4:35 today with a planned 10 miler in mind.  In theory, I should get the gear on and 'Just do it', however, one has to wake up a bit doesn't one?
So I did the prep for breakfast - porridge with a handful of raisins thrown in, which would be sat on the hob waiting for my return.  After this culinary task I got outside and launched myself into the run.

The first 50 metres or so were fine, but then my heart rate went sky high and it felt like I had already run the 10 miles.  Fortunately it didn't last and I settled into a decent pace, eventually doing 9.7 miles in 1hr 20mins, so not too bad for me.  The dodgy knee was perfectly OK until about 8 miles, then it needed a good talking to as well as a bit of concentration keeping my knees up and everything landing as it should.  The plan says 2hr run on Sunday so that will be a good test.

Cycle path

Biked to work this morning and got very cold feet.  There was plenty of ground mist hanging around, and it felt decidedly colder in the dips.  It's looking much better for the ride home with the sun who has currently got it's hat on, hopefully it will stay that way.

I planned an hour on the rollers last night to do some reps, but after half an hour developed a puncture (again).  Very annoying.  That's the 3rd time in a short period so all I can assume is that the tyre is nipping it somewhere, so I changed it for another one.  The trouble is I'm not doing much rollering now that the sun is out and about for longer so might be a while before I get on them again.

Spring Frosts

An early, cold bike into the work this morning via Saxilby.  It's a bit longer then going straight through Lincoln, but I did that last week, so one needs a bit of variance doesn't one?

With the ride home, it sets me up nicely for the week, not really needing to do a big long ride at the weekend, although I probably will.  I seem to be a  bit behind with the biking relative to the running, but the longer, warmer days will make it easier to get out more.  I set a target of 5000 miles for the year (4000 last year) and I'm currently about 240 down on that, but I should make it up now that Winter is behind us.

I got an hour's swim in last night, so that's also a good thing to get out of the way early in the week.  Its Easter this weekend, so not sure if I'll get to the leisure centre again this week.  I think we're out on Thursday night, so Wednesday is probably the only opportunity.  Can't see me going during the day.

Wet fish.

Very difficult getting up this morning. 2 snoozes before I mentally slapped myself with a wet fish to wake up, get out of bed, put the running gear on and GET OUT THERE YOU LAZY OLD £$%^!!

Actually, after a slow start I didn't feel too bad at all, so the wet fish really wasn't needed.  The thing is, I still feel like I'm on holiday and have plenty of time, forgetting that I need to be out the door by 6:45 to get to work.  Hopefully be back in the groove of the early starts at the end of this week.

I didn't need much encouragement to go swimming last night, and ground out 111 lengths for my longest ever swim in my fastest ever time (I think).   When I say fastest yet, it was maybe 1 minute quicker than normal, so that's about 1 and a half minutes quicker for the full 2.4 miles.  Wow.

It's just a phase I'm going through.

97 miles on Saturday on the bike - the Lincoln Grand Prix Sportive.  Felt good at the end after a steady-ish start in reasonable weather conditions despite it forecasting rain for most of the day. It came bad when I was packing my bike up so my timing was just about right. 

I waited until late afternoon for a run on Sunday, and managed 9.7 round by Kelsey Moor crossing.  This took me about an hour and 20 mins so should be able to fit it in on the early run without getting up much earlier.
..or at least that's what I'm hoping to do.

Its 10 weeks to go now, so my 'build' phase becomes the 'peak' phase.  Sounds like it's over already, but it actually lasts 7 weeks before the taper.

Happy Holidays!

I suddenly remember my bloggage has not happened for a while, so here it is.

We had a week in Sharm El Sheikh, where I hit the treadmill every day for an hour, and swam 1500m every day but 1.  Swimming definitely improved, especially because I was reading 'Swim Smooth' in between on the sun lounger, so was able to put theory into practise.

The running included a few pyramid (ha ha!) sessions, increasing the pace every 5 minutes then down again.  This made it much less boring, although you can't beat the open air.  On the last 2 days I ventured out along the coastal path, but it only went for about 3 miles, so had to make up the time running round the hotel complex.

Since returning home last weekend, I managed a 58 mile bike followed by an 85 miler, but felt quite knackered for the last hour or so. I need to get some longer bike rides in, so I've entered an 100 mile sportive tomorrow at Lincoln.  Unfortunately the weather is looking pretty poor, but I've paid so it would have to be quite bad for e not to do it.