The Project

Its been a while since I last posted so I have missed a few sessions on here... I'm not going to do a long catch up because it would be a bit much.

Had a great week this week - Monday I went to the Tri London swim club which is always a challenging set and always feel like a great session. Tuesday was the running session in Springfield park, we were working on Muscular Endurance, hill repeats, and trying to keep the same pace on every hill repeat.

I did a 22km (5 laps of Regents Park) TT, came in at 39:53.... I love doing this TT, especially early in the morning when there is no traffic and the weather was glorious. Here is the Garmin link ---> 22km TT
I'm going to do this TT every week for the next 3 weeks, noting down all the variables and looking for improvements.... hopefully in time/speed.


This weekend I will fit in a swim, long run and the a bike/run brick too.

The New Project

I have decided that I want a Time Trial / Triathlon specific bike. I bought a frame from ebay, got a great deal! Its a HED V04 TT frame, its a beauty. Over the next few months I plan on building this bike up, making it a real machine and hopefully get it up and running for my race in September. Im going to try and get all my stuff second hand and keep the cost down. Ive added some pics for you to drool over... or not...

The first pic is of my frame, the second pic is of what it could look like..... I WISH.

Long Ride - Richmond Park

I did my 'long ride' today. Normally my rides take me up to Hertfordshire on a loop I know well and like, but today I decided to find my way to Richmond Park and see what all the fuss is about.
The journey down there was a bit of a nightmare, not knowing where I was going and getting lost a couple of times made it hard to enjoy. My route took me across Blackfriars bridge and through south London down busy roads and dual carriage ways. Once I made it there though, it was worth the hassle. Richmond Park is something else, its beautiful, large, busy and full of wildlife. At one point there was a large (30 or so) herd of Deer just chilling in the fields which was a nice sight and unexpected considering the hustle and bustle outside of RP. A loop of RP is about 10km, maybe a bit more and is mostly flt but does have a couple of short sharp ascents too. I did 3 laps of the park.
The journey back was much better but still not great. I decided to cross the river asap and just ride all the way along the embankment until I got to St Pauls Cathedral area then headed north to home. All can be seen on the Garmin link. I pushed it harder than my last rides, or I intended to but with all the traffic lights, getting lost and horrid roads it turned out to be a quite slow ride.

Garmin link ---> Long Ride

First Real Brick Session

I have done no swimming this week as yet, I may be able to fit some in tomorrow at some point but either way it isn't ideal! MUST TRY HARDER.....

Thursday I did a hard turbo session, should have been 1hr 15min session but I pushed it hard and stopped at 45 mins. It was a session building on speed, so you can see on the Garmin link where I did the intervals as my HR spikes and so does the speed. Garmin link ---> Speed Turbo Session

Yesterday I went to the gym after work and did 30 mins rowing, a steady pace, then some conditioning work... quite an easy session.

Today, on the other hand, was not an easy session, it was my first proper brick session. I did an hour on the turbo, a decent effort, not pushing hard but not taking it easy either then hopped straight off the bike and went for a 10k run down to St Paul's Cathedral and back. All in all a great session.

Here are the Garmin links:

Bike -----> Turbo Session

Run -----> 10k Run

Mid week long-ish run

I didn't do any run session on Tuesday as I said I would in my last post, instead I slept in (to 7:30, if that counts as a sleep in) and worked late. I did my run on Wednesday instead, a nice long run in the early evening light down to the Tate Modern Gallery and back. An 11km run dodging cars, pedestrians, cyclists and stop start at most of the traffic lights. But, even with all this, it is a favourite run of mine, one that I used to do regularly but haven't for a while, I have been favouring the Hampstead Heath / Highgate Westhill run instead but maybe that is to change.

