Friday

Discipline: swim
Distance: one mile

A quick swim before Vrap arrived for a social visit. The pool was distinctly crowded, including two girls from a local swimming club, who seemed to me to have loust technique, but what the hell - they were a bliddy sight faster than me!

The pool was a bit packed, we got up to nearly double figures in th swim lane at one point, but I churned out the lengths quickly. I'm disappointed as I've never really managed to reproduce the form I showed when I did sub 1:50 for 100m, but I did have a go at a 200m time trial and did 4:10.8, which is only a second or so outside my PB, and I felt I could have worked harder down the last two lengths. I think my aerobic fitness has gone a bit, perhaps due to a lurgy that seems to have been hanging around. Plus I'd done a shift until late at Crisis the night before!

Greenie in the pool :o-

Discipline: Swim
Distance: one mile
Time: not noted!

Today went crazy! First - the bike wouldn't restart after yesterday's problems, and I had the dishwasher peeps coming in the afternoon, so it looked like a large part of my day was goingto be spent waiting for stuff to happen!

Anyhow - it all worked out okay, and the dishwasher peeps and the bike peep turned up bang on time to allow me to meet up with Greenie (Green Eyes from the RW forums).

We had a fairly relaxed swim - not pushing ourselves time wise, just chatting occasionally inbetween groups of lengths. I seem to be able to do 100m in about 2:12, so 66 seconds per 50m. This really is an almost "effortless" pace, and hopefully one I could keep up for 2.4 miles. Okay, I might slow a bit, but hopefully the extra buoyancy of the wet suit will make up for that, and perhaps even more. Anyhow - on that time split, 2.4 miles (or 3.8kms) would take 76 x 66 seconds = 5016 seconds, or 83 mins 36 seconds, which seems pretty good to me! And I've got plenty of time to improve my fitness.

I also experimented with sighting - it sort of happens anyhow in a pool, but I practised lifting my eyes just above the water (with the help of my front arm, as Christine Sleeker had shown me), and I think I've pretty much got the hang of it. I imagine the wet suit buoyancy also helps.

I think my biggest concern right now is my knee injury - the bike and swim are both going well. Plus the weight is dropping off, slowly but surely, and should hopefully be down to in the 13 stone something territory by July!

Swimming was Sunk :o(

Right - well yesterday involved another fab sesh at Crisis - the afternoon team weren't quite as bright and jolly as the night team, but all very efficient, and I had a fun time, including a duty of loo cleaning! It didn't help that the plumbing was pretty buggered to start with, and one of the loos was leaking. As one guest said "it's like a shit hole in here!!".

Next was gap duty on the arts tent, and a chance to look round. There are some seriously talented peeps who are homeless - I'd have paid money for some of that stuff, but unfortunately other volunteers had got in there first!

All in all another great sesh - and I went home tired but happy. Thanks to Jayne for the lifts both ways :o)

Had a lazy morning, went round the sales, but feck all worth having! I planned a swim about 3pm, but slept through, and in the end went about 6pm. Trouble was, the bliddy pool was shut! Although it said "open normal hours" on the flyer I'd picked up a few days previously, they'd shut the place - grrr!

sub-30!

Discipline: Running
Distance: Four miles out and back route
Time: 29:27
Av speed: 7:22 mins/mile

Decided to give the four mile route another crack, in spite of the ear ache. I could have swum but decided that that probably wasn't a good idea, and in any case, a swim tomorrow and then a cycle Wednesday was probably a much better plan.

The run started well, and the conditions were cold but perfect for running, with a light drizzle. Apart from the cold fingers, this really is ideal weather for me when I'm running. I felt like I was going well, and my legs weren't as heavy as the other day. In spite of this, I only reached the end of Mulgrave a couple of seconds quicker than before, which was a disappointment.

The second half of the outward route was definitely an imporvement - I'd struggled the other day, but today it felt pretty relaxed on the whole, and I didn't feel as short of breath, and I reached the turnaround point (two miles) about 30 seconds quicker than before, in 15:02. Good stuff!

The return journey also went smoothly, and although I was struggling for breath at times, I managed to pretty much maintain the pace, and my legs just weren't feeling as heavy as before. I cruised home in 29:27 - easily breaking the 30 minute barrier (dur!).

