feeling weak

I think that Sunday bike ride did me in. All week I have been feeling weak. Pushed through this to have a go on the turbo on Tuesday and swimming on Wed. Wed was a good session and I think I did 100 lengths of the pool. 2500m A landmark for me and must be the furthest I have ever swum.

I will keep going at it this week and rest next week ahead of the Watford 1/2 marathon. But then its got to be full on in prep for the Ballbuster.

Or maybe not! Thursday and Friday I did nothing! Saturday, I was full of guilt and woke up at 6:30am, so off I trotted to the pool for an hours swim session. A good session, with some lengths focused on returning with less strokes than you took going up the pool. I managed 18 strokes on the return. I'm chuffed with that. Its all stroke and glide, be streamlined and keep a good kick going.

A quick dash home to take Daniel to football. In the afternoon I took Sophie off kite flying, a large piece of chocolate cake and a lovely walk in the woods. So no long run today then. Maybe tomorrow.

Sunday, took Oliver to Rugby and went for a run. Managed to do 67 minutes of running from Brockham to the other side of Dorking and back. This will be my last run before Watford next Sunday. I'm going to taper!

Last time I did the Watford 1/2 Marathon (2006), I did it in 1hr 40mins 34 sec. Can I do any better?

But Andy, it's not about the times! It's about inspiring the kids, it's about fitness and 1/2 Ironman's. 1:40's not a bad time, move on, your goal is endurance for a 1/2 ironman not a time in a 1/2 marathon.

It's about time to get my 'behind' in gear, I have a couple of weeks to go until the Watford 1/2 Marathon and still have the Ballbuster in March. I started well with a run to Clapham Junction on Monday. failed on Tuesday (it was raining) picked it up on Wednesday with another run, turbo session on Thursday and run again on Friday. Saturday I rested and Sunday I had a great ride about 60km with Phil. We got lost, my dodgy navigation! Lucky we both had GPS on our bikes. Unlucky neither show your position on a map! A quick call to Phils wife Kim and we headed off for someplace that I thought was heading south. But no, it was the right way and soon we were back in the country lanes. I left Phil at Holmewood and headed back along Punchbowl lane, Pixham and back up Boxhill. Overtook 2 people at the bottom of the hill, sucked down an energy gel and did not look back. 1/2 way up the first of them overtook me and then near the top the 2nd overtook me as well. Ahhhhhhh, what do you have to do to keep going up hills?

Fitting in & more muffins

This week I have run 2 times, both times were from work to Clapham Junction route with a rucksack full of daytime clothes. After 30 minutes you notice that rucksack! How do these marines do it? I have swum once, thats 9pm to gone 10pm and biked once in the garage. I call this 'fitting some exercise in' whenever I can. At the weekend, I just lost the motivation to do some serious distance, so took Dan to the skatepark, Sophie to the pond to feed the ducks and Oliver to football. Then on Sunday, Sophie and I hacked some of the garden, and we all went for a walk in the afternoon. It was a bit windy!

The muffin top is taking a bit of time to shift! Ummmmm, still a couple of pounds over what I should be. I don't want to be carrying this extra around the Watford 1/2 marathon in Feb. It just makes life more difficult and frankly life is difficult enough already!

Got the results from the Tadworth 10. I did achieve a PB for 10 miles with 1:18:34 so thats good news. I came in 204 out of 678ish. A good start to the season. Although Matt did beat me by a minute or more. Good on him for being younger, fitter, stronger and faster. And good on him as he's put the effort in and trained hard through last year. Think I will be hard pushed to catch him at Watford.

Tadworth 10 & stuff

Returned to the hills of Epsom Downs this weekend for the Tadworth 10 and saw some familiar faces again from DMVAC. Before the start I ran up the first 800 yards and found what I expected to be a bottleneck as it goes through a gate and some nasty big puddles I wanted to avoid. When the gun went off my strategy was to go off quick to get past the bottleneck before the crowd. As I ran down the back of the first hill towards a gate and the photos man, I was doing well and had Robert McCaffrey in my sights. Not I ever expected to keep up with him, but it felt good to be close to someone so good for a kilometre! Shortly after this picture he was gone. I thought about pace and maintaining heartrate on the hills. Well I thought about it! Thing about HRM's is your meant to work with them to maintain a level thats sustainable or to not burn yourself out on a hill. But I don't do that! I just keep going wandering about why so many people are overtaking me.







I found myself running along hearing the same laboured breathe behind me. As it caught up with me, I looked over and thought, why can't I keep ahead of someone who sounds so laboured? So each time I would put a bit more in and get 20 yards ahead again. But ultimately he would track me down and eventually left me. I did this with a number of people on the run. The idea is that if your going to pass someone, do it positively and demoralise them. Ummmm, not quite like that in practice. They all came back at me and left me behind! This is me at around 5 miles. Ummm not looking too bad I think, a bit of pain but still going quite well.

And heres me at the end, lots of pain and desarate to overtake the guy in front before the finish. Why? Because I'm completely sad like that! I did overtake him, ha ha, life in the old dog yet! This years Tadworth 10 was also my best so far. 1:18:35 finishing 204 out of 674. - Chuffed a PB by a minute. I think cycling and swimming helps.
















Next race, Watford 1/2 in Feb and then the Ballbuster in March. Now thats worrying! I need to get the number of hours training up. In an effort to do this I ran from work (Trafalgar Square) to Clapham Junction on Friday night, about 5 miles with a 12lb rucksack on my back. I must do this again. Although it feels abit 'Jack the Ripper' going through Battersea Park in the dark, very 'Victorian avec Ipod'.

video links

I have a couple of video links I meant to put up here before.

and here

CMT

Telling you about any training since 23rd Dec will be easy. I have done nothing. Not a thing. Loads of eating, