Tuesday Run session

A great run session on Tuesday. I rode over there as I didn't feel like the 5k run there and back with a hill session in the middle!

The main session was done on a longer hill near springfield park. We did some running drills to warm up the muscles and then did 5 reps on the hill, every rep concentrating on something different.

1st rep - Steady pace to record a base time
2nd rep - Concentrating on body position
3rd rep - Concentrating on cadence on the up hill and seeing how it affected us
4th rep - Running forwards then switching to running backwards after 20 strides
5th rep - Steady pace, concentrating on all of above

This was followed by a gentle jog back to Millfields park and a 5k ride home.

The weather looks like it is turning for the worse - shit

A decent week

Overall this week has been pretty successful, I only missed one session and nailed the others, so I'm pretty happy especially as the 2 weeks prior had been very poor.

Friday - This was the missed swim session but I did jump on the turbo after work. A 45 min workout at a steady pace. Also as a warm up, 1 min in each gear on the rear, which is quite a toughy considering on my turbo wheel I have an 11-21 cassette, coupled with the fact that the CycleOps fluid 2's resistance is much harder than the road, needless to say, it raised my HR a beat or 50.

Saturday - Yesterday I went with my coach to do some bike drills and a 10mile TT. This was done on a 1 mile stretch of road with a roundabout at each end. The road was reasonably quiet and safe and on every loop I shouted out my HR, so next time we have some benchmarks and can measure any progress. I did it in 29mins, average speed 31km/h, which, considering the time of year and the base work Ive been doing (and lack of speed work), I was reasonably happy with. Once my build work starts I would hope to average 33/34km/h if not more.

I bought some second hand Oval clip-on TT bars for my bike as I wanted a change from the ones I have... what a mistake, they are not comfortable and not long enough, Ill be putting the old ones back on and sticking with them I think!

Heading out for a run now then into the gym for some core and weights work.

Back to the water

Went for a swim yesterday, just over to the local pool for 45 mins to get back in the swing. The pool was rammed, very very busy and the swim wasn't very enjoyable - should have just stayed in bed for another hour!

CycleOps sent me out a resistance unit replacement, free of charge and they didn't even want the old one back - now thats what you call customer service. Unfortunately it didn't arrive until after 7 so didnt have time to use it (as planned), so today was a rest day.

Hopefully I will get out of bed in the morning and go to the swim session, I really need to get into it again.

Tuesday Run session

Back to the Tuesday run sessions, the club run session conducted by the same guy who coaches me. Its a 5k run there and a 5k run back plus the session so is a decent, challenging session. Sometimes, I may cycle there but as my bike is missing a tyre I couldn't even consider it.

I was up at 5am and out the door by 530am, a steady pace to cover the 5k in 30 mins and made it just by 6am. We (5 of us) head off to Springfield park area where there is a shortish hill which is perfect for repeats and drills.

We started off by doing drills of heel flicks, high knees, side stepping, lunges and reverse lunges, each time moving up the hill and on each repeat going further up it. Following this, we did a main set of reverse running up the hill followed by side stepping down, holding a steady pace up and not slowing when reaching the summit. Then we did 3 full hill repeats forward running looking to reach maximum power at the summit and gentle jog back down.

This was an hour in total followed by a warm down run back to Millfield Park. I then ran the 5k back, again at a steady pace covering the 5k in 30 mins.

As always I enjoyed this session and look forward to more hill work next week, even though the hills don't compare to those I conquered in the South of France.

On to something a bit different; my wife has started a blog (not training, triathlon or anything sweat inducing but very good) and I wanted to post it on here for my readers (do I even have any? doubt it) to see - Love, Lemons and Lenses

And, my Father-in-law has also begun a blog, something a bit more serious - Poleminous Speaks

Have a read of both

Shitty Sunday

I was hoping today was going to be productive day as far as training was concerned. I had planned, as said below in previous post, to go to Regents Park and work on some cycling drills and do a 40k TT. All was well, the weather was looking good and I headed out, until, I got a puncture, about 1.5km from my home along Holloway road. I have never had a puncture before and have limited inner tube removing/installing experience but I gave it a go anyway and ended up pinching the new inner tube and puncturing that too.... what a dillop.

I walked back and re-inspected the tyre and tube and found a big cut in the side of my tyre wall, I then repaired the two inner tubes and installed them correctly and re-inflated to see the inner tube bulging out of the big gash in my tyre.... great... I need a new tyre, I need a new stock of inner tubes, there goes another £50. I'm currently using Continental Gator Skins, up until now they have been a solid and impenetrable so I'm going to put my faith in them again.

