Training Review - Week 8 - w/e Feb 24th

So targets for last week (Week 8) were:

Swim >1.5 miles Bike >50 miles. Run >14 miles. One core/stretching session.

Actuals were:

Monday - Swim with TPT, 2,075m in 55 mins. Longest single swim session ever!

Tuesday - Run around Dyce. 3.15 miles, in 25 mins. And half a core session.

Wednesday - Gym brick. 45mins, 5.26 miles treadmill and 1 hour, 19.1 miles on the bike. Then 1,000m swim in 25mins.

Thursday - Rest day. Really, a proper one!

Friday - Run with Dexter and Jess. 4 miles from Stonehaven prom to Dunnotar Castle and back. Dex was being a total diva so this took 51mins.

Saturday - Ride with DTCC. 44.1 miles in 2hrs 53.

Sunday - Run around Dyce airport. 7 miles in 64mins.

Result - 

Swim 1.9 miles (3,075m). Bike 63.2 miles. Run 19.3 miles. One core/stretching session.

Tuesday felt like my first proper run since snapping my collar bone. Still 5 minutes off what I should be capable of for 5k, but within 3 minutes of the fastest I have done for a training run on that particular route, the fastest I have run it since April 2010, and under 8min/mile. So I am happy to be making some progress with running. 19 miles in the week is a pretty heavy total as well, but it felt fairly comfortable all week..

The long saturday ride with Deeside puts me over 237 bike miles for February, with potentially another 18 or so to come on Wednesday. My longest cycle months last year (and ever) were 190 in July and 200 in September. September would have been  about 212 if I hadn't crashed at Nairn. So my annualised plan of keeping the biking distance similar to last year is definitely not working, but in the best possible way. I am currently averaging over 48 bike miles a week against the 31 that I set as my target for the year. These should start to come back down from next week though as races become more and more common. Sunday races effectively take out two long sessions from a weekend.

Training Plan - Week 9

Monday  - Swim with TPT. Staying in lane 3 with the faster group.

Tuesday - Run at Dyce, 3.5 mile loop and a stretching session.

Wednesday - Gym brick 45 min run, 1 hour bike. Should be somewhere around 5 miles and 19 miles again. 

Thursday - Swim 30mins steady or drills, (with some turns if the pool is quiet) and core.

Friday - Bike. Either gym or mtb.

Saturday - Rest day

Sunday - Aboyne Duathlon. 2.5 mile run, 9 mile bike, 2.5 mile run.

Target totals - Swim >1.5 miles Bike >31 miles. Run >10 miles. A core or stretching session. 

Back down to my base numbers for an average week this week due to the race on Sunday. Might slot an easy swim into Saturday morning rather than a rest day. 

Training Review - Week 7 - w/e Feb 17th

So targets for last week (Week 7) were:

Swim >1.5 miles, T20 time trial >1,100m. Bike >50 miles. Run >13 miles.

Actuals were:

Monday - Swim with TPT, 1,500m. Including T20 time trial 1,175m (or 1,225 according to the lifeguard that was counting for my lane) in 20mins. 75m (or 125m) more than last year.

Tuesday - Run around Dyce. Standard loop 3.1 miles, in 27 mins. 

Wednesday - Gym brick. 45mins, 5.1 miles treadmill and 1 hour, 18.3 miles on the bike . Extended bike by 15mins this week from previous. Then swim at Bucksburn, 600m of drills. 

Thursday - Rest Day

Friday - Oops. Since I rolled the swim into Wednesday and had a rest day in on Thursday, I skipped the rest day and did 15.3 miles in an easy hour on the exercise bike.

Saturday - Saturday morning ride with Deeside. 3 hours worth, 43.8 miles.

Sunday - 8.1 mile run, 1 hour 15. Knackered! Should have been 9 but had to stop.

Result - 

Swim 1.3 miles 2,100m, T20 time trial 1,175m (Or maybe 1,225m?). Bike 77.4 miles. Run 16.3 miles.

Chuffed with the swim time trial. Expected to be close to last year's 1,100m, or maybe even a touch under as I wasn't sure how recovered my collar-bone / shoulder was. I also had slightly more traffic in my lane this year than last year, but no-one going fast enough to get a good draft from. I was pretty pleased to squeeze in an extra three lengths, and to be a lap ahead of most of the next lane up. (Possibly more as the lane counter had me down for a further 2 laps). Also happy enough despite being under the total swim target for the week.

