The Stokesley Duathlon last Sunday was a great start to the season. It was 5km/30km/5km in very windy conditions and with about 270 entrants. I had a pretty good race, finishing 16th overall but managed to bag 2nd Vet! The dissapointment of officially becoming an 'old git' was somewhat offset by receiving a prize of a £25 gift voucher! Hoorah!
I also managed to get through the race with both calves fully intact! Not even a twinge! However, I did start to get quite a bit of cramp in both quads at the end of the second run and they still feel a little sore today.
Since Sunday its just been a 45 min recovery ride on Monday, and this morning I did a 45 min treadmill run followed by 20 mins of core work.
Now its back to business...up that mileage!
Tuesday 24 March 2009
Sunday 15 March 2009
Best Laid Plans...
Well, last weeks fourth week of 'hard' training in a row before an easy week, didn't happen quite as planned! My body just wouldn't work!
I normally don't lie in at all and struggle to stay in bed past 0730, but last weekend I didn't get out of bed until 11 o'clock!! If ever I needed a sign that I was pushing things a bit, then that was it! So I realised that I had to change my plans and just take it easier for the first half of the week.
Monday was just a swim of 6 x 400m at a moderate effort followed on Tuesday by an early morning turbo session of pyramid intervals. Tuesday evening was a 30 min treadmill run with some core and lots of stretching.
I was still feeling really tired by Wednesday so I dropped my morning session and just did 4 x 500m in the pool after work.
I started to feel a little better on Thursday so pushed hard on the turbo with 4 x 15 min tempo efforts on 5 min rest. This was done on my race bike and although my glutes were a bit tender the next morning, the new saddle height set up feels good.
Friday was an early (0530!) 1 hour of fartlek running on the treadmill. During the run I felt fine but later that day I began to feel my right lower calf tighten up. I gave it several impromtu massages throughout the day and a few stretches on the stairs at work (for which I had to take a fair amount of banter!), which seemed to help. That evening, during a 3km swim, it felt a little sore on the first few push offs so I just pushed with my left leg to try and protect it. When I got home I massaged, stretched and iced it up.
I decided to rest on Saturday and kept working on trying to fend off any possible worsening of my calf 'tweak'.
Sunday's long'ish' ride of 3 hours was done on my race bike, over a fairly flat course, where I managed to stay on the aero bars for most of it without any discomfort. It feels great to get out on my race bike and put the hammer down after a long winter on my old and heavy 'work horse'!
This week I've been working nights and as I have a race this coming Sunday (Stokesley Du) I've just been training once a day, mainly brick sessions.
To give my calf an extra day of rest, on Monday I ditched my run and just did 16 x 100m in the pool.
As the weather has been awesome this week I've had the race bike out..a lot!
Tuesday was 90 mins bike followed by a brisk 30 min run. The calf felt great on the run, but again, it stiffens up later on(?). I keep icing it, up to 3 times a day and it seems to be hanging in there!
Wednesday I biked to the pool for some drills and speed work. I was petrified at leaving my race bike outside the pool in York! I had 2 locks on it and begged the pool dude to keep an eye on it. All was well when I returned, but I'll not be taking my race bike to the pool again. I spent the whole swim session worrying about the flipping thing!
Today I did some short, sharp brick work...3 min hard on the bike with a 2 min run then 5 min rest. Repeated this 4 times.
Thankfully the calf seems fine but just to be sure I'll not run now until the race on Sunday.
I've never competed at Stokesley before but it looks a fairly flat and fast course. Hope this lovely weather holds until then!
Train smart,race well.
Monday 9 March 2009
Another Hard Week In The Bank...
This was my 3rd hard week of a '4 hard/1 easy' cycle. I admit, I did take a bit of a risk this week by upping my run mileage and intensity in the same week, and with no recovery runs I realise I was risking picking up an injury. But I've survived....2 long runs, a hard interval sesh of 2 min hard/1 min easy (x 10), and my favourite of the week was a session I picked up from Hussler's blog...bike/run/bike hill workout!
These hill repeats were done on Friday afternoon after I'd finished work at 2pm. Hills within running distance are non existent around Linton-on-Ouse so I chucked my running shoes in a backpack and hopped on my bike to seek out a suitable hill to tame! I stopped at a particularly evil hill about 30 mins ride away and hid my backpack in the hedge while I spent the next 30 mins doing seated climbs. Then I hid my bike in the hedge and spent a further 40 mins running up and down the same hill. It took about 90 secs to run up and I ran down at a fast, controlled pace before taking a minute rest at the bottom. This was followed by a very steady ride home.
