Easier week this week

This is an easier week this week, managed to get just over 18 hours in last week. This was broken down as follows
38 mile mountain bike
25 mile time trial on the turbo
3 days commuting on the bike
total 200 mile of biking for the week

31 mile of running broken down into
17 mile long run
10k run
8.5 mile run

swimming
4 swims of 2k
8k total for the week

Saturday and Sunday were well earned rest days. This week is planned as follows
Today 5 mile run before work, drive to work with the bike in the car, swim 2k at lunch and cycle home
Tuesday Cycle to work, swim lunch, drive home
Wednesday drive to work, cross country race, drive home
Thursday cycle to work, swim at lunch, cycle home
Friday run before work, drive in, swim at lunch and drive home via Stamford to pick Beth up from school.

Saturday and Sunday are pencilled in as rest days again.
Only 4 weeks now until I head out to Lanzarote for my holiday/training week, looking forward to my usual hotel in the same resort as I've stayed the last 4 years. Fingers crossed the weather will be kind.

Another week closer to racing

After last weekends training I commuted to work 3 days by bike, giving another 135 mile on the road, I swam Monday and Tuesday lunch and on Wednesday I finished at lunch to cycle back to Market Rasen but not to go home, to do the Lincs league cross country race. I felt tired as I was on day 4 of my training without rest but set off near the front of the field, I was running well on the first lap and moved up into 2nd place briefly and was battling with 2 others for the position. All was going well until the top of the climb on lap 2 when I felt quite ill and after about 100 meters of feeling ill proceeded to throw up a large amount of fluid. I didn't really feel much better afterwards but continued on to the finish although I had lost the pace a bit and ended up finishing 7th. Not really the result I was after but a good days training, after the race I got my bike gear back on and cycled the 1.5 mile home. Thursday was an easy day with just a swim at lunch as I'd drove to work and decided I would drive Friday as well because I had planned a long mountain bike ride for Saturday. Friday I ran 5 mile before work and swam at lunch but the swim was tiring after being bullied by the physio as my shoulder still isn't 100% yet from the crash 10 weeks ago. Saturday morning was very cold and crisp, I checked my planned route on the map (putting the map in my back pack just in case) and set out. Once the sun came out it was glorious, I really enjoyed the ride covering 38 miles in 3 hours 20. Sunday was planned for a 10 mile run with a 1 hour turbo effort later in the day, again it was cold and frosty when I set out on the run but somehow I missed a turn onto the viking way footpath so ended up on a longer route (hilly loop about 35% off road) and picked up part of the previous days mountain bike loop extending my run to 17.25 miles @ 6:50 average. At the time of writing this update I am undecided about the 1 hour turbo session? I think I might can it and save it for tomorrow evening after work or possibly get up early and do it before I drive in in the morning. I have now entered the Dambuster Duathlon on the 10th March, this will be my first race of the year, I still havn't decided what other races I will do yet.

A Good weeks training

The first week of the year has gone well so far. I cycled to work 3 of the 4 days giving me 135 mile on the road bike plus the 2 hour 20 MTB ride on Monday. I've managed to swim 4 lunch times (that swimming thing hurts after 2 weeks out of the pool!!!). I've ran a 7 mile loop, 2 5 mile loops, and a 11.7 mile loop today. Today's was done on the GPS so the stats were average of 6:13 with mile 10 through to 11 done at 5:50 as I couldn't resist the urge to chase someone down who was further up the road, I guess that's the racer in me!!

Next week I plan to cycle Monday to Thursday which will clock 180 mile with swims Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday as Wednesday I will be cycling back to Market Rasen for a cross country race, will be interesting to see how the race goes with 45 or so miles in the legs?

I've also booked my week in Lanzarote for the end of February and can't wait for some warm weather training. 10 days after is the Dambuster duathlon which is the National Champs so some fast athletes out to play, I'll then find out how the winter training has gone?

That's all for now I think.

