of running and stuff

well i finally stored up enough motivation (or was it guilt?) to get back in the pool. having sought the advice of the wise ones on tritalk i ended up doing a depressingly familiar session:
300 warm up (6:04)
10 x 100 with 15seconds between.
200 cool down

unfortunately at the end of my 2nd 100m stint i realised that i’d set my watch to count down and stop.. not count down and start again, much cursing and pressing of buttons ensued meaning i got much more than my 15seconds rest.
another 100m passed and the chap doing breast stroke in the lane was at least keeping out the way. then disaster struck, old woman joined and determined to breast stroke in the lane (which is fine) at her own pace (which is also fine). but you’d think when if you got to the end of a length, turn round and prepared to push off and spotted me charging down about to make a turn, you may be polite enough to pause, but no off they go.

and of course i turn and push off and nearly ram straight into the back of them before i’ve even got a chance to take a stroke. overtaking is inevitable if there’s no one coming the other way (i only mowed down one lady last night doing this! sorry, i didn’t see you). if someone is coming the other way i tend to walk behind them just to make my point, and am often still in danger of overtaking them even then.

aaanyway, once i’d sorted my watch it was set to bleep every 2minutes 10seconds meaning i should have completed the 100, had a brief rest and set off when it bleeped. very quickly though with the stroker holding me up i found it was bleeping before i’d finished the 100 meaning i had to set off straight away. eventually the other lane cleared so i swapped into it for the last few hundred, i didn’t get any rest for several hundred metres but i did just about claw back my lost time by the end of the set.

ok… rant over… (grrrr)… must rush and get a haircut.

[todays swim: 1800m]
[this weeks totals: 1.8km swim 0miles bike 0miles run]

ok well last week was bad in terms of training, but probably good in terms of me! although i enjoyed the race last saturday, during fridays cack swim session i got the distinct impression i wasn’t enjoying training any more.

So i’ve had a no pressure week, which equates to not doing much! and whilst it was nice i’m now fretting that i missed nearly a whole week of training.

Finally managed to get myself down to the gym to join the runners on thursday and was rewarded with the honour of carrying one of the green first aid bumbags.
And so as not to become paranoid about swimming i went down on friday to make sure i could still do it, probably pootled up to 750m in the end, alongside someone doing the most bizarre drills i’ve ever seen.

In addition, today i have been tweaking my other bikes which havent seen light of day in a while. My mountain bike still works and got a little lubricating, feels weird to ride at first compared to the road bike but i always forget what fun it is to ride! And my old mountain bike is now a little project of mine, building it into a practical commuting machine.

Here are some piccies of my 3 babies:

road/tri bike	mountain bike	commuting bike project

[thursdays run: 3.25miles]
[fridays swim: 750m]
[this weeks totals: 0.75km swim 0miles bike 3.25miles run]

so about time i updated you all (y’all for my american readers) on my weekend.

not sure if i mentioned before but on thursday i discovered that the race i was dithering about doing on sunday was in fact on saturday (you follow?). didn’t stop me dithering mind.

but it was a localish 5miler, in fact one lap of the resevoir where ther 35mile race was in february. so i felt i ought to go and exact my revenge on it. however, being a little behind on my bike training i decided i ought to cycle there.

before i set off i checked out the weather station at the resevoir where the windspeed was something like 25mph, gusting to 44mph!

the ride there (15miles) was of course windy, mostly from the side (scary) and occasionally from behind (good!). the last stretch of road follows the back edge of the resevoir and the wind must have had a good mile of flat water/fields to gather itself up on, severl times i nearly got blown onto the verge! crazy condition but stopping wasn’t going to make things any better.

i had a good half an hour to lock the bike up, change shoes and enter the race. i met up with a bunch of runners from esporta (the gym i go to) and we walked to the start… which was tough enough straight into the wind, with me hanging on to my cap.

luckily the start was back the way we had just walked, so a quick about turn meant the wind was behind us, to start with at least.

