Thursday 27 February 2014

Exciting times

As I said at the end of my last post I still had not entered a triathlon. Well now I have. :-)

The original idea had been to go to friends who live in France and then do Embrunman but unfortunately we just couldn't make it work for reasons I won't bore you with. Anyway, while sorting out our holiday it became clear that there was a possibility that I could do the Alpe d'huez triathlon before doing the rest of the holiday.  There was a bit of a problem with this plan however, in that I am already committed to the Thunder Run which takes place on the Sunday with the d'Huez triathlon on the following Wednesday. Oooffff. That's quite a heavy workload and I spent a week or so thinking about it before signing up. At the end of the day I want to enjoy myself and I am not fussed about how fast I go in France. I just want to ride up some really big mountains and enjoy myself so I ll just stick the Van Nic in the 28 sprocket and winch myself up. Simples.

I am very excited.

Wednesday 19 February 2014

February

The weather has definitely dampened my enthusiasm to get out and play on the bike in the last couple of weeks. I have been getting one or two turbo sessions in per week, continually fiddling and tinkering with my tt position but I have not actually been out on a bike in a couple of weeks. My usual commute rides have not happened with a mixture of cba and having to carry lots of luggage to and from work. Even with a Ti framed bike, that's not conducive to a good training ride so the turbo it is. Yesterday I managed my first commute ride over Boxhill; my standard 1 hour ish ride home when I have the time. I felt completely rubbish. I actually got off my bike to see if the rear brake was rubbing, but it wasn't. I just seemed to have very little power to turn the cranks. My bike fitness just seems to have seeped away somewhere.

However, My running is going well, probably too well. Something is bound to happen soon but at the moment I am riding the crest of a wave. My #Jantastic three runs per week remains intact and last week I even did four runs, with an additional 20 minute dreadmill run on Friday. On Sunday I ran 14.5 miles with Paul, a friend who is running London in two months and we bimbled around Altringham with a few of his mates on one of the few dry and sunny mornings of the month. It was a very easy steady run, over hills and dales, running new trails and afterwards I felt great.

I have entered the Abingdon Marathon in October with some guys from Tritalk who inhabit the 'Sub 3 hour thread.' I have been a serial lurker on there for a few years and while at this stage sub 3 is not likely a 3:15 gfa time would be a good thing to aim for. I'm looking at a much longer lead-in with less intense training in a bid to get to the start line fit. I was worried that three runs would not be enough but I seem to have achieved a nice balance of work and rest and in particular my lower legs do not feel continually battered and sore.

Other than the Abingdon Marathon I have been very lax about entering more events as I am saving up for some deep section rims for the Argon but I need to think about a final event for the #Jantastic challenge. At the very least I could go for a 5km Park Run but a half marathon would probably be more useful, but to predict a time at the moment would be pretty hard to do. I genuinely have no idea where I would stand. Ultimately, I don't really care as I am swimming, cycling AND running for the first time in a long while. Happy days.