Hilly running

I was meant to run 20 miles at the weekend but due to a dicky tummy I ended up doing 2 much shorter runs on each day; one a tempo effort for 45 minutes while the other was a slow, one hour plod. By Monday evening I felt a lot better so I left work and set out to do a route the Simon had shown me. My reason for picking it was twofold; firstly, it was a lot more pretty than my usual route, taking in Leatherhead, Fetcham, Bookham, Bocketts Farm, Nork and a few other places, all linked by trail paths. The other reason was that it was a considerably more hilly route than I was used to and I was hoping that this varied terrain would engage other muscles and maybe help to alleviate the battered feeling in my quads that I had during my last long run.

Once again, I started really slowly. Unfortunately, my heart rate monitor was playing silly beggers so I had to go by feel but it was very comfortable. The long climbs and descents were taken really steadily and I felt pretty strong and as I came onto the A24 for the last time at approximately 13 miles I began to push on above marathon pace. The gels at 90 and 120 minutes really helped again and I feel that a couple more in the race will help a lot. I did get tired and I could feel my heart rate increasing considerably but I felt a lot stronger than the last long run. It was hurting at the end, but I think I am starting to win the mental game and I pushed on, focusing on keeping a good leg turnover.

20 miles in 2.44, with a comfortable negative split. Not too bad, but over the next three weeks I am going to have to do some long marathon pace efforts in order to see what pace I should aim for. I'll be looking at doing 13-14 miles at 3.15 pace, take my HR data and see whether it looks sustainable, but at the moment my feeling is to be more conservative when it actually comes to the race. I still have 6 weeks.

So, how do you run long?

This is a question that's beginning to bug me, for the simple reason I am finding it quite hard. Although I have had a cold for 10 days or so I have managed to keep ticking over, either on the bike or doing a fairly low quality run. Before that however, I was running pretty well and was comfortably increasing the mileage, with two 16 mile runs, with negative splits in a shade over 2 hours. All was looking good.

On Sunday evening, I went out for my latest long run in preparation for the Luton Marathon. The plan was broadly similar as to my last long runs pre cold. I intended to run slowly for the first lap and a half of my route (13 miles) and then begin to increase the pace to around marathon effort. I also took along two high 5 gels in order to try them out and I would take them at 90 minutes and 2 hrs in. From the off, I felt uncomfortable, feeling the effects of the tempo run the day before (not ideal long run prep, I know but it had to be done). But, I knew that I would feel better as I warmed up and sure enough after 30 minutes I began feeling looser and settled into the run. 90 minutes came round and it was time to use the gel. I've always used gels in triathlons but never when running. In 2008 when training for the London Marathon I had forgone all use of gels and nutrition and when the wheels spectacularly started to fall off at 18 miles I knew then that looking at improving my nutrition was required. Anyway, I took the gel, grimacing as I knocked it back although it didn't react with my stomach. Over then next hour, two things happened, one good, one bad.

The good was that the two gels kept my energy levels up and I didn't feel the usual bonk that became a familiar feature of my long runs in 2008. The bad was the feeling that my quads had been attacked with hammers. 16 miles I can run and feel relatively fresh but even though I started really slowly, I would describe those last couple of miles as genuinely painful. It wasn't my ITB playing up; it was purely muscular. My leg turnover was good and I felt good aerobically but I was finding it harder and harder to run fluently.

I am hoping that it's a hydration issue; I didn't take any fluids during the run although I was well hydrated beforehand. If it's not, then I'm in trouble.

Hodge - Maybe ;-)

Stalled training

As I came out of the tri season I was looking forward to getting my teeth stuck into some big run miles in the lead up to the Luton Marathon, but unfortunately, injury and illness have put paid to that. The injury came, not during a gnarly tempo run or a blistering swim set, but instead during a rather stupid dance move that no 40 year old should attempt. I woke up the next morning to find an enormous purple bruise running almost 9 inches along the path of my now over-extended hip flexor. It was painful to walk and with a very busy family weekend in store it seemed sensible to take the entire weekend off; the first time that's happened in a very long time. The following week I was able to get on the bike to and from work, doing a few 80 minute rides on the way home along my Boxhill route, but as the week wore on I started to feel more and more lethargic and by Friday I had a full-on cold. Que another weekend off and more vitally, another long run not in the bag. Grrrrrr.......

