Training Plan - Week 27 - July 1 to 7

Monday - Swim with TPT. Stretching session.

Tuesday -  Long run, >10 miles. Core.

Wednesday - Short run or TT bike ride. Stretching. Doctors appointment gets in the way of open water swim.

Thursday -  Easy brick. Maybe pool swim?

Friday - Rest day.

Saturday - Long ride or long run. Happy Birthday to me.

Sunday -  Long run or long ride. Core

Target totals - Swim >2 miles. Bike >50 miles. Run >25 miles. One run over 9 miles. 2 short core and 2 short stretching sessions. 

50 days to go!

So I wrote a post when it was 100 days to go, and I figure half way on it is time for another update.

I had a few things to work on:

First up I wanted to run the full 13 mile distance in one go. That was easy enough, at Ming the Merciless I did 14 without any real trouble and then got on the bike.

Then I wanted to do some longer rides. Now been up to 90 miles, and I have done some much faster rides.

Outdoor swimming hadn't started. 50 days on and I added almost a mile a week of outdoor swimming, pretty much all faster than last year's race pace.

This coming weekend I am going to run 15 miles on saturday and then do 56 on my TT bike on Sunday. 

So nothing really specific to work on from here. Just keep on ticking over for the next 4 weeks and then a bit of a taper.

Race Report - Forres Triathlon

It was drizzling a bit as I set up for transition. Nothing major but I learned from Turriff and bagged up my shoes to make sure they would be dry when I got to them.

As it is a novice event there were lots of noobs about that I could chat away and give advice to. This was a good distraction and I also caught myself a couple of times giving out advice that I had forgotten myself, and then adapted my plans accordingly.

Thursday had knocked my confidence a bit in the swim. I had declared 6:45 in the hope of going close to 7mins and getting a tow from some fast people to sneak under. But then only doing 7:41 on Thursday night meant I expected all three of the sub-7 swimmers to be climbing over me in the pool. As it was I had to let them all past, but they all bunched up nicely and went past in one go and then they all stayed nicely in line so no faffing about waiting for them to overtake each other at the ends. This meant I got a nice tow for pretty much the whole race and clocked my first sub-7 400m swim, without ever feeling like I was going all that hard.

The drizzle from earlier was gone. To be replaced by a full-on thunderstorm, complete with hailstones. Bagging both my transitions suddenly felt like genius as I slipped on nice dry shoes and socks. They didn't stay dray for long but it did make a huge difference for the first couple of miles and I was carving through places on the bike. 

I had screwed up with my bike mechanics though. A few weeks back I took my flashy suspension seat post off to send it back to the manufacturers for a repair and I must have been lazy when I refitted the fixed post as it was about an inch lower than it should have been. Also the smoother tyres I had changed to while it was dry probably weren't the best choice, and the brakes need tightening. I was getting loads of mud sprayed on me (still searching the internet for some photos but no luck yet) and not wearing glasses meant I was getting the occasional bit of grit in my eyes, which I couldn't wipe out because my hands were muddier still. Fortunately, the torrential rain was acting as a good eye wash. 

Still despite all that, and the atrocious weather conditions, a quick count through the results looks like I took 11 places on the bike. This is all from the bike miles I have been doing. I was much more able to just keep turning the pedals when it got tougher. On the bike alone I was over 2 minutes quicker than last year. 

I came in to transition with one of the Moray Firth guys who had been in my swim lane and who I was chatting to beforehand. Last year he overtook me on the run but coming in to transition I felt much better this time. 

I had a really smooth transition, the socks made the change much slicker, even though I could have stopped to wring them out. 

Onto the run and I felt a bit stiff to start, but I knew from Thursday night that this was probably just an illusion and I was going much faster than it felt. The course was getting really slidy and I nearly took a header down some steps but managed to catch it. Then onto the path along the river side and it was pretty much 6 inch deep puddles all the way. Every time I turned a corner though there was a smiling marshall cheering me on so I was really enjoying it as I got more and more comfortable.

Looking at the results I was gaining time on the group in front but I never got close enough to see them. 

Really pleased with the result. Under an hour and nearly 4 minutes faster than last year. The difference in weather conditions that is probably worth another couple of minutes as well.

