Been a while since I last blogged and have several stories to catch up on.

much like everyone else training over the last few weeks has been a bit on and off. I had big plans to work hard with my training as I had two weeks off over Christmas but as with many others I was taken down by an illness.

I’m not sure I completely shook off the previous one and with the stresses and strains of Christmas and the body’s general inclination to break down during rest periods I just didn’t get anything like as much as I wanted done.

For Christmas K had bought me a pair of race wheels but these got held up in customs on Christmas Eve and it was to be over a week before I could get my hands on them. This was made all the more annoying when I did get out on the road only for a spoke to snap on a descent only 30 minutes into my ride – I must admit to thinking my entire chainset had fallen off due to the noise it was making!

Wheel has since been repaired but I’ve been limited to the turbo since then but training has been going well over the last couple of weeks. Some good solid runs, decent swimming and what feels like far too many turbo sessions especially since the snow hit last week.

A particularly favourite session was a trail run in the snow while listening away to the Rocky soundtrack. Drago would have had no chance against me that day!

If my training plan is to be believed, I’m kinda hoping it’s fibbing to me at the moment, I should be beating my swim distance PBs repeatedly this month but today saw my first significant jump in distance.

The longest I’ve done done since Marcus set me a plan is 1300m and I’ve only swum further twice before – a 1500 in the pool that killed me and then my Oly race. Today was broken down, rather than a solid block but consisted of a 200, 200, 10×100, 2×200 and 200 – rest intervals of 30 or 20 seconds. For those counting that’s a total of 2000m a whole third more than I’ve ever swum before.

I approached the pool this morning with the same trepidation as the family of ducks I passed on the way in nervously eyed up the frozen lake outside. 200m warm up was followed by 200m of drills of my choice, and decided to play safe and swim with the PB. The 10x100s went by surprisingly well and I was instructed to swim them all fairly evenly. The first was 8 seconds faster than the second but 2 to 10 were all within about 3 seconds of each other. I passed my previous 1500PB during the first of the 2x200s and was about 7 minutes ahead of my previous PB and then I checked off the 1800m mark with only the cooldown to go.

I realised than I could go sub hour for the 1.9K if I pushed it but this was the cool down so I played sensible and ended up being 21 seconds over at 1900 before completing the full 2K in 1h03. Most importantly is it’s now 4 hours later and I’m feeling totally fine. My moving time to get to the Half Iron distance was about 55 minutes and although 3800m is going to take me a long time but I should be well within the cut-off and hopefully not dead. My biggest worry perhaps is having to do 2 hours of exercise that early in a long day without refuelling but I guess I can always sit down for a 3 course meal in T1 – wouldn’t slow me down much compared to how long I normally take.

In seven months or 212 days I will be, all being well, somewhere near Nottingham on my bike.  I’ll be part way through 112 miles of bike ride having already swum 2.4 miles.

I normally use this little app for holidays….

Currently the longest I’ve ever ridden my bike in one go is 52 miles and I’ve never swum more than an Oly swim and I’ve only done that twice. So although seven months seems a long time I’ve got a lot of work to do.  If I’m honest I think I could go out tomorrow and ride 80 miles or so and I could probably manage 2K swimming wet suit assisted although perhaps not on the same day. (more…)

After a pretty decent start to my triathlon training in October the wheels fell off a bit in November mainly down to a cold I picked up.  It never got too bad but I felt terrible for an hour or two after waking up and pool chlorine just knocked me for six.  I could continue to try to explain away my woes but really they’re just excuses.  I get one or two colds a year so hopefully I won’t pick up another one until after July 2013.

More after the jump  (more…)

November aka Month Two of my Outlaw Training Plan.   Here are the (rather mediocre) stats for the month.

• 15 training sessions done out of 23 scheduled (a cold and the weather didn’t help)
• 34K run in 3 hours 45.
• 199K cycled in just under 8 hours, 94K of that on a turbo
• 4400m swum in about 2 hours
• Total exercise including football just over 16 hours.
• Weight up a fraction 🙁
• 4 Strava PRs in the month including one KOM on a flat TT segment

October is over and so ends month one of my Outlaw Training Plan.   Here are the stats for the month.

• 25 training sessions done out of 27 scheduled (I had pretty good reasons for the two missed)
• 59K run in 6 and a half hours.
• 283K cycled in 11 and a half hours, almost exactly half of that on a turbo
• 7600m swum in about 3 hours
• Total exercise including football just over 23 hours.
• Weight down approx 5lb
• 7 Strava PRs in the month

Easily the worst week of training so far.  All was going well and last Wednesday I woke early to do a turbo session.  I had a look online and saw that the Outlaw Half had opened for entries so quickly got my name down, what better training event than half of the main one.  From there things went downhill so those of a nervous disposition don’t read on.

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I’m now into week 3 of my training plan for Outlaw and currently I’m 12 and 0 in terms of sessions.  Good for me as there were definitely a few I might not have done had I not had a coach peering over my training diary.

More after the jump.

(more…)

Today was the first day of my Ironman training plan.  Nothing major to start, just trying to build up some fitness and endurance and get used to training six days a week.

Oddly, while I always struggle to sleep before an event, I had a similarly restless experience last night even waking up before my 6:15 alarm.  Kit was all out and ready to go and I arrived at the pool with a set of 200, 400, 200 ahead of me, little did I realise my local pool, which I’ve never been to before was only 20m.  Not ideal when you’re rubbish at turns and trying to swim 3.8K so I might not use that one all the time.

However it’s nice to think that the journey has now started even if the destination is still a long way away.

I’ve thought long and hard about and taken on many people’s thoughts but have decided, with some encouragement from watching IM Wales I know what I’m going to do in 2013.

Having discussed it with K I’ve realised that the opportunity might not come up again and I can really dedicate myself to this for the 10 months available, something that might not be possible in future years.  The colleague who got me into this crazy sport, Marcus, has recently started a coaching career and offered his services and I think that having a coach I know and can deal with my particularly needs will really help me.

I’m going to train hard, I’m going to stick to the plan and come the 7th July I’m going to become an Outlaw.

Wish me luck.