Plsu - I went to the start of the sales before I ran, and should have a slimline dishwasher arriving later on in the week (and I'm not talking about Vrap on a visit down South for the social!)

Another Crisis session coming up this afternoon, but I've managed to secure a lift there and back, so hopefully there won't be any problems.

Finally, I Get It Up!

Oops - this has been delayed a bit by all the bloomin' training, but finally, I got my tree up! Since everyone else is showing piccies, here's mine!

Crisis, What Crisis?

Wow! What a night!

Not training, but was up overnight at the Crisis Over Christmas centre at the London Arena in Docklands. For those who don't know, this is a shelter that's open for homeless peeps for about a qweek between Crimbo and New Year, run mainly by volunteers, and, having said for years that it sounded like a great project, this year I'd finally got it together it time to get my name down.

I must confess I was distinctly wibbly about going into it, and I struggled to get any sleep the day before, even after my long bike ride, to try to start not eeling too knackered. As it was I turned up at Docklamds distinctly knackered, particularly after fighting my way between Canary Wharf underground station and Canary Wharf DLR station, which has to be one of the worst signposted transfers I've come across on London Transport! ANyhow, I made it, 15 minutes late, but keen to get started.

After a briefing, we were all allocated to various tasks, and I was helping put out the bedding for the sleeping tent. This was a busy job, and we had to place the beds between peeps who had already crashed out for the night. Physical work indeed, particularly laying out the blankets, which weighed a ton!

Next job was toilet runner - which basically meant going to fetch stuff from stores whenever they were needed in the loos. This was great fun as there was no map of the stores, and it was a matter of hunting, which was particularly fun when the plumbing when pear shaped. Great fun though, and before I knew it, 2am had arrived and I wasn't remotely tired! Next was IT tent duty, which was allocating timeslots, and helping peeps who were a bit stuck. I was quite amazed by how many of the guests had email addresses and stuff!

The next shift did leave me rather tired - as it was gate duty, which really meant just letting people in and out, but it was the middle of the night so fairly quiet, and all I had to do was to talk to the guy I was rostered on with. Not that he was dull, but somehow it felt away from the main action.

Finally - gap duty (stopping people getting through the entrance) of the IT tent while the techies did some repairs.

Overall, it was great fun to chat to everyone, and I was amazed by the wide variety of peeps both on the guest and on the volunteer side.

I popped into Decathlon on the way home - sadly no cheap 2100s, but I did get a rather nice rucksack that will hopefully be suitable for running and cycling. I got home, knackered, but still feeling very chatty, and eventually managed a couple of horus sleep in the afetrnoon. Definitely not a late night for me tonight!!

My planned swim in the morning didn't happen, and that's probably a good thing! The pool shut at 3pm so it's not going to happen now. Legs (and arms from BP) ache like crazy, and I really can't see me doing anything on Crimbo day aching that much. Legs aren't that achey, just heavy from the cycle. A swim Xmas day would be good, but nowehere's open, and I'm not going to swim in the Serpentine!!

Can't wait for the next Crisis sesh - I'm sorely tempted to turn up on spec and put in an extra shift :o)

I Want to Ride My Bicycle!

Discipline: Bike

Distance: 30 miles

Time: 1:57

Av speed: 15.1 mph

Well, I set out to do about 22-25 miles, but got lost again (I have a habit of doign that, have you noticed?) and ended up doing 30. The problem with any route I can come up with that starts from home is that I spend the first few miles heading through traffic. I either head down towards Reigate (lots of dual carriageway) or out through Epsom (a bugger to get through, particularly with Crimbo shoppers around!). Today I opted to go out through Epsom, and although the first few miles were quite stop/start, I was soon on the road out towards Oxshott, which is pretty much a straight run through. I reached Oxshott in about 30 minutes, and that's about nine miles.

I turned right and headed up towards Esher, and went through the ten mile point in a few minutes more. Technically it was about 36 minutes, but if you factor out the slowing down for lights, it's probably closer to 34, and I wasn't wellying it as I knew I had to do another 15 miles after that (which turned out to be another 20!).