Wednesday alone totals out to the best part of a standard triathlon. My swim buddy wasn't available Thursday so she asked to move to Wednesday, and I decided to just slide it forward a day rather than swap it out with the Wednesday brick. This was pretty ambitious for a weekday but worked out pretty well.

Saturday was my first ride with Deeside. Their plan was to go for 55 miles, but the person who invited me to go with them had planned to drop off early so we went with the slowest group and cut back slightly early for 45miles instead. Still makes this my longest bike week ever with 77.4 miles in total.

Sunday was a day too far. Maybe shifting my rest day from Friday, or the pace of Saturday ride, or maybe just not prepping as well as I could have done on the Sunday morning, or the slightly slower pace not being enough to get comfortable, or my middle of the night nose-bleed, or the heat (6 degrees but I was dressed for 3degrees), or maybe a combination of all of those. I had to stop at 8 miles and 1 hour 15. Slightly disappointed after how easily I ran at Forres last week.

I have been totally lazy about stretching and core. I have put them on the plan every week so far and think I have only done 1 core session out of the 7 weeks, and have only done little stretching bits when they have been absolutely necessary. So next week one of them is going on the major targets list for the week.

Training Plan - Week 8

Monday  - Swim with TPT.

Tuesday - Run at Dyce, 3.5 mile loop.

Wednesday - Gym brick 45 min run, 60 min bike. Should be somewhere around 5 miles and 18 miles.

Thursday - Swim 30mins steady, (with some turns if the pool is quiet) and core.

Friday - Rest day? I have a day off work to use up the last of my 2012 holidays. Might fit something in here depending how the rest of the week is feeling and whether Dexter wants to come out and play.

Saturday - Long ride (>40 miles) or long run (>9 miles). 

Sunday - Long run or long ride from Saturday.

Target totals - Swim >1.5 miles Bike >50 miles. Run >14 miles. One core/stretching session.

Starting to increase the target run and bike totals for each week as I get fitter. They are already well above where I need to be to hit my annual targets but looking at my race plans there are weeks coming where I am going to go for less miles, faster so getting some bigger numbers in now should keep my end of year targets in sight.

Race Report - Westhill Duathlon

Cancelled at short notice. Went to the gym and sat on the exercise bike for 90mins. Nothing else to report really.

Aboyne next on March 3rd.

Race report - North District X-Country League - Forres

Due to Westhill duathlon being postponed this was my first race of 2013. It is also my first run-only race since July 2011.

For a cross-country race it is very hilly! I'm pretty sure I have run in actual hill races with less ascent than this. (~771ft according to garmin).

The course runs three loops up and down a hill at the back of Grant Park. Here is the route, complete with hill and speed information. http://app.strava.com/activities/40299449

Underfoot was a bit muddy and soft in patches but it was a dry, claggy sort of mud rather than anything wet and boggy so it didn't really bother me. I made a better shoe choice than a lot of those around me with my adidas swoop trail shoes giving me grip where the road trainers of my competitors wouldn't.

My only target for this race was to finish, so I started fairly calmly at the back and gradually picked people off on each lap as I felt comfortable. Probably a bit too slowly in hindsight but with another race on the Sunday (the aforementioned Westhill Duathlon) it wasn't worth pushing too hard just to pick up a couple of extra places. By the last half mile I was actually up to a sensible running speed though, and feeling comfortable.

I got round the 5.4 miles in 44mins 37. Times aren't up yet so I can't compare against the other racers. The results will be here sometime later this week. Given the surface and the gradient I reckon the shorter distance versus the route and conditions this isn't going to be far off the time I could run for 10k at the minute. This is a lot faster than I expected, despite the slow start so I am quite happy with the average being around 8:10 min/mile.

This is also the first of my major targets for the year crossed off the list already.

Training Review - Week 6 - w/e Feb 10th

So targets for last week (Week 6) were:

Swim >1.5 miles. Bike >23 miles. Run >13 miles. A race.

Actuals were:

Monday - Swim with TPT. 1,625m with lots of drills, in 55 mins

Tuesday - Gym brick. 45mins each run 5.1 miles and bike 14.3. Slightly down on last week but coming off the back of three much heavier days so still pretty happy.

Wednesday - Run around Dyce. Extended the normal loop to 3.5 miles, in 33 mins.

