Chelmsford 10k, Sunday November 22nd (wk 7)

This 10k race was intended as a test of where I am with my training. The hope was that after a few weeks of speed work I'd prove to myself that I was making progress and was indeed becoming a better athlete.
The 40 minute 10k barrier has long been a goal and my PB of 41:15 was set 4 years ago. My coach was confident that I'd get a PB and stood a good chance of a sub 40.
In hind sight the 1ks on Thursday should have been a prediction of how the race would go yesterday. It was similarly windy with a twisty and slightly undulating course. For a 10k it was surprisingly, and confusingly, marked out in miles rather than kilmeters.
My time was 42:28.
Not even close to what we wanted. I'd have settled for sub 42, but didn't even get that.
For sub 40 I needed sub 4 minutes per kilometer (sub 6:26mpm) and for a pb sub 4:07 (6:38mpm).
There was a good turn out and a fair amount of josselling at the start.
Managed 6:35 for the first mile, so that 40min was already off the cards, but PB was still there.
6:37 for the second mile and the PB is still possible. The 40 is going to be hard and I'm already feeling the effects of my exertions.
7:04 for the third. Oh dear. That's my mile pace of my half marathon PB and to do a sub 90 minute half I need to be doing 6:52.
6:56 for the fourth. Well, at least I've sped up from the third.
6:56 for the fifth. Some consistency.
6:57 for the sixth leaving 1:22 for the final 0.22 of a mile.
Average heart rate was 160bpm, max of 167bpm and didn't feel that I could have given anymore on the day.
42:28 I know is an okay time. I can remember back to a time when I was aiming for 1hour for 10k, but I can't help but be a little disappointed. As we learn more from our mistakes than our successes hopefully this will be a learning point. Should I reset expectations more accurately? Was the wind such a factor? Had a tapered right? Had I trained too hard earlier in the week? Had blood doning taken more out of me than expected? Was I too tired? Was I dehydrated? Was I just not focused? Do I need more 10k race experience? Was my pacing slack?
We'll find out over the next couple of weeks with a half marathon and a full marathon coming up.

Tapering
Since the efforts on Thursday the only training I'd done was an hour swim on saturday in a 50m Sportspark pool:
1200m warm up as 200 f/s, 200 drill-swim, 200 pull, 200 drill-swim, 200 pull, 200 f/s
4x 100 on 1:40
400m with 30s rest
4x 100 on 1:35
400m with 30s rest
4x 100 on 1:40 (had planned on 1:30, but wasn't quick enough)
200m warm down

Windy 1km efforts

Not sure if I found today's 4x 1k efforts particularly hard due to the efforts of the last couple of days, blood doning on Tuesday, 20mph head winds or a combination of the lot.

The aim was to do the 1km efforts at 3:50 and then have 2.5min rest between each of them. Times were 3:53.6, 4:05.5, 3:56.2, 3:51.5. The second and fourth were into the wind. Thought I was going to have to stop on the last one.

Raising awareness of prostate cancer - http://uk.movember.com/mospace/374624

Bike Turbo session Wed 18th November wk 7

Today's training involved a bike effort session on the turbo trainer. For the uninitiated that's a stationary device that enables a bike to be ridden without actually going any where.
The Tacx Flow that I have allows for variable resistance and provides stats on what you are doing.
Since I had a hard run yesterday and gave blood I was cautious about not over doing it. But felt good so went with it.
The session involved a 15 minute warm up. 10 minutes at a cadence of 90-95rpm and 280+ watts. 5 mins recovery. 10 mins at 95-100rpm and 290+ watts. 5 mins recovery. 10 mins at 100+ rpm and 300+ watts. Then 15 minutes warm down.

Numbers from the turbo:
Session duration of 1:10:02 cobering 25.8 miles, well rear wheel anyway. Takes the total on the turbo to 2,093.8 miles. Max speed this evening of 31.3mph and an average of 22.1mph.
Legs turned over 6,515 times with a max of 113rpm and an average of 93rpm.
The session used up 884kCal and my max power output was 346watts and the average was 220watts.
Throughout this my average heatt rate was 123bpm and my max was 155bpm

Being stationary in the garage for over an hour is a bit boring so helpinge through the session was Depeche Mode 101.

Raising awareness of prostate cancer - http://uk.movember.com/mospace/374624

Wk7 Tuesday 17th November

Had a good day today.

Made it to UEA Sportspark for an early morning swim. Had set myself a session of 600m warm up including 400m of drill-swim, 10x 200 on 3:20, 16x 25 on 30 and 200m warm down.
Found Oli Milk in the lane next to me when I arrived and he was doing 8x 200 on 3:15. His presence helped me to doing all 10 in under 3 mins and 7 of them in under or on 2:55.
Oli then joined me for the 25s and his presence on my heals helped me to 20s for each of them.
There was another Oli in the lane the other side. Young Oli Rix from Norwich Canoe Club - another ex swimmer that knows the value of swimming for paddling. After the session I spotted him inHis GB track suit. Well if you've got it flaunt it.

Run efforts of lunchtime saw Lynn Emmett and I doing 10x 400m efforts on Whitlingham Lane. Was really pleased with how consistant they were: 1:32.9, 1:31.9, 1:29.8, 1:30.1, 1:29.5, 1:32.2, 1:27.7, 1:31.2, 1:28.5, 1:27.3

Gave blood after work. Received a present from the NHS as thanks for my 25th donation. A nice little label pin, though I was hoping for chocolate when I saw the box. Figure I'm allowed some this evening, so now on a mission to find some.

Raising awareness of prostate cancer - http://uk.movember.com/mospace/374624

Sent from my iPhone

Sunday wk 6 - Norfolk Nips Audax

Schedule said Norfolk Nips Audax. However that was on the Saturday not the Sunday. I do feel sorry for the guys who did do it on the right day. As we'd missed it, and because Will Hall and Jonathan Briggs were also after a ride we did our own 100k audax. Well, okay it was 99k.
My legs felt heavy. The didn't want to turn round at 90+rpm, nor did they want to work hard enough to get my pulse up to 75%. I hadn't been set any targets in either regard, but after the previous weeks ride I was a bit disappointed with how I'd ridden. Though guess I should be too disappointed with 17mph average over 3:45 when feeling tired.

wk6 Saturday Brick sessions

Glad this was another turbo based session as it was throwing it down. Glad I wasn't out on the bike in it, though did have to venture out on a couple of runs in it.
Session involved:
20 minute warm up on the turbo.
20 minutes hard on the turbo at a pace sustainable for 30-35minutes. Was hoping to do 260watts, but it proved hard to maintain 250watts. In fact it was hard to maintain a cadence of 90bpm (cadence is the rate that the legs are turning over at). Guess the turbo thursday was too hard and I hadn't flushed it out on the friday - active recovery can be better than rest.
After the hard bike I then had to go out for a 2mile run at faster than 7mpm pace.
10minute recovery back on the turbo
20 minutes hard on the turbo for a second time
2 mile run at 7mpm for a second time
Then a 20-30minute recovery ride on the bike. Schedule said to do this out on the road. I opted for the turbo.

wk6 Friday - Rest