Spinning at The YMCA.

Tuesday 20th November 2012

Cycling
Spin class (50 Mins)

My first time at the Tri Club spin class tonight.
I was a bit anxious as I didn't really know what to expect.

I have to say that I really enjoyed it, apart from the fact that I was a complete dipstick and didn't wear cycling shorts and the usual undercarriage chafing ensued.
Why the hell did I not think that I would need cycling shorts at a SPIN class? What a tube!

The class was a really good workout and the little core session off the bike half way through was a lovely little break. NOT!

I did feel like on of the Village People as both Chris and Dessie are doing Movember and there was a definite YMCA vibe going on - thankfully we avoided doing the actions as that would have probably killed me off completely.

I'm really enjoying mixing it up a bit in my training now with the Spin, Circuits and Pilates.  It's just making things a little bit more interesting and I hope that it will improve my core strength, flexibility and anaerobic capacity.

Gazelle to Buffalo in half a mile and drowning to the left. Confidence kicked.

Monday 19th November 2012

Running
(2.64 Miles / 00:10:24 per mile)

Another Monday, another Yasso (half mile) speed session.
This time the goal was 3 X half mile at 3mins 30 per set with a 3 minute recovery between sets.
I was unsure how this would go today given that my hamstrings were still a wee bit tight after the 10K race on Saturday but I decided to harden up and get out and do it.
The wind along the Ormeau embankment had picked up and given the curving nature of the embankment I always seemed to have a wind either in to me or really strong from the side. The second set in particular was very hard.
It is amusing that the first couple of hundred metres of each set when the legs are fresh or rested feels great – the legs feel light and the feet feel like they are floating and gazelle-like on the African savannah. (That’s the first time that phrase has been used in association with me I bet!)
Then the reality, and Lactic acid kick in and the Gazelle suddenly becomes a Buffalo and at the end the Lions have caught me and all that’s left is a big heap of an animal snorting and blowing, unable to take another step.
Despite that, I was pleased to knock the 3 sets out in 3.18 / 3.27 / 3.27. Pretty consistent running, although I must confess to feeling completely knackered after the 3rd one and just about managing a slow jog back to the gym to change.
A pleasing set and I know that this will do me good in the long run.
Next week I am supposed to step up to 4 of these at 3.30 per set – that might be a bit of a challenge but we’ll see how it goes. The Buffalo is getting faster – and that’s No Bull!

Swimming
(Tri Club – Sets and Drills – 50 Minutes / 1500M approx.)

This was probably the hardest set we have done at swim training so far.
The big focus was on bilateral breathing and technique to maintain form, rhythm and body position.
I found this really tough going on my bad side – breathing to my left. I normally only breathe to my right and changing to go to the other side was so hard. I honestly felt like I had forgotten how to swim and I was taking in huge amounts of water instead of air for a lot of the time when I tried to breathe to the left.
Sometimes the technique would click and I would get it for a few strokes or maybe a length, however, this didn’t last and as a bit of fatigue set in, the stroke completely went to hell.

Towards the end of the session my confidence was completely shot. I went from thinking of myself as an OK swimmer to someone who was really struggling to get the basics down.

I know that this is exactly what is missing from my training – the structure, discipline and technique focus that will lead to improvements for me and hopefully make my swimming more efficient and possibly faster. To be honest, at the moment I would take any sign of improvement over last night as a big success.

I have to take the knock from this session and lock in the learning and accept that while we are focussed on technique I am bound to find things a bit more of a challenge. It’s probably like trying to re-learn anything with proper technique – whether it’s a golf swing, running technique, even driving like we were originally taught – it’s all about going back to the basics that work and then build back up again.
What doesn’t make me drown will only make me stronger – although I might swallow a few gallons along the way!

Seeley Cup 10K - Race Report

Saturday 17th November 2012

Running
6.23 miles (10K) / 00:47:45 / 00:07:40 per mile / HR 122% Max

This event was always planned as an opportunity for me to go for a PB over the 10K distance based on a good block of training to improve speed.
This as you will know has sadly not been the case.  The speed training has been sparse, as has any real amount of running over the last 7 weeks.

I reset my expectations and realistically set out to just have a good run, push myself a bit and hold on - hoping to come in under 51 mins - which is just under 8.30 per mile.

There was a great turn out for the event with over 900, and it was the usual excellent organisation from Willowfield Harriers.