I turned left at Esher, down the A307. Somewhere down here I got lost, and instead of turning back towards Oxshott, I headed straight through into Leatherhead. That was okay, but it did add to my journey time. It also bought a long, steep hill into play! Plus of course Leatherhead one way system, and more nasties in the traffic. Then back through Ashtead and into Epsom, and more weaving hell. It wouldn' tbe too bad, but with clip in pedals it's dangerous! I turned left towards Ewell as there was a massive tail back, and came back along Longmead Avenue and past Ewell West station. Then one final climb up Howell's Hill, and then back home. It was about four hundredths short of 30 miles, so I went 35 yards down the road and then came back, just to make sure!!

Let's just see how my legs feel tomorrow (and indeed the next day). I'd like to do the pirate 56 miler on the 29th, but it may be a crazy build up!

Thursday - evening

Busy day for me - decided to do Body Pump in the evening as I hadn't done it for ages, and as it turns out it was the last chance before Crimbo, as there's no class on Saturday.

Boy was it tough!!

Kept the weights down for the squats - 8.5kgs on each end of the bar, which seemed to help my quads, but even so they were tired. Guess the last week they have been taking a thrashing what with the biking, running and kick in the swimming. Great to do a class, particularly with Verona (the instructor), who's so full of energy :o)

Glad I did it though, really enjoyed the abs track, and then home to try a rather fun Swiss ball exercise that I'd seen in a mag.

The instructor (who is prone to muddle her words) ended by wishing us "a Happy Christmas and a Preposterous New Year", and then asked if that was right. We were too busy peeing ourselves laughing to reply!!

Thursday - Morning

Discipline: Swim
Distance: 1000m

Hmmm - wasn't sure if this was a good idea with an iffy arm, but went for it, just kept my stroke gentle and slow. Concentrated on a slower stroke and trying to keep position and get the leg kick working, which I'm still not finding easy. Breathing to the right doesn't seem as smooth as breathing to the left either. More stuff to work on.

Anyhow - I managed a very comfortable, not more than vaguely out of breath, 50 metress in 64 seconds, taking about 47 strokes. That'll bring me home in an IM swim in just over an hour an twenty minutes, plus of course extra speed from the wet suit buoyancy (this presumes I can keep it up, but it felt very sustainable) and don't weave all over the lake! Must have a go at sighting!

Thursday am - Boozing and Losing!

Woke up with my bliddy left arm sore again - that tingly pins and needly feeling. What the heck's that all about?? Haven't had it for a few weeks, and now suddenly it flares up again.

It's two days since the swim, so why now?

Anyhow - had a very nice evening out, drinking alkyhol (four pints) and probably eating way too much on my return, but even so, the new, lightweight XFR Bear weighs:

101.8kgs

so 0.8kgs lost so far this week

Can't decide whether to

a) Swim - and risk fecking up the arm again

b) Bike - and possibly risk fecking up the arm 'cos I'll have weight on it

either way, I want to do Body Pump tonight as the DOMS from Saturday has pretty much abated!

Wednesday

Discipline: Running
Distance: 4 miles
Time: 30:40
Av min/mile: 7:40

Two days since the chiro, and I wasn't convinced my quads were firing any better (they had been, but I thought they'd gone back to crap mode again). Anyhow - set out on the run, legs felt okay at first but quickly felt sluggish, and that my ankles were doing too much weight, rather than the lovely light flowing feeling I get when thigns are going well. Going up the slight incline half way down Mulgrave Road felt hard too.

I was surprised when I checked my watch at the end of Mulgrave - 7:20! Wow - so I was going fast after all!! Anyhow - miles ticked by, continued to feel tough, but I reached the turnaround point in 15:31. Now if I can just do the same on the return journey! I stretched, had a few sips of water, and set off.

I was finding breathing hard on the way back (not that it had been easy on the way out) - maybe it was the after effects of the lurgy. I certainly coughed up a load of gunk after the run!

The last quarter mile was particularly tough, but I got there, pleasingly, in 30:40, for an average mile time of 7:40 - which is a great improvement, and especially good considering the potential lurgy still hanging around.

Going Swimmingly!

Discipline: Swim
Distance: 1 mile (1600 metres)
Time: irrelevant

Yay - pool was open today - just a shame my swimming wasn't fantastic! I felt a bit sore for the first few lengths (still got DOMS from Saturday!) but the swimming helped to ease that. I struggled with the kick for a bit but that did seem to come. I set my sights on doing a mile, which I achieved, although I wasn't too pleased with my speed.

