*Not* a good end to the year

'What could possibly go wrong?' I spoke too soon.

A fab Christmas day with the olds and the Outlaws was followed by waking up on Boxing day feeling utterly rubbish with a full, streaming head cold. Also, while playing around with my new Garmin 410, my gps watch that I had bought for myself that Mrs Wheezy dutifully wrapped up for me to open at Christmas, I only went and dropped it into a mug of tea while I was playing around with it. I could not have done it if I had tried. Thankfully I fished it out fairly quickly and it seemed to work ok. My ineptitude knows no end. So I am necking vitamin C like it's going out of fashion in the hope that I can be healthy enough to start the Marathon Talk #Jantastic Spring motivation challenge again. The good news is that up until my cold, running was continuing to go well with some half decent speedwork sessions. So it looks like a few days off while I let this cold run its course and then I will ease back into some regular run - bike stuff.

A good end to the year

A much better week feeling back to normal. I'm just bloomin' loving running at the moment. The rain and wind's been lashing down but it's been so good doing some regular running with a bit of confidence. Mid-week I even did a fartlek run. Nothing too heavy and I was sloshing through a waterlogged playing field, slipping and sliding about in my trainers and the very soft ground lent itself to staying relatively injury free. Perfect. I think that I have finally got the better of my feet but I guess I will not know until I start to do some harder and longer speed work. But at the moment it's all good.

I suppose I should look back at this year and see what went right and what didn't. What did go right was the DW. I'm glad Adam and I nailed that one on the head. The culmination of a lot of hard work and effort and still a great race to do. The other thing would be my 10 mile tt best time coming down completely unexpectedly. Still nowhere near fast enough for my liking but a pb's a pb. I Also got an e-mail to say that I had won a total of £18 in race winnings during Phoenix tt races. That makes me a professional athlete, right?  ;-) Other than that, this year's been pretty poor with my foot injury colouring everything and I think that led to the major mojo dip which other than the few tt races saw me not competing at all. I am pretty confident that next year will be different.

So, what about next year? I guess I need to nail some targets to the mast.

1. Marathon PB. Currently 3.18. Realistically, sub 3.10 should be doable, sub 3 on a stellar day, sub 3.15 for a London marathon 'good for age' time as a minimum.

2. Olympic tri; sub 2.20. Qualifying for the World's is very unlikely but sub 2.20 may well be within my grasp if I can....

3. PB my 10 and 25 mile tt times. Ideally 23.30 for a 10. I'll probably need to invest in some aero help to achieve that, but you can never own enough bikes.

Ultimately, I just want to race a bit more and be fit enough to do so. I know I was pretty much saying the same thing last year but I don't have an excuse now. I've sorted my feet, I'm enjoying my training and I've entered some events. What could possibly go wrong?  ;-)

Last week managed to turn itself from a potentially solid week's training into a very mediocre week. The bubbling stomach that had given me some discomfort during #turbovember showed its true colours. On the first weekend  Little Wheezy had her second dose of the vomiting bug going round and then four days later Wheezy Junior had a dose which had him off of school for 2 days. With a guaranteed  inevitability, on Saturday afternoon I started to feel more and more crappy until I eventually had my head down the porcelain telephone and then it was a solid 24 hours in bed feeling r.o.u.g.h. So a weekend long run with Simon and  a turbo session was obviously canned. I feel so much better now than I have for a couple of weeks though and I don't think I realised just how much I was fighting off. I still managed 2 turbo sessions, 2 short runs and a swim so  it was not all lost but hopefully I can kick on a bit towards Christmas. And my feet are still behaving themselves.  :-)

Speaking of Christmas I have bought myself my present. Sue didn't see any point in going out and buying it as she was worried about getting the wrong one so I was allowed to buy it for myself and I got one of these;

Garmin 410

I have not run with a gps watch properly before. I have used Strava to record my runs in the past but it only gives a record post-run. I want to be able to run my intervals, marathon pace runs and long runs at the correct pace to get the maximum training effect and use heart rate zones properly. No more guessing and running by feel; it's time to get scientific and hopefully this small investment will take me a step closer to sub-3. The only problem is I've got to wait until Christmas day before I can use it, so between now and then it's more steady running building leg strength.

I've also entered another race, the Watford Half Marathon which I'll use as a gauge to my marathon fitness. Onwards.

Running and stuff

While I am glad that #turbovember is over I am also glad of the kick start that it's given me. It was a shame that a chunk of it was conducted while I was fighting something off but it got me spinning the wheels regularly and made it a habit and I need to keep that habit going. The cold snap that we are having has made the prospect of long, slow bike miles not a pleasant prospect so having read some threads and websites and with a change of focus to shorter racing next year, I have also decided to change how I do my bike miles. I am going to cut out the 'junk' miles and focus on shorter sessions either on the turbo or a weekend road interval session on the local tt routes that I know are accurately measured. No more than 2 hours with tt paced intervals and short rests after a warm up. I know I can ride a bike slowly for a long time, but that's not what I am trying to achieve for next summer where I am going to have to ride really hard for 60-80 minutes then get of and run hard. Except for weight loss, slow miles are not going to help with that kind of racing and in the last 4 years I have only made small gains on the bike, through lack of consistency and not training effectively enough when I do. The more technically minded might call it 'reverse periodisation'; I call it being race specific. It's not going to make me slower...

