Fritter and waste the hours in an off-hand way.

The weekend did not go at all to plan.
Friday was OK - planned 2hr run became 2:10 for a 15 miler, although I got soaked and resulted in a red stain running down my chest from my right hand side nipple. Nice.

Saturday's 4hr bike ended up at 2:50.

Sunday's 4hr brick session was curtailed (bad rain stopped play) but managed a 1:15 10 mile run in the evening.
Should I have gone out in the rain?  Maybe.

So that left me just over 4hrs down for the week - not good given there's only 4 weeks to go, so the rest day is off the agenda today and I've already done 7 miles this morning with a bike ride planned tonight.

This week is the biggest of the lot - 17:20 and with a trip to watch the TdF on Friday/Saturday I need to get as much in early this week as possible.

On a positive note, my running feels solid and my knee seems to have realised it needs to last out 26 miles and has stopped complaining quite as much. Whether this is permanent or not I will find out soon enough, but this week has been my best week for running, and total for the month is about 150 miles.

Good intentions.

My intention is to put down here what I intend to do at the weekend.  That's the intention anyway.

The theory is that if you write it down you are more likely to do it - and supposedly that applies to most things.  However, I don't fully subscribe to that e.g. if I state "will run a mile in 4 minutes" it's highly unlikely. I guess the 'reasonable' word has to be used here.

So, my reasonable intentions are:
1. Run this evening straight after work (despite the expected rain) for about 2hrs.
2. Get on my bike for about 3hrs tomorrow morning.
3. Do a ride/run brick on Sunday of 4hrs at least.

That will still leave me 1.5hrs down on the weekly plan, so I need to extend 1 or more of the above.
Probably the Sunday, but more rain is forecast so it might mean an earlier Saturday morning to get more in.  I'm babysitting from lunchtime onwards tomorrow so a good long session might help me through the rest of the day - I will be less likely to think the day has been wasted.
I have most of Sunday to myself, so it might be easier to squeeze in a bit more, but what about the weather?  Hmmm.

Anyway, only 4 more weeks to worry about it.

Snooze Time.

It took 3 snoozes of the alarm before I pushed myself out of bed, donned my summer running gear and ventured out into what was a really bright, sunny morning at 10 to 5 today.  My legs felt really heavy, and did not feel like running at all.
As it was, by the time I had got to Badger Bend (about half a mile) the sun had worked it's magic and I was flying along quite happily well rid of all those negative thoughts.  It was a little bit colder than its been of late, but was perfectly acceptable even in a lightweight t-shirt and shorts.   I even had a couple of strides to get the heart pumping.  Almost 8 miles in just over an hour.

4 laps of the lake last night was my swim for the week.  There was a 24hr sponsored swim going on at the same time, so loads more spectators than usual, and as I waded out, they were expectantly waiting for some to finish.  They were probably disappointed it was me, and I felt quite embarrassed as I sheepishly pushed through them.  24 hours??  I would be bored stiff. 1 hour 9 minutes for me was enough.

And....rest.

The plan said rest day on Monday, and I wasn't going to argue with that.  Earlier in the training schedule I didn't take many rest days, going 5 or 6 weeks without a day off.  However, now that the longer rides/runs are scheduled it seems the best thing to do.  I suppose it depends on the level you started at - I was already doing a bit so found the earlier weeks quite easy in comparison to now.

I decided to do a bit of running yesterday - 13 miles in the evening which meant I had a good 24hrs + after the big ride at the weekend.  Didn't feel too bad and averaged 8:35 for the 13 so I'm happy with that, and also felt good and strong at the end.  My legs ached a bit afterwards as well as when I woke up this morning, but I did a quickish 26 mile loop round by Brigg to start the day right and I feel OK now.  Planning on a swim after work in the lake, but I hear there's a 24hr event on so I'll have to check it out first.

Bridge the gap.

An 'interesting' long bike ride yesterday, with a solid brick session on Saturday resulted in a massive 22:47 week against a plan of 16:25 just at the right time in the schedule.  The extra time is all down to biking, but it is the area I felt was lacking of late, so I'm as confident as I have been about the swim and bike, with just the run that will depend if the knee behaves or not.

With 5 weeks to go, these last couple and next week are key to overall endurance (if I use my old marathon training as experience), so although I was slightly under plan last week, the previous and this week more than make up for it.  I just need a good one this week and I'll be well satisfied with that.  In my marathon running days, the worst races were those where I had missed the long sessions and the best were those where I had put the long runs in at the right time a few weeks out.

Saturday was a nip round the Brigg loop at a good pace followed by a 10 mile run.  I caught up with son-in-law #3 on the bike which means I was definitely going a reasonable pace (he's much faster than me, but to be fair he did have a race the following day so was not overcooking it).  I then did a quickish transition for a 10 miler at average 8:10 pace without hardly any knee discomfort. 