I had tried to slow things down, but I found it hard to get the kick right when swimming slower. If I kick like normal with the slower stroke, I tend to snake, and yet the extra effort of kicking at my normal faster speedmucks up my breathing. A tricky one, but one I'm going to have to sort out. I tried several 200m time trials, but pretty much without success. I was either too fast and ran out of breath, or too slow, or both.

Speed generally was an issue - I couldn't seem to break 50 seconds for 50m or 1:50 for 200m, both which I'd managed to do easily in the previous session. My breathing on the whole felt wrong - maybe it weas the after effects of the lurgy, but either way, after the first length, I could feel my technique suffering badly.

In the evening I went to the gym, aiming to do some weights, but the shoulder press really brought out the DOMS again, so I resorted to ten minutes on the tready, and some ab exercises, followed by half an hour in the sauna. My quads are still feeling tired when they really shouldn't - maybe I should just ease off them for a bit instead of running and biking! That said, I'm trying to lose weight - I've now dropped 0.6kgs since Saturday :o)

DOMS!

Discipline: Swim - no - bike!
Distance: 13.7 miles
Time: circa 50 minutes

Bit of a mucked up day - started off with DOMS (which I still have incidentally, and it's getting worse) from Saturday's weights sesh, so my back and chest are decidedly sore, and putting on a sweatshirt is bliddy agony!

Headed off to the pool mid-morning, raring to go, only to find that....it was shut for a training day. Now I did know that, if I'd thought about it, but it was irritating nonetheless. Why couldn't they do it before the hols started?

Anyhow, after much humming and hahing about how cold it was, I headed off on the bike. The bike computer was playing up, but rather than faffing about, I just decided to cycle anyhow, as I just wanted to get in about ten miles ride, only I got lost in the maze of roundabouts out the back of Epsom (Horton Country Park) and ended up doing about 13.7. I sawy about, because gmap decided to play up too!

Anyhow - it was over ten miles, and didn't feel too tough, other than my left quad in particular, which really felt it climbing hillls. I mentioned it to the chiro that afternoon, who had a look, and said that my quads were barely firing, which would explain the sore quads on runs too.

Next morning - I ache a lot (more DOMS, lots of chiro elbowing), and my left quad is still feeling sluggish, although hopefully that's a result of it getting overused yesterday before the chiro, and once it settles down it'll be fine :o)

Weekend

Hmmm - started the hols with big plans - bike Friday afternoon, Body Pump Saturday, plus a swim, and then another cycle and maybe a run on Sunday. But then a lurgy hit and I ended up feeling like sh1te half the time :o( Messed up a couple of planned social events too, which wasn't good.

I made it down the gym (later than intended) for Body Pump on Saturday, only to be told that the class was cancelled due to unfortunate circumstances. I decided tyo do some weights anyhow, plus some ab stuff, and boy am I feeling it today! I ache all over! I went to bed early, but still didn't wake up until nearly 9am on Sunday (today), too late to get to the Horton 10k to spectate and cheer on Greenie and Cookie. I did have a swim planned, but the scooter wouldn't start, which was a real fecker. By the time I'd faffed about, it was close to lunch, but I fell asleep after that, so did sod all. It was pretty icy so I didn't get out for a bike ride either. Plus my phone has stopped working!

Right - end of the day. The scooter suddenly works (good news - just hope it stays that way), and after some amateur electronics I've managed to get the phone fixed. I think the problem was it had got too close to the heater and the wiring had melted, so I've cut out a half metre chunk and patched the ends together.

All in all a rather frustrating day, but it's ended well, and hopefully the lurgy is going, as I'm not coughing up gunk quite as much now! There's a lot to fir in tomorrow - don't think I'm going to be able to make up for time lost over the weekend, but I plan to have an active hols.

I really need to lose weight - it's back up to 102.6kgs at the start of the holidays :o( Still - so far, I've been eating reduced portions of hopefully healthy stuff!

Deja Vu!

Discipline: Swimming
Distance: 1000m
Time: dunno!

Another swim sesh (only two days since the last one), and a fairly crowded lane. In spite of there being several lanes for swimming, a load of the bliddy breast stroke mafia invaded the "fast" lane, leaving me and a couple of others trying to get in lengths of crawl while avoiding the "slow moving objects". One of the crawlers just decided to plough on through!

