Tiring.

Yesterday was probably the most tired I have felt throughout this training stint since Christmas.  I wasn't sure if I was short of salt/food, so stuffed myself at lunch (inc. 2 packets of salted crisps), but I'm fairly sure I was just tired out.  Safe to say I am feeling much more perky today, and I don't have any plans for exercise (at the moment).

I plan a long bike ride on Sunday and as usual I will struggle to get the 2.5hr long run in on Saturday.  Maybe I will do something this evening after all!

Time is Everything

 4 laps of the lake last night, and thanks to my watch that survived the dunking, I know it was 3,399 yards long.  That translates to around 2.1Km, so only 500m short.  Time was 1hr 20mins,but that did include 2 treading water stops to ease the calf cramps -so painful!  It took a good minute for the cramps to go away, but I figure it was good practice for when it happens in the race having had a panic attack 5yrs ago doing the same thing.  That time, I genuinely thought I would have to give up or drown, but now I know I can recover if I try and relax and let it ease off naturally.

This means I have a good chance of doing the swim leg in around 1 and half hours give or take 5 mins.  Max time allowed is 2hrs I think so I haven't got a great deal of contingency in there, although I would have to have an absolute disaster to miss the timecut.

Lapping it Up.

 This evening's plan is to do the full swim distance in the lake.  I'm hoping my watch is still waterproof after 5 years of use otherwise it will be an expensive one.  In theory, I need to do 4 and a bit laps so we'll see if that holds up, assuming of course my watch keeps going!

It feels like I'm getting to the pointy end of the training now with the race 4 weeks on Sunday.  That means this and next week are the last 2 big weeks, then 3 weeks of tapering (although still training of course).  The last week (all but 3 days) I'm away on hols, so that will mean no cycling just a bit of very hot running (in the Algarve).  It will probably be difficult to keep the diet 'healthy' when I'm away but I will be focusing on the end goal, so should be OK.  I've just been sussing out the bike route and where I can park to do a recce.  There's a 5 and half hr ride scheduled for this weekend, which could be a good time to do it.  I will see what my diary manager thinks about that.  An early start should make it easier to swallow.   

Go Long

 My cough and cold I picked up earlier in the week seems to have petered out fortunately.  I plucked up courage to venture out for a run this morning, intending to only do the village and back.  However, I felt fine and managed 7 miles round by Kelsey Beck (which I haven't been to in about a year) in 1hr 5mins.  This means there's a slim chance I will fulfil the weekly schedule - but no swimming this week will reduce it by quite a bit.  The only chance I've got is if I manage a long bike ride. 

Racing Along

 A night away in Burnley (well, Fence actually just north of Burnley) resulted in 2 hard runs up and down the hills around Pendle.  I can still feel the lactic acid 3 days later.  I also came back with a bit of a mild cold which put me off running today.  Just a cough and slightly snotty nose so hopefully not anything to slow me down too much,  I thought a day off might speed the recovery up.

I cycled into the office yesterday and had my tri bars on for the first time in 5 years and I have to say they felt pretty good - definitely faster.  ..or at least that was my feeling of the situation.  Reality might be different but I managed decent averages both into and away from work - 18.7 and 18.8mph.  If I can get 18mph in the race I'll be very happy with that - 6hrs 15mins or thereabouts.

Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail.

Bit of a poor end to the week last week.  Managed a 2hr bike ride, but needed double that really but the weather conspired against me.  Well, that's my excuse anyway.  But today is another week (actually, it's not a week, it's a day but you get the idea).  Started well this morning with an early 26 mile loop round by Brigg, then this evening I should get an hour in running from the hotel near Burnley.  If I get my backside in gear I should also get an hour in tomorrow morning, although might be a tall order depending on how much I put on the expenses tonight. If not, then it will 'rest day' in the spreadsheet.  It's the Lincolnshire show on Wed/Thurs so I need to factor that in, but hopefully get a ride into the office on Wednesday, but a Friday visit to Louth will make an evening open water swim difficult.  Hmm, this triathlon lark needs a bit of planning.

Procrastination? I'll do it tomorrow.

 Well, I didn't drown and indeed didn't even come close to it so I'll take that as a successful swim last night at Activities Away.  3 laps took me to a total of 2400m in around an hour.  I couldn't time it accurately so it's a bit of a guess.  But was it cold!  Much colder than I expected, but maybe I've forgotten what open water swimming is like in the UK, it was 5 years ago when I last tried it after all.  I intend doing 4 laps next week, let's hope the temperature is higher.

My intended run this morning didn't come off, as I was feeling knackered and in fact fell back to sleep for about an hour which I guess proves I was tired. This means I have almost no chance of fulfilling the required hourly amount for this week given my planned non-sporting activities and poor weather forecast.  My 4hr ride will be difficult to fit in.  Still, there's always next week. 

I read that quite a few triathletes taking part in a triathlon in the Thames came down with sickness and stomach cramps etc. at the weekend and are rightly not impressed.  Luckily, the Holme Pierrepoint swim is in a lake, unluckily it is populated by loads of canadian geese that use it as a toilet.

I'll Drink To That

 I have a correction to make, it's 'only' 13hrs I have to get in this week, not the 20 mentioned in my last posting.  Not that anyone reads it, but I needed to put it down in print for my own psychological reasons.  I can't go around thinking I have as much as that to do.

I plan on my first open water swim this evening at Activities Away.  Tried the wetsuit on last night, and what a struggle! I don't think I've grown but it feels like I have.  I thought you shrunk as you got older. I have a 2hr also booked, 20 minutes of which will be putting the wetsuit on.  I'm hoping for at least 2 laps of the lake but can't remember how far round it is, I'll need to look at some old Strava files or similar.  If this is my last post it's because I drowned due to cramp.  My mitigation plan is to have a small can of tonic water just before I get there, and sup the water with an electrolyte tablet on the way.  Watch this space.

Crash Course

 It's been a few weeks since my last posting here.  That in itself is not too surprising, but given that virtually all my spare time is spent training, I should put more effort into recording my thoughts about it. Anyway, I had a week cycling in the Algarve which was really good fun although I did manage to scrape my knee, elbow and hip on the tarmac when I locked the brakes up going downhill.  It also resulted in a broken helmet after a rather hard landing on my head.  Luckily, Met have a crash replacement policy and I will get a new one at 50% off.  The prang could have been so much worse, so very fortunate not to have lost any training time at this stage of the game  Its not a game by the way.

The cycling week meant that I made up all the time I had lost of the first few weeks of the schedule, then last about 4hrs from the week I returned home due to being absolutely knackered.  However, I'm back on it this week with an hour's run yesterday evening and 1.5hrs this morning.  I think I'm due 20hrs total this week, which will be a tall order, but I'll have to do it.  With 6 weeks to go, the next 2 or 3 weeks are crucial.  I've booked a week's hol 10 days before the big event, hopefully that will be a good thing.

Swimming has been a bit lacking overall.  I've signed up online for Activities Away, and (all being well) will get my first open water swim in this week.  I bought a '5 pack', and that might encourage me to use them all.  The weather has been poor though, and not looking good for the next 2 weeks.  Lets hope it's dumping all the rain now, and not at the end of July.