Full results here.

Splits Split Name Race Time Leg Time Pos Cat Pos Gen Pos Swim 00:07:01 00:07:01 20 7 12 T1 00:08:06 00:01:04 38 9 17 Cycle 00:44:09 00:36:03 25 8 24 T2 00:44:45 00:00:35 63 15 34 Run 00:59:56 00:15:11 10 6 9

As compare to 2012:

Splits Split Name Race Time Leg Time Pos Cat Pos Gen Pos Swim 00:07:29 00:07:29 19 4 12 T1 00:08:31 00:01:01 18 3 11 Cycle 00:46:54 00:38:23 17 5 15 T2 00:47:31 00:00:36 53 5 26 Run 01:03:27 00:15:56 13 3 10

Training Review - Week 25 - June 17 to 23

Good to be back from the lurgie. Having a whole week of doing nothing was hard work.

Monday was a nice easy start. Did half the TPT swim session in Lane 2 then started to get messy as I was lapping the traffic so I shifted back up into Lane 3.

Tuesday was a long run. 8 miles, fairly easy. Was probably a bit much after just coming back from the cold I had last week. Was still a bit snotty the whole way. Have put lock laces into the trainers I am planning to race Aberfeldy in. Not sure if I like them or not. I much prefer laced shoes for running in, but a lot of times trying to do laces in transition isn't worth the benefits on the run. Especially on cold or wet days and the shorter the event the less benefit real laces are. Will give them a few weeks trial, but have kept the laces handy in case I decide to switch back. 

Wednesday I went out to Knockburn. Tied my session in with some friends so did a bit of everything. Started with an easy 4 mile run on my own, bit slow as I was stiff from 8-miles the night before. Then 2 lap swim in the loch. Planned 3 but she kept stopping to chat to people and we still had a bike to do. Then a quick trip round a loop of the Sprint bike course again. 

Thursday I did Stonehaven Aquathon. (There is no L in Aquathon!). Race report separately.

Friday I had planned to test my road bike on a the hard and dry Forres triathlon bike route, but the heavens opened as I was driving through. This meant the course would almost certainly be too soft for my road bike so there was nothing to learn and I decided to take the rest day instead. I had packed my mountain bike just in case the road bike couldn't handle the course anyway.

Saturday was Forres Triathlon. This is getting a race report to itself as well. Main thing for here is that taking the mtb was definitely necessary. 

Sunday I got dragged to Knockburn to act as morale support for my Iron friend's last open water swim before Austria. Did a couple of easy laps.

Good week for swimming distance. Really good week for speed, swimming and running both went much faster than I expected. Missed out on bike miles but 

So targets for last week (Week 25) were:

Swim Swim >2.5 miles. Bike >60 miles. Run >18 miles. One run over 8 miles. 2 short core and 2 short stretching sessions. 

Actuals were:

Monday - Swim with TPT 2,150m.

Tuesday - Run 8 miles, 67 mins.

Wednesday - Run 4 miles in 34 mins. Swim 1,200m in 36 mins. Bike 11.5 miles in 43mins.

Thursday - Stonehaven Aquathon. 400m swim in 7 mins 41. 2.8 mile run in 18min 27.

Friday - Rest day. Some stretching but not enough to count as a whole session.

Saturday - Forres Triathlon. 400m swim in 6 mins 56! MTB 9.1 miles in 36mins. Run 2.1 miles in 15mins 11.

Sunday - Swim 1,200m in 30 mins.

Result - 

Swim 3.3 miles (5,350 m). Bike 20.6 miles. Run 17 miles. 1 run over 8 miles. 0 core and 0.5 stretching sessions.

Training Plan- Week 26 - June 24 to June 30

Monday - Swim with TPT. Stretching session.

Tuesday -  Long run, >9 miles. Core.

Wednesday - Open water swim. Short run or ride. Stretching. 

Thursday -  Easy brick.

Friday - Rest day. (Or long bike if doing Peterhead Half).

Saturday - Long ride or long run. (Or rest day if doing Peterhead Half).

Sunday -  Peterhead Half Marathon(?) or long ride. Core

Target totals - Swim >2 miles. Bike >50 miles. Run >25 miles. One run over 9 miles. 2 short core and 2 short stretching sessions. 