On Saturday, the day after my 'hill brick', I did an early morning 3km swim followed by a 50 mile bike. Needless to say, on Sunday, my second long run of the week (14 miles) in gale force winds, was a tad tough!!
During my longer sessions this week, with Ironman nutrition in mind, I've tried to make a conscious effort to get more energy drink/bars/gels down me, trying to get my body used to simply eating on the move! Things on this front are going ok and I'm gradually increasing the amount I can consume without the need to dive behind a bush mid ride or run!!
All in all, I squeezed in 4 runs, 4 bikes and 3 swims this week. Result!
This coming week is another hard week, before an easy one leading up to my first race of the season on Mar 22nd. I'm a great believer in 'listening to my body'...if I feel good I train hard and when I'm tired, I rest! I know it sounds a bit basic for a lot of you 'wattage crazy' dudes but it works for me and at the moment I'm feeling good, but I'm REALLY looking forward to my easy week!
Train well.
These hill repeats were done on Friday afternoon after I'd finished work at 2pm. Hills within running distance are non existent around Linton-on-Ouse so I chucked my running shoes in a backpack and hopped on my bike to seek out a suitable hill to tame! I stopped at a particularly evil hill about 30 mins ride away and hid my backpack in the hedge while I spent the next 30 mins doing seated climbs. Then I hid my bike in the hedge and spent a further 40 mins running up and down the same hill. It took about 90 secs to run up and I ran down at a fast, controlled pace before taking a minute rest at the bottom. This was followed by a very steady ride home.
On Saturday, the day after my 'hill brick', I did an early morning 3km swim followed by a 50 mile bike. Needless to say, on Sunday, my second long run of the week (14 miles) in gale force winds, was a tad tough!!
During my longer sessions this week, with Ironman nutrition in mind, I've tried to make a conscious effort to get more energy drink/bars/gels down me, trying to get my body used to simply eating on the move! Things on this front are going ok and I'm gradually increasing the amount I can consume without the need to dive behind a bush mid ride or run!!
All in all, I squeezed in 4 runs, 4 bikes and 3 swims this week. Result!
This coming week is another hard week, before an easy one leading up to my first race of the season on Mar 22nd. I'm a great believer in 'listening to my body'...if I feel good I train hard and when I'm tired, I rest! I know it sounds a bit basic for a lot of you 'wattage crazy' dudes but it works for me and at the moment I'm feeling good, but I'm REALLY looking forward to my easy week!
Train well.
Monday 2 March 2009
15 Hours...and Still Smiling!
As I was working nights last week (well, more like 'late evenings' really!) it left me plenty of time to get some quality training in. In fact, despite taking Monday off, I still managed to clock up 15 hours!
Tuesday's am session was max effort in the fitness test (beep test). I was quite pleased to have improved on last time with level 14:6 on the run, 74 press ups and 63 sit ups (for those not in the 'know' you get 1 min for each of the press-ups and sit-ups). Straight after the test I jumped on the treadmill for 30 mins, starting slow for 10 mins and then striding out for 20 mins, before easing off for the last 10 mins. Later that day my bike workout (on my race bike, hoorah!) was intervals of 5 mins hard/3mins easy, repeated 10 times.
Wednesday was a bike/swim/bike. As my nearest pool is just under 15 miles way and 'i/c home' has the car, if I want to swim during the day then I have to bike it. I decided to cycle hard on the way to the pool and took a longer route, which ended up at about 20 miles. I managed to resist treating the pool entrance like a transition area, sprinting through the doors of the pool, throwing off my bike gear as I go!! However, I did try to get changed and in to the water as soon as I could without looking like a madman! The swim was 30 mins of drills followed by 15 x 100m on 20 secs rest. The ride back was a much more sedate affair and was the most direct route home! Altogether, it was a good 3 hour workout.
Thursday morning was run intervals of 5 min hard/3 min easy repeated 6 times. I found this session pretty hard but it was a nice kind of 'lung busting' pain! In the evening I had to resort to the turbo (booo!) for a spinning session, as I had ran out of daylight before I got the chance to get out on the bike. I started on an easy ring at 105 rpm and moved up a gear every 10 mins until I couldn't keep above 95 rpm. Again, it was another 'blast' session but I knew I would only be swimming the next day so I went for it!
Friday was just a 3km pool swim in the evening, in just under 50 mins, which wasn't too bad considering the amount of bodies that got in my way! It was carnage!
I was working on Saturday so I did an early morning turbo ride in the garage before work...a 10 min spin up, 3 x 20 min tempo efforts with 5 min easy spinning between. After work I went for a steady 8 mile run in the evening calm...lovely!