Here is the Garmin link ----> Tate Modern out and back run

Back in the UK

Had a good week in France, plenty or R & R and training too. Monday and Tuesday I put in 30 mins on the rower and some gym work followed by 30 min runs. Wednesday I went to the beach with the wetsuit and did some OW swimming, under estimated how hard this was going to be as I haven't done any OW since last June. The Mediterranean was a lot colder than I had expected and it was a windy rough day. So, 20 mins in the sea. A nice reminder of what it is like and that I need to do some more OW swimming, which I will be doing from May time.
Friday I went on a long ride, up the Col De Vence ( a cat 1 TdF climb) and then down to Cagnes and along the sea front to Nice and then back. Here is the link ---> Col De Vence Ride

Back in the UK now and back into training. Today is Bank Holiday Monday so a good chance to put in a good effort and get back into my usual routine, if I ever had one?! I went to RP to put in a Med-Hard 40km timed effort, not a TT or all out but not far off. I had hoped for a better performance but the real test will be in a couple of months when I have done a lot more speed work. The link includes the ride to and from Regents Park, if you want to see my 40km effort click on the 'Splits' option and click on the middle split. Here is the link ----> Regents Park 40km effort

The coach who normally does the run session on Tuesdays at Millfields Park is away for a couple of weeks so I will be off out running tomorrow to do my own running session.

Spring is here

The weather seems to be getting better, the clocks have changed, so I declare that Spring is here! About time too.

Tuesday - I went to the run session at Millfields, another great session. Up at 5am and cycled over for 6am. So stretching to warm-up and wake up then the main set consisted of 7x1km laps, again looking at RPE, HR and Pace, looking at how they are linked and how to judge them. A good session and very beneficial. Its not totally clear from the Garmin link what the plan was but here it is anyway ---> Run Session Garmin Link, click me.

Then, following this, I was struck down by illness.... taken over by blocked sinuses, coughing and an all round feeling of fatigue. I didn't manage another training session until yesterday. I'm in France now, here for a week and its a great opportunity to fit in those missed sessions and get some good training.

Sunday - Long run. I was prescribed 2.5hr but due to the terrain around here and the route I took I only ran for 1hr 45mins. A good run though, and faster than any other time I have done it. Garmin Link -----> Long Run Click Me

10km TT

I did a 10km TT run yesterday, just to see where I am with speed and to set a bench mark. My previous PB is 47:30, I did this at last years Bupa London 10k. I went out with the intention of pushing as hard as I can for the whole 10k, eyes bleeding or whatever, I wanted a PB. Given all the gains I have made in my endurance I was confident I could get a PB, actually hoping for sub 47. Well, this wasn't to be, I came in at 47:54. Slightly disappointed.

Here is the garmin link ---> 10km TT click me

I attribute my slow time to a few things:

1. I went out way too fast - strategy was very poorly thought out. You can see from the splits on the garmin link that my first 2km were ran at an average pace of 4:13/km, I should have been cruising more at 4:30 pace. Grave error.
2. Given the stage of my training I'm at, speed work is only just creeping in and I shouldn't expect too much (obviously I do).
3. My running shoes are worn and don't give me the comfort and support they used. After this run I promptly purchased a new pair - Adidas Adizero, the same as Haile Gebrselassie, so can't be bad!

Still, its a good bench mark and a good target on which to improve.

Today I went to the gym after work for some conditioning work, but when I go to the gym I feel guilty for not doing any cardio so I went on the rower first to do a 2000m TT. Set a PB, 7:15.5, pretty happy with that. Thats an average of 1:48.9/500m.

I then did some conditioning work working abs and core, this is something I should do more of and intend to do more of.

This week

Its been a week since my last update and even though it has I don't have much to write.

Last Sunday I did a long run. The same run as the week before, around Hampstead Heath and back, and this time I was faster - nice to see progress.

Here is the link ----> Hampstead Heath Run, Click me.

Following this run I got a massive blister on my foot, this has left me limping all week and unable to walk or run. Even though I had this blister and shouldn't have been running I still tried to. On Tuesday I did some intervals (1km intervals working on RPE and looking at pace and HR), but due to my blister and the pain I think I must have altered my running form which has led to a stiff calf all week. So, I have been limping because of the blister and now a sore calf!! I decided, given that it is a 'rest week' and my calf issues I would ease off the training until I feel back up to it. Might do something today, if I do Ill update.

