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!!!!