Needed that.

After Saturdays challenging day of training where I struggled on a 7k run my confidence had taken a bit of a battering.
A nice comfortable 5 mile recovery run with my lunchtime running buddy Ian Gregory nattering away and talking some sense has made me feel a whole lot better.
The psychological side to this training is proving interesting.

Ironman Week 16 of 24

Most tiring week of the campaign so far. A great 50mile bike ride with Mark Evans on Friday evening. Then a monster day yesterday that pretty much finished me off:

• 4.5mile ride to the swimming pool
• 3k swim with East Anglia Swallow Tails
• 112mile ride with Mark Evans and Tim Holliday
• 7km run.

Stats for this week have been: 3.2mile swim, 240mile bike and 17.9mile run.
Totals for the year are through the 3,000mile marker at:

• Total = 3,050 miles
• Swim = 67.1 miles
• Bike = 2,533 miles
• Run = 450 miles.

Flying 3,050 miles would get me from Norwich into the state of Maine.

2 months to go

Tuesday being the 24th April saw the count down ticker reach 2months.
Wednesday I went and ran in the Yarmouth 5miler and was well off a PB time, though I did do a lap warm up and a lap warm down to make it into 10miles and my long run of the week. Also managed to get a fair few miles in on the bike. At one point I thought I might even get to 300miles.
Broke a stem (that's the bit that connects handle bar front forks) as I was riding out of the bike shed. I'm so pleased that it went when I was only doing 5mph. If that had gone earlier in the day when descending a hill outside Stoke Holy Cross at 32mph may Ironman training may well have been over.

Norwich - a fine city

I know I've jested about the city sign on the A11 saying 'Norwich - a fine city', but I recently had an experience to prove that it is. And it's a fine city because of the people that live in it.
I was walking from one office to another with an envalope in my back pocket containing some cheques and a paying in slip that I intended to put into the post to my bank so as to pay the cheques into my account.
When I got to the post box the envalope had gone. I'd clearly dropped it at some point. I retraced my steps, asked the security guard at work if anyone had handed it in and then got the creators of the cheques to cancel them.
Mean while, some good samaritan had picked up the envalope had seen that it was destined to for post and put it in the post box on my behalf.
To whoever that nameless person is. Thank you.

Ironman Week 15 of 24

First long run since the Bungay Marathon for me yesterday. A 2 hour 20min run where I coverd 15.6miles. It was a lovely evening to be out. Very pleasing because I'd been out in the morning on the Tri-Anglia ride and we covered 40miles. Even more pleasing this morning because I stayed with the faster group on the VC Norwich Sunday ride where we averaged 22mph on the return leg (pushing 31mph at places).
Total for the week: 16 hours, swim 3.3miles, bike 171miles and run 27.6 miles.
Total to date for the year: 2,789 miles as 63.9 swim, 2,292.7 bike, 432.3 run (4,487.3km, 102.8km, 3,689 and 695.5).

London Marathon

Well done to all my friends that ran the London Marathon today.
Mark Betts in 2:50:37 (h:m:s)
Penny Edward in 3:10:53 and winning her age group.
Anne Flannigan 3:12:04
Darryl Davis 3:19:46
Steve Kemp 3:44:15
Fellow trainee Ironman Sam Kingston in 3:45:47
Graham Bainger 4:06:24
Darren Powell 4:28:53
And newbee runner Tracey Greer 6:16:59.

Ironman week 14 of 24

Earlier in the week I commented as I passed through the 400mile barrier for the year to date.
I've subsequently broken through a few more little milestones. Yesterday morning riding to the swimming pool took me through the 2,000mile mark, riding afterwards and then again this morning has taken me through the 2,500mile mark for all three disciplines together and swimming this afternoon has taken me through the 60mile mark for the year. Oh, and I've now riden over 8,000miles on the Giant OCR2 bike that I bought as my first bike. Incidentally last weekend was the 3rd aniversary of my cycling hobby.
Totals for the week: 5.1mile Swim, 238mile Bike and 23.1mile Run.
Totals for the year are 2,587.2miles (4,162.8km) comprising 60.6miles Swim, 2,182miles bike and 404.7miles run.
Norwich to Babylon is 2,541miles. :-)

400 Miles Running

Two runs yesterday took me to 400miles so far for 2007. I joined Ian Gregory for a 6 mile lunchtime run and then in the evenings joined Steve Kemp for a 7 mile run as part of the Norwich Road Runner session.

Ironman Week 13 of 14

Not too surprisingly, running was hard this week. 12.8miles including the Broome 10k. Congratulations to my Tri-Anglia colleague Nicola McIvor who won the Ladies race. I then marshalled the Trowse 10k rather than run it.
Managed to get plenty of cycling in though. 153miles including 100miles involving the 100k Bungay Audax
Easter weekend restricted swimming club sessions though, so only one swim.

Ironman Week 12 of 24 - Half Way

After the disruptions to the week 11 schedule week 12 proved very slow to get started. I had shin splints running on the Monday and Wednesday which fortunately passed before the marathon on the Sunday.
The marathon was not on the official schedule, but was in my adaptation which means that week 12 was a bumper running week with 42miles. As such the cycling was reigned in a little to 105miles. It was a good week swim wise where I managed to attend EAST sessions. I also managed to fit in 3 functional stability sessions. So in all a very good week.
Half way to Ironman Switzerland now. The first two 6 week phases of the training plan are done and now we (myself and the other Tri-Anglia members of the Swiss Seven) enter into the third phase which is the Ironman Specific phase. There is going to be a lot of cycling over the next few weeks. Fortunately it's Easter this weekend coming so four days away from work with a 100k Audax on Saturday, if I ride to the start and back that'll be a nice round 100miles.

2007 Charity Fund Raising

As my legs are still sore today from Sunday's marathon I thought I'd plug my fund raising activities this year for Action Medical Research. I have also now set-up an online fundraising page to make it really easy for money to be paid to Action Medical Research due to my activities. Rob's AMR sponsorship page.
The big event for me this year is Ironman Switzerland and all the training that goes with that. The training includes the 5k Swimathon and the Bungay Marathon both are big events in their own rights. I'm also going to ride in Action Medical Research's Castle 100 and their London to Paris bike ride.
You can sponsor me for any of these events at the link above (which is www.action.org.uk/~robertlines).
If you'd rather make a donation to Marie Curie who are the main charity behind the swimathon that can be done at www.swimathon.org
I'm also involved in a massive project for a new club house and boat house for Norwich Canoe Club and Norwich Rowing Club that would create a sporting centre of excellence. More on that at a later point.

Bungay Marathon

Yesterday I ran the Bungay Marathon. It was my second Marathon and I ran it over an hour faster than my previous Marathon. I covered the undulating two lap course in a time of 3:39:15 (h:m:s).
Feeling pretty pleased with that.
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