Sunday was long ride day. I've been experimenting with my nutrition in the last few weeks and I am still tweaking. I am trying to find the right balance of food and drink that I can run on after a long bike without cramping up in the first 5 mins of the run! Drink wise, I have found that Gatorade works fine as long as I manage to get enough down me, but I am still trying out different energy bars. This Sunday's ride was 80 miles. For those who are familiar with North Yorkshire, the route I took was from Linton to Ripon (via Boroughbridge), through Masham, up to Leyburn, across to Bedale, Northallerton and back down to Linton. The ride up to Leyburn is pretty hilly but once down into Bedale its pretty flat. It was the last 25 miles or so of flat, in to wind riding which really started to hurt! I was low on energy and had eaten my Go Bar but still had just about enough Gatorade to last till the end. Once off the bike I threw on the racing shoes and ran 5km, and for the first time my quads didn't cramp up! Result! So I know what drink seems to work but I know I need to eat more on the bike....one Go Bar just isn't enough!
Today my long run was pretty slow in comparison to previous weeks. Not surprising really! 13 miles in 1hr 38. My legs were tired but I still managed to finish quite strongly with the wind behind me for the last couple of miles! I had an 'ice' bath afterwards and stuck my recovery tights on but I'm still sore tonight!
A good week in the bag. Happy days!
Train well.
Tuesday's am session was max effort in the fitness test (beep test). I was quite pleased to have improved on last time with level 14:6 on the run, 74 press ups and 63 sit ups (for those not in the 'know' you get 1 min for each of the press-ups and sit-ups). Straight after the test I jumped on the treadmill for 30 mins, starting slow for 10 mins and then striding out for 20 mins, before easing off for the last 10 mins. Later that day my bike workout (on my race bike, hoorah!) was intervals of 5 mins hard/3mins easy, repeated 10 times.
Wednesday was a bike/swim/bike. As my nearest pool is just under 15 miles way and 'i/c home' has the car, if I want to swim during the day then I have to bike it. I decided to cycle hard on the way to the pool and took a longer route, which ended up at about 20 miles. I managed to resist treating the pool entrance like a transition area, sprinting through the doors of the pool, throwing off my bike gear as I go!! However, I did try to get changed and in to the water as soon as I could without looking like a madman! The swim was 30 mins of drills followed by 15 x 100m on 20 secs rest. The ride back was a much more sedate affair and was the most direct route home! Altogether, it was a good 3 hour workout.
Thursday morning was run intervals of 5 min hard/3 min easy repeated 6 times. I found this session pretty hard but it was a nice kind of 'lung busting' pain! In the evening I had to resort to the turbo (booo!) for a spinning session, as I had ran out of daylight before I got the chance to get out on the bike. I started on an easy ring at 105 rpm and moved up a gear every 10 mins until I couldn't keep above 95 rpm. Again, it was another 'blast' session but I knew I would only be swimming the next day so I went for it!
Friday was just a 3km pool swim in the evening, in just under 50 mins, which wasn't too bad considering the amount of bodies that got in my way! It was carnage!
I was working on Saturday so I did an early morning turbo ride in the garage before work...a 10 min spin up, 3 x 20 min tempo efforts with 5 min easy spinning between. After work I went for a steady 8 mile run in the evening calm...lovely!
Sunday was long ride day. I've been experimenting with my nutrition in the last few weeks and I am still tweaking. I am trying to find the right balance of food and drink that I can run on after a long bike without cramping up in the first 5 mins of the run! Drink wise, I have found that Gatorade works fine as long as I manage to get enough down me, but I am still trying out different energy bars. This Sunday's ride was 80 miles. For those who are familiar with North Yorkshire, the route I took was from Linton to Ripon (via Boroughbridge), through Masham, up to Leyburn, across to Bedale, Northallerton and back down to Linton. The ride up to Leyburn is pretty hilly but once down into Bedale its pretty flat. It was the last 25 miles or so of flat, in to wind riding which really started to hurt! I was low on energy and had eaten my Go Bar but still had just about enough Gatorade to last till the end. Once off the bike I threw on the racing shoes and ran 5km, and for the first time my quads didn't cramp up! Result! So I know what drink seems to work but I know I need to eat more on the bike....one Go Bar just isn't enough!
Today my long run was pretty slow in comparison to previous weeks. Not surprising really! 13 miles in 1hr 38. My legs were tired but I still managed to finish quite strongly with the wind behind me for the last couple of miles! I had an 'ice' bath afterwards and stuck my recovery tights on but I'm still sore tonight!
A good week in the bag. Happy days!
Train well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)