By this Monday I was feeling a lot better so went for a gentle 30 minute run. I felt great. Then, 20 minutes later, I felt rubbish. Grrrrrr...... Another day off yesterday although I did a gentle and short commute to work and back. I am now almost over my bug and hopefully I will be able to plod for a long slow run on Sunday, hopefully around 18 miles or so.

While all this has been going on Adam did his first half marathon on Sunday, completing the New Forest run. A brilliant effort from Boy Wonder. The other thing that has been keeping me amused has been my decision to build my own mountain bike to do some off road cycling over the winter. The idea was that I would build myself a fleabay special, but so far I have managed to spend a King's ransom. When Mrs Wheezy sees the credit card bill I am going to be in one whole heap of trouble.......

Hilly 12

I needed last week's rest week. I was pooped. During the week I commuted on the bike every day but took it very easy. The long route home from work that I had enjoyed so much when training for the Forestman seemed particularly difficult and I weaved and wheezed my way up Boxhill before descending back home. My long run was cut back to 67 minutes and most of it was laborious, my muscles and joints not enjoying being forced to run so early on a Saturday morning.

On Sunday I did my last time trial of the season. It was an unusual one in that it involved hills rather than the usual blast up and down a dual carriageway. The roads were quite greasy so the first couple of miles that involved a descent down to the bottom of Boxhill were a bit tentative and throw in game birds in the middle of the road and D of E walkers with their heads buried in maps and not where they were going it made for a couple of heart stopping moments. As I climbed Boxhill I got into a pretty good rhythm and started to reel in the 4 competitors ahead of me and by the time I had gone over the top there was only one other rider in front of me on the road. I followed her down the next descent, not wanting to overtake on such a tricky bit of road before pushing on up the last climb. At the top at the finish the usual dry heaves came up (muesli taste; nice) before a slow few hundred metres back to the car park. Being a new course to me it was always going to be a pb, but it was a bit gutting being beaten into second place by 1 second. Next year.

In other news....
Ad and I are trying to get a boat sorted and we have not had much luck, having an offer on a decent looking boat accepted and then turned down. Grrrr.... Ad's Bonkers busy at work at the moment so we have not been out in the last couple of weeks but I had a really nice paddle with Dad on Sunday night, his first paddle in a K2. I always said I would never get back into a Discovery; I was lying. ;-) It was a bit windy but we took it steady and had no major wobbles. All good.

Trying to pace it right.

My summer running campaign came to an end last week and I am delighted how it has invigorated my running. I have started doing some long runs in preparation for the Luton Marathon in November. The last 2 weekends I have gone out and run for 16 miles, but the main difference to my long runs in the past is that I have run to heart rate. The first 9-10 miles I have capped my HR at 140, which is well at the bottom end of zone 2. I find it hard to do this as I find that my run form seems stilted but there's no doubt that it will help me improve my endurance. Over the last 4-5 miles I then allow my HR to drift out to 150-55 which gives me a comfortable negative split. I am intending to try to negative split in the race as I think this will force me to control myself at the start when I am likely to get carried away. The upshot of this was that both runs were at approximately 3.10 pace which is significantly faster than I thought I would achieve. Early days though. let's see how those 20 milers go, eh?

Swimming has hit the rocks, as has cycling, mainly due to the summer holidays. Seven weeks off is great but actually I find it a lot harder to train then, as our family routine is completely thrown up in the air, which of course is fantastic. Now that I am back at work I can start commuting to work on the bike again which was so effective for me in the run up to the Forestman.

Race wise, I have my last TT of the season on Sunday and then the Cabbage Patch 10 in October where ideally I would like to comfortably get under 65 minutes. Let's see...

In other news...

Adam and I are in the process of buying a boat, but I'm not sure whether it's going to happen or not. Fingers crossed we'll have our own K2 to train in the winter.

Accident Prone

I have really been enjoying my running over the last month. I started at the beginning of July with the intention of running everyday until the end of August and not surprisingly, I have not managed that, but, I have averaged over 5 runs per week for the last 6 weeks and more importantly, I have remained injury free and incorporated sessions that I have not been able to do, regularly, for the last 3 to 4 years. I enjoy running fast, interval sessions, fartlek, hill reps and to do these regularly and be able to run again the next day has been a massive boost to my confidence. My recent Bushy park run and my long run a few days ago both indicate that things are progressing in the right direction.

I am treating paddling at the moment as a weekly core session. I have been out in the Blenheim three times now. The first two times were very uncomfortable, with me working really hard to stay the right way up and often, only just doing so. last night Ad and I were out again. It was still very hard work but there was a small but perceptible improvement, which meant that there were fewer support strokes and slightly longer periods of smooth running and gliding of the boat. Once the sun had gone down and my horizon was more difficult to pick out, it became tense, but I am pleased that after a couple of hours that I can see some progress.

