Keep on moving

On the move again!....not so much referring to my training , but the fact I`m moving house this weekend, totally disorganised to be honest. I completed on the house today and moving tomorrow ( well actually today now!!) umm and I`ve done zero packing. Actually that`s not strictly true now, since I finished work I`ve been hard at it and managed to get the bulk of it done, it`s 1.20am now and nearly ready to call it a day.
i`m supposed to be getting a 1 hour bike ride in tomorrow, but may have to give it a miss :-(.
Couple of mates helping me to move tomorrow, and then planning to hit the town although I`m planning to stay sober. Sunday morning = long run! and I really don`t want to do it with a hangover. It`s not likely to be really that much of a long run maybe 8 miles tops.
Don`t think I mentioned it in my last post but I`ve entered a middle distance triathlon next year about 2 months away from the Outlaw triathlon, I think the timing is pretty good and should allow me to experience a longer event and practice nutrition strategies etc. I believe It`s pretty tough, set near Bala in Wales it involve a 2k swim 78k bike ride(very hilly apparently) and 13 mile run which is described as "undulating"...yes that dreaded word undulating which covers a wide range of runs ranging from nearly flat to lung bursting killer hills!
Well better sign off and try and do a bit more packing before I run out of energy.... toodledoo till next time

Iron man program in progess, and early mornings!!

So this week has heralded the official start of my Iron man training, and on the whole I`ve managed to follow it although have had to be a little flexible, although I guess that's par for the course
Mon- 1600m swim(split into sets of 50 -200m)
Tues- 30m Run (easy)
Weds 45min bike (done as part of commute to work)....transition then 15 min run

On top of this I`ve done my usual 10mile round trip cycle ride to work, at the moment the training is fairly low volume so a little more base training I don`t see as being a problem, as the program gets harder though may have to reassess how I fit my commute into my training.
Also I`m a little worried the actual nature of my job will push me over the edge to a state of overtrain. I work in a freezer warehouse with temperatures down as low as -25to-30C and involves quite a bit of lifting. Nice thing about the job (yes there is one!) is that I get 3 days off a week so plenty of time to get the long training sessions in.
Anyway I guess these aren`t really major problems just small hurdles to overcome, so onwards and upwards. Fairly easy day planned today just an easy spin to work and back and swim tonight(although that is never easy!!), even managed a lie in this morning 4.20am!. I`ve decided that any runs or bike rides less than hour long will be done b4 work, I`m not convinced my willpower is always strong enough to go after a day of work.
The swim sessions I`m having to cater to my ability at the moment but hopefully with regular trips down the pool I`ll see some improvement

What a bike ride!!

With the sun shining, on a beautiful autumnal day in Warwickshire decided to head out and get out on the bike for a couple of hours, didn`t really plan a route just headed out onto the minor roads, despite the fact there are far to many cars on UK roads we are blessed with a great network of small country roads to explore which are relatively traffic free. The photos I posted just didn`t do the day credit... the trees are all turning now and the colour was just simply stunning in places, would have liked to stop more to take more piccys but in the end I was supposed to be training!! Seems like I was`nt the only one with the idea to get out and about, walkers runners horse riders and cyclists were out in force. The camaraderie between cyclists never ceases to amaze me out on the road, without exception you always get a wave and a hi from everyone you pass going the oppposite direction.

Anyway felt great on the ride pretty tough in places it was really windy and although no really big hills the terrain was constantly rolling, I find it quite hard to get any sort of rhythm to my pedalling when it`s like that. I was a bit peeved when i realised I`d cycled at least 3 miles and hadn`t realised my gps was switched off on my garmin duhhh..:-(. So although I ended up recording 36.3 miles over 2 hours and 12 min the ride was probably closer to 40 miles over mayb 2.25. Still can`t get too obsessive over the stats, in the overall scheme of things it doesn`t really matter. Tried to keep my HR down in zones 1 and 2 was a bit tricky at times with the hills, but more or less succeeded. Ah well time to put my feet up I think and relax with a cup of tea and a couple of Custard tarts!!...I`m sure i heard they were good recovery food!!..:-)))

Run/walk theory

Last night ended up going out pretty late for a run, about 9pm decided on a 45min easy run, and decided to trial the walk /run method, there has been some theories suggesting that this is the way forward for longer distance runs for example Ironman distance and marathons. I think I first heard about it on IM talk, a coach(I forget who) claimed even 3 hour marathoners can set new PB`s adopting a run/walk strategy, the idea is that by walking maybe 1 min every 8-10 min you can continue strong throughout the marathon whereas most people tail off in the last 10-15k this is especially true in an Ironman. Also by adopting it in training you recover quicker and are less injury prone, well that's the theory anyway. Of course you do have to practice it in training and the walk has to resemble a power walk..not a stroll in the park the idea is, is to keep ur cadence pretty much the same speed when you walk. Well it went ok and will persevere with the method a while longer ended up doing about 5.6 miles averaging 8min mile mainly in heart rate zone 2. I`m still yet to be convinced and starting to run again after a short walk felt a little weird, but I think I have to train my legs to adapt.

