Oh dear

It really is a long time since I updated this blog. I fear that this item could become rather long as I play catch up on over two weeks modified exercise.

It's been cold and snowy. I can't remember having such a long sustained period of winter in my 40 years in the UK.

Early morning swim sessions have been adversly affected due to the cold. Either it's too cold for me to get my arse out of bed and/or the roads are that icy it's not wise to cycle to the pool.

A lot of the cycling sessions have become turbo sessions. Which isn't all bad seeing as it is giving me an opportunity to train on the time trial bike I wish to use for Ironman Australia. I can't see me getting out on the roads to test it before March. I will be in Lanzarote for a week in Feb and had been planning on taking the bike there, but taking to people today, I'm now not sure of the wisdom of a tt bike on a hilly island. Oh well, got a couple of weeks to decide.

Running though has been good. Some of the effort sessions have been put off, but I am still getting out and running. Typically tempo sessions and heading off road. Running on fresh snow is lovely. I'm being very cautious about my foot strike and I may be getting away from my heal strike which is a very good thing.

Anyway I need to provide an update on what I've been doing. But not right now. I will be back.

10mile run Wk 11 Monday 14th December

10miles at 7:30-8mpm said the schedule. Did 9.9 with Danny Mann at 7:45 and that was with traffic hold ups. First run since the marathon, legs hurt afterwards.
Was pleased with technique, especially to start with and tried to work on it all the way.
Route used: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3366879

Schedule for Weeks 11 and 12

Spoke to "The Coach" this afternoon and now have my schedule for the next two weeks, which takes us through Christmas. There might be some flexing to the following, depending upon how I'm coping, but the aim is:

Week 11
Monday - 10 miles at 7:30-8mpm
Tuesday - 5x 1k reps with 2.5minutes rest aiming at 3:45 for each km, Plus 2-2.5hr ride
Wednesday - a swim and an 8-10mile run aiming at 7:15 - 7:20mpm pace
Thursday - 2 hour ride (rockerstate ride if MTB operable)
Friday - 10x 400m run efforts aiming at 85s with 90sr.

Week 12
Monday - rest
Tuesday - 5x 1k reps with 2.5minutes rest aiming at 3:45 for each km, Plus 2-2.5hr ride
Wednesday - a swim and an 8-10mile run aiming at 7:15 - 7:20mpm pace
Christmas Eve - rest
Christmas Day - to be reviewed but 10x 400m targeting 85s on 90s rest or a bike session
Boxing Day - Groggy Doggy cross country run
Sunday - 2-3hrs harder than normal, working hard on all the hills.

Comrades - December Newsletter

Received both confirmation of my entry and the December Comrades newsletter.
I am one of 234 Brits entered in the race. Out of 61 countries represented, only South Africa has a larger number of entrants. With 21,221 entrants there are going to be an awful lot of Springboks.
Of the 21,221 entrants 5,775 of us are Comrades novices.

Week 10 - Rest Week

After a tough 3 weeks with 3 races and a recovery week has been earned. In fact a complete rest week has been earned. I'll be cycling in and out of work, but apart from that there will be nothing.
No running, no cycling and no swimming.
Best make the most of it. With little over 3.5 months to go now to Ironman Australia the next 2.5 months are going to be getting progressively harder and with short day light hours and the worst of the British Winter to train through, things are going to be interesting.

Luton Marathon, Sunday 6th December

Third successive Sunday race and it has rained heavily on route to car park and Race HQ. And for the third time it cleared before the race started. I was amazed at how quickly the route dried out. In the 8.75mile circuit. There was only one puddle. We were directed into a holding pen where we lined up according to our estimated finishes times, then walked out onto the road for the start. Smart move as this meant we weren't milling on the road and holding up traffic ahead of the start, but with the start being on traffic baring road there was no timing mat at the start, so I'm a little confused as to where the start line actually was. The race involved 3 circuits around a rounte that departed Lea Manor Recreation centre, cut round housing estate lanes and parks before running northbound alongside the A6 to Streetly where it was a rurual route to Leagrave to then cut alongside another park to complete the lap. We'd received a few comments about Luton being unsafe, but this route seemed fine. There had been 800 individual entries plus a further 200 Three person relay teams. The rain must have put a lot of people off as there were only 400-450 individual finishers. Just as well the numbers were down as the first 3 miles were narrow and technical with little opportunity to overtake. I used the conjested start as an opportunity to restrain myself and warm up before trying to settling into an 8mpm pace which I then held upto 20 miles. I slowed noticeably in miles 21 and 22 where a hill caused me to walk. I then walked again for a little bit at 23 miles and then up a hill within mile 24. Pleased to report that I ran from the final water station to the finish and posted a time of 3:42:59 (official gun time). I'm content with that it's only 3 minutes off my PB. I'd traveled down with JT and Philippa Rudd they posted times of 4:14:59 and 4:18:35 respectively, both 15+ minutes off their PBs. Does that mean my time was 10-15 minutes off a potential PB?

Saturday week 9

The day before the Luton marathon and just an easy swim to ensure I'm fully rested. Though not feeling well at work on the Friday and finding the swim hard work I'm no longer looking forward to the marathon.
Swim session comprised:

1200m as 200 f/s, 200 pull, 4x100 drill, 200 pull, 200f/s continuous

4x 200 on 3:20 (managing 3:05-3:15)

35 minutes starting 9:25pm , 44spl, but not feeling great