Sunday was a planned 90 mile bike round the Humber (Humber Bridge, Goole, Gunness) to get the long bike in which has been missing (although I had been getting 40 miles each way biking to work).
I created a route in MayMyRide, and to make sure I kept on track avoiding the traffic on the fiddly Melton to Howden stretch I downloaded the route to my phone so I could follow it.
Unfortunately, because I started the route in the village (not at my house) it seemed to wipe the route and just start logging a ride meaning I was relying on memory for the actual route.
To cut a very long story short, I ended up in Selby way off my plan (thanks to asking a local cyclist the best way to Goole); had 2 punctures; walked into Goole for about a mile; found a shop selling puncture repair kit; spent about 40 minutes finding/fixing and finding/fixing the puncture again; using all my money on the repair kit and not being able to buy a drink.
On the plus side, I did do 119 miles at a reasonable pace (if I exclude stopped time) and didn't feel too bad at all when I finished.  My new saddle had arrived on Friday and was bit wary of using for such a long way, but I needn't have worried, it's much more comfy than the old one with only a slight abductor discomfort to show for it.

Can you give me directions to Zen please?

Sometimes, whether it's swimming, biking or running, you get into 'The Zone'.  The Zone is a place where time stands still, you cover huge distances without realising it and your body is working at it's optimum capacity.  And it doesn't happen very often at all.

However, this morning I was in The Zone biking to work and the 2 hours flew by at an average speed of almost 19mph.  Not quick by some standards, but given the 10 mile run I did last night and my overall level of knackeredness, it was much quicker than I would have expected.  I'll be surprised to feel like that on the way home.

The experts tell you to get in The Zone in an Ironman race - to switch off from your surroundings and just do it, thereby relieving the boredom by not being bored.  Another theory is to disassociate your thoughts from the specific activity i.e. don't think about running when you're running.
Difficult I reckon when all your physical efforts are geared towards that one thing.

Education, education, education.

4 laps of the lake yesterday evening.  That's about 2 miles if my conversions are correct, although I have rounded up - more like 1.988 but I didn't count the first 50m so I'm not losing sleep about that.

I half intended to do 5 laps, but had other things to do last night and what made my mind up was when I raced another swimmer for the last 250m.  He had been gradually creeping up on me for the whole lap, and overtook me at the far end of the lake but didn't really get in front, so I decided to put a bit of an acceleration on, overtook him, got severe cramp in my calves where I had to keep my ankles at 90 degrees, let him get past me again and I limped back to the jetty as my calves settled down.

So, a few lessons learned there:
1. I can go faster if I want to
2. When I go faster, I risk cramping up and slowing down
3. When I get bad cramps, I can carry on swimming albeit a bit slower and recover

Its a heartache, nothing but a...

Just 5 miles this morning with no knee probs evident, so Sunday's issues were only temporary.  This leads me to think I can run through any similar grief on the day.

I decided to do my local 26 mile loop heading through Brigg and returning via Brandy Wharf.  This is nice and flat, and is a good indicator of form if I time trial it, like I did last night.  This goes against the ironman training rule of  '90% zone 1 and 2, 10% zone 4-5.  I kept around the zone 3 mark all the way round, thereby keeping out of the 'fat burning' zones 1 and 2 and only occasionally reaching the upper lactate threshold of zone 4.  Zone numbers referring to heart rate zones of course.
Still, I enjoyed it, setting an average speed of 20.6 which is the quickest this year and not too far off my record of 21.1.

Lake swim straight after work and the big question is 3, 4 or 5 laps?  All will be revealed tomorrow.

Misty Mountain Top.

Saturday saw an early 70 miler with son-in-law #2 with a trip over the Humber Bridge taking in South Cave and other Yorkshire sights before heading home.  The weather forecast was looking reasonable, but we had some mist and light rain for most of the way.  Called off in Barton on the way back for a coffee and teacake which went down well.

Sunday started with trying to recover from Saturday night's 30th birthday party for daughter #2.  I didn't drink much at all, but it was busy getting everything ready, a late night and the early 6:30 start (see above) caught up on me.  As the afternoon wore on I decided to try a run, and managed 13 miles over to Searby and Owmby.  I was fine until around 10 miles, then my knee really started to shout at me with the lower knee and upper shin area feeling quite sore and slowed me down quite a bit.  Interestingly, there was no pain after I had stopped so my theory (I have at least 1 per week) is that this is mainly down to overuse and will be fine come race day when I've had a bit of a rest.  The thing that worries me at the moment is that if it gets worse them my training will be curtailed.  If it was the race, all I have to do is finish so (I hope) in the race the pain will be easier to handle.

All this meant that I was down on the weekly plan by 2hrs 30mins, with only one swim session and 2hrs less running than I should have done. 

