Fun Lunchtime Ride

Went for an easy ride on a familiar lunchtime circuit with cycling friends and colleagues Julian and Chilli. Chilli was struggling with a hangover (what a legend) and we averaged 19.3mph for our 16.5mile route. Not quite sure where that fits with the word "easy", but it was fun.
Catching up with Smiley and Neil Vaughan out on the road was certainly satisfying. Those two win local cycle races. The fact that we didn't stay with them is irrelevant, the important point was that we caught them on the Intwood Road and bridge over the A47.
We're out again on Monday and I'm hoping that they have a more sympathetic interpretation of the word 'easy' then. I'll have tired legs from Sunday's Bungay Marathon.

Swimming Certificate and Medal

It's been a long time since I last recieved a swimming certificate, but received one today. It was the one for my 5k swimathon on Sunday.
It was purely coincidental to recieve a medal too. It was a bronze medal from a 30min postal swim in January. Four of us from our Masters Swimming Club, East Anglian Swallowtails (EAST) took part in a National Postal 30min swim challenge and we finished 3rd.
It was well worth going to the EAST session at UEA this evening. :-)

Ironman Week 11 of 24

Not such a good week this week. Very busy week at work meant that I didn't get any training in at all during the week. Headed out on the Saturday morning with the Tri-Anglia beginner cyclist group and got caught in wind and rain. Wasn't wearing suitable clothes for the conditions and ended up very cold at the end. Took several hours to warm up again.
Pics and route can be found on www.tri-anglia.co.uk or directly at http://www.tri-anglia.co.uk/2007/TrainingRides/Gallery.html#20070324
An easier week once in a while doesn't do any harm - in fact I ought to have had a couple of recovery weeks already in the schedule that I've trained through, so I'm still okay.
The Swimathon this evening saw me through the 2,000mile mark for the year to date.
Hopefully next week I'll get back to a more complete training schedule. And next Sunday is the Bungay Marathon. In a weird way I'm looking forward to that.

Swimathon

5k swimathon this evening in the 50m UEA pool. Knocked it off in 77mins.
Had been aiming at 75mins if the pool had been configured at 25m, so fairly pleased with that. Went through the Ironman distance of 3.8k in 59mins and averaged a pace of 93seconds per 100m.
Will this yeild a sub hour swim at Ironman Switzerland? Guess we'll have to wait and see.

Ironman Week 10 of 24

The training schedule for week 10 suggested somewhere between 15 and 22 hours covering something between 155 & 200 miles. Though there is a bare minium of 8 hours covering 100miles. Clearly that breaks down to different distance for the different sports.
However schedules can't always be applied to everyones lifes due to commitments of work, family and friends. Sports clubs are great for adding a social element into the training, but you can't always impose an Ironman Training session onto other club members (though I have been guilty of this at Tri-Anglia wednesday swims).
Anyway how have I faired this week? I've managed to log 17.5 hours and cover 210miles excluding 20 miles worth of commuting on my mountain bike. A summary per sport is of 30miles running, just over 200miles riding including a century ride yesterday and 3.8miles of swimming.
Totals for the year are run 326miles, biked 1,569 and swam 46miles. Making a grand total of 1,941miles.
I think that means I'm on schedule if not slightly ahead, though next week is

Ironman Update - March 2007

I've just placed the latest update on the Ironman front on the web at: http://www.barnmeadow.plus.net/IMS07Which can also be reached from the training page of the Tri-Angliawebsite.Main update this time round is a report from Russell Clarke about hisordeal in completing Ironman Malaysia. Also, with a lot of help fromSimon Edye, I've been able to get toghether a list of TA completedIronman Triathlons. All of which can be found through the link above.