It was great to catch up with some familiar faces, fellow Ironman Donald, |Paul, Michael, Barbs and a few of the guys from the Tri club; Mark, Chris and Gavin.  They were flying the flag and had entered the event under the Tri club, which I think makes their results the first official race results for the Lisburn Triathlon Club. An important first!

As the gun went off I was quite far back and it took me a good 1K to get in to a steady rhythm although I did note that I was well below 5 mins for the K, and this would bring me in under 51 mins which I was happy with.

Early on I latched on behind a few guys, one of whom was wearing Tri shorts (don't ask how I know. I just know - as would most other triathletes) and the other was wearing a finishers t-shirt from another Tri.  They were consistently sitting at around 7.45 per mile pace and I thought I would try to hang on to them until I got tired and then drop off a bit.

passing through 5K i wanted to note the time it too to loop around to the finish line as I would have another lap to do and this would give me a good indicator of potential finish time when I got to the last lap.  As it turns out the time was six and a half minutes to get round to the finish area.

The first 2 laps went well and I was very pleased to be holding pace at around 7.45 pace.  And the best news was that I hadn't detonated and felt pretty strong.

With 3K to go I decided to press on the pace and see if I could hold together. Things started to get tough and the shoulders started to get hunched up.  i could hear the words that Oliver Harkin (our Club coach) had talked about at a seminar type event he took for us on the night before - relax the shoulders and keep the arms at 90 degrees.

I focused on this and concentrated on keeping the form and pushing through to the end.  As I crossed the mat where the 5k mark had been, I knew that there should be about 6.5 mins of racing left and that I could hurt myself for that length of time OK.

I really dug in hard and managed to pass quite a lot of people on the last 1K.  To be honest I don't think I was passed once in my last 3K.

I crossed the line and couldn't quite believe that my watch said 47.47.  This was a huge PB.  My previous best was 49.19.
(subsequently the official results show I had 47.45- even better. - averaging 7.40 per mile)
To make things even better, I managed a negative split by running the second half of the race exactly 1 minute faster than the first.

On the whole I am chuffed as anything at achieving this time and especially with the strength that I pulled out.  I firmly believe that the Ironman training has given me a lot of strength even if it is not raw speed at the moment.  I am able to prolong the hurt, which is always a good thing.

I look forward now to working more on the speed and hope that the injuries stay away.

This is a real confidence booster for the goal of going sub 4 Hrs in the London Marathon next April. 

Stretching myself

Friday 16th November 2012

Pilates 45 mins

Back to the pilates class today.
I really enjoyed it last time and I would like to stick at it now.

It is a slightly strange feeling to come away from the class not feeling wrecked or like a complete sweat ball.

I am not entirely sure if I am doing the exercises correctly. In fact I would say that I am NOT doing things correctly but I am blaming that more on my lack of core strength and flexibility rather than misunderstanding what I am meant to do.

Hopefully the shaking of my body on some of the excises will stop once I get a bit stronger.

Good fun though.

For every down there's an up!

Wednesday 14th November 2012

Running
(3 miles / 00:22:51 / 00:07:37 per mile)

Part of my approach to London marathon training is to include quite a bit more work at a pace faster than my desired marathon pace. Every week I hope to run a 3 mile time trial and the idea is. To. See the time drop and hopefully to get comfortable running in discomfort. Even if that's an oxymoron.

Tonight the mile splits were 7.29 / 7.33 / 7.49. That's not bad as the first mile is downhill and consequently the last mile is uphill, so the pacing wasn't too bad.

I'm happy enough but if I am to reach my marathon goal, I need to be able to do 26.2 miles at just under 1 min per mile slower than this.
That feels a really long way off but I have over 20 weeks and the biggest challenge is remaining injury free throughout.

300th Post - That's quite a lot. Circuits today.

Tuesday 13th November 2012

Circuits - 45 Mins

This is my 300th post in the Jellyman blog - i never thought I would keep it up that long, or indeed that it would have been read over 11,000 times.  I'll keep it going for a bit longer I think.

Back to circuit training today at the Gym.  First time back in over 6 weeks since the foot injury started up.

It went well but I know I will be a bit sore tomorrow.  Hopefully it will be  a good hurt.

Yassos and Lung busters.

Monday 12^th November 2012

Running

2.62 Miles / 00:27:07 / 00:10:21 per mile

A Lunchtime interval session today and thankfully no foot pain.

A wee bit of a warm up run at a very easy pace and then 3 X  ½ mile intervals at target pace of 3.45 (7.30 / mile) and 3 minute recovery between sets, then a short cool down run.