Race Report - Stonehaven Aquathon

Chicked again! By a 5 measly seconds this time. Thought after beating all the women at Knockburn Sprint that I might get a few races without losing to ladies, but no such luck.

Had some problems before the race. They had a massive amount of people turn up without pre-registering so there was a long queue that was moving really slowly. Wasn't dealing well with the crowd and was getting pretty stressed. Couldn't focus enough to do the breathing exercises so the twitches were going crazy and I was burning a lot of adrenaline and my heart rate was off the scale. Not ideal an hour before race time. Once I finally got signed up I managed to go and sit in a quiet corner for 10 minutes to calm myself down a bit, but I was still carrying a lot of tension in my shoulders and back as I went outside to set up my transition and my heart rate was still the wrong side of 100. Managed to find some friends to hide amongst and continued to relax a bit but was definitely far from my best preparation.

To the race itself:

Swim was pretty terrible. I expected to go about 7 mins. On Monday night during training I did 7:34 in the middle of a training set, going slow-fast-slow-fast lengths, completely by accident. I hate the salt water but that wasn't the main problem, I was just too tired. Having the cold last week and then going into a fairly heavy week while I am still coughing was always a bit ambitious. In the end I was 7:41 for the swim (8:07 including hauling myself out of the water and shuffling to the timing mats). The lanes at Stonehaven are quite wide and the other 6 people in my lane all got away quite quickly so it felt pretty lonely. Despite the huge lanes they made it a no-overtaking swim, and at the end of the second length I had to move over to let two people past. That probably cost me a few seconds, but more importantly it got me out of my rhythm and gave me a chance to taste the water and that made me feel a bit queasy. the real killer was doing too much. My arms were really tiring by the half way point. This is clear on my Garmin swim tracker, the lap splits gradually drop off from 56, 55, 57 (includes being overtaken), 55, 60, 57, 58, 63.

Transition was better than it has been lately. Only had to put on my running shoes, but also took a mouthful of water to rinse out the salt taste.

Felt like it took a while to get into my running. Looking at Garmin track after the race I was going faster than I have done for a few years, with the pace well inside 7 min/mile. Was losing ground to the leading lady for all of the first lap, but was picking off plenty of other places so was happy enough. Onto the second lap I finally started to relax a bit and made back a lot of the ground I had lost to the leading lady. Because of the 5 second start intervals and knowing I started 30 seconds after the first people there was a chance that even if I could close the gap a little I might beat her on time if she had started with the first swim wave. I got the gap back to 25 seconds, but she had started in wave 3 so was still 5 seconds faster overall.

After I finished and got my shoes off I found that the shoes have rubbed through a patch off skin about the size of my thumb. Stings a lot despite the thick coating of Sudocrem I have layered on it. This will mean an enforced sock day for Forres on Saturday as I wont be able to run on it in this condition without them.

The official results have me as 3rd in category (M18+) and fourth overall, but there is at least one name missing off that list so I think I was actually 4th and 5th. If they had cut out Vets into over-40 category as they normally do then I would have been second Senior.

In hindsight I am actually really happy. I can't have any serious complaint about the swim given that it was my third swim of the week, and I hate the salt water. And the run, as much as I was stiff and uncomfortable and it has done a lot of damage to my left foot, it was still the fastest I have gone for years, and didn't feel any tougher than other runs I have done, despite running fairly hard both the previous nights.

Training Review - Week 24 - June 10 to 16

Feeling absolutely crap at the start of the week. Thought it might be a bug from the water at Knockburn but turns out to be a dose of manflu. That has kept me off training for the entire week.

So targets for last week (Week 24) were:

Swim >2 miles. Bike >60 miles. Run >18 miles. One run over 10 miles. 2 short core and 2 short stretching sessions.

Actuals were:

Monday - Nothing.

Tuesday - Nothing.

Wednesday - Nothing.

Thursday - Nothing.

Friday - Nothing.

Saturday - Nothing.

Sunday - Nothing

Result - 

Swim 0 miles (0 m). Bike 0 miles. Run 0 miles. No run over 10 miles. 0 core and 0 stretching sessions.