Bring on the Taper!!

For those of you who don’t know…No, a Taper is not some South American jungle animal…it is, in fact, what one does before killing themselves in a race!!

I thought the fist week of the taper would be easier…but No, still quite a lot to get done, this is what I was supposed to do….

And this is what I did:

Monday:
Massage – Went round to Clare’s for a sport massage. Man it hurt!!! But I needed it, legs felt great after a day or two’s recovery. Also lent Clare’s food storage box as I couldn’t find Bronson’s one anywhere.

Tuesday
Swim – 1 hr, don’t know how far.

Wednesday
Run 40 min

Thursday
Bike 42km in 1 hour 30 mins.

Cycled to Richmond Park and did 3 laps of the park. Some idiot cut the grass in the park, so after the first lap, I started having a hideous hay fever episode. Not sneezing, thank heavens, but my eye’s started to swell and itch. Didn’t help that I left my glasses at home…

Saturday
Swim, 2100m in around 45 min
Bike, 64km (or 6 laps of Richmond Park) in 2hours 20 min.
Run, 1 lap in 1 hr 8 min (with toilet stop)

Another good brick session, and all went well. The weather has been really crap here, so when I left for the lake, it was in the rain, but I soldiered on. By the end of the swim, the rain had ceased so the bike and run were dry. The food strategy worked fine, but I still needed to make a toilet stop. Looks like I’m not going to get away from that, will just have to plan for it!!
In the last 15 minutes of the run, I started to feel quite tired, I was still to run up the short sharp hill, so wasn’t looking forward to that. But then, a great comedy moment that made me smile. A guy come past me on his mountain bike, with his helmet on back to front!!!

I then went off to Sigma Sport to get the last few things I needed before we leave...treated myself to a nice new helmet...

I was supposed to do a long run on Sunday or Monday, but the weather was just too terrible, and I didn’t want to risk getting sick just before the race.

This is what I'm supposed to do this week...but not sure how much I'll get done as we leave tomorrow for Switzerland....

Will hopefully get one more post in before the race...else, the next post will be the race report....

Week 16

Saturday
Swim – 2600m in around 1hr 10
Bike – 54km in around 2 hrs
Run – 1hr 5 min

Saturday was my BIG BRICK and food prep. Went down to princes lake to meet Clare (who is loaning me a wetsuit till mine comes back from Snugg). The wetsuit fit great and had a good swim, on my own…did two big laps and one small lap. Nice and steady, focusing on good technique and a nice rhythm. All good…

Then drove to Richmond Park to do some reps. Managed 5 reps of the park in 2hours. There was a terrible headwind which made the going quite hard, but managed to maintain 26,5 km average which is OK.

After the bike, I set off for 1 lap run of the park, the food trial was going fine until then, had to have a pit stop after 20 minutes (thank god for public loos in the park!!!). I then managed the rest of the run fine, I did start feeling some tummy cramps coming on, near the end, which is a bit of a worry. So back to the drawing board, not sure if it’s the bars themselves or the fact that I ate a whole one in one go?? Don’t really have time to try out another strategy so may just have to wing it on the day.

But overall, very happy with the day, and pretty confident of getting around CH 70,3 without killing myself.

Sunday
Bike – 81km in 3hr 15min.

After a tough Saturday, I decided to just go along for the club ride on Sunday, we ended up doing a good ride, Staples, Ranmore, box hill, then back via Leatherhead. The pace wasn’t fierce at all and the hills felt doable so happy with that session. But by Sunday afternoon I was pretty tired, then having to run after Leo tearing around on his bike took some doing.

Week 16 – last speed week

Monday
Bike – 1hr 15

Easy recovery ride after the half. All felt fine, managed to cycle to Richmond park and did two laps. Hills hurt a bit, but otherwise fine…pleasantly surprised!!

Tuesday
Swim – 1hr

50m speed session. Some news on the wetsuit, I should have it back by the end of next week…if all goes well. Yippee!!! Had to do a bit of sweet talking on the phone on Wednesday. A club mate has very kindly offered me her old one to use till I get mine back...so swimming still on the cards for the weekend.

Wednesday
Run - Richmond Park relays (3 miles) 22:22.

Felt surprisingly good. Managed to run the whole thing hard as I could, was only overtaken by one runner, and I managed to catch one chap on the finish straight. So very happy with that. Usually I get overtaken by everyone and their dog!!! Maybe one day I’ll actually learn how to run!!! Wouldn’t that be nice!!!

Thursday
Turbo 1hr 25min – 6 X 6min hard, 2 min recovery.

Really hard work that. Am so happy it’s the last of my speed sessions. Can’t actually believe I did them all…bloody crazy!!

Weather is improving just in time for the last big weekend!!

The blur that was Week 15

Somehow managed to go a whole week without posting here…but rest assured that I have actually been training, so all still good.

The highlight of week 15 was my first Half Marathon…but I’ll get back to that, firstly, a breakdown:

Tuesday
1:30 swim around 3000m

Wednesday
1hr Track session, 4 X 1600m on around 7min 55sec. Not as difficult as I thought, I really enjoyed this run.

