Tuesday - Week 5

Swim - 3800m in around 1hr45min.

Yes, quite a wopper swim, and this morning I feel well tired!!! Also Leo had a bit of a restless night so was up a few times to settle the little man. But all good, not sure how I'll manage the turbo tonight but lets see...

Monday - Week 5

Run - 45 min, around 7 km.

Was very tired, not the greatest run but hey...at least it's done now!!!!

Started on my healthy eating routine to see if I can shift some of the excess weight...got on the scales yesterday morning, NOT GOOD. But much happier this morning as I was already 0,3kg down. V. good!!! Would like to loose 4 kg's by the end of March. That must be do-able.

Week 4 in-a-can!!

Saturday – 75km bike ride, in 3hr05. Went out with Sharon and Pip for a little all-girl bike ride, gotta love it. We did the hilly Windsor route, with mandatory tea stop. The pace was comfortable, except for a few bits where we got rained on, and there was a long bit where we were going into the wind, that really hurt. Also nice to ride and have a bit of a natter….usually I’m hanging on the back for dear life in complete survival mode!!!!
Here are some pics taken on our ride. That’s Sharon in the Turbo kit, and Pip’s up front in her commuters neon jacket (very fetching!!!) We’ve just left Windsor proper and were passing through Old Windsor heading towards Runnymede. That’s the Thames on our left.

Sunday – 12km run in 1hr11min. Bronson, Leo and I did the Richmond park run again, managed to knock 4 mins off our last time so quite happy with that. Heart rate stayed nice and constant so wasn’t killing myself. We have had pretty wet weather in the last week, so the park was real wet and muddy. I though for sure our time would be slower, but what-do-you-know…It was a tough old run that, especially near the end as Leo was starting to get bored and Bronson has making all funny noises to entertain him. He was also leaping up and down like a crazy person while Leo chuckled away or screamed in unison. It’s very difficult running and laughing at the same time!!!!

I’m quite happy with this last week. Managed to do 8,5 hours of training…brilliant. If I can keep this up, I’ll be on track to finish CH70.3 without too much trouble. There is a guy in our club who did IMUK ’06 on less then 5 hours of training a week….I’m doing a bit more then that and only need to go half as far…yippee!!!

Now for week 5, BRING IT ON!!!!

Thursday - Week 4

Run - 58:43, 9,1km - Had to run real slow in the beginning due to sore knees (oh brother)...but once I was warmed up, the knees felt ok so I could get a move on again. Average heart rate was 147, a definite indication that I was going steady. The last of the lurgie has left so lungs feel good-to-go, finally.

I have to do two things, more of one, less of the other…

Firstly, I have to do more stretching…especially around the knees. Maybe add to this some strengthening exercises. Else these knees are just not going to make it. I’ve also got a sinking sensation that there is a staircase on the run route, that I’ll have to get up three times. Stairs really kill my knees. I found a post on Tritalk, and after having a closer look at the profile for the race run route, I think they may be right….this is what I’m talking about:

Maybe it’s not a stair case….please god!!! (the bit at the 2km mark). If the profile is accurate, it would mean the stair case starts at 1,8km and goes on for 200m. And the elevation is 10m...surely not a staircase, but rather a short sharp hill. Either which way, it's going to be hell on the knees.

Secondly, I have to start eating less. I need to shed some extra baggage before the race. If I could just stop eating sweets and cookies, I’ll be fine. But I have the most horrific sweet tooth, runs in the family I’m afraid…maybe I should get on a scale and log my weight. SCARY!!!!

Wednesday - Week 4

Turbo - 30 km, 1hr 5 mins.

Doing a turbo session is really the worst punishment for me....just so boring.

This is how my session goes:

Start and do a warm up, watching my heart rate climb, great uses up about 5 minutes.
Then I try concentrate on what’s on the telly. Mostly junk, another 5 minutes go by.
Then I mess with my iPod, looking for some decent tunes, flick through some tracks, 2 songs later bored with that too, only managed to waste 10 minutes.
Put my head down and grind away for another 45 minutes, just painfully watching the distance counter on my computer till I hit the magic 30km. Thank heavens, I can get off. Just in time before I completely loose the will to live…

Bring on the summer…when I’ll happily risk life and limb on the wild roads of Surrey.

Tuesday - Week 4

Tuesday – Swim, 2900m in around 1.5 hours. Throat still a bit yuk, fine if I’m coasting along, but anything at speed just lead to coughs and splutters.