Cycling in the past three weeks has been predominantly based in the turbo dungeon doing  one long interval session and one short set a week. I have a couple of short time trials in the pipeline but I am still struggling to get something sorted over the winter to give me something to train for. I am hoping that their might be some winter cyclesportives to enter.

 Some three weeks ago I did a 2 hour ride complete with a one hour TT effort at threshold and just after I finished the effort at the foot of Boxhill, something went into my right eye. I rubbed it, it was sore, but other than a bit of irritation it was fine. On inspection at home, I had a mark on my eye that I took to be a cut, but it was not hurting so I forgot about it. Fast forward 2 weeks and my eye started to weep pretty badly, so I took myself off to my GP, who promptly took one look at it and stated that I still had something in my eye and I needed to go to casualty to have it removed.  :-(  On arrival at A and E the nurse started using terms like "..scraping my eyeball to clean it." Que grown man going weak at the knees and wanting to cry.
"Would you like your wife in here to hold your hand?"
"No, I'll be fine." While my bottom lip quivered.

After applying some anaesthetic eye drops and having a poke around with a cotton swab, with the offending particle still steadfastly refusing to budge, the nurse called over the doctor who then started unwrapping a needle. Oh, bloody hell! As ever, the thought of it was worse than the actuality and the insect body,  which is what it turned out to be, came off quite easily. I thought I might have got a sticker for my bravery. Wheezy junior always does.

Today I did a 3 hour hilly ride with Simon and felt strong throughout. As we entered Leatherhead at  the end of the ride my front wheel slipped from underneath me when it caught the grass verge on a cycle path. I landed heavily on my right hip and elbow and banged up my Ultegra shifter. I was hacked off, annoyed and feeling thoroughly sorry for myself as I pedalled gently into Leatherhead town centre. Literally two minutes after throwing myself on the floor I saw a patient from Headley Court being helped out of a car into a wheelchair, which rather put my very minor scrapes into perspective.

London-Surrey Cycle Classic

A few blurry pics, taken at the roundabout where Reigate Road meets the A24.

The lead group.

The peleton catching fast.

A couple of back markers trying to get back in contact. It was staggering to see how conjested it all got with all the support vehicles. I've seen it on the tv when watching the TdF and Giro in the past, but up close and personal to it, it's quite a shock. Looking forward to next year even more now.

Wheezy 1 - Blenhiem 0

So last night was my first foray with a proper, tippy boat; a very beaten up old Blenhiem that was barely held together with duck tape. I didn't go in, but it was a damn close run thing. My splash support strokes got a lot of practice and I had to concentrate REALLY hard, doing no more than a few minutes before having to stop because I had caught my paddle or over-rotated. After 40 minutes of paddling very slowly up to Sunbury and back I was in a muck sweat, through fear rather than exhaustion. Adam was perfectly happy in the hobby and wanted to go on, but I knew that my luck and skill were about to run out, so we decided to do another 20 minutes in our old Mystere; the first time that we had been in a boat together since getting out the Discovery at Marlow during the DW. No wobbles, no dramas; nice to be back. :-)

In other news...

Kingston Phoenix Club 10 this afternoon and a new pb by 22 seconds, despite it not feeling like it at the time and saw ( I think) the Sky team bimbling along the A24, doing a recce for the Olympic warm up race tomorrow. I'm going to be cycling ver to Leatherhead, do a run and catch the race as it heads towards Boxhill and see if I can catch a picture of Cav etc. Good times.

A bit of paddling in a Stiletto

Adam and I have started the process of getting back into a boat, concentrating on K1 stuff. We have both been paddling a hobby, which after a few wobbles initially, has proved pretty stable. Yesterday, I was invited out in a Stiletto with a dad from the kids' school, Oli, who is a very experienced paddler. He has done the DW himself and when he found out that I had done it in the past, he kindly offered to take me out in a tippier boat. I wasn't looking forward to it; the name 'Stiletto' highlighting the relative instability of this boat (wobble factor 2/3) and I was very confident that I was going to take a swim or two.

