Week 14

Week 14 has gone pretty well so far, despite the snowy, icy conditions.

Monday went for a 6 mile run at lunchtime with Jeff Lansdell and Paul French. Even with icy footing on the Eaton6 route we managed 7:52mpm pace. We've been encouraging Paul to consider doing a race and on this run he started talking about doing one. He is thinking of the Norwich Half in November, so as to give himself plenty of time to prepare. I reckon he is capable of a sun 40min 10k right now, so by then I believe we'll get him to a sub 90 half.

In the evening went for a massage with Becky Schofield. As she is due her second child in 6 weeks this will be my last massage with her for a while. I'll be booking sessions with Jude Durrant now.

Yesterday, Tuesday 5th Jan I managed to get up and go for a swim. Due to the conditions I drove rather than cycled. Makes the journey between pool and work a bit difficult but at least I make my swim. A solo 2 mile session in a 25m UEA pool that took 55 minutes.
A warm up consisting of 300m where each 3rd length was one arm fly and then straight into 400m as altering 25m f/s drill and 25m f/s. 200m pull. 1500m steady counting strokes per length, most were 19, a few 18 and a few 20. The 1500 took 23:40. Not a great time, averages 1:35 per 100 and would make a 59:57 3.8k swim. Really ought to be at 4,000m per hour pace or faster (sub 1:30 per 100m). Think I may have done 50m too much but not certain of that.

At lunchtime it was particularly slippery and we opted for a route that gave us as much off road as possible. The route totaled 6.8 miles and took us 56:30 so that's 8:20mpm, but we were held up crossing roads in a few places. Seven of us went out and Simon Black challenged us to make an anagram of our surname initials. I made BAGELLS which I think should win, but then I do seem to think with my stomach.

Went home via Pedal Revolution. Bought some different aero bars to try on the time trial bike and also a mountain bike. This bad weather does seem to be set in and the forecasts say that we've got it for the next couple of weeks. Yes a bit extravagent, but money I got for Christmas covered more than a third of the cost (fortunately there was a sizable discount because it was a 2009 model). At least now I can ride on some off road routes and have something that has more grip in the snow, plus I've got something should the inclination arise to do Dusk til Dawn.

Once home I attempted the week 14 turbo session from the "24 weeks to Ironman" book. Not sure if pumping up the tyres to 100+psi on a cold evening was a wise move as 54minutes into the session the power I was producing dropped by 10%. The session involved 4 efforts at 300 watts. A 10 minute effort, then 8 minutes, then 6 minutes, then 4 minutes. The first one was 300 watts at 95-100rpm. The second and third was more like 280-290 at 95rpm, but come the forth, whilst still in the same gear and at the same cadence the power was only 250-260watts and when reving up at the start of the effort I could feel the tyre slipping on the roller. I quit the session at this point and inspected the equipment. The roller is now worn where the tyre presses against it, but more noticable was the lack of air in the tyre. There hadn't been a bang, and no indication of previous flints in the tyre. The tyre, a race spec one, is a couple of seasons old, so getting on a bit and the inner tube almost certainly the same age.

Wednesday, today, I had hoped to get a good medium length run in (8-10miles). But didn't do anything. In fact didn't go to work or anything at all. A sore throat last night stopped me from sleeping. Then this morning in addition to the sore throat I generally felt achy throughout especially in the stomache. Stayed in bed until afternoon. Stared out the window at the falling snow for a short while and was impressed with how much needed to be brushed off the car before I good go to the supermarket for a food shop and to buy some throat medicine. A lazy evening writing this blog report (took a while, I'm still trying to learn a new graphics package) though I did do some sit ups, press ups, tricep dips and functional stability exercises. Monday remains the only day so far this year that I've missed on this resolution. Feel much better now, will have to see how I feel tomorrow, hopefully good enough to train and to work.