Ironman UK Training Week 3

 

 

Decent week this week despite the rubbish snow and ice. At the time of writing though most of it has now gone. Still, training has gone surprisingly well. Hooray


Training

Calories burnt for the year = 24,881
Training hours this week =  7 hours 42 minutes

Monday

Coached Swim Session - 1 hour

Started with a few hundred metres warm up. 100 metres with the kick board. 200 metres wide arm stroke. Did these with the pull buoy.  Then did no end of 100 metre sets with 20 second rests in between. Some of my breaks were a bit longer to let the faster swimmers go by.

Going to be given some extra drills next week to do during the warm up to try and improve my technique. As i currently have no technique this should pay dividends.

Tuesday

Bike 30 minutes & Run 15 minutes brick
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/224543032

Snow thawing really quick this evening meant for a decent ride down to the country park. Snow had got so slushy down there though it was almost impossible to pedal through it. Run was fine, uneventful.

Wednesday

Run 45 minutes

Nice steady 10.28 min/mile. Still snowy & Icy.

Swim 1 hour

84 lengths, pool was packed so a bit of a mare.

Thursday

Bike 45 minutes
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/225241066

Again, mountain bike round the city as still icy conditions. Hoping for a big thaw at the weekend then back on the road bike.

Friday

Rest & big Pizza day

Saturday

Run 30 minutes

Park run was cancelled again so went for little run while Arleya was in her karate lesson. Still a bit icy underfoot but suns a shining and snows a melting.

Bike 75 minutes
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/225753426

Got take the road bike out for the first time in over a week. 10 minutes out, puncture. A piece of flint had gone straight through my tyre. Not surprising with all the grit that has been slung round the roads recently.

Replaced tube on the side of the road, always a mare to try get any decent pressure in your tyre from a hand pump, so put a bit in and headed round to Bicycle Links workshop who kindly learnt me a track pump.

Planned route scuppered as i didn't want to head out to Spixworth with a small split in my tyre so just stuck round the city for the sessions planned 75 minutes. No church pic updates this week.

Sunday

Run 75 minutes
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/225995086

Longest run since the Norwich half marathon. Covered 7.26 miles at a slow pace. Not so icy today but some of the puddles i ran through were a bit cold. Set off at 8am which again took a bit of self motivation to get out the door.



Bike 27 minutes
http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/226034572

Cycle to bike course and back. Got my second puncture in two days. Probably due to my laziness in not changing the tyre as planned the night before, but hey, "I'll never get a flat just cycling down the road". mmm, not. Repaired puncture, pumped up and valve popped grrrr. Luckily i still had the punctured inner tube from yesterday which i fixed & managed to bike home.
Drama continues, got home from Halfords with a bunch of innertubes, only to find i'd picked up the wrong ones.

Other stuff

Had a bonus on my London Marathon entry. Had an email to inform me that I would be starting from the green start with the celebrities. Quite excited about that, although not sure who will be there. Couple of other club members had already booked their accommodation so sorted mine out last night. £30 at Battersea Park Holiday Inn. Only 9 miles from the start, even less from the finish.

The Slateman - Hopefully have my accommodation sorted out for this within the next week as well. First two hotels i tried are full, however, waiting a call back from one who may have a bunk house we can use.

Renewed mine and Arleyas Trianglia memberships this week. Also signed Arleya up for her first triathlon in June - http://www.entrycentral.com/index.php?raceID=101335 

Mind you, like a Muppet I signed her for the wrong triathlon first so need to try get the money back from Tri-anglia for that, doh.

Bit of a bonus, Arleyas first Tri it's at her school, so 2 minutes from my house. Closest Triathlon i will have ever travelled too. We had planned on her doing the first one on the mountain bike (which is quite heavy) but i was lucky on EBay last week and managed to get the below racer for £16.51.

So, will be using my new cycle maintenance skills to do it up

£16.51 Bargain



Stripped down to bear essential

 

Let the clean up commence

Doesn't need much doing to it. Couple of new tyres & new cables. Then a strip down, clean & grease up. Job done.

Bike maintenance course covered gears today which was really good. Learnt how to set up & adjust both derailleurs, plus change the cables. Feel quite confident to do this now. Next week it's work on your own bike so will be a long overdue service for my bike done.

Cheers

Follow me on Twitter @clearseaz

The Cycling Norfolk Church Spotter
http://thecyclingnorfolkchurchspotter.blogspot.co.uk/

The allotment Journey Blog
http://allotmentjourney.blogspot.co.uk/

Join the Facebook Group - The Ironman Journey
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/287319678021088/

Say hello on the Fatman to Ironman forum
http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/forummessages.asp?dt=&UTN=191464&last=1&V=1&SP=

My charity page for event listings & making a donation
http://www.bmycharity.com/clearseaz

Ironman UK training week 2

Couple of bonuses this week. Had my first weigh in of the year since i started training again. In 10 days I've lost 3lbs bringing me down to 14st 1lb. Will weigh in once a month so hopefully well under 14st & heading towards my previous low or 13st 9lb.