So the ride was out, I thought I would try and fix my clicking turbo and hop on that... no chance, the clicking will not stop and is unbelievable annoying and I'm going to have to post it back to Wiggle for them to fix which means I will be turbo-less for god knows how long.

So in summary, today has been a humongous failure. On the bright side though the missus and I are going to see Cirque du Soleil tonight which should be pretty amazing.

Here's hoping my training will get better soon!

Weekend

Well the weekend arrived and as I haven't done a great deal of training this week I thought I better get some in. Today I went out running this morning, 13k in 1hr 5mins, so not overly fast but a bit more effort than my usual endurance low effort runs. I headed over to Highgate West Hill, a favourite spot of my to run now, the hill always makes the legs ache and HR rise but no pain no gain! My Base period is coming to an end soon and I'm looking forward to some Build work, some bricks and high intensity to get the speed back in my legs!

Tomorrow I'm planning on getting out on the bike. I'm going to head to Regents Park and do some technique work and maybe a TT of some sort... I'm thinking 40k, again this will be a much higher effort than previous Base work but my coach has given me a bit of freedom this weekend with it. Ill report tomorrow.

Further info; Monaco 70.3 is now dead, the event organisers, Triangle Events, have pulled out from organising any tri in Monaco. However, a company called Star Events have taken it upon themselves to organise one there but it won't be an Ironman branded race or even a middle distance event, in fact, it will be an odd distance event - 1km swim, 100km bike, 10km run... a bit shorter than my goal so Vitruvian is my new chosen 'A' race. Also, the London triathlon have made a new race for this year called the London Triathlon Plus, this is an extra 40km on the bike so 1.5km swim, 80km bike and 10km run, an excellent warm up for my 'A' race a month later!

Back to life, back to reality....

The weather last week, even in the South of France, wasn't great and stopped me from doing my ride that I wanted to do, it put me off stepping out to do any exercise at all, but I'm back in London and must get back into the training plan and my regular routine.

My wife and I had a bit of trouble getting back from the South of France; our flight on Saturday was cancelled so we had to get one on Sunday instead... not too bad... an extra day on holiday!
I hate traveling, especially to and from London airports because it normally means taxi, train and not much change out of £60 for both of us, so I wasn't very happy to do all that and get back to a leaky bloody toilet! Called the plumber yesterday and he came this morning, which meant I couldn't go to the run session in Millfields park as I wouldn't have got back in time, so I head out at 530am on my own over to Highgate West Hill for a longish run with a couple of hill repeats and back again in time for the Plumber.
A nice run, even in the cold weather. Took it at a steady pace, about 6min/km and then powered up the hill and cruised back down, I then spun round at the bottom to head back up again, conscious of the time though, I had to turn round half way up and head back to make sure I made it for the Plumber, lucky I did because he was just walking up to my door when I got back. My wife would not have been happy having to get out of bed early to open the door in her PJ's to a 50 something cockney plumber!

1hr 20 mins, just under 13km and a fixed toilet!

All in all a successful training session back in the big smoke.

More hills

Yesterday I went on an easy long ride. 52km - 2hrs, pretty much totally flat. I rode from Cagnes Sur Mer right along the coast to the end of the Promenade Des Anglais and back again. The weather wasn't great, it was a bit wet and windy but a nice way to spin out the legs and get a bit of pace into my ride. If it wasn't for getting lost when I passed the airport I think my average speed would have been more like 28-29 or maybe even 30km/h. My next long ride will be tomorrow, I'm looking to go 4hrs, 90k.... we shall see.

Today the weather is amazing, sunny but not too warm (very different to the cold snowy weather of the UK)... perfect weather for training. I did an hour of hill reps today. I found a hill that I do 100 strides (strides are where you count one foot, working on perfect technique, a strong proud posture, arm swinging forward not across the body and feet landing more middle foot not rear foot) down and then jog gently up. I did small 5 min warm up, 10 reps of the hill and 5 min warm down. I took it very easy, not pushing too hard as I'm still in Base Period, which comes to an end in 2 weeks, and sets me up for my long ride for tomorrow.
I hope the weather stays sunny for the remainder of my stay here for more training!

Going out for dinner tonight, better not eat anything too heavy otherwise I may end up feeling a bit bloated/heavy tomorrow!

Ma dernière courir longue dans le sud de France

Long run today and as it was going to be my last one in the South of France I wanted to go a bit further than last time even though I only had 1.25hrs on my training plan. The run ended up at 2hrs - 19.15km. It was a great run, uphill for 10km and downhill back. Here is the garmin GPS link ----- http://connect.garmin.com/activity/21607528

Next long run will be back on the dirty streets of London.