A New Year - Time to reflect and a time to look forward

Happy New Year to all who follow my blog. Its been a while since my last post but at this time of year there is little to report. Today is the start of a new year so it's a good time to look back and also to look forward to 2012. Last year had many highs and a couple of lows for me, some of the highs include a silver medal at the standard distance national championships, winning the RAF sprint championships again, podiums at every sprint race I took part in, 4th at the European championships (this was also a low as I should have been on the podium but that's another story) and some great running results. Non sporting highs include selling our house and moving to Market Rasen which we love and are very happy here.

Other highs include the continued sponsorship deals from the following company's

Hilderthorpe Cycles
Xterra Wetsuits
Greepers Laces


Some of the lows were hearing the sad news of the loss of Ant Downing at the end of the year, a tragic loss of a great man. Another low was being hit by a car whilst cycling home from work in November and 8 or so weeks later the bike is still hanging in the garage awaiting the drivers insurance to either fix or replace it.

2012 has started well, i've clocked a 7 mile off road run this morning and a 2 hour 20 min mountain bike ride this afternoon. I've not set out my objectives for the year yet but hope to have a plan very soon.

8 Days, no training :-(

Well after a great 230 mile week commuting I went for week 2 of the same. So 210 miles into week 2 and bang, crash ouch! I suppose with the amount of miles i've covered in the last 18 months of training and commuting its inevitable that I was going to get knocked off the bike by a car. I was in the left hand lane which was clear and the right hand lane was static waiting at the lights when some idiot didn't check his mirrors before flashing the lights to let someone traveling in the opposite direction turn right. The guy pulled through after being flashed and I collided with the front corner of his car but with my forward momentum and the fact that he was also still moving forward I was thrown about 2 foot up in the air with enough time to see that I was going to land in the middle of his bonnet. As I landed the bike unclipped, hit the road and bounced back up about 3 foot and fell to the floor and I slid off the bonnet to land next to the bike. I've got off quite lightly considering the hit I took, left knee joint still sore, after 8 days I can now move my shoulder but can't take any weight through it yet and the bruising on my back has settled down. The bike took it quite well, carbon forks broken, front wheel broken, frame seems in tact but i'm not keen to get back on it even though visibly it seems fine. I had to drive all this week but i'm going to see if I can ride next week a couple of days, just don't know what bike to ride though, don't fancy using my good road bike but don't fancy using a mountain bike either. This is the problem with an accident like this, if it was my fault I would pay to get the bike fixed asap but its not my fault and unfortunately I now have the hassle of claiming for the damage to be fixed which can take weeks and at this time I don't have the £445 the bike shop are quoting to repair the bike. I personally would rather see it written off because if the frame breaks at a later date due to fatigue cracking I won't be able to go back to the drivers insurance so would be happier to have it replaced. Crashes are so inconvenient and i'm now really annoyed at being in this position. Not a happy bunny at the moment. Grrrrrr

230 miles

Well I managed to commute all week this week by bike from the new house so i've managed to clock 230 miles of cycling in 5 days! I went swimming Monday and Wednesday, and managed to run 6 miles Sunday, 5 miles Tuesday and Thursday. All in a good week, I think I will have a couple of rest days this weekend and then I plan to bike the 230 miles next week too. I won't do it every week but will try to do it often.

Henlow 10 and commuting

Well I survived the Henlow 10 yesterday, I had trouble increasing the pace as it set me off on coughing fits so had to control my heart rate and breathing. Still despite the remenance of the man flu in my system I managed to run a 58:54 to give me my slowest ever Henlow 10 but still not too shabby. Its strange really as although a fast run, being just off the top end of my pace has made a big difference in the fact that the legs were tip top this morning. So today is my first commute to and from work giving me a round trip of 46 miles to bike, it was cold this morning on the fingers and toes despite overboots and gloves, Anthea called me at 8 O'clock to check i'd got in ok and said it was -1.5 degrees at 7:20 when she got home from nights so I would guess about -2.5 at 6:00 when I set off. I think the winter cycle boots will be out next week if its that cold again. On the plus point my very nice Castelli winter jacket I bought in Belgium in July was just the job, all I had on was a base layer t-shirt and the Castelli jacket and I was toasty warm! Loving the jacket :-)