Friday, 4 March 2011
Main races now in place
I've gone through a few weeks now thinking out what would be my game plan for this season. I qualified to represent GB at the European Long Distance Championships early Feb although I knew I would given the results I had last year. I've now entered 5 races so far for 2011 although it's 6 including the European Champs. So my races so far are The Beaver middle distance in May, The Dambuster in June, Antwerp 70.3 in July, European Champs in August, The Vitruvian in September and the Isle of Man End to End Mountain Bike Race. I will fill in some of the gaps with a couple of sprint and Olympic distance events very soon. Antwerp 70.3 is a month before the European Long Course, the timing couldn't be better for me as I will recover well and hopefully be in great shape at the Euros. I've been very lucky with great support from the RAF Sports Lottery/Sports Board who have given me a healthy grant to assist in funding this years racing. Things look like they are finally starting to fall in to place, fingers crossed things will work out as I've planned.
Sunday, 20 February 2011
Friday, 18 February 2011
General round up.
Back from Lanza.
Great week with great weather, actually I lied about the weather because on the Saturday it rained for 5 minutes!! I had a great time, we arrived Tuesday lunch time and the weather was superb so Anthea and I sat in the sun all afternoon. That evening I built the bike and went for a 35 min run up the volcano (the same one I recked my knee on last year). Wed was a 1 hr 45 bike loop followed by more sitting in the sun and another 35 min run in the evening. Thursday 1hr 45 bike loop with a 30 min sea swim in the evening. More sitting in the sun. Friday I did a 2hr 15 bike with a 35 min run off the bike up the volcano. Saturday I did a 2 hr walk with Anthea to the market (where we had our 5 min of rain) but after lunch is was lovely sunshine so mid afternoon I did a 1hr 30 run taking in 2 trips to the top of the volcano. Sunday was another 1hr 45 min bike loop in the morning and a 30 min sea swim in the evening and i'm sure you guessed it more sitting in the sun. Monday, the last day to train was 1hr hard on the bike with a transition to a fast run up the volcano. More sunshine and then packed the bike in the evening. All in I feel I didn't do mega miles but I did do quality sessions. Not loads of swimming you'll also note but the sea was quite rough most of the week as although it was warm and sunny it was a windy week.
Weight loss.
I've raced for years at 74/75 kg's but last year lost some weight and dropped to 70/71kg's and p.b'd at most events. Over the winter I went back upto 75kg's so the last three weeks I have been wanting to get down to 72kg's. I've not done much in the way of carbs for a couple of weeks (p.b for those that know) and yesterday weighed in for the first time since the hospital check up 3 weeks ago. I was most pleased to weigh in (first thing in the morning before breakfast) at 70.2 kg. Weight lost I would like to now maintain that for the season.
Cross country.
Had a cross country race on Wednesday after only getting back from Lanza on tuesday night, went well considering, running 37 mins for the 6.1 mile course. Finished 6th (again) ahead of Pete Norris (again). Pete and I have had 3 close races now so it will be good to see how we compare on the tri scene this year. I will need all the bike and run form I can find though as Pete will be out of the water well ahead of me so I will be chasing him down in most/all of the tri's this year. Look forward to that.
European Championships.
I've received confirmation that I will represent GB for the 4th time on the long course at the European Championships this August. I hope that things work out and I can go to the race. I would like to try again after last year, where I was in a medal position by the end of the bike. My run let me down on that occasion but I was on the comeback from injury. Had I of run my normal time I would have got a medal. Fingers crossed I can put it all together this time round.
Think that's all for now.
Daz
Great week with great weather, actually I lied about the weather because on the Saturday it rained for 5 minutes!! I had a great time, we arrived Tuesday lunch time and the weather was superb so Anthea and I sat in the sun all afternoon. That evening I built the bike and went for a 35 min run up the volcano (the same one I recked my knee on last year). Wed was a 1 hr 45 bike loop followed by more sitting in the sun and another 35 min run in the evening. Thursday 1hr 45 bike loop with a 30 min sea swim in the evening. More sitting in the sun. Friday I did a 2hr 15 bike with a 35 min run off the bike up the volcano. Saturday I did a 2 hr walk with Anthea to the market (where we had our 5 min of rain) but after lunch is was lovely sunshine so mid afternoon I did a 1hr 30 run taking in 2 trips to the top of the volcano. Sunday was another 1hr 45 min bike loop in the morning and a 30 min sea swim in the evening and i'm sure you guessed it more sitting in the sun. Monday, the last day to train was 1hr hard on the bike with a transition to a fast run up the volcano. More sunshine and then packed the bike in the evening. All in I feel I didn't do mega miles but I did do quality sessions. Not loads of swimming you'll also note but the sea was quite rough most of the week as although it was warm and sunny it was a windy week.