Week 4 - Catch-up mode

Well, week 4 is supposed to be a recovery week, but as I missed quite a few day’s while I was ill, I’ve decided to play a bit of catch up.

Run – 48:53 , 7.7km, felt pretty good on this run, knees held up as I tried to find paths with less tilt. Running is starting to feel comfortable, which is great because as you may have noticed from my little table, I’ve entered Ranelagh half marathon. Bit scared really, I’ve never ran that far before. I’ve run 16km before, but that last 5 could just kill me….

I entered the race on Pip’s advice, she tells me the route is flat and it’s a good run to cut half marathon teeth on. Pip has turned into my HIM guru, having done 3 and attempting a full one this year (Go Pip), think I’ll be calling on her experience often in the next few months.

Weekend of catch-up

Friday – 40 min run, around 6,5km. Felt fine, worst of the cold is definitely over. Knees hurt a bit, I think it has to do with the camber of the paths I’m running on in and around Surbiton. I need to find some flat paths….

Saturday – 1:15 min run, around 12km. Bronson and Leo joined me for a run around Richmond park. Felt a little tougher as the park is quite undulating. But the knees felt better as the paths are pretty even. Bronson huffed and puffed his way around pushing Leo in his jogger. You could tell how unfit he is because when we finished the run, his average heart rate was more than 10 beats higher then mine…hee hee

Sunday – 2:30 min, 65km bike ride out to the Surrey hills. Went down to the meeting point for the Sunday ride, only to discover there weren’t too many plodders. So decided to take my chances with the faster group. But turned out fine, managed to keep up no probs. I found the hills quite tough as my lungs have not fully recovered from the cold. Was like having a 40-a-day habit and trying to cycle. I decided to not be too much of a hero and just get up the first big hill, a road known as Staples Lane. I was really huffing and puffing on that hill, but I got up in the end, without using the granny gear…yippee for me. Had a small rest then turned back. So a bit shorter route maybe but with more hills so that’s gotta be good for something!!!

So the week was almost salvaged…now to see what week 4 looks like…

Wednesday - 30km/20m cycle on Turbo trainer in just over an hour.

I felt much better on Wednesday morning so decided to try a turbo session to see if my cold was really over. All went well, heart rate held steady (normally all over the place if I'm still sick). I still have a slight cough but otherwise feeling good.

I'll see how much more of this week's schedule I can selvage. But over all, getting back on track…Yippee for me…

Week up-the-creek

Wednesday – 35 min run, around 5km. Felt completely crap…just no energy and a sore tummy.

Thursday I took the night off to go out with some girlfriends, then on Friday I woke up with a cold. Guess that explains the crap run on Wednesday. Ended up having to take the rest of the weekend off. I didn’t want to chance training in the cold and rain just in case I made the cold worse. Still don’t feel 100% today. I may chance a run tonight depending on how I feel. So basically last week was a write off. Not happy at all.

But what can one do…hopefully this cold bug goes away so I can press on with week three,which is:

Tuesday went to pot

Tuesday - 1050m Swim. Including a 400m time trial in 6m24s

Well, yesterday I was supposed to do at least 3250m of swimming. Well I got to the Thames Turbo (TT) session to do this, only to discover that the coaches had a time trial on the cards, and only a 400m one at that...Rats and Rats....so by the end of the session, I'd only managed to do 1050m.

But I'm not going to panic. My plan all along was to sacrifice swimming sessions if needs be. So I'll carry on with the rest of the plan for the week and just not worry about the swim.

My time trial was a bit pants...6:24, no good really. I should be much closer to 6:00. But I'm not going to stress too much about it as this isn't the right time to worry about speed work. I'll definitely be up for doing it again in about 2 months time to see if there is any improvement. It's also a sign of age though...I remember at the height of my water polo 'career', I could do 200m in 2:45. But that was almost 10 years ago...

Week 2 - Oh boy!

Yes, into week two now. I see they have addedd a bit to each session. Just my luck. But the plan is to try get as much done as possible.

Monday - 45min Run - 7.5km. Heart rate nice and steady, 150 average. And on the hill, it only went up to 160. So shows the fitness is improving. This is my route.

Friday I felt like a dead person, what a long and painful day. All the training really caught up with me. Work was a write off (don’t tell my boss)…and Friday night I couldn’t wait to put my feet up in front of the telly.

Saturday - 40 min run. Felt much better on Saturday morning after feeling so tired the day before. Run felt fairly easy, covered about 6,5km. It was really cold though. Think I burnt more energy trying to keep warm then I did actually running.