A bike to work and back yesterday means I start this week on the right foot, or pedal.  This is a 17hr week, so there's no let up with 6 weeks to go, 3 weeks before the taper starts.

At your leisure.

100 lengths of Brigg Leisure Centre pool last night, which was pretty mundane compared with the lake.  I was tempted to miss it and go to the lake on Sunday, but I have a lot on at the weekend so time will be at a premium.
The plan calls for a 5hr bike ride sometime in the next 2 days, and that will be difficult to fit in so I'm hoping to get a couple of hours in tonight (if the threatened thunderstorms do not materialise) and the remainder tomorrow morning.  This will leave me Sunday to do a 2hr run when I hope it does rain.

I spotted an amusing error in an article in the Guardian online this morning and it's still there now. Do they still have editor's?

Me, myself, I.

I suppose I had better write something interesting now that this might be read by someone else other than me.  That's a challenge.
Up until now, I've been writing for myself about myself only being read by myself and I although I sometimes find myself quite difficult to live with, I usually agree with what I've written about me.
I wonder if anyone has a blog written by a ghost writer? I suppose someone like Katy Price might, fulfilling the 'I've got a blog, look at me' requirements of any celebrity worth their salt, and also has the opportunity to turn it into book/film/TV series or similar to satisfy the seemingly endless appetite for dross on the TV.

Anyway, biked home in the sun yesterday evening, managing to get a 2nd place on a segment known as 'Don Quixote's gallop' - a 2 mile long straight from Hemswell village.  I have no idea if Mr Quixote did gallop on this road (unlikely, given that he was fictional) but it's the sort of road quite suited to a good gallop I would imagine.  Segments are setup on Strava.com, an online community where you log your runs/rides/swims etc and can compare your performances with others who use the same routes.  I was only 5 seconds off top spot, so I'm hoping for a stronger back wind next time.

I got out for an 11 mile run this morning in glorious sunshine at 5 o'clock.  It wasn't long ago that it was dark, damp and cold and I couldn't help feel, as I started to overheat, that there's a lot to be said for those Winter mornings!

Took a selfie of my shadow on the way home (is that still a 'selfie'?) which make me look like a cockney barrow boy wearing a flat cap and wellies.

Will this never end?

Permanently hungry, permanently tired.  I think that sums me up for the last few weeks (and probably the next few as well) - especially after a longer bike ride.  All I can assume is that I expend more energy biking than anything else, although I have always thought that biking is about half the effort of running.  Anyway, suffice to say I have the appetite of a large American without being the size of one (thankfully).


Biked into work this morning, which was definitely warmer than last week, so shorts were the order of the day + a couple of cycling tops to keep the wind out. I'll ditch one top for the ride home, that's sure to make me faster.
I used my 'best bike' today, mainly because there looked to be no chance of rain, but also because I plan on using it for the race so need to get used to it - it's only slightly bigger than my old Trek but feels totally different.


I'm still looking for another saddle, and my eBay searches are concentrating on tri or TT specific models (although many of them state they are also OK for MTBs).  Missed out on one by a pound at the weekend, but I have a few that are coming up over the next couple of days so I hope there is less of a market during the week.


Lincoln was surprisingly clean this morning, most of the students must have stayed indoors.

Cometh the hour...

Tuesday today, so I'm a bit behind with my updates.
Saturday was cats and dogs until late afternoon, so I squeezed in an hour's run before some friends came over for a snack.  It was a bit of a test on the knee, but felt perfectly OK for the whole run.

Sunday morning saw me at the lake, and after 3 laps I decided to bang out a couple more to get the 4000 metres done in about 1hr 26mins, a full minute quicker than Wednesday.  Doing these 2 x long swim sessions has made me feel much more confident about the swim, so much so that in my head I feel that I can back off the swimming now. The more sensible part of my head is telling me to not let up, you plonker.
Anyway, after a hearty MacDonalds wrap and latte and a bit of gardening I decided to go for another run just as the temperature was rising.  I set off at a good pace (for me), about 7:30/min, and felt like I could go on all day.  By the time I got round to Hibaldstow at the 10 mile mark the 'go on all day' was replaced with 'can I stop now please'.  Desperate for water, I called in at the church to look for a tap but as usual I left the church unfulfilled.  How do they keep the flowers for that long?  Then I called in at one of the son-in-law's friend's house but he wasn't in, so 4 miles later I arrived home dehydrated, hot, sweaty and generally the worse for wear.
I hope this was all due to lack of water, not lack of fitness, but I'm not so sure.  The dodgy knee was also some concern, playing up for those last miles, but that was probably because my form slipped completely as I battled home.

So, Monday was rest day and it did the trick in that I went to bed last night feeling much more rested and did a reasonably 'normal' 7 miles this morning at 5 just under the hour.