the course started with a little climb, before a sharp descent and left turn to run along just down from the top of one of the earth bank damns round the resevoir. the wind gusting behind us at this point kept trying to push me over forwards, continually pushing us on. as disturbing a feeling as it was it certainly made life easier, and i seemed to be harnessing it better than some.
mile 1 passed and i realised how short a race this was! we turned sharp left and met the wind head on, it was well worth a little extra effort to catch someone in front and follow behind them out of the wind.
mile 2, nearly half way and the wind wasn’t easing off, a few people pass me only to fade shortly afterwards from the headwind letting me retake the place (not that i really cared).
another left menat the wind was blasting from the right, trying to steal my cap again and making breathing a challenge. a few times i picked up my foot only to have it blown into my other leg, making me wobble toward the kerb, i’m pleased to say i wasn’t the only runner having trouble!
i did muse about how best to form myself into an aerofoil and try to gain some forward ‘lift’ from the wind, but i couldn’t work out how to make the right shape, being fairly symmetrical as people tend to be.
left again and back into a bit of a tailwind i crossed the line in 33:48 & 39th place.

after some food and checking the results i struggled back the way i came, pausing a couple of times in a headwind that felt like at least 30mph. totally strength sapping, my journey home got broken into smaller and smaller chunks just to keep myself going. not sure how long the cycling took, somewhere under an hour each way.

todays weather had been bizarre, quite blowy still and alternately tipping with rain and blazing sunshine.
gardening & housework mostly today.

[saturdays race: 5miles]
[saturdays bike: 30miles]
[this weeks totals: 2.8km swim 42miles bike 16.24miles run]

suspicious aol search hit..ok own up?

been really tired today (my fault) and almost drove straight home rather than to the pool to do my swim.
decided on the way there i couldn’t be bothered with on of my usual sessions, just to do a 1500m steady time trial. i forgot my watch too which meant timing would only be approximate, but that’s not always a bad thing.

losing count of lengths is a real problem, i usually count in 50m’s so for a 25m pool that’s one count every time i get back to the wall i started at. and then i count up and down at the same time as a cross check… i.e. 1st 50, 9 to go….. 2nd 50, 8 to go etc. and for 1500m that’s 3 times 10 50’s.

by the time i got to 2-8 i felt tired, my arms were aching already, the pool was murky & i felt bad, and by 7-3 i was bored stiff. i considered stopping after the first 500m but i got to the wall to turn and kept going, about 2-8 in the second 500 i got a little tow off a faster guy for a few lengths.

by the end of the second 500m i was slowing and could feel my form was poor. not really much point in continuing and reinforcing bad habits so i stopped and called it a day there.

so 1000m in approx 21mins which is about on par for me.
as usual i stink of chlorine now, and it’s making me sniffly & sneezy.
can’t wait for the open water season!

[todays swim: 1000m]
[this weeks totals: 2.8km swim 12miles bike 11.24miles run]

well after getting home and being indecisive over a cup of coffee i decided to run to the gym tonight. beleive it or not it’s as much hassle and time to drive to the gym and get changed as it is just to run there.

home->gym 2miles 15:41
@ gym 6:04
gym -> gym 3.24miles 28:58
@gym 6:26
gym->home 2miles 16:15

[todays total run: 11.24miles]
[this weeks totals: 1.8km swim 12miles bike 11.24miles run]

yesterdays lunch time run was postponed to today.
legs are still tired and i was happy not to lead the way on this occasion, not that the pace my colleague set was an easy one! we did the 4mile ish loop even quicker than last week, he found it easier and i found it harder. 28mins 42 seconds is approaching 7min/mile which is pretty tough starting from cold.

problem is of course, today is the gym run too, i haven’t decided if i’m going to run there and back as well yet. probably ought to.

oh and latest interesting google search result

[todays run (so far): 4miles]
[this weeks totals: 1.8km swim 12miles bike 4miles run]

finally managed to get the bike out.
i checked it out the other weekend and fixed the puncture on my training wheels, was a bit sketchy as i hadn’t checked it was ok and i didn’t have another spare tube.

