The Winter plan

I am on eggshells at the moment as I am definately fighting something off and I am fearful that this could really put the kybosh on my Luton Marathon run. I want it to either break so I stand a chance of getting rid before next weekend or to just magically dissolve away. It is very frustrating but with the run miles that I had put in recently it is not altogether unexpected as I was feeling quite run down and everyone and their mother at work has had a cold. I suppose the only good thing to come from it is that it will be another factor to force me to be conservative in my pace. Every cloud.......

I have finally finished building the mountain bike that I started last month. As expected, Mrs Wheezy blew a gasket when she saw the multitude of ebay and bike shop purchases but she calmed down eventually and my bruises have started to fade. It's a real mongrel of a bike with a mix of old and new equipment and at about £250 not too bad cost wise (best bargain was a set of Shimano SPD pedals for £10 and the frame for £15)  I just enjoyed tinkering and putting my own machine together and I'll be able to upgrade further as time goes by. I took it out for a little spin this afternoon along the bridle path to my parents' house and other than the need to tinker with the front mech, all was good.

My main reason for putting it together was to give me another opportunity to get on a bike over the winter and to get out outside when the weather is bad. I just need to mix my riding up; road, turbo, mtb, commuting. The more I do, the more likely that 5.30-40 IM bike split will be next year. There are quite a few off road duathlons in the winter months so they are the main races that I would like to have a go at as they just look like they've got a high grin factor.Add in a lot of bike commuting, the odd long ride and a paddle or two a week, then that basically constitutes the Winter Plan.

Off. To. Bed.

The magic bullet?

After a couple of really full run weeks I was pretty pooped by the time I got to this weekend. At some time in the weekend I was meant to fit in my last long run before the Luton Marathon, but as the weekend drew nearer I was getting more and more tired, grumpy and rough feeling; I just didn't want to do it. In the meantime Adam and I had arranged a paddle and I also arranged for us to meet Jamie and Jo at Elmbridge. We paddled the Mystere down there and then bimbled around the island. Jamie and Jo looked really good and pulled away from us easily. If they decide to do the DW next year then I'm sure they'll do really well. Adam and I did an hour but Adam was finding his position uncomfortable and we think that it's more of a core strength issue. Between now and Christmas it's just going to be a case of getting out on the water little and often and to hit the swiss ball. We are a lot further ahead when we compare ourselves to last year but we've got a long way to go also. Being mowed down by the Elmbridge club on our way back showed us how much more work we have to do on our technique.

After another busy weekend it got to Sunday night and I couldn't put it off any longer, so headed out for this run. It was a slow start running at 8.10 minute miles for the first 8 miles or so before picking it up to around 7.30 minute miles for the rest of the 18 miles. Two things stand out from this. One, proper hydration with nuun beforehand really helped.Even though I didn't take on any gels I did not bonk at all at the end of the run and I feel that ensuring I was properly hydrated with electrolytes ensured that I finished the run strongly. Two, my hamstrings are in a terrible state; they really began to protest and as I begin the taper over the next three weeks I am going to really focus on stretching and strengthening them as much as I can.

In terms of what pace / time to aim for I feel that 7.45 miles should be suitable, which would give a finish time of around 3.23. If I'm honest, this is slower than I would want but I need to keep my ego in check, finish the run strongly and use the experience to improve next time. Slowly slowly catchy monkey.

Tempo running is fun, but it hurts

Last week was a recovery week in my marathon buildup, with no major long run to have to get through, but I ended up putting more stress on my body and my lower legs in particular, than I intended. The weekend was packed with family and friend stuff, the culmination being a Medieval banquet for a friend's birthday. A flagon of mead is a rubbish pre-run drink. :-/

Anyway, early Saturday morning I had a spare 35 minutes so I went out for a run. It was meant to be a steady run, but as I was under pressure to get it done in time, I went out and smacked it pretty hard. Very hard. I was dying by the time I got back to the car, but I had enjoyed it so ticked it off as a run well done.
The next day, after the effects of the mead had worn off I went for a 20km marathon pace run. Again, I went too fast. I started off steady and built into it, but I kept building and with about 5km's to go I found myself pushing on pretty hard. I was really enjoying it. After the long 20 milers I have been doing recently where I have had to constantly keep myself in check and running at a pace that I don't think is doing me any favours biomechanically, I was enjoying the feeling of just letting myself run at a pace that was testing but I felt I was maintaining relatively comfortably. 19km's in 1hr25mins. :-)

The next morning I paid for my ill-discipline. My lower legs were more tight and sore than they had been for a long time. Stupidly, I didn't listen to my body and have a rest, but I decided to try and run instead, as I'm on holiday and have a bit of free time. Sitting on the sofa watching 'Homes under the hammer' isn't going to take me to a sub 11 IM time next year. So I ran, and then regretted it. My run was barely above a walk and at halfway my painful hobble did become a walk. More walking ensued as I gingerly turned for home. Instead of running on elastic and supple muscles and tendons I looked more like I was trying to sprint on stilts. Douglas Bader would have looked more fluid.

It had a positive effect however. That night I iced, stretched, rolled and heated my muscles into submission and finally ordered myself a new pair of trainers that I had been promising myself for the last week or so and by this morning things were much improved, with an easy 43 minute run, restoring my confidence a little in my own body.

Tomorrow will be some long intervals at marathon pace, so nothing too heroic. The lesson has been learnt. And ten on Friday it will be another long, slow, fat burning run in the hills. I might even get on the turbo.

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.