Despite doing less running last week, the total hours was around 1hr over plan so I'm happy with that.  These next few weeks are key to the race day (less than 7 weeks now) so I need to keep to the plan if I'm not to be found collapsed in a heap half way through the run.

A good cause.

I reckon I've got my sponsorship info etc sorted out.  The justgiving.com page is set up along with the Guess My Finish Time spreadsheet, which I've made public on Onedrive.  The only issue I can see is how people contact me without putting my email address on the justgiving page, and although I'm not too bothered about that I know there's some clever Chinese geeky youth who is probably running an internet trawl of email addresses looking for any string with @ in it.  That's what I'd do anyway if I had no life.


I looked at putting the spreadsheet on this blog, but viewing it looked rubbish, and I didn't want to spoil the professional look of this (ha ha!).


Biked into work this morning which is sunny and dry albeit quite cold.  My toes had lost most of their feeling by the time I arrived and had turned quite red.  Its looking like it will be much warmer this afternoon biking home so my long cycling trousers will not be a good choice.


Running is going to be down on plan this week, I've only done one run of 45mins so far and my plan is 6hrs for the week (2hrs of it on Sunday).  The upper shin just under my knee is quite sore, and with my knee giving me some grief last weekend I'll hopefully get the time in on the bike to compensate.  Biking doesn't seem to make the knee any worse, although it did this time last year so don't know why that is, maybe the additional biking is making that more 'natural' and not affecting me as much.
I'm only 1hr down on plan for the bike so far, so unless I'm really busy at the weekend I should get the prescribed weekly total of 15hrs 50mins in by Sunday night.

It's all going swimmingly well.

5 laps of the lake last night, that's quite an achievement for me - about 4,000m.  It's the furthest I've swam ever and is even more than I'll be doing in July so quite chuffed about that.  The only issue (?) is that it took me almost 1 and a half hours, so based on 2013 results that's a mid-point time but well behind last year's first 55-59 finisher at 1hr 18mins.  I'll just have to make sure I bike faster.

I invested in some new running shoes yesterday and tried them out with a quick 5 miler this morning.  They seem OK, and didn't aggravate the knee so that's a good thing.  Had to beat myself up to get out this morning, just didn't feel like doing anything at 5 o'clock.  Part of it was the weather (dull and misty), part was the fear of more knee issues with the new shoes.  As it was, the knee issue was fine, but the mist turned to heavy rain and I got soaked.  Better that way round.

Take the long way home (Supertramp).

Just over 50 miles back home from work yesterday, taking the long route via Brigg.  I went on a few roads I have never been on before either by car or bike as I headed in a northerly direction as far as Messingham before turning east to Scawby and Brigg.   Theses new roads make it a bit more interesting, but at one point I thought about turning round because I seemed to be going in the wrong direction, but fortunately it eventually brought me out in a location which was there or thereabouts where I thought I was.

Swimming in the lake straight from work is the plan for today and although it's raining pretty hard at the moment it's not so cold.  Hopefully do at least 3 laps (800m per lap), possibly 4 if I can talk myself into it.  I dragged my old Timex Ironman watch out a drawer this morning to check if it was waterproof or not, and it is (or at least says it is), so I'll be able to time myself properly.

Commuting.

I forced myself to have a day off training yesterday - the first since May 3rd.  Not that I needed much forcing, I was well knackered.


However, its back to the schedule today and I set the alarm early for a ride into work.  4 snoozes later I dragged myself out of bed, decided it was too cold for shorts, got my winter kit on and set off.


I arrived 2 hours later without incident.  Well, apart from nearly getting run over by a car at the top of Lincoln whose driver decided that indicators were not required when turning in front of me.  I felt a bit mean shouting at him really, because I've also been known to be too lazy to indicate.
Anyway, nothing too dramatic and I bet he had a good laugh at a whinging old bloke in lycra.


The 36 miles seems very short compared with recent activities.

Weekend Exertions.

I'm feeling it in my legs today after a 4 hour ride round by Barton, Winterton and Gainsborough on Saturday, then my own mini-triathlon yesterday.

Saturday's ride was probably a bit too much given Sunday's planned 'private' triathlon, but a bit of stress is not a bad thing at this stage of the training. 8 weeks to go as yesterday.  

I got the usual sore bits, but not enough to put me off Sunday's plan.

Sunday saw me at Activities Away lake for a 3 lap (2.4k) swim, followed by a 56 mile bike skirting round Lincoln, then a 9 mile run. The original plan was aiming more towards a half marathon to finish, but with the heat and forgetting to take my water bottle, 9 miles was probably about right. As it was, my dodgy knee didn't last too long before it needed some attention so that put me off doing any more anyway.
Funnily enough, I find that the more I stretch out my stride, the less the knee hurts..... but, the more I get tired so not really an option unless I go for a run/walk/run strategy. I guess it's always an option on the day.

It's a rest day today (Monday), the first one I'm taking for a month.