Catch Up

Friday - I missed my turbo session on Thursday so decided I would do it on Friday instead of swimming. A good session, hard and making progress.

This was the session:

Warm-up: 5 mins steady

Main set: 6 intervals of 10 min each: 2x 7 min @ 60% and 3 min @ 85%, 2x 6 min @ 60% and 4 min @ 85%, 2x 5 min @ 60%, 5 min @ 85%.

Cool-down: 5 mins steady. Aim to spin 100rpm through all gears.

Average speed was up t 25.2km/h, which on my turbo, I think, is pretty good considering it is much harder than riding on the road.

Today - I planned to go to Box Hill, Surrey, with the Tri Club but due to a massive balls up by me I wasn't ready in time and missed it. Went on a ride on my own instead. I planed to ride up to Potters bar (20km) then do a loop up to Hertford and back to Potters Bar (33km) twice. Half way round the first loop I realised I had forgot my wallet and money, meaning that if I have any technical issues I wouldnt be able to get a taxi or train! Due to this I only did one loop and headed home after - 75km ish in total. Not a bad ride though, pushed a decent pace and felt strong, I could have easily done another loop at that pace and next time I will.

Here is a link to the ride ---> Today's Hertford Ride, click me.

Hopefully going to London Fields Lido tomorrow for a decent swim (as I haven't done any this week) then a long run.

Its all coming together...

On Tuesday I should have made it to the run session but due to plain laziness (and tiredness) I couldnt get out of bed. I contacted the coach though and asked him about the session so that on Tuesday night I could do the session on my own as to not fall behind in the 4-week plans the run coach sets out.

We are still working on endurance intervals, looking at pacing. Similar to last week but with longer intervals.

The run session group used a loop of 1km, I used 1.6km (1 mile) just to make it a bit more painful!

I jogged the loop first as a gentle warm up, get the blood flowing.

Main Set

1 loop at a pace which felt comfortable to me - I aimed to just run on feel and see what time I had at the end. The time was 7min 17secs, not a bad speed but a hard one to keep up for the remaining intervals.

I then went on to do 2 loops timed then rest, then 3 loops timed and rest. The idea is is that each loop with be the same speed as the first. Again, this is to teach us about pacing and not going out too hard at the start.

I managed to hold this pace for every interval and actually posted a PB for 5k.

See the garmin link --- http://connect.garmin.com/activity/26556881

A gentle jog to cool down too.

Yesterday was meant to be my rest day, I'm supposed to do a little conditioning work and thats it but conditioning work is boring, it involves weights and the gym and considering I would have to go to the gym at 5pm when its full of all the pumped up posers I didnt fancy it. I decided a nice solid row was called for. 10k again. Posted a better time than last week of 40mins 30secs. A harder effort but I still feel I had some in the tank for a better time.

The last few days

Thursday I did a great turbo session prescribed by my coach.

Warm-up: single-leg riding, 10 sets of 1 min with each leg (total of 20 min)

Main set: 6 intervals of 10 min each, starting with 7 min @ 60% and 3 min @ 85% effort, then with each interval, shorten the 60% by 30 sec and add 30 sec to the 85% effort, until the last two 5 min @ 60%, 5 min @ 85%.

Cool-down: no-hands riding in 5 different positions for 2 minute each, and think about smooth pedalling without your hands, engaging glutes and core muscles.

A session that really gets the HR up and gets the speed into the legs - about time too. The turbo is turning out to be a very valuable training aid!

Friday - I missed the normal morning swim (couldnt get out of bed) but did go to the gym after work and punished myself for missing the swim with a 10k row. As I haven't been rowing for a while I wanted to set a bench mark for future rows. 10k = 41mins. Not bad if I do say so myself. This was followed by some upper body conditioning work of 10x3 sets of chin ups, 10x3 sets of tricep dips and finally 15x3 sets of push ups.

