June 17th - 23rd - busy week

Well it's been a week of all sorts,

Mon through to Wednesday was fairly steady on the training as I didn't wan't to overload myself for what was to come.

Thursday was the the Warrington 10k, held in the evening and starting in the park at Woolston.  Pretty much a flat course, though technical with lots of changes of direction and surface.  In the end a good run, great sprint at the end and a finish time of 53:56; this is an improvement of 6 minutes over my time at the Lymm 10k.

Easy swimming and turbo session on Friday to try and get rid of some of the lactic and ease the muscles.

Saturday I went to Pennington Flash (the venue for the Ironman UK swim), after I managed to pick up a wetsuit for a bargain price from the Bay of E.

This was for my first open water swim in 11 years.  OMG sums it up nicely, it was great, I dropped straight back into it like I had never been away, in the end I had to force myself to stop as I would have been in there all day otherwise.  3 laps of the short course and 1 of the long course in the end and 1.2 miles.  Suit felt really comfortable so makes the price I paid all the better.

In the afternoon it was time for the last round of the North Cheshire 5k Grand Prix series at Lymm.  It had been described as a "cheeky" course and they weren't wrong with a series of descents and climbs to sap the leg strength.  Considering how sore my legs still were from the 10k on Thursday I was pleased to get round in 26:35 on a testing little course.

Sunday was supposed to have been a early group ride, but high winds and driving rain caused it to be called off, so I decided to take on an epic (by my standards anyway) turbo session with one a Spinerval aerobic compilation, 2h10m later there was a bloody big puddle on the floor.

According to the file upload to Training Peaks I had burnt 1800 calories on the ride so treated myself to this, nom, nom nom.

Next Sunday is the the Darwen Triathlon so hopefully all of this training will bring about a good days racing.

June 10th - 16th a fairly ordinary week

The week started off well with a weigh in as I hadn't done one for some time.  I knew I had plateaued at around 16 stone so was pleased to see I had now dropped to 15s9lb thanks to a few small changes I had been making with my food.

Despite the monster bike ride I had done on the Sunday in the Peaks I did an easy run on Monday evening with Amanda, surprisingly my legs felt ok and no detrimental soreness or problems.

The rest of the week saw a mix of the usual swimming and turbo sessions, though on Thursday I was back to Dunham Massey for Round 4 of the North Cheshire Grand Prix series.  This time we ran over the same course but in reverse and it was noticeably quicker.  I was pleased with a new 5k PB of 25:40

Threshold turbo session on Saturday and a hard swim set, Sunday was a long ride around the leafy lanes of Cheshire for a couple of hours, certainly a nice way to start the day.

The week to come has two races, with a 10k on Thursday and the final 5k on Staurday.  Only two weeks to my second sprint tri, getting excited as should be out on the race bike this time.

June 3rd to 9th - ends in bike hell

Lots of training this week, plenty of swimming which I am really enjoying, and really pleased to set a new 400m pb at the end of the main set on Wednesday; previously 7:35 and put in a 7:30.   No idea where that came from but chuffed it's all going the right way.

Thursday was round 3 of the North Cheshire Grand Prix series in Bowden nr Altrincham.

It was a nice evening and thankfully it had cooled a little for the start.  2 laps that was flat and predominantly on road with a small section going through the Devesdale.  Finish time was a little slower than round 2 in 26:17, but happy with the result, enjoyed the race.  Next week we are back to Dunhan Massey for round 4.

Sunday ended the week on a monster bike ride in the Peak District, 48 miles of hills including Snake Pass and Holme Moss and lots of other nasty ones in between.   Main mistake was trying to do the ride on a 12-23 cassette. It was a lovely day for a ride and enjoyed the effort but I think I was a little ambitious in attempting it at all, but it will stand me in good stead for future training efforts.

It's been 43 weeks since I began my journey back to fitness, looking back day one was a bike to and from work.  Things have progressed nicely since then, swimming is coming along nicely and I am enjoying myself.

So what has this weeks training brought;

Friday I did one of the master sets that Sarah Mclarty from the US puts up on her blog.  These are worth a look if you want to spice up the swimming a little.  It was a moster session as I covered 4100m which I the longest single swim set I have ever done.

http://mastersswimworkoutsbysaramclarty.blogspot.co.uk/

Saturday was the second of the North Cheshire Grand Prix 5k series races, and first time ever I have been able to walk from my house to a race start as it was within the village of Hollins Green.  As a warm up for the event I did a 32 min Spinervals session and it paid dividends in the run as my legs felt fresh and ready to run quick from the off.  

Final result was a new pb of 25:49 so 2 mins quicker that last weeks event at Dunam Massey.

I also went out for ride on Sunday, but had to cut is shorter than intended due to bloody traffic near Tattonm Park yet again blocking my route to Knutsford.  That's twice now this has happened and forced me to go down the A556 which is a fast A road and not my ideal route to be riding.

Totals for the week:

4 swims, 4 bikes and two runs, a total training time of 10h 22m.and 110km covered.