It was a very strange experience. Firstly, at no time did I feel unstable; Oli, unfortunately did. I was in the back and Oli being a taller, bigger bloke folded himself up in the front as it was a club boat and I didn't want to break it. The boat was also A LOT lighter than anything that I have paddled in before, being easily lifted in and out the water by us with one hand. As we pushed off Oli started putting support strokes down straight away and sculling the top of the water and a couldn't understand why. I had the benefit of feeling very stable but with Oli in a new position, for him, in the boat and I presume not being able to see me and in the lowest volume part of the boat he was finding it hard to relax. We bimbled round the island for 5 minutes and the situation wasn't improving so I offered to go in the front. A quick boat change to the stiletto Oli had set up for him in the back, a quick seat adjustment for me in the front and we were off again. This time it was better. I was able to just keep stroking away while Oli gradually put down less and less support strokes, although the wind was getting up and did give us a few wobbles to contend with now and again. By the end, we were having a few runs of 5 to 6 minutes where we were really giving it some beans. *big grin*

All good fun, but I need to work on my own stability. The club has a beaten up old Blenheim which I will attempt to master before the water starts getting cold.

Life in the old dog yet.

The last 3 weeks have seen my training numbers fall away somewhat. A fantastic family holiday in Spain, that saw me get out for 4 runs, between 30 and 40 minutes and in the pool every day. No real structured stuff at all, just trying to avoid being de-bagged by wheezy junior. The problem is that my relaxed attitude carried on into the following week as well. However, I kept the #summerrunning campaign going, although I only managed 2 bike sessions. A great 2 hour ride with a 1 hour tt effort in the middle and a bimbling and terribly unstructured turbo set. Grrr.....

Anyway, the culmination of last week was a 5km tt run at the Bushy park run. Since the Forestman I have put together my most consistent run training in a very long time and I wanted to see where I stood despite only a few speed and interval sessions. It was a particularly busy morning with over 700 starters, so I placed myself in the middle and waited for the off. These can be really tricky to pace right, especially if you're not quite sure what your fitness state is, with it being a very fine line between pacing it perfectly or blowing up horribly in the last kilometer, so I decided to start a bit more conservatively and work my way through the field. 

I had a great run. I haven't enjoyed myself like that in a long time, picking people off as I got my heart rate up and those in front started to tail off. I even managed to out-sprint another chap in the last 200 metres; I don't think I've done that since 1988! I was realistically expecting something in the region of 20.30-21.00, so to see 19.06 on my watch brought a very big smile to my face. Still a long way to go but very happy. Even more happy when I found out I had come 24th and second in my age group, something that I really was not expecting.  

While my running plan up to Christmas is nicely in place, I need to look at an event that will get me out on my bike, now that the TT season seems to be drying up. Autumn Cyclesportive? Audax? Not sure what, but I need something. Answers on a postcard please.

A bit of a rambling post.

I have learnt something new over the past week. I need to race more often. It's a simple fact that I spend a lot of time training without having a goal in mind and therefore the training that I do is often unfocussed and lacks direction and this week has been a case in point. While I have a vague idea that I will be probably be doing a late season half and an olympic event, because I haven't actually committed to it my training has suffered and while I have got out the door every day to do something (at least I am being consistent), the sessions have been made up at the last minute with no overall plan. This is something that I need to work on if I am to see the gains that I want to see.

The aim then, is to get me to a point in 12 months time where I can attempt a fast IM race and therefore I have been looking at which event I would like to do. The race I would love to do is Ironman Switzerland and when registration opened I went to have a look. The timing of it is perfect, falling in mid-July; the cost is not. Unfortunately, feeding and clothing my children has to take precedense over my hobby and even I balked at the cost of this event. IM Lanzarote and France are both events that have also caught my eye and they are considered much tougher events than IMCH but they just do not fall at the right time for me. The other race that I'd love to do is the Norseman. Even in the IM world it is completely unique but it is not sub 11 territory (at least, not for me) So, while a large European Ironman race is a dream, at the moment, it seems that it will have to remain just that. One day....

So, an IM next summer? I would think at the moment it will boil down to either The Outlaw or Challenge Henley. But they are both over a year away, so what am I going to do in the meantime? One word; race. In particular, half marathons and marathons in order to build up my run legs and do the Park runs a lot more regularly to gauge speed and fitness. I am going to try to get a VLM place through work again as my main goal over the winter and spring. My other main goal is to figure out a way to get my IM bike split down but I will initially do this by just continuing to be consistent and doing lots of Z1 /2 work over the winter. Core and conditioning work will consist of sitting in a K1, preparing to tackle the DW with Adam again. We had our first paddle last night with Jo; just a gentle pootle about to get the feel for a boat again but my main focus is going to be tri. I intend to be Ad's wingman and not the other way round. ;-)

My summer running campaign is going well. I have missed one day but other than that all is good and I am really excited about getting a road race or two under my belt in the near future.