Another run this morning for 75 minutes, I think Simon and I covered about 15kms, a fast start, a slow middle and a fast end. I just felt that little bit stronger than last week and I was running much better at the end. I absolutely frickin' love running at the moment, much helped by the glorious conditions that we have had for the last three Sundays. Please, please let it continue. Still taking it easy, stretching, wearing the right shoes, padding my shoes, running on soft surfaces where possible. I cannot see what more I can do and it seems to be working. I will be taking part in the #Jantastic Spring motivation challenge next month which will be when I really kick-off my marathon training but at the moment the aim is to run 15 miles comfortably by the end of the month, which looks pretty doable at the moment.

So at the moment, I have the following events entered for next year;

Votwo Duathlon in March - 5k/20k/5k

London Marathon - April

East Grinstead Tri May - 500m / 26k / 5k

Dambuster Tri in June - 1500m / 40k / 10k

I'm going to look for an early half marathon and another half or 20mile race before London and another tri in May. I am going to need the race practise before the Dambuster to sharpen up a bit Hopefully, all being well I may have a tt bike to race on as well. I admit it; I am going to buy some speed but I'll need every bit of help that I can get and you can never own enough bikes.

#Turbovember Day 29 & 30

Another commute day yesterday with an easy spin into work and then battering myself on the way home, pushing hard for the whole ride. After a short break I went out for a 40 minute very easy run. No bad reactions and felt quite comfortable.

So today was the last day of #turbovember and I celebrated by having another rest day. I've just totted up the numbers for the last 30 days, I hadn't had time before now nd I am pretty pleased. 34 hours total with only 2 complete rest days. The third week was the most surprising with 14.5 hours training. It's been a good kickstart to my winter training but now it's time to get a bit more balance with some slow, easy running and getting along to a weekly swim session. A good start, but now it's time to keep the momentum going.

#Turbovember Day 27 & 28

Technical issues (a crap laptop) meant no post last night, but yesterday's #turbovember session was one hour's worth of bike commuting and a run. The commute was grim, in particular, forgetting to dry my cycle shorts at work and then having to put on very wet and cold lycra at the end of the day. Bleeeeurrrgh. It was a steady effort there and back and I felt so much better for a two days' rest from cycling. #Turbovember or not, I needed it. The run in the evening was a 35 minute affair; very slow to start and then after 20 minutes 5x1 minute with a 1 minute recovery. The efforts were fast strides rather than full out efforts in order not to stress the feet too much. All good, other than feeling overweight when trying to run fast. I need to do lots of slow easy miles and get it down a bit.

Today was more commuting on the langster and a busy evening has meant that that would have to do, as today has been my birthday.

What I wanted was one of these;

What I got was one of these; 

I did get a fab skull cap thingy to wear under my bike helmet, which with the sudden drop in temperature is very timely and some new lycra. Fab.u.lous.

#Turbovember Day 26

Forgive me, for I have sinned. Ended up not doing a turbo set last night and also have not done one today, although I was back for a swim at the club tonight. Mainly drills but very hard work non-the-less. Overweight and underpowered. Bike commute tomorrow though.

#Turbovember Day 25

I had a lovely run this morning, pootling around the bottom of Boxhill then Simon and I took in the climbs up to the farm at the top of Young Street then through the back of Denbies vineyard before looping around Ryker's cafe for home. We started too fast and I had a bad patch for a couple of miles before settling in for the rest of the run. Aching like a SoB now, but in a good way. I'll put in a gentle 30-40 minute spin this evening, but unfortunately I don't think that I can count it as a brick session with an 8 hour gap between.

#Turbovember Day 24

A day of rest, because I sorely needed it. Instead, I have eaten chocolate cake and drunk champagne. Tomorrow I will repent by going for a long run and a short turbo.

#Turbovember Day 23

Today's session was one hour's worth of bike commuting on the langster. The ride in this morning was hard work; uphill most of the way and on fried legs from the short, sharp session the day before. The weekend's going to be interesting as little wheezy has been sick for the last few hours so it's not looking good.

#Turbovember Day 22

Another late one due to life issues. 35 minutes with 5x3mins, 1 min recovery, which just tips me over the 1000 minutes for #Turbovember.

#Turbovember Day 21

I've managed to tick off one of the 90 minute sessions which gives me a frustrating 990 minutes total #turbovember time so far. Tonight's session included 5x10mins with 5 mins spin recovery. Probably too much easy stuff but I feel that I still need to take it a bit easy at the moment. I'll aim to have a harder and shorter set tomorrow night as time will be tight. Very glad that I am nearing the end of this thing.

#Turbovember Day 20

A long day at work, home at 9.30 and then straight into the turbo dungeon. Even I could see the relative futility of that one. Anyway, 30 minutes done with 2x5min tempo efforts in there. I still have 3 90 sessions and 2 bricks to knock off to officially complete #Turbovember and only 10 days left to do them in. Double turbo days? Now that's something I've never contemplated before. Bed.