Anyhow - concentrated a lot on stroke, and getting the kick more even. I feel I've been losing it a bit. I think I managed to kill off the snaking a bit, but at times my stroke felt rushed and I think I was turning overly much. I didn't quite get to slow enough to breathe comfortably while still kicking my legs.

Maybe the increased exertion means that I need to be fitter to do that. If I slowed down my arms enough, I could feel myself sinking in the water. I also think I need to work on my left arm. The right one reaches forward well just under the water, but the left one tends to sink quite low (about 4 o'clock), rather than just below 3 o'clock. One more thing to work on. The increased speed when working with the pull buoy between my legs was remarkable! Perhaps I can sneak it inside my wetsuit!

Anyhow - the lengths flew by, and I managed to put in a new PB for 100m of:

1:46.8 :oD

I did try it again a few lengths later, and while the time of 1:49.1 was disappointingly slow, as it had felt like a cracking attempt, that's still over a second inside what I was doing up until last Sunday. I'm now regularly breaking 1:50, which I hadn't done before a couple of days ago. Good stuff!

By the way - is using one of these things on the right cheating??

New 100 metres PB :oD

Distance: 1000m
Discipline: Swimming
Time: Who cares

Right - not trained for a week, which just won't do with an IM on the horizon! Been having back problem, but then after the swim today that felt considerably better. Maybe I need to do more weights etc to strengthen the back. Hmmmm....

Anyhow - had a good sesh today - a mix of drills and time trials. Couldn't quite get under 48 seconds again for 50m, but did several sub 49 second times. I felt like my legs were "snaking" more today, I'll have to work on that.

However - I did do a 100m TT and put in a stonking 1:48.3 - nearly two seconds under my PB

Sunday Run

Discipline: Run
Distance: 4.2 miles
Time: 35:10
Av speed: 8:22 per mile

Went mad after an inactive weekend and decided to have a run - decided not to go as far as a six miler in the hope that my legs might not be too bad and I'd be able to run again in a couple of days.

Set out quickly on an out and back route of just over four miles, and reached the end of Mulgrave in 7:15, which is the fastest for a long time. My knee was twingeing a bit, but then it often does for the first mile. Quarter of a mile later, I turned into West Drive, and my right qiad started niggling. This is the area that's been giving me lots of bother and has been stiff for quite a while after the last few six milers. I tried changing camber. It niggled the left knee more, but seemed to help the right quad. Seems like I have to strike a bit of a balancing act!

Reached the half way mark in 17:22 - I was pretty pleased with that,a s I thought the two mile mark was about quarter of a mile back, and I'd reached that in 15:21. I've re-measured since and it seems that the route out is about 0.15 of a mile less than I thought, but maybe that's just differences between measurements.

Kinda disappointing - the right quad niggled more on the way back, and if it's going to go that easily then it could be a problem that hangs over me and continures to cause trouble. Then again, a few weeks ago it seemed to be okay and I could easily go out every few days. We'll see what happens. My average time was disappointing given the good start - I still thought I was under eight min/mile as I thought the route was 4.5 miles, but the website with the route on says otherwise :o(

Now That Makes More Sense!

Discipline: Swim
Time: 45 mins
Distance: Unknown

Right! I've let the blog lapse for weeks. Partly because I haven't done much, and partly because I was tired of writing up failures. Training has been sh1te. Seriously. I'm having grave doubts about whether I can be ready for IM - the various niggles have just interrupted training too much, as has a lot of stress at work and stuff.

Anyhow - today's session!

Well - I think I solved the mystery of my amazing sub 17 second 25m swims! The watch had somehow got into a mode where instead of starting straightaway, it did a five second countdown, so I was getting a free five second at the start of each length!!

Anyhow - I was swimming around 22 second lengths, which isn't at all bad.

Today - I concentrated on drilling the legs, and getting the basic stroke linked in with that, without dipping my head too far under. I thought I'd time a 50m. I took the first length easy, expecting to run out of breath as I hadn't trained much, and wellied the s4econd length, and even so came home in around 51 seconds. I had a short break, and then went hardish on the first length and wellied the second. I couldn't belive it when I stopped my watch!!

47.6 seconds!!

My previous best had been 49.7 seconds!

Did another swim on Friday at the pool near wuk - lengths were taking about 26 seconds - think it may be a 30metre/33metre pool or something.