Training Duathlon

Took part in the last of Simon Edye's training duathlons this morning. Some good things about it are that it's low key, good transition practice, short and really close to my house. Some not quite such good things about it are that it's short and I went out too hard. Also, it was flipping windy this morning. I'd put aero bars onto the bike for the event, but only got to use them briefly. Was most surprised to finish 2nd, though I did think that Peter Newton was Joe Skipper (apologies guys). I was well chuffed thinking that I'd finished the bike leg ahead of Joe Skipper.
Result can be found on the Tri-Anglia website (www.tri-anglia.co.uk)

First Century ride of 2007

Rode today with my cycle club Velo Club Norwich. I've not riden with them in a while having struggled in December to keep up with them. Happy to report that I faired a whole lot better today, though I did struggle on some of the hills.
At this point I must say thanks to Mark Cozens for twice dropping back to drag me back up to the group. Mark is a photographer and covers lots of local cycle races. His website can be found at: http://www.mphotography.smugmug.com/
It was a nice ride of 52 miles with a stop at Cafe Verdi in Mattishall. I then rounded the ride off with an extra 48 miles via a stop at my Mums (I think she was pleasantly surprised).
That gives me my first 100 mile ride of the year.

Suddenly seeing in colour again

It really does seem as though magically some how that colours are now visible again. The grey of winter seems to be gone and replaced with greens, blues and yellows. It is also suddenly a lot warmer.
Have just been out for a very easy bike ride to help the legs recover from yesterday and rode in shorts and a long sleeve top. That's the first time this year that my legs have received an airing this year.

Week 9 Round Up

22 miles today meant that I ran just under 44 miles across the week. That's the biggest weekly mileage of my running career, and I'm not feeling too bad for it.
Cycling mileage was a little lower this week though at 97miles with the bulk coming from a ride with Tri-Anglia yesterday. Photo's from which can be found at: http://www.tri-anglia.co.uk/2007/TrainingRides/Gallery.html#20070310

Swimming has also been good this week. Managed 3 sessions. One of which was straight after a run with City of Norwich Athletic Club. Yesterday's 8am swim was particularly good as I got a 50m lane all to myself and managed to cover 3.4k in the hour.

Have been putting together (with Simon Edye's help) a list of all the Ironman results of Tri-Anglia members. This can be found at: http://www.barnmeadow.plus.com/IMS07/HallofFame.html

Last Long Run before Bungay

What a beautiful morning we had today. Really felt like a proper spring day. The 22 mile route that I'd planned for Sam Kingston and myself took us through some stunning Norfolk countryside. Feeling pleased with how the run went, though the last mile was a hard. Not sure that a late night last night with copious amounts of Guinness was particularly wise.
The route followed was: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=758243
Seeing as I walked big chunks of my only marathon to date (London 2003), today's run is the furthest I've successfully run in one go (taking 3hours 18minutes).

Week 8 Round Up

This week was week 8 of my 24 week Ironman Training schedule and dispite being interrupted a bit by work proved to be another fairly solid week. Rode 122 miles, ran 23 and swam 3.5. Longest run of the week being todays 10mile race at Wymondham and the long ride was a solo 50 miler yesterday.
During the week I entered the Swimathon (www.swimathon.org/) which means that on the 25th March I'll be swimming 5k.

Wymondham Spring 10 mile

Ran the Wymondham Spring 10 mile today as part of my Bungay Marathon and Ironman preparation.
The aim for the day was a slightly easier long run. I wanted to use the race as pacing practise and I wanted to pace myself round at 8.30minute miles. To make the event more sociable I rode over to Wymondham with Darren Powell (http://chairman-trianglia.blogspot.com/) and Mark Evans both of Tri-Anglia (www.tri-anglia.co.uk).
Bumped into a number of runners that I knew including Mark Crossfield an old canoeing friend who also did the Devizes to Westminster race in 2004. Mark wanted to paced round the course so we ran together, but yet again I ended up going out too fast, and then settling into 8minute mile pace before picking it up at the end. At least it was a nice steady run out.
Took some photos for the Tri-Club and composed a bit of a report that can be found on www.tri-anglia.co.uk or directly at www.tri-anglia.co.uk/2007/2007WAC2010/WAC2010Report.html