Saturday - This, in my plan, should be my long ride day but due to other commitments it would have been impossible to fit in a long 5hr ride so I had no option to swap around my Sat and Sun. Long run it was then. Again, due to prior commitments I didnt have time to do a run until 7pm (Saturday night and Im out running - a triathletes life!) but I did a great run of 22km all the way around Hampstead Heath and along other delightful roads of London. My longest run to date and a nice steady pace too. All this slow and steady stuff is really starting to pay off now.

Sunday - Should have been long ride day but due to Saturdays efforts I had serious stiff legs and felt pretty fatigued so, lazily, bailed on any session and just laid on the sofa all day.

Tuesday - Intervals

A great run session this morning. Up at 5am, out by 540am on the bike down to Millfields Park. The weather is getting warmer (still not warm but warmer) and mornings brighter, makes training MUCH more enjoyable and easy to endure. On to interval training now, we have moved on from just easy, steady, aerobic work and we are now working on more speed directed workouts AS WELL as the slow steady stuff.

I cycled out nice and easy, knowing I have a hard INTERVAL session coming, don't want to waste any energy on the commute otherwise Ill pay for it later on.

The session consisted of a 400m loop round some cones. We had to set a pace which we thought was a comfortable pace, nothing too slow, but something we could hold for a period of time. We then do one loop, rest, two loops, rest, three loops, rest, four loops, rest and finally 5 loops. Each individual interval getting longer (more loops), aim to stay at the pace we first set on the initial loop.

Normally, with inexperienced amateur athletes you will go out too hard initially and not be able to hold the pace for the remaining intervals.... me, not being inexperienced (yeh right) managed not only to hold my pace, but get faster with each interval, not slow intervals either, averaging about 4 mins/km, a fast pace for me and not something I could keep up beyond 4km..... at the moment anyway. The others who went faded as expected.

Overall a good session. Very beneficial. Not only does it work the 'fast twitch' muscles (the muscles which are used for faster, more explosive exercises, these muscles tire much quicker than the 'slow twitch' muscles) and starts to tone them up but it also allows you to learn about yourself, learn that you need to pace yourself depending on the distance. I plan on doing a Marathon in November, these types of workouts show me that pacing is everything otherwise by the end of that marathon I will fade away to a slow pace and I want to be finishing strong, stronger and faster than my initial pace.

I should be swimming tomorrow morning but I think I will re-jiggle my TP and sleep in. Gym tomorrow after work though for sure.

Losing my edge...

Well, I seem to be losing the battle with the blog. I haven't posted again in 2 weeks.

Its been a busy two weeks, plenty of swimming, biking and running, also I have been doing more conditioning work as its something I have been neglecting but know it will benefit me if I put in the time!

Run session tomorrow.

Im back with a bang...

As I said in my previous post, Ive been unable to post but now I'm back!

Yesterday I went to the run session, it was a horrible, cold, wet, dark morning and only me and the coach turned up, so a one-on-one session. Not bad. This week was circuits; using a lap of the park 1k) stopping at 3 different stations to work on different exercises.
The first lot of exercises

10 x step ups on the bench but backwards

10 x lunges then up into a calf raise

10 x burpees [sometimes known as a squat thrust]

Then run onto next station a third of the way round the park and into the next exercises;

30 seconds plank with legs raised on the bench

15 seconds sideways plank with arm and leg raised, done on both sides

In plank position touching alternative shoulder 10 x with each hand, then the same but touching hips.

Run onto next and final stop in the circuit where there is some pull up bars;

5 x pull ups

10 x knees up whilst hanging

10 x knees up to side whilst hanging

Then run back round to the start. We did this 4 times and I'm suffering today with aching abs and butt!

I was going to go on turbo tonight but don't feel up to it, Ill get up in the morning and turbo away and hit the gym after work too for some rowing.

Its been a while.

Well, its been a while since I posted... there are a few reasons for this but mainly its because my laptop has been playing up making it impossible to type!

I'm not going to review all my training over the last 2 weeks or so but what I will say is that training has been going well and i'm feeling much fitter. Ill start to blog regularly now as I have access to a comp that works!

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.