Thursday - Swim at Bucksburn. Lost count of laps but about 800m in 20mins.

Friday - Rest Day

Saturday - North District XC League at Forres. 5.4 hilly miles in 45mins. Race review to follow.

Sunday - Westhill Duathlon cancelled. So 90mins, 26.2 miles on the gym bike instead.

Result - Swim 1.5 miles (2,425m). Bike 40.5 miles. Run 14 miles. A race.

Another all round good week on the training front.
Forres Cross-country went a lot better than I expected. Westhill duathlon being cancelled at the last minute was a bit of a hassle but I had half expected it from the weather through the week so I had planned a trip to the gym as a back-up. That actually balances the numbers out better for the week, and gave me Sunday afternoon to myself as well.

In other news the car I crashed last week decided to die on the way to work Thursday morning. Turned out to be the alternator. Very annoying but ultimately not a huge problem as I arranged to collect my new car the same day.

Training plan - Week 7

Monday  - Swim with TPT. T20 time trial day.

Tuesday - Run at Dyce, 3.5 mile loop.

Wednesday - Gym brick 45 min run, 60 min bike. Should be somewhere around 5 miles and 19 miles.

Thursday - Swim 30mins steady, (with turns if the pool is quiet) and core.

Friday - Rest day?

Saturday - Long ride (>31 miles) or long run (>8 miles). 

Sunday - Long run or long ride from Saturday.

Target totals - Swim >1.5 miles, T20 time trial >1,100m. Bike >50 miles. Run >13 miles.

Training Review - Week 5 - w/e Feb 3rd

So targets for last week (Week 5) were:

Swim >1.5 miles. Bike >40 miles. Run >12 miles.

Actuals were:

Monday - Swim with TPT. 1,725m.

Tuesday - Treadmill 3 miles, 26 mins. Was meant to be a loop around Dyce but the weather was crappy.

Wednesday - No brick. Went to cinema instead. Movie 43 is shit!

Thursday - No swim. Went to cinema instead. The Last Stand is classic Arnie.

Friday - Postponed brick session from Wednesday. 5.1 miles treadmill and 14.5 miles gym bike in 45 mins each. Went to cinema again. Zero Dark Thirty is very dull.

Saturday - Easy Swim at Bucksburn, 700m in 35mins. Lots of traffic.
Hill run at Kirkhill, 4 miles in 40mins.

Car crash in the afternoon. Little bump. Slid on the ice doing about 5mph but hit a 4x4 with high bumpers which took out my headlight and put a dent in the front wing.

Sunday - 41.3 miles on the road bike with the Kintore Sunday ride. 3 hours (and 1 minute). Hard work in the wind and rain and cold. Made even less enjoyable by garmin deciding at 35miles to run out of memory and then refusing to stop beeping for the next 7 miles! Then home and collapsed on the sofa to find the Princess Bride and then Wrath of Khan back-to-back on TV! Not a bad day in the end

Result - Swim 1.5 miles (2,425m). Bike 55.8 miles. Run 12.1 miles.

Reshuffled the entire week to fit around real life. But still managed to fit everything into the week. Having two rest days before my brick session meant I clocked higher numbers for it than normal. And the weekend long run dropped from 6 miles to a hilly 4 miles.

Only just made the extended swim target and the extended run target, but then hammered this weeks biking target with a long Sunday ride. Swimming I will pick up even more once the weather changes and I get out to Knockburn. Need to start looking at longer single runs rather than so many short sessions, but not next week due to races.

Training plan - Week 6

Monday  - Swim with TPT, ~1mile.

Tuesday - Gym brick 45 min run, 45 min bike. (Should be somewhere around 5 miles and 14 miles).

Wednesday - Run at Dyce, 3.1 mile loop.

Thursday - Swim 30mins steady, (with turns if the pool is quiet) and core.

Friday - Rest day.

Saturday - North XC league - Forres.
or
Sunday - Westhill Duathlon.


Target totals - Swim >1.5 miles. Bike >23 miles. Run >13 miles. A race.

Under my average target for bike miles (31) this week. I did think about switching Wednesday to just bike but the brick sessions are settling nicely into each week and I am well ahead of my bike target to date despite missing a lot of outdoor miles for weather. Run mile target is up by another mile again despite just sneaking last week's 12 mile target. This is a bit of a fudge though as more than half of that comes from doing either race, doing both races would see almost double the run mile target for the week again.