Not really changed my diet yet, plus we are still polishing off the final bits of Christmas food. Definitely went over the top as usual getting Christmas supplies in.

Second bit of good news is in respect of the Virgin London Marathon. I missed out on the ballot place, then just missed out on a Trianglia place but then out of the blue, Rob from Trianglia said he may be able to get a Virgin guaranteed place, which, he did, thank you.

So, Ironman UK 30 week training plan has needed a bit of adjustment. I haven't changed it much, just increased the long Sunday runs by 15 minutes each week so i hit a 3 hour run 3 weeks before the marathon. Then taper down for the event. I've put a couple of extra rest days in straight after the marathon then it's back to plan A. Hoping not to wind up in hospital & unable to walk afterwards this time.

Means I now have 4 confirmed events on the charity page now for 2013. Will probably be adding Great Barrow Challenge & Trowse 10k as well.
http://www.bmycharity.com/clearseaz

Training

Calories burnt for year = 17,108
Training hours this week = 7 hours 23 minutes

Monday

Coached Swim - 1 hour
Used a kick board for the first time in over a year. Last time i used one i went backwards so managing to complete 100m going forwards was a surprise. Although i bend my knees too much when kicking.
Did a couple of drills with a pull buoy to try get  my strokes right,  especially when i take a breath as i lift my head to far out the water.

Tuesday

Bike 33 minutes /Run 16 minutes, brick session.

Bike route -  http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/222114804

Due to Norwich being brought to a standstill because of snow & skating rink roads I had to go with the mountain bike. May be MTB rides for the rest of the week looking at the weather forecast. Nearly bailed due to the conditions. However, didn't want to bin any training sessions so took a very slow and steady ride down to Whitlingham Country park and back.

Run was OK, in fact going through the snow made me lift my legs more, thus run more natural, i think. Stupid headphones kept falling out which was annoying. I even bought ones that hook over the ears to prevent this 'apparently'. Unfortunately, my ears are not the size of Gary Linekers so they have not worked very well.

Wednesday

Run 35 minutes. On ice & through snow. Shins started to hurt a bit tonight, will have to reduce the runs down to the intermediate level of Fink if it gets worse. I think the park runs have took me away from concentrating on a more natural style of running as i have tended to focus on running faster there.

Pool Swim 1 hour 3 mins - Swam 90 lengths. Really good, due to snowy conditions there was hardly anybody at the pool so an empty lane for me for the evening.

Thursday

Bike 38 minute Mountain Bike ride - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/222813022

Another icy one but at least the main road down to the country park were clear.

Friday

Rest day


Saturday

Bike - 1hour 39 minutes Mountain Bike Ride - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/223286854

Cold ride this one, Used it as another opportunity to snap some of the Norwich churches.
http://thecyclingnorfolkchurchspotter.blogspot.co.uk/

Enjoyable ride despite the cold, mountain biking down some cheeky little cycle lanes & Norwich alleyways i didnt know existed. Got a bit stuck in some deep snow due to the Garmin map taking me to a dead end so i tried to cut across a field. Not my best of ideas.

Sunday

Run - 1 hour - Took a bit of effort to do this one at 8am. Icy and cold outdoors & had to be back by 9.30am so i could get ready for the cycle maintenance course. Thought about doing the run in the afternoon but would have had all morning to be thinking about it so bit the bullet and went for it.

After 10 minutes, glad i did. Again, early doors Sunday morning, bugger all traffic perfect. Really enjoyed it despite the cold.

Left shin started to ache again but went through the Chi Running techniques and adjusted my movements etc & was soon running niggle free again.

Bike - 30 min - cycled down to the bike maintenance course on Duke Street.
Taking care i didn't slide over as i road past the location from the
You Tube Duke Street Hazard video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ99VULQRI4
 

Few pics from out & about during this weeks activities.

Cow Tower. This was built for artillery in the 14th century to defend against approaches from the River Wensum

Norwich Cathedral in the distance

Cold

Sally in her Igloo

That's about it for this week, hoping this snow buggers off & the temperature picks up a bit soon so i can get back on the road bike.

Cheers

The Cycling Norfolk Church Spotterhttp://thecyclingnorfolkchurchspotter.blogspot.co.uk/

The allotment Journey Blog
http://allotmentjourney.blogspot.co.uk/

Join the Facebook Group - The Ironman Journeyhttps://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/287319678021088/

My charity page for event listings & making a donationhttp://www.bmycharity.com/clearseaz

Ironman UK training week 1

Despite another week of not feeling 100% the first week of training went to surprisingly well. Mind you, the legs are not very happy with the sudden increase in workload.

