The Week 15 IM Training Round up. Punctured.

Wednesday 19th February 2014

Cycling (01:05:03 / 16.05 Miles / 14.95 MPH / Cadence 74)

The commute to and from work.  This time Brendan joined me as he wants to build a bit of commuting cycling in to his training, as it basically is free miles.

Not the best of days for either of us really.  I punctured about 2 miles from home on the way in to work, and he punctured about 2 miles from work on the way home.

If I’d know how good he was at changing the spare, I’d have let him sort mine for me earlier in the morning.

It was a decent wee spin both ways, and the fact that it was half term and traffic was light was an added bonus.

Swimming (01:01:35 / 2350M)

Nothing else for it but to get back in the pool.  I was genuinely worried about this as my last decent swim was a fortnight ago.

I did find it harder going than I would have liked but the positive thing for me was that although I clearly have lost fitness and speed over the last couple of weeks, I was holding my own reasonably well and finished strong, which is a good sign.

Thursday 20th February 2014

Running (00:09:24 / 1.00 Mile /00:09:24 per mile / HRZ 2)

What a nightmare!

My quad muscles had been suffering a bit as I got back in to training, and the effect of this meant that as I ran, my sore quads couldn’t absorb the impact on my knee which was still not 100% right.

I got half a mile up the road and was limp-running, so instead of looking like  Gimp, I decided it was more intelligent to head for home.

The grand total of one mile was achieved.  Not a happy Bunny!

Saturday 22nd February 2014

Running (01:16:44 / 9.00 Miles /00:08:31 per mile / HRZ 2)

Trying to put the nightmare of Thursday’s run behind me I opted for a fairly flat route just out and back which allowed me to cut short and head for home if I felt any residual pain in my knee.

I’m delighted to say that it went well and apart from the obvious loss of fitness I was pleased enough with the run.  I did struggle a bit to keep the Heart rate at a controlled level at times but even with that I am still only about 15 secs per mile off where I was before the injury break, although I am about 10 BPM higher on the Heart rate, which is where the real sign of fitness loss shows through.

Still.  A run is a run is a run.

Sunday 23rd February 2014

Cycling (03:43:45 / 58.09 Miles / 15.60 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 79) Elevation Gain 756M

Waking up to the sound of a strong wind battering the house and rain being blown against the window my first reaction was to grab my phone, text Mark and tell him I was hitting the Turbo instead of going out for the planned 60 mile ride with him.

After looking out the window to see that it probably sounded worse than it looked, I decided to man up and get ready for going out.

I knew it was going to be windy one as the forecast had predicted 25MPH winds from the south.  I planned the route to allow for this which meant we had a supposed tail wind for about 20 miles home.  The bad news was that the first 35-40 miles would be more or less straight in to the wind.

Dutifully, Mark turned up bang on time and we set out.  We didn’t get very far.  Literally after about 20 metres, my chain came off.  It was a problem I thought I had solved.  The free hub on my rear wheel was no longer “free” and when I stopped pedalling it de-railed the chain.

A quick change of bike and I headed on the steel Donkey winter bike, which is heavier, slower, less comfortable and harder to ride, but sure it was only going to be 60 miles in the wind with hills!  Gulp.

The ride went really well and as predicted there was a definite “wind in the face” feeling.

Despite Mark getting a puncture at about 25 miles we made decent progress, although I did feel like I was slowing Mark down, but he was happy enough as he had knocked out a 70 mile hilly ride the day before along wit ha run straight after it, so this was a recovery ride for him.

The stretch from Lurgan to Scarva was tough going with a really strong wind right in our faces and at times I was pedalling fairly hard downhill just to keep going.

A Pit stop in Banbridge to top up the water bottle and refuel and we were on the homeward stretch with a tailwind.

The funny thing about a tailwind is that you don’t really notice it that much but I could feel the benefit of it and the average speed picked up a bit.

The good fortune ran out about five miles from home when I got a puncture too.  The same tyre that punctured on the run to work on Wednesday.

I found a small sliver or metal or a thorn type thing in the tyre and removed it, hoping that I had rectified the problem and I rode on home.

Mark was long gone as he had planned and executed a time trial down the Moira Road and by the time I got home he was probably at home having five rounds of toast and four scrambled eggs.  (not joking by the way!!)

All in all it was a tough but satisfying ride and definitely in the category of character and strength building.

Week 15 Summary

9 Hrs 40 Mins

Swim 2350M
Bike 106.7 Miles
Run 13.67 Miles

A strange sort of week, It actually turned out to be one of my better weeks for a while in terms of hours trained, but it just felt like it lacked a bit of quality.  Then again that is probably about right given that it was a come back week from injury.

Mostly I am just pleased to be back in to training again and feeling somewhere towards 90% injury free.

 

Hobbling back to training and chunks in the pool.