Exciting times!

Well its been a while since my last post, so a quick update on what`s been happening. In the last couple of weeks I`ve been doing a lot of thinking about where my training is going to go with regards to 2010. I think I`ve mentioned in an earlier post my ambitions to do a long distance tri in the future, well August the 8th 2010 is pencilled in for my first Ironman distance triathlon!!
The race opens for entries on November 1st, so I`m counting the days down, also around about this date I`m moving house so it`s all change!! The race is in Nottingham UK and its the the first running of the event so should be fun, also it coincides with the Nottingham festival that weekend so should be a great atmosphere. Its aptly called the Outlaw Triathlon and apparently on completion you become one of Robin hoods outlaws... lol. I`m toying with the idea of doing it for charity, I`ve never raced before for a charity but this is such a big challenge it would be nice to feel like I`m achieving some good through it, and may even help keep me going through the long grim winter days of training I`ll have to endure.
The training starts next week, I`m following a 30week training schedule in Don Finks book "be ironfit".... great book and can highly recommend it although I will be playing around with the schedule a bit. Firstly it`s actually 40 weeks till the race so I`ll be doubling up on the base period so effectively the base period will now be 20 weeks but I reckon that`s a good thing considering my lack of experience. also I`ll probably put more emphasis on the swimming during the base since swimming is most definitely my weakest discipline. Don Fink gives you a choice of three schedules to follow a just finish schedule and intermediate one and a competitive one. I`ve decide to opt for the competitive program not because I have any real ambitious plans regarding finishing times , but I can commit to more weekly hours training so I feel this may give me the best chance of having a really positive experience in the race.
As well as the outlaw Tri, I plan to do at least two other tris earlier in the year 1 Olympic distance and one half IM distance if I can find one at the right time.
The other big news I haven`t mentioned yet is I`ve entered the Shakespeare marathon in stratford upon Avon in April , I did the event in 2005 so really looking forward to going back. I`m not to sure about my goals for the race, before my decision to enter the Nottingham Tri was going to attempt my dream of a sub 3.00hour ot at least try to qualify for London in 2011 with a sum 3.15, but now may use it as a practice for marathon I`ll need to do after the bike and swim and adopt a walk run strategy and aim for 4 to 4.30 finishing time, tbh this would probably be a more sensible idea.
On the injury front everything is great, my achilles seems to have settled down and one or two other slight niggles I had after the Kenilworth half have gone, hopefully the large quantity of long slow stuff I`ll be doing in the next few months will help strengthen the body up a bit and I can stay injury free (ok probably wishful thinking!!)

My poor legs! Race preview "The Kenilworth Half Marathon"

Well it`s been a pretty busy week since my physio visit, work has been very busy having to work 12 hour shifts all last week, and my heel continues to be a little sore , although it has improved a bit I think despite my irresponsible behaviour at the weekend!! Yes despite the promises I`ve been making to myself not to run the half marathon in Kenilworth on Sunday, I just couldn`t help myself the promise of yet another t shirt and medal was just to much to resist!

Went along with a m8 from work (John) and apart from a few Garmin issues (not mine) we lined up on the start line at 10am on a glorious sunny early October morning. I think there were about 500 runners all in all so there was a nice race atmosphere. Just before the start I bumped into my running coach of my local running club, so that fired up my competitive nature a bit we run at similar speeds so beating Tim was going to be a challenge! Despite the fact I`d hardly run since the Nottingham half marathon i was hoping that I had maintained much of my fitness I`d taken into that race.

So the race started and it started at quite a pace the first 2 or 3 miles were either down hill or flat so had a really nice start averaging about 6.15 pace, after about 5 or 6 miles the course got pretty hilly and the three weeks off from running started to show, my legs didn`t feel great but on a positive side my heel injury was absolutely fine so ran on as hard as I could. 3/4 of an hour in I took my one and only gel I`d brought, at this point I started to feel like I was a bit carb depleted and and wished Id brought a second one, still on the whole still felt fairly strong and by mile 10 knew I could hang on, my final time another PB of 1.24.3 seconds!
My legs after though felt totally done in though and took till weds to feel anything like normal again. Still a fab race well organised, nice weather and good atmosphere with some nice support on the way round...what better way to spend a Sunday morning.
So needless to say the training has been almost non existent this week a very short run in the middle of the week and 3 day commuting to work on my bike has been about it. Need to replenish the batteries though next week going to start training for a spring marathon, but that`s a story for the next post.