13 Days To Go!

....until the London Marathon! Scary really. I am looking forward to it but am so wary of blowing up at 20 miles and crawling across the finish line. Today was my long run of the week, reduced due to the taper of course 8-) Did an easy 10 miles, aiming for 7:30 miling. Had my Garmin on (they are a great training tool) and slipped into 7:10 miling after an easy first 3 miles. Finished with average pace of 7:15 per mile and I felt tons better than I did on my tortuous 16 miles last week, and ran faster for less effort too. Is this a good sign? i was tempted to ride home as the weather was great for a change but I resisted! Had an easy swim this morning too. Not that it felt easy. It was one of those sessions where the water feels as though it fights against you! I was swallowing the stuff and not very smooth at all. Does anyone else feel like this whilst swimming every now and then? Not too worried about the swimming but it would be nice to be in sub-6 min 400m shape again come July.

Nice to have T Man and Roy B posting comments on the Blog! Still trying to figure out how to get a link to Roy's Blog on mine. I'll get there, Roy!

New Shoes!

I rested today, which was good as I needed the recovery. However I did check my race bike was functioning ok after a winter being stashed in the garage. I also had to check out my new race bike shoes that I managed to get on ebay - a real bargain! They are quite retro and billed as the first real specific tri bike shoe. Not sure ho true that is but they feel great and very easy to slip in and out of in transition......and they are red white and blue!

Legs and Wind

It was long ride day today. However, mindful of the taper, I reduced the ride to 2hrs 20mins. Went on the single speed bike and battled the wind (about 20mph) most of the first hour! I was with Mick, which made the ride more enjoyable. I hadn't realised how much my hamstrings were aching from the track session on Thursday - ouch! We had meant to be running the 200m reps at 1500m pace (around 35 sec). Of course the last few ended up being a race and the last rep was under 30sec, which is pretty much a flat out sprint for me.........and the spasms in my hamstrings told me so! Anyway, enough whinging! The point is, my legs are shot today! My wife banished me to the pool to swim my grumpiness off (what a great girl she is) but there was a swimming gala on - back home I went without a swim.

Mick was riding well today and he has graced my Blog with some comments about my over training........ age does funny things to the brain and I am sure that Mick has got it wrong 8-)

It's a rest day for me tomorrow. I will go to church in the morning at Calvary Chapel Cambridge in Milton (check out calvarychapelcambridge.com) where Pastor Joey Rozek will be giving some great teaching. Joey is an awesome teacher from the US and if you have any questions about the Christian faith, he is the man to address them too!

Time for my glucosamine supper - train smart!

The Taper - Progress?

After the painful run on Monday I decided to take a couple of days off running. I mixed biking to work (30 miles) with swim sessions at lunch times. The biking was great returning from work as I had a following wind; an easy spin back home on the single speed is about 1 hour 30 mins. The ride back to work in the morning normally has a headwind 8-( Add to that legs that are still half asleep and the single speed bike, the ride to work is normally substantially slower! As far as swimming goes, I am managing to swim longer distances but I am not moving through the water very quickly! Did a nice session of 'halving' with 100m sculling drills inbetween - that is:

800m, 100m drill, 2 x 400m, 100m drill, 4 x 200m, 100m drill, finish with 8 x 25m sprint and warm down.

As part of the London Marathon taper I dropped the early morning run yesterday but kept the swim session at lunch time. Therefore, I actually turned up at the Hunts AC track session in the evening with fresh legs! I ran to the track as a warm up, then we ended up doing 2 sets of 7 x 200m with 100m jog recoveries (3 min between sets). Conditions were good too, for a change! 200m efforts are a bit speedy for my legs but it was good fun and certainly got the leg speed going. Importantly, I don't feel drained today! I have an easy bike today and a long easy bike with Mick 'Turbo man' Pullin tomorrow; I will run off the bike but can't see Mick doing that - he has no passion for running!

Next week my long run is reduced to 10 miles so I should be even fresher!

Aches and Pains!

Managed to squeeze a 2k straight swim in on Saturday. Only had 35 mins so set the countdown timer for 35mins and commenced at a very easy pace. Finished the 2k on exactly 35mins. If I can swim in a straight line, i am hoping to convert that into a sub 1:10 swim in Almere (World long Course Tri). Well, after what was meant to be a (shorter) long run on Monday, I have aches and pains everywhere! My achilles is still giving me pain and my lower back now aches! With less than 3 weeks to go until FLM, this is not good. I ran 16 miles at 7:24 per mile pace which should be easy. Hopefully, the taper will allow me to feel better. Scheduled for an easy spin on the bike and a swim technique session today. The weather is better today - no snow! It's cold but the sun is shining, so a nice easy spin on the single speed...... ah! There is no easy spinning on the single speed! It is a great workout on the single speed but the hills do tend to be ridden harder than if you were riding a geared bike. Just been reading Roy Brunning's Blog. Man, the Cyprus life looks good! the location for the Cyprus Duathlon looked fantastic. Certainly seems as though the Cyprus posting has worked well for Roy's training. Work calls.

Bringing You Up To Date!

As it says in the heading, the main focus for the year is the World Long Course Champs. However, the immediate focus is the London Marathon on 13 April...EEK!! This will be my first marathon and, although I have built up my milage and I am really looking forward to it, I am worried about going too fast at the beginning and blowing up! I have completed quite a few long runs (20+ miles)and also upped the amount of fast work by training with Hunts AC in St Ives. Additionally, I have raced the Stamford 30k in feb and the Fleet Half Marathon on 16 March......I guess I am ready!

I have had a couple of heavy volume and intensity weeks and next week will be an easier week. Did 5 x 1k at the track last night in very windy conditions, averaging 3:20 per rep. My legs were heavy as I had cycled into work (30 miles) on the single speed into a head wind for 29.5 miles! Also, completed a straight 2.1k swim at lunch. Tired today! Just done an easy 5 miles run with Caleb (my dog). Will do and easy long ride with Mick Pullen tomorrow. Then it is a gradual reduction of all training over the next 3 weeks to make sure I am rested for the London Marathon. I like to pack the training in so it may be hard to ease back, but I know I must! Bye for now 8-)

I am Blogging!

Wow! My first attempt at Blogging! It has been a heavy day training and working and it's late now; however, I will commence with a proper post tomorrow 8-)