Everything went well to plan and each of the sets was completed under target time – coming in at 3.26 / 3.24 / 3.24 for the 3 X ½ mile sets.

These sets are basically a type of interval training called Yasso 800s.

I think I have mentioned them before. Designed by Running Guru, Bart Yasso – they are designed to help improve your speed in working towards a marathon. Simply put, you decide on a target marathon time, e.g. 3h 45m and then translate that to a 800M interval at 3m 45s.

Very simple but effective.

I have tried these before and they are effective and hard work.

The problem is that I have never really stuck at it properly the whole way through a marathon training schedule.  This time I hope to; a) be injury-proof enough to get through the planned schedule, and b) keep up the Yassos each week, along with some other intervals planned to improve my speed over the 26.2.

The plan is to increase the number of repetitions that I can do at target pace.  Ideally not increasing the number until I can achieve all within target pace.

At the end of this week I have entered the Seeley Cup 10K race in Ormeau Park in Belfast.  I had always intended this to be a bit of a crack at a new PB for the distance as I had hoped to have some decent speed work training under my belt over the last 8 weeks.  Alas this was not to be the case, so expectations of a new PB are probably pie in the sky and I think that anything under 51 minutes will be a bloody good result for me.  I know that I could hold 3 or maybe even 4 miles at 8 min mile pace, but I have no idea how much I will detonate after that and how much time I am likely to loose as a result – but we shall see soon enough!

 

Swimming

Training session with Tri Club - 1650M (Sets)

 

This was a fairly tough session tonight.  Plenty of work on the legs tonight, mostly with the fins on.

The sets of 25M race sprints at the end were an absolute lung buster but great fun to have a bit of a smack down race.  I actually surprised myself at being able to move relatively quickly in the sprint, even though I lost mine.  Good fun though.

Last Week – saw me get back to running for the first time properly in a while.  I managed a nice slow run in London and then a good lunchtime run later in the week.  4 miles which included a 1 mile warm up and cool down sandwiched around 2 miles at sub 8min / mile pace.

It felt comfortable enough and pain free also, which was encouraging.  The pace was even well under 8 mins at about 7.45 per mile when I pushed on a bit.

Just a wee one but it felt good.

Monday 5th November 2012

Running
3.00 miles / 00:31:01 / 00:10:20 per mile

Delighted to be out for a run tonight. Over in London for work and I just headed out for a nice easy slow run just to get a few easy miles on the foot again.
Thankfully it went well and I experienced no pain at all.
I really hope that it feels ok tomorrow. That will be the real test but so far so good.
I am just dying to get stuck in to my London Marathon training with some purpose now.
Here's hoping!

Remember me? No. I don't either!!

Sunday 4th November 2012

I have had a bit of a crap time for the last 5 or 6 weeks.  The lingering injury in my foot has been nagging at me still and I have only managed to run about 3 times in the last 6 weeks.  Pretty pish!

I have been to the Physio over the last 2 weeks and the pain from my toe had developed in to a fairly severe pain in my foot.
The physio diagnosed this as an injured tendon between the big and 2nd toe and it was aggravating a sheath covering the tendons on the foot.

He also recommended something that I had been told to do about 1 year ago and never did.  Go to a Podiatrist and get fitted for orthotics.
My big flat feet may well be catching up with me.
He also recommended that I should get an appointment to have an X-ray just to rule out any chances of something broken in my foot.

Now, I have been paying a ridiculous amount of money to BUPA private medical insurance every month for the last 19 years and thankfully it came in to its own this time.
I got a letter from my Doctor to authorise an X-ray, and I called the Ulster Clinic at 10.30 to book an X-ray.  By 12.30 I had been in, had the scan and had the all clear from the Consultant.
Now that's what I have been paying for all these years!  I like it!

So at least it was nothing broken and I had my appointment with my Podiatrist and I have to go back to get 3D scanned for orthotics. (not my foot below - mine is A LOT flatter than that one!)

I have enough time to do this and get used to them and get a decent run of training in before the London Marathon in April.

Over the last few weeks I have been able to get a wee bit of swimming and cycling done with the Tri Club, and although not really enough, it has been enough to keep me slightly active without aggravating the foot again.

I am keen to get back to running and while I am on London on business this week I aim to get in a very easy short run just to break my self back in gently.  I need to shift the 14lbs I have put on since finishing IM Frankfurt.  NOT GOOD!!

The Tri club has been going really well and we have a membership of 30 already within 6 weeks of starting.  The Committee are active and we are close to finalising the Club Kit and have a couple of great partners on board with us also.
Things are looking good.