Training

Thought I'd do this a bit different this year. Give a bit of a summary of how each days training went, if theres anything worth mentioning that is.

Training hours this week - 6hrs 4mins

Monday

Pool Swim 1 hour - 1.27 mile

Cancelled the club coached endurance session due to feeling rank with man flu, also hadn't been swimming for over 2 weeks so wanted to check i could still float & swim. So hit the UEA for a more relaxed hour. First time Ive been on a Monday & at 7.30pm found it quieter than I'd ever seen it which was a bonus. Had to do the first 10 lengths in the shallow section due to a club session still going. Went a bit quick at first & thought i was going into cardiac arrest after 100m, but managed to calm it down and have a relatively relaxed session.

Tuesday

Bike/run brick session

Bike 33minutes - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/219279980
+
Run 15 minutes

Not overly exciting. First brick session in a long while.

Wednesday

Run 30 minutes

Pool Swim 1 hour. New distance PB for me on this one. Managed 88 lengths within the hour.

Thursday

Bike 35 minutes - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/220205630

Took in some of the steeper Norwich hills. Yep, Norfolk does have a few. Going to use Thursdays time to do hill work. Climbed 486ft.

Friday

Rest day

Saturday

Run - 25.58 minute park run

Bike - 1hr 12 minutes  - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/220856204

Nice and steady. Stayed round the city for most of it getting a few more church pics. Now up to 52
http://thecyclingnorfolkchurchspotter.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/norfolk-church-count-52.html

Sunday

Run - 45.41 minutes

Calories burnt for year - 10,250

Trianglia AGM

Attended this on Friday night. Great to meet up with fellow triathletes again, chat about events during 2012 & what we are planning for 2013.

Went through the formal club stuff then did the awards.

Age groupers who represented the country. Including our World Champion, Iain Dawson

Once the awards were done it was on to socialising, Pizza, Ice cream & Mobots

Paul the official Mobot king

To our relief, Stan didn't turn up in his speedos

Let the feasting begin

 

Cycle maintenance course started today. Four week course which will helpfully move me up from useless status to OK at looking after my bike status.
Today's lesson was pretty basic, tyres, punctures and wheels, but did learn some new skills.
How to make your wheel true, replacing spokes & removing the rear cassette was particularly useful. Also made me realise buying a decent cycle maintenance stand to work on my bike is going to be a worthwhile investment.

Next week brakes and cables  - http://www.bicyclelinks.org.uk/course_maintenance_intro.shtml

Think that's the lot for this week. Training increases to just over 7 hours i think.

Happy Training

The Cycling Norfolk Church Spotterhttp://thecyclingnorfolkchurchspotter.blogspot.co.uk/

The allotment Journey Blog
http://allotmentjourney.blogspot.co.uk/

Join the Facebook Group - The Ironman Journey
https://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/287319678021088/

Say hello on the Fatman to Ironman forum
http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/forummessages.asp?dt=&UTN=191464&last=1&V=1&SP=

My charity page for event listings & making a donation
http://www.bmycharity.com/clearseaz

Let Ironman training commence !

Or maybe not as the title suggests. Damn man flu scuppering my plans again. Training should begin tomorrow but have already had to bail on a run & a swim this weekend due to feeling rubbish.

First session planned was a coached swim session with Trianglia. I may still swim if i feel a bit better tomorrow but doubt I'll go to an endurance session, could get messy with nostrils running faster than I ever have.

Despite feeling crud yesterday thought I'd go out for an hours bike ride as the sun was shining & i needed some fresh air. Took it nice and steady & ended up being out for well over 3 hours & cycling 43 miles.
Ticked off 10 more churches from the plan as well http://thecyclingnorfolkchurchspotter.blogspot.co.uk/

Lyng

Quick break by the river

Spot of fly fishing

Training

Well, yesterdays bike ride was it. Walking to work and back each day & doing a bit of digging at the allotment today is the sum total of exercise for this week. Will hopefully have more to write about next week.
Here's the route from yesterday - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/217984964

Weighed myself the other day & found i have gone back to around 14st 4lbs. Not a huge surprise, what with Christmas & a lack of training. Hoping to be well under 13 stone by the time Ironman comes round. Should be fairly easily accomplished as i dropped well over 2 stone last year.

Thought I'd do a calorie burn count this year, not sure how accurate these things are but hey ho, if it keeps you motivated.
This week & year to date  = 4317
 
Good luck to everyone else starting their 30 week Ironman UK training plan tomorrow & everyone else who's started a 2013 get healthy plan.

Happy Training

The Cycling Norfolk Church Spotter
http://thecyclingnorfolkchurchspotter.blogspot.co.uk/

The allotment Journey Blog
http://allotmentjourney.blogspot.co.uk/