Outlaw Half Training – week 1 done, 18 to go…

First week of training is complete! Not exactly as set out on the training plan, but pretty darn close and for me that’s pretty good!

The week started well – usual GreenlightPT turbo session in the open air. It was bit chilly so I actually wore tights for a change. Was a good move as the wind doesn’t half whip under that underpass – anyone who knows MK will know the John Lewis underpass is a rather large underpass underneath Midsummer Boulevard and takes you through to Campbell Park – the highest point in MK.

Tuesday was a rest day which was nice and a bit of a change as I’ve always run on Tuesday since I was about 12 and trained with MKAC. Wednesday started early with a core session – and boy does my core need some work. I’m reasonably fit and regard myself as strong, but as for core fitness I am lacking severely! But it’s still early days and with 2 sessions a week in my plan, plus a bit as part of the turbo session I’m hoping this will improve over the next 18 weeks. I struggled in the swim in the evening but completed everything in the required times and still got some rest.

Thursday should have been intervals, but as my knee isn’t up to that yet, I’d planned an easy run instead but as with the best laid plans it didn’t happen. Mr C had to work late so I ended up doing an improptu turbo session instead. As a result of the late night – and it was very late, I had to forgo my early morning swim session but did get a quick (sorry slow) recovery run in at 6am. There is something quite special about running before the sun comes up. The birds are already tweeting and although it’s still dark, it doesn’t feel like you’re running in the dark – hard to explain but I’m hoping to get some more early morming running in like that as it really does set you up for the day – especially if it’s a bit fresh outside – I was wide awake by the end of the first mile!

We had a long ride planned for Saturday – I had about 40 miles on my plan so took an amble over to Cartlon. The wind must have been behind us as it was the fastest ride I’d had for months – slowed a little on the way back but felt really good. Lots of chat, not too much puffing and I only got dropped once – that’s good! The week was rounded off with a slow 5 mile this morning in horizontal rain and I finally squeezed in that missed swim session in the evening. A bit of traffic in the lane made it a challenge but all done and that is week 1 complete! All starts again tomorrow…

And so it begins…the road to Outlaw Half 2014

Today is week 1, day 1 of my training programme that will take me to the start line of the Outlaw Half in Nottingham on 1st June. It will be my first half ironman triathlon (and possibly my last) and is a step beyond anything I’ve ever done before.

I’m armed with my GreenlightPT personalised programme and on the surface doesn’t look too daunting – nothing beyond anything I’ve done before apart from some core sessions and much more regularity on the bike – I must be the only triathlete who can get through a season with less than 500 miles in training on the bike! That has now changed though – I’ve got a good 25-50 mile ride in most weekends since October so am ready for the long rides in the programme – not sure how the usual cafe stop will be factored in though, but I’m sure if there’s a will there’s a way. There’s less running that I would normally do, but with my knee still dodgy that’s no bad thing and I’ve proved over the past year swimming and biking are enough to keep the running ticking over.

The first session on the plan was a turbo session and is one I normally attend anyway so no big changes to the current set up. Towards the end of the week it’s a little different though. I need to get some run intervals done which I haven’t done for a while because of my knee injury and I also need to get in a swim on Friday. I don’t mind swimming in the evening (my local pool has 9-10pm lanes) but with a big ride most Saturdays I’m going to try to get the session done in the morning at 6am then go straight to work. Not sure how this will work with the family as husband and four year old will need to get themselves up in the morning but we’re going to give it a go. It will then give me time to do an easy recovery run straight after work.

So that’s the first day/session done, rest day tomorrow and then the hard work will start to kick in…

(c) http://inspirationboost.com/thomas-edison-famous-quotes

2013 in review

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2013 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,700 times in 2013. If it were a cable car, it would take about 28 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

It’s all about to get real and I can’t wait!

This week was the last week of training where I’ve been left to my own devices. I’ve always trained myself since I restarted running around 10 years ago and there’s a certain satisfaction in putting together a training plan to get youself to a specifc event. However, for the Outlaw Half, as it’s my first foray in middle distance triathlons I thought I would seek some outside help as I really wasn’t sure where to start.

Fortuantely, GreenlightPT, who I swim train with decided to run a 70.3 training weekend with the added bonus of a personalised training plan so I signed up for this in the hope it will guide me to a successful completion of the Outlaw Half in June.

The first part of the plan starts tomorrow night with a classroom session to outline the next six months. I’m kind of interested to see how hard I can train if I have to – when it’s your own plan it’s easy to chop and change things to suit and bail out when it gets a bit difficult but in this case I’m expecting it won’t be as easy as that. An additional bonus is that there’s a fair few of us from DLRR who are doing Outlaw so there’ll be no shortage of training buddies and banter to keep us on track.

For the first time in a long while I’m actually really excited about an event and really can’t wait to get stuck in. I was excited about both my VLMs but for each one I went into the training injured and really just concentrated on getting to the start line. This time feels a bit different – I’ve got a six month lead up, my only injury about 85% better (I managed 7 miles without pain yesterday at sub 9 min miles) and I’ve actually managed to get a good few months winter cycling in already. The vibes are good…touch wood – watch this space!

Gonna get me one of these!

Goodbye 2013, hello 2014…

Well, 2013 was quite a year – I spent most of it injured in some way shape or form but that did not stop me competing in a number of events and bagging a couple of PBs in the process!

I started the year with achilles tendonitis – a real pain to get rid of but managed it, only to be struck with patellar tendonitis – much the same but on the knee. In my usual style, ignored it and carried on and have spent the final three months of 2013 not running at all – I think this time I have learnt my lesson and have worked hard to come back slowly and not pushing to much to soon.

This downtime has given me time to get a focus on 2014 and what the year might hold. I decided to take the plunge and give a half-ironman a whirl and have entered the Outlaw Half in June. This will be my A race for the year and will give me a good six months to get ready. The lack of running has given me time to pick up my cycling again and work hard at my swimming. I took a swim clinic with GreenlightPT which has highlighted a number of things for me to work on and I’ve also started to take a turbo and core class (also with GreenlightPT) to back up my cycling. As well as the Outlaw Half, I also want to have a crack at getting my half marathon time down. I’ve not really run to full capacity for years and am hoping the focus of Outlaw will enable my running to pick up a level and get a few long standing PBs out of the way.

Overall I think 2013 went quite well considering. I managed to run two marathons in 15 days off around seven weeks training (not recommended!), a new 5km and 5 mile PB and my swimming has improved beyond what I imagined was possible. I was also lucky enough to get a place in the Open Sprint race at the World Triathlon Champs in Hyde Park. On the downside, the little boy who I ran my two marathons for, Henry Allen, sadly lost his fight in October. His plight pulled a whole city together and less than a month later achieved a world record in his memory (myself and my son included!). the money I raised will be passed to the main Families Against Neuroblastoma charity to help other children affected by this childhood cancer.

So, 2014 is about looking forward, new goals, probably more to be added on the way but the main one is outlaw – 21 weeks and counting….