Weight loss.
I've raced for years at 74/75 kg's but last year lost some weight and dropped to 70/71kg's and p.b'd at most events. Over the winter I went back upto 75kg's so the last three weeks I have been wanting to get down to 72kg's. I've not done much in the way of carbs for a couple of weeks (p.b for those that know) and yesterday weighed in for the first time since the hospital check up 3 weeks ago. I was most pleased to weigh in (first thing in the morning before breakfast) at 70.2 kg. Weight lost I would like to now maintain that for the season.
Cross country.
Had a cross country race on Wednesday after only getting back from Lanza on tuesday night, went well considering, running 37 mins for the 6.1 mile course. Finished 6th (again) ahead of Pete Norris (again). Pete and I have had 3 close races now so it will be good to see how we compare on the tri scene this year. I will need all the bike and run form I can find though as Pete will be out of the water well ahead of me so I will be chasing him down in most/all of the tri's this year. Look forward to that.
European Championships.
I've received confirmation that I will represent GB for the 4th time on the long course at the European Championships this August. I hope that things work out and I can go to the race. I would like to try again after last year, where I was in a medal position by the end of the bike. My run let me down on that occasion but I was on the comeback from injury. Had I of run my normal time I would have got a medal. Fingers crossed I can put it all together this time round.
Think that's all for now.
Daz
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Not much going on
What's been happening? Not much is the answer. Raced at Wittering for the lincs league cross country race 10 days ago, first time i've done any sort of speed work since November. It was hard work but managed to finish 6th so quite happy with that. Had a good battle with Pete Norris all the way through the race with a constant gap of just 10 seconds (to my advantage) and finished 10 seconds ahead of him. Wednesday just gone I got asked short notice to go down to Halton for the RAF cross country champs to help secure a team win for Waddington, we won! I finished 15th overall which i'm happy with due to the lack of speed/effort sessions this year and put a healthy 30 seconds into Pete this time. Thursday I was on a course so no training and Friday I just did a 20 mile ride on the mountain bike, it was a tad on the windy side. Today (Saturday) I did a 32 mile ride in the wind and rain this morning and this evening did an 11 mile run taking in Lincolns "Steep Hill" a cobbled street of approx 20% gradient. Feel quite good now too. Not sure what tomorrow will bring yet, probably a turbo session and Monday will be packing the bike down as Tuesday at 0730hrs I fly off to Lanza for a week. Beth is at school so its just me and Anthea going and she's cool with me training out there so should be a good week. Hopefully get some sun on my skin and more importantly I don't want a repeat of last year when on the second day out there I tore my patella tendon :-( so fingers crossed for a good weeks training. Really looking forward to some good weather, biking in shorts, running in the sun and sea swimming. Will do updates and pics as the week progresses.
Thursday, 13 January 2011
And a front puncture on the way home!
Well after this mornings rear puncture on the way to work, I got a front puncture 3 miles from home on the way back tonight. I had used my gas cylinder this morning so decided to ride on a flat tyre as I didn't fancy the walk. All was going OK (or as OK as can be) until the last mile where I broke a spoke as well. Managed to ride all the way home but need to do some work on the bike now. Never mind it could have been worse.
Cold Showers and a Puncture
First week of commuting after the Christmas period, how's it going? Well the building I work in has no hot water and is not likely to have until at least the end of the month. Icy cold showers for me this month then. Its been hard work getting up at 5:30 everyday this week but only tomorrow and then its the weekend. Swimming has been hard work too, why does the swim fitness dissappear quicker than the run/cycle fitness? Today I had my second punture whilst commuting, can't complain though at 2 punctures in six and a half months of cummuting. Tube replaced, co2 cannister emptied and back on my way, still made it to work on time too :-)
Sunday, 9 January 2011
Marathon decision has been made.
Got up this morning and something has happened since earlier in the week. I felt positive about things. Maybe its because the sun has finally made an appearance! So I finally got to where my new Oakley Radar BMX Chrome Edition whilst doing a long run. I scanned the map and decided on a route, got ready and set off with the GPS on to measure the new loop. With a new list of tunes on the ipod I was enjoying the nice (yes you heard me - nice) weather. As I got to the last junction before heading back up towards home I had a check on the GPS, I was 9.4 miles in at an average of 6:30 per mile. I decided to push harder for the last few miles to try and lower the average and finished at 13 miles on the dot with an average of 6:25 for the total run. So at the end of the first week of training for 2011 I would say my base fitness isn't too bad. Back to work on Monday so the biking and swimming starts again, I think by Friday night I will be quite tired. So onto the Marathon decision.........................I'm going to give it a miss. Once I check the roster at work on Monday I will hopefully be able to enter the Clumber Classic Duathlon in March, I hope to carry the running form from last season and think I will go well in the duathlon.
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