Thursday
Turbo, 1:25. Quite a tough set, consisting of ½ hour warm up, the 6 by 5 min hard, 2 min recovery, then a 20 min cool down. I have never done such a long turbo session, so really chuffed with myself. It hurt though. But also great knowing that I only have one more session to go.

Saturday
Lake Swim, 1hr 30 min. DISASTER the wetsuit is too BIG. I think I’ve just been kidding myself that the wetsuit was ok. Two mates saw me in it on Saturday and both said that it was way too big. I must admit it was taking on loads of water. 2XU, a new player in the wetsuit game, were at the lake, so I tested one of their suits, it was a much better fit. The thing is, I don’t really want to fork out £300 for a new suit, sooo I’ve sent my wetsuit off to Snugg, the people who made it, and am hoping they can make it smaller and get it back to me in time for the race. Worse case, if I don’t get it back in time, or if I do and it’s still too big, then I’m just going to borrow one. At the end of the day, my swim is strong enough to forfeit a minute or two on a bad fitting wetsuit.

Sunday
Run
Half marathon, 21km / 13 miles
2hr 2 min 8 sec!!!

Not a great time by any stretch of the imagination, but for my first half, I’m more then happy. I was hoping to come in under 2 hours, but it wasn’t to be.

The weather was pretty crap, started raining half way through and pretty much didn’t stop. Bronson was driving Leo to some friends to be baby sat, and managed to find me on the road between Kingston and Hampton Court, Leo peered out the window at me trying to figure out what his crazy mother was doing…very sweet.

I felt pretty tired by 10 miles, but knowing I only had 3 left was a real relief. Bronson met me on his mountain bike and rode with me for the last 3 miles. He kept asking me questions and trying to discuss what we should do with the garden…all I could think of was ‘keep breathing’ and ‘only 3 miles left’. If we were close to the Thames, I would have pushed him in!!!

But at least I know I can do the distance, and I have another PB to try and better.
I felt a bit stiff after the run, but not unbearable. So all good!

End of Week 14

Friday
Run 48 min

Saturday
Lake Swim 1hour
Bike – 65 km in 3hours

Met up with Zippy and Pip for an early morning lake swim followed by a little TOSH action.

We went to a new local lake for the swim, it was great and will defo be going there again. Water not too cold, and great changing facilities.

We then drove out to Cobham, dumped the cars and headed to the hills. Pip and I planned to do the smaller loop of the TOSH, which takes in some terrible climbs. OK, maybe only one really terrible one, but plenty of up-downs.

The killer hill is one called Winterfold, with a gradient of 21%, I ended up having to use the little chain ring for the last bit as I just couldn’t keep those pedals turning, and my HR was maxing out at 171 bpm. What an awful hill, I had nightmares….

Sunday
Run 2 X 42 min

Sunday was set-up day for our clubs race series. So ran there and back. It took every bit of my resolve to do the second run. And felt really low when I got home. But then Bronson reminded me that I was probably really tired from the previous day, so that made me feel a bit better.

I was supposed to do a session on Monday afternoon, but was just way to knackered to even consider it. But all in all, happy with a 10 hour plus week, so can’t complain.
The cycling and swimming are feeling great at the moment, the run…not. Feels terrible, my legs just feel really heavy and I just have no speed. I just plod through the runs at the moment. I hope things improve before the race, else, it’s going to be pain and agony the whole way!!!

ONE MONTH TO GO!!!

Tuesday
Swim 1hr 30 min, around 3000m

Wednesday
Run – Track session
5 X 1200m

Another hard session on the track, but knees and legs all holding up fine. I found it quite easy. Could have gone a bit quicker actually and maybe even done one more set, but hey, there you go.

Probably just as well I didn’t as Leo decided to wake up at 3am and refused to go back to sleep. So quite tired again today…

I’ll be having a rest day today as am out with some mates this evening. Yippee…

1 May - OH-MY-GOD!!!

Monday
Turbo – 1hr with speed set (4 min hard, 2 min recovery)X6
Run –33min

Turbo session was really tough and took it out of me. Going eyeballs out on a turbo trainer is much tougher then doing the same on the road. On Sunday, I managed to maintain 30 to 34km/h from Cobham to the bottom of Staples no problem, but trying to maintain 30km/h on the turbo is just pain, or maybe I’m just rubbish!!!

The run felt fine. I stayed within the 45 min cut-off time…before my stomach starts to moan, so all felt great. Also ran in some new trainers I’ve had stored away for a while. The material part of the trainer (Nike’s) is a bit stiff, so should probably walk them in a bit, but the cushioning was great…very lovely and comfi. Should probably be changing my trainers more often…(note to self!!!)

Am feeling truly knackered today. But I need to just hang in there for these last few weeks of tough training, then it will be all taper till the race. Oh yippee!!!

Going to try knock out another big week, it’s a long weekend this weekend and Bronson has agreed to hang with Leo so I can get some quality training in ….bless our OH’s, what would we do without them!!!