Sunday - 70km bike ride, to Windsor, in around 3hours. Not bad at all. Again, really, really cold. My toes and finger tips where numb from the cold. And there was a real thick mist that condensed on the bike, on me, and worse on my glasses, made the downhill’s very interesting.

Thursday-run

Well, still on the schedule, so far so good...

Thursday - 33 min run, 5,6km.

The running is starting to feel easier now, the aim is to stay in the heart rate range of 137 to 147. At first, this was really difficult and I had to practically walk to keep it below 147. But now, it's a comfortable run, and it only really goes high when I go uphill.

Today I am having a rest day (yippeee), then Saturday morning I'll do a 40 min run, and then just the 70km bike ride on Sunday...

Then it's Monday and we start the madness all over again...

I was perturbed to find this in the notes on the schedule: "By the end of the base building phase, some of you may start to get a little grumpy and irritable." Oh just great, so not only will I be sore and tired, I'll also be "grumpy and irritable". Bronson is going to love this!!!!

Week 1 - Looks easy enough

So here we are in week one...oh boy, it's official, the training has started. I get butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it... As you can see, the blinking training plan is from the USA, so is in Imperial measurements. If you want to be technical, you can use this converter to get an accurate measurement. But to make my life easier, I’m using the following…

1 yard = 1 meter

1 mile = 1.5 km

Well let's see what I have covered in the above plan....

Monday - 50 min run, covered just over 8km. Feeling very slow...I used to do 10km in 49 minutes...but this was a base rate run, so average heart rate was around 150 beats. Felt a bit sore and stiff the next day but knees are good...so can't complain.

Tuesday - 1,5 hours, 3450m swim. Well, I'm only doing one swim a week, so squashed all 3000m (and then some) into the one session. Not bad eh!!! Session went something like this. 100m - Warm up / cool down

800m - swim, arms only with pullbuoy

50,75,100,100,75,50 X 5 - 15 sec rest interval

300m rcovery swim.

Wednesday - Turbo session, I was going to the club Turbo sessions, but with half an hour travel each way I felt it a huge waste of time, so last night I set the Turbo up in the lounge and did 30km in 1h13min. Not great but not awful. I'll get there....Doing a Turbo session on your own is mind numbingly dull. But I put my iPod on and the telly and just got on with it. I’ll do the rest of the cycling on Sunday on the club ride, we usually do around 70km so that should take me to the allotted cycling total for the week.

Now just to sneak in the running…think I'll try do the 30min one on Thursday evening, and the 40 min one on Saturday morning....well, that's the plan at least.

I feel quite tired after this 3 day training stint, but hopefully my body will get used to this punishing schedule.

Introduction

Well, I guess some explanation is required...

In a bid to get back to pre-baby fitness I decided to enter a Half Ironman, so in went my entry for Switzerland 70.3, to be held on the 3 June 2007. So, as some of you sporting Sam's out there may be interested in my progress, I decided to set up this separate blog to log my training preparation for the big race. It will also help me, come the race, to look back at this blog and convince myself that I have done enough preparation to actually get around the course in the allotted time....

I have started some training, not very structured though, just to get back into things. And so far so good. There has been lot's of sore body parts (my butt hadn't seen a bicycle saddle for quite some time), stiff muscles and general aches and pains. But in general, so far so good.

This week sees the start of some serious training. What does this mean???....who knows, suffice to say that there will be more structure. Bronson is giving me a hand with the training plan. He is no qualified coach but having done a few halves, and a very impressive full Ironman, I've decided he is more then qualified to coach little old me. I will also be roughly gauging the quantity of my training using the Tri Newbies website (see Links). The 18 week plan of theirs will be used as a rough guide. I can't follow the plan exactly as work / kids / family just doesn't allow for that (obviously whoever wrote that training plan was a) a bloke b) single c) childless or d) married to a saint).

I am also going to tie the training in with my club training, so for example, the swim sets won't be the ones off the plan but rather just the ones the Thames Turbo coaches set up. I'll also be making some of my own common sense adjustments....like my swimming is fairly ok, but my biking and running needs lots of work, so will rather spend more time on my weaker ones. So basically, at the end of the week, I'll be happy to sacrifice some of my swim time in order to ensure I get the running and biking in. I'll also be doing allot of the biking on the Turbo trainer, UK winters are just not conducive to lots of out door biking, and it means that I can do session at night while Leo sleeps...

So here goes....wish me luck!!!!