Saturday 12 October 2013

Sept 16th to Oct 6th - no sign of slowing down for winter

I've gone and done it again and left it a few weeks since my last blog, but then again it's quite nice to look back and remind yourself what you have been doing.  I warn you now though, there will be all sorts of randomnous in this weeks blog.

As a first of here's a shot of a certain Manx Missile at the Tour of Britain time trial stage 3 starting at Knowsley Safari Park.

It was quite an entertaining day watching these guys demolish the 10m TT in around 20 minutes.

There was supposed to be photo of Bradley Wiggins, but he was riding so quickly I missed him.



Sept 16th - 22nd
Looking back it would seem I am on a bit of a training streak as I hadn't had a recovery day since the 3rd September and it would the following week before I took one.  Sometimes you just feel like going on and rather than a passive day of nothing I like to at least do an easy swim or turbo session.  That is exactly where the week started with a short swim at lunchtime.  The remainder of the week was a mix of short sessions as I had a race at the end of the week so wanted to keep the intensity up but duration down so I could arrive ready to race.  Day before the event (Friday) I did a swim/run brick at the gym, much to the bemusement of the regulars in pool as I arrived in a tri suit, swam 1800m and then dashed upstairs to do 20 mins easy running on the treadmill.  I normally can't stand treadmills to be honest, but it actually passed quite quickly (note to self, remember your headphones next time).
In the evening it was a trip across the Pennines to a village called Sharow nr Ripon for an overnight B&B stay here  http://www.halfmooninn.org.uk/
Saturday was a short drive over to Fountains Abbey and Studley Royal National Trust site for the Brownlee Super Sprint tri.  The event was fronted by the Brownlee brothers themselves who were there to race, though Alistair was only doing the bike leg due to the ankle injury he picked up the week before at the ITU Grand Final in Hyde Park in London.  I have to say the setting was lovely for the event and the weather thankfully good.  A short 400m open water swim in what was definitely not a warm lake was done in 7:05, a run up a steep grass bank to T1 and then onto the 2 lap 10k bike.  There were a couple of short climbs before dropping back through the park.  This section was fast, so fast in fact that I actually got told to slow down!!!!!!  Back into transition it was a short flat 2.5k run around the grounds with the finish going through the nave of the abbey, what an amazing experience.


The organisers had put on a great event, with a good quality sports bag and cap in the goodie bag and to top it off nicely Gail purchased a copy of the Brownlee's book which she then got autographed.
That should have been the end of the week, but on Sunday I still felt like training so did a steady aerobic session on the turbo.

Totals for the week
Training time - 7h22
Swim 2h50 - 7000m
Bike 3h - 68km
Run 0:50 - 9k

Sept 23rd - Sept 29th
20 days on the go it was time for a recovery day on the Monday, well deserved if I do say so myself. Tuesday it was back to the pool and the turbo in the evening, and i'm still rocking the trainerroad.com sessions, an example of one I did here  http://www.trainerroad.com/cycling/rides/406270-Stone-Mountain
Wednesday was an opportunity to go back to some of my old training grounds whilst working away and I managed to visit Ilkley Moor for a fell run http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/HX3RYXEU3ML6CZ7YXBQJA5QXQA  it was a bit grim as there was a lot of low wet cloud but great to be back there and thoroughly enjoyed it.
The rest of the week up to Saturday was a mix of swim, bike and run until Sunday where I was doing the Cheshire 10k.  It was a predominantly flat fast single lap course, as usual I started a bit to quick and coming up to 4k I thought I was going to be on for a sub 25 5k, but a slight incline knocked the pace down a bit. Nonetheless it was a good and tough race and a new pb of 50:57


                           

                  Race registration for Cheshire 10k





You would have thought this would have been enough, but when I got home I decided that I would also do a turbo session.
Totals for the week - 9h25
Swim 3h42 - 8350m
Bike 3h55 - 89k
Run 1h20 - 16k

Sept 30th - 6th Oct
I'm seriously enjoying training and was straight at it again on Monday even though I had raced the day before. I'm spending a lot of time here at the moment (my pain cave )
More turbo training on Tuesday as well as a swim session.  Wednesday was a speedwork day, in the pool but also in the evening doing hard lamp post reps and running drills.  Suffice to say I was definitely sore the next day, not from the running but the drills.  More swimming and turbo Thursday (i'm sweating just writing about it).





I was away for a wedding on Friday but sneaked in a short easy run in the morning, though it was looking like there might be a problem at first.  Thankfully my brother is the same size so I nicked a pair of his trainers (sshhh don't tell him)








Of course you would expect that would be the end, but in fact despite a day off on Saturday, I was at Oulton Park on Sunday for a sprint duathlon.  1 lap running, 5 laps cycling and a final lap on the run.  Totally traffic free and a unique experience, great day racing.  Steady run effort, but really put the effort in on the bike followed by hanging in on the second run, though my time wasn't that much slower than my first.
So that'e the previous few weeks and there is no sign of me slowing down, keep checking back for the next instalment.

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