just my shortest regular loop of 12miles, the sun was going down and i knew i didn’t have long, but the sky was a pretty colour (prettier than this background). unfortunately by the time i got back it was pretty dark, ok to see where i was going but constantly on the lookout for the traffic.

i was going to do a run this lunch time but didn’t feel my legs had recovered enough even with tuesday off, and they felt pretty tired when i set off on the bike. i kept in the small chainring and span the legs out steadily. looks like i’ll need to do some more work to regain my bike legs in time for the tri season.

oh and monday was another swim, kept losing track of the distances and repeats and eventuslly got fed up, probably covered about 1800m in the end.

[todays bike: 12miles]
[mondays swim: 1800m]

it’s rare that i get to do anything ‘community spirited’ to do with running, as it ends up being very much an individual thing. you train alone, you race to beat your own times, you go home. if i was in a club i suppose i’d have more chance but even then time is limited.

so the taking part in a mass, non-competitive training run fairly locally was a welcome change, and a few weeks before the opportunity to help pace a group round tickled my fancy.

so i found myself toeing the line in a ‘pacer’ vest helping lead the 9min/mile group round a few laps of sutton park in birmingham. it was 3laps of 6miles plus an out and back for the final 2, the laps were mostly traffic free with one steep climb to deal with.
neil the other pacer lead the way with the 9min/mile lollipop and the magic gps watch, so there wasn’t too much for me to do except try and be consistent and try to keep an eye on the group, occasionally bringing up the rear.

it was fun seeing the other groups, certainly on the first lap closely bunched following their pacers, and interesting to see the groups fragment as people either pushed off the front or dropped from the back.

we made it round what was something over 20miles in 2:56 which is not too far off the target pace.

so thanks to the people who joined us for this jaunt, and thanks to runnersworld for the opportunity to feel a little bit community minded!

(as a secondary bonus i felt good & strong, and like i could have pushed on for another 6miles so hopefully stratford marathon in april should be another good one for me. reassuring since the rule of thumb of 2*half marathon time +20mins based on last weekends half marathon, is another 20mins quicker than my time at the draycote 35 race!)

[todays run: 20miles]
[this weeks run total: 27.5]
[this weeks swim total: 3.9km]

finally filled in the last day of our course in wales.
bit brief but more pics… see here.

ok been a bit slack updating this week…. it’s all in my head so i’d better get it down before i forget.

although i must just mention the statistics for this blog which are going well, and show you the page that referred each reader here. google results seem to like me although i must apologise to the person looking for photos of paula radcliff. people search for some bizarre things; like this which is weird enough but even weirder is the page seems to be in welsh (?), and i came top!

anyhow…

tuesday, rest day yay

wednesday, same run as last week with the same colleague although we have concluded the route is more like something over 4miles. a couple of minutes quicker than last week (29:29) and i could certainly still feel the effects of sundays headwind in my legs.

thursday, running at the gym again but taking it easy. what took 23mins last week took 29. and for a change i drove to the gym & back and stopped for a drink with them all afterwards.

friday, silly weather meant snow in the morning leaving the roads pretty tricky, even caught me out a few times and provided plenty of amusement at other people’s expense. it’s always nice to have a genuine excuse for a bit of handbrake intervention! in the end it took the best part of 2hours to get to work, most of it over the last 2miles which were gridlocked.
luckily it had pretty much thawed out by the time i headed home and off to the gym. getting to the pool mid afternoon ensured a lane almost to myself for most of the time. session 8 this time, which is pretty much just volume stuff.

having an extra day off today as i’m helping lead a pace group at the runnerworld 20mile training run tomorrow. so just a little bit of gardening and tea drinking!

[this weeks run to date: 7.5ish]
[this weeks swim: 3.9km]

[this weeks wines:
Bela Fonte, Touriga Franca/Tinta Roriz (apparently), portugese red.
Yallum Ridge, Shiraz, aussie red & can;t go far wrong with shiraz]