Summer Running

Back in the saddle last week with a solid 13 hours of training and thankfully, I seem to be pretty much fully recovered from my Forestman exertions. It was finished off with a really enjoyable ride around the Surrey Hills with some of the peeps from Tritalk (thanks, again, for organising it Phil). 75 miles completed with some hard efforts up Coombe and Crocknorth but I was able to get towed most of the way round. ;-)

I had been chatting to Phil during the ride about getting my run legs sorted in preparation for a future IM race. I have almost become scared of running too often, feeling like my legs are made of glass and that I must constantly be vigilant in case I bring on an injury that curtails my training significantly. Once again, I think it's a state of mind that I have allowed myself to develop and I need to have a lot more confidence. The fact is, my 'run' legs have not been injured for well over 6 months, so what's holding me back? Simple answer; me!

Phil had 2 suggestions based on his experience. Firstly, go out and run every day and build up my run volume gradually. The second idea was to enter an ultra marathon!

Well, the first point is one that I am going to attempt and should be well within my grasp. I intend to run every day between now and August 31st which is a total of  53 days from when I started at the weekend. I will run primarily by feel; if I need to run short and slow then I Will do so; if I can do 3 hours, then I will. I also intend to ensure that it's not all one paced and get some speed work going on. Some of my runs will also be brick efforts off the bike, both long and short.

Being a keen listener of the Marathon Talk podcasts I was really interested in the Comrades Ultra marathon and the idea of having a go at one really appeals; I'm not entirely sure that I can get to a state where my legs are bomb proof enough to run for 56 miles from London to Brighton, but my self imposed summer running challenge will at least kick start the process and get me running properly again.

Three days in and all good do far.....

A week in Recovery and beyond

It was a strange week, last week. The preceeding two months had seen me completing more hours of training than ever before and I had seen real gains as a result, particularly in the swim and bike, so to spend a week doing very little in terms of training was hard to do. The Forestman went exactly as I had expected it to but that didn't stop me being a little bit dissapointed with the last 5 hours of it, though. However, what brought me back down to earth was the reaction from friends and family that knew about the race. Gradually, over the week people found out, the word spread and I got more and more attention. I have to say, it was nice. :-)  There would be the usual glazed look as I explained the distances in each event; yes, completed one after the other; no, I didn't stop for a rest; yes, it hurt.

It didn't stop me struggling though. I went into work on monday and I was soooo tired, although not particularly sore. I ate and I ate and I ate some more. And I drank, constantly. I enjoyed that too! I had read a lot about people having post-event blues but other than the 'could do better' feeling, I have not had them at all and I have been itching to get back into some structured training, which has now, thankfully, begun.

But, I do want to do a lot better. I have learnt an awful lot from doing the Forestman and I have been genuinely surprised at the gains I made in a modest amount of time and it's shown me that I believe I can get a pretty fast Ironman knocked out; but talk is cheap. I need to put in the consistent hard work over the next year to achieve that and the last 8 weeks has taught me that it is possible for me to fit that in around work and family life. Not easy, but possible. Simon seems keen to do the Big Woody at the end of the season. I have decided that this is not for me. I am going to keep training, do a couple of Olympics and target an end of season HIM with a view to nailing that sub 5 hour time and then work towards an IM next year. I'd love to go abroad (IM Switzerland would be ideal if finances allow) but if not I would think that next year's Outlaw would be the race of choice.

I have always thought about what would be a perfect IM race for me and in light of the Forestman I have revised what I believe I can achieve. So, here goes;

Swim - Sub 1 Hour (Have done that at the Forestman but would like to get down to 57-58 mins)

Bike - Sub 6 (ideally 5.45). A tough one and if I am honest, I'm not entirely sure how to go about this. The long Forestman rides have really helped my speed endurance but I think I am going to need to keep the volume consistently high and introduce some really high quality sessions. Maybe I need to get out and ride in a faster group to push myself more?

Run. Sub 4 (ideally 3.50) I know I can do this but I have to keep my run volume consistent (3-4 runs per week), stay injury free and have quality sessions in there. I am plodding too much and not running regularly enough. I am considering getting a gait analysis done. It's obvious that I am very weak in certain muscle groups and this is causing me to get injured too often so I need to develop better strength and flexibility.

So basically, that leaves me wanting to complete an Ironman that starts with a 10. Yikes.