Monday 17^th February 2014

Cycling (17.17 Miles / 01:03:00 / 16.30 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 80 rpm) 242 M Elevation

Finally!  Back on the road again.

I had the day off work as the kids are on half term, so despite the rain I was determined to get out and test out my improving knee and see how it held up with a short ride. 

The great news is that my knee was brilliant.  Even though I was on my heavier winter bike and it was windy, I didn’t feel any soreness, even when having to push hard on some hills.

Apart from that side of things, the ride was good fun and I enjoyed being soaked and a key difference from previous wet rides was that I wasn’t frozen.  The weather was wet and windy but mild.  It made things a bit more bearable.

Swimming was cancelled tonight as someone decided to throw up in the pool, causing a Chernobyl style clean up operation and delaying the pool opening again until 8PM.

 

 

I couldn’t be bothered hanging around for the later session so I passed on it and will make up for it later in the week with another session to replace it.

Tuesday 18^th February 2014

Running (00:30:0 / 03.67 Miles  / 00:08:30 per mile / HRZ 2)

This was it.  A real test of the improving knee injury.  My first run since 29^th January, almost three weeks.

Normally this is my lunchtime tempo run, however I told Brendan that I would have to take it easy on pace and cut the mileage a bit.

He left me after about two miles and pressed on with his 10K while I headed for home.

I am delighted that it all held together and the pain I felt initially which was about a 4/10 gradually dulled throughout the run to about a 2/10.  I had a bit of restricted movement on the left leg, but nothing too major and I would guess that I’m about 85% repaired.

It is amazing though how fitness leaves so quickly.  I felt like I was working a lot harder than I actually was, and I know I have a lot of work to do to regain the fitness lost over the last three weeks.  The most important thing though is that I am back doing some training and I am desperate to have the injuries go away and allow me to get back to proper fitness levels.

 

Cycling (15.39 Miles / 00:50:46 / 18.2 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 90)

Turbo - Sufferfest - A Very Dark Place

 

Turbo session again tonight.  It really was a very dark place.

Just the three of us tonight but that didn't stop us flogging ourselves on this tough video.

 

It felt pretty good and I enjoyed the dark sweaty place that it took us to.

 

The Week 13 IM (Non) Training Round up.

Sunday 9th February 2014


Nothing. Zip. Nada. Zilch. Zippo. Nuttin. Zero. Big O.  Pretty much Bugger all!


That was the sum total of my training this week.
To say it hasn't been my best week is a bit of an understatement.


I missed training on Monday as I was away on Business but it was Ok as I had rejigged my schedule for the week and was confident of hitting out a solid week's training.


Tuesday morning and as they say, "all the best laid plans..."
On the way down the stairs on Tuesday morning I managed to stand on the kids school shoes which had been left on the stairs and I then proceeded to throw myself down the stairs on my back and flying through the stair gate at the bottom.


The end result was that I twisted my knee, hurt my back and whacked my elbow.  I was left in not particularly good shape.
That put paid to my training, and indeed walking, on Tuesday.


Thankfully the sore back and elbow cleared up quickly but my knee went up like a balloon and was stiff and sore.


Wednesday saw me still in quite a bit of pain but with a bit more mobility in the knee but I was nowhere near being able to run or cycle or even swim. 
On Wednesday afternoon I had to have tissue sample taken from my tongue as I've had a bit of an on-going problem with it over the last while.  So the end result of that was three injections in to my tongue, a 5mm sample of tissue taken out of it and 3 stitches put in. 
The whole thing really knocked the stuffing out of me and I have struggled with it since then.


For the best part of three says I couldn't eat solids and was in real pain.  It has eased off a bit since then and I have been able to eat proper food again but it is still pretty sore at times.


Generally I have been feeling sorry for myself all week then and everywhere I look I see people running and cycling and I feel totally helpless.


One of my highlights this week though was the Parkrun at Wallace Park on Saturday.  It was my friend Brenda's 50th Parkrun which is a great achievement and there were quite a few club mates doing the run too.  My Son Ben wanted to do the run, so I took him down and watched.
He did really well and knocked out a 5K PB with a 24.24 run.  Not too shabby at all.


I know that I have plenty of time left until Zurich and part of the reason I started  training earlier than I needed to was to allow time for injuries, however, I can't help but feel frustrated and under a bit more pressure to get back out there again.
Once again I am in that position between wanting to heal properly and the need to get back in action again.


My knee is probably about 80% right at the moment and I feel like I could cope with swimming OK, and possibly a bit of biking.


I'm in London now for a few days and will take the training gear with me on the off chance that it feels good enough to maybe hit the stationary bike or treadmill at the hotel.


We'll see how it goes but I am hopeful of at least getting off my arse next week.

Horse walking and the Week 12 IM Training Round up.

Wednesday  29^th January 2013

 

Running (00:37:02 / 4.60 Miles / 00:08:02 per mile / HRZ 2)

Medium Tempo Run

 

A lunchtime run with Brendan again but this time I wanted to just ease off on the pace very slightly from our usual tempo pace as I was still conscious of protecting my knee a little bit.

Happily I felt no ill effect and we managed to hold a very steady pace throughout the run.  It’s lovely to be able to run this sort of pace and not feel too pressed.  That’s a big step up for me over the last six months.

 

Swimming (01:01:26 / 2150M)

Endurance Session

 

This was another good swim session, this time with Arran taking the helm as Coach and doing a good job at it.

After the triumph of my 1.43 / 100 at Monday’s training I was feeling confident.  Interestingly with another times session at the end of this one my tempo pace 100M split fell down to 2.00Mins.  Quite a bit slower than Monday night and it was probably a combination of my legs being a bit tired after the run at lunch and also a more endurance focussed swim set taking it out of me a bit before hitting the 100s as part of a tortuous Pyramid set that Arran devised.

I’m not going to feel demoralised over it as hitting 2.00 / 100m at the end of a tough set is still not too bad.

 

I’ve started thinking about how I may need to start working on increased endurance fairly soon, and by that I mean steady state swimming for an extended period of time.  The training at the moment is brilliant in terms of building technique and blending with endurance but I just feel like I should be doing some training where I just go and swim 2500-300M straight and not worry about particular skill based drills.  I might start taking advantage of some very early morning swims in another month or so just to start working on the swimming steady for an hour or so. I know it worked well for me last time around and hopefully if it is on top of the excellent coached sessions it will give me a further boost.  I’ll not rush to any decisions yet but that’s just where my head is at now.

 

Thursday 30^th January

 

Cycling (01:01:36 / 15.56 Miles / 15.2 MPH /HRZ 2 / Cadence 76 RPM)

Commute

 

The usual run up and down from work.  The only notable thing was my slightly faster return home than normal.  It could have been due to lighter traffic or maybe that I was trying to ride a bigger gear.

I read an article about increasing strength and power on the bike, which is something I definitely need to do, a I feel like I lack power and therefore speed.  The article suggested riding for some time in a gear that is one or two more than I would normally ride.  Therefore it increase the resistance and forces activation of bigger muscle efforts.

 

This is the antithesis of what I have been focussing on which is high cadence and turnover of the legs but I’m wondering if a combination of both elements within my training will yield some results.  So I am going to try to use the commute each week as a big gear grinding session to build strength.  This will be particularly challenging on the way home as it is a net gain of about 200m in elevation over 8 miles in a big gear.  Great fun.


Sunday 2nd February 2013


Cycling ( 03:13:28 / 52.59 Miles / 16.30 MPH / HRZ 2 / Cadence 81 RPM)
Sunday Long Ride


I was actually meant to do my long ride yesterday but I wimped out due to the weather.  Wimp might be a bit strong, as there was snow on the ground and a gale blowing but nonetheless I didn't go out.
So Sunday rolls around and it turned out to be a really lovely day so I was going to make the most of it.
Clear skies, no rain, oh and a fairly stiff breeze.  Well you can't have everything.
As part of my ride I had arranged to meet up at the Down Royal Racecourse with some boys from the Club so that we could do a test run around the bike course of out upcoming Duathlon.
This went well and the course is good and has the potential to be fairly quick.


Back at the Down Royal we all witnessed one those surreal things that you really only see in Ireland.
inside the racecourse is a hard path which is the ambulance track used in the races.  Many people use this for walking their dog.
One man however decided that he was going to take things up a notch by walking his two horses on dog leads.  You heard me right!  He was walking two Shetland ponies on leads like they were dogs.
Very amusing.



I had a lot more miles to go so I hit out for the road again.  The next 10 miles or so were really windy and tight enough going.
Once I turned towards Lough Neagh the wind came round from the side a bit and it made things a bit easier going. 
Heading up the side of the Lough towards Glenavy the wind moved to being from almost behind me and I was able to make up for lost time and raise the speed a bit.
Sadly the tailwind left me at Glenavy and the road home was eight miles of face in to the wind grinding!


I am particularly pleased with the ride, the way I felt and the average speed given the conditions.

Week 12 Summary

8 Hrs 05 Mins

Swim 4350
Bike 92.70 Miles
Run 11.41 Miles

Hours trained was up a bit this week which is good, and the volume on the bike came up towards the levels I need to be doing as a minimum from now in.

It was a pretty low level on running this week but I'm not all that worried as running is the area where I feel I have a decent base of mileage and missing a long run won't make too much difference at this stage.

One of my highlights this week had to be the swim on Monday and it served as a bit of a confidence boost.

The next two weeks are going to be a bit challenging with some disruption as I'm travelling with work.  I'll make it work some how but I'm guessing that some sessions might need to be adapted.

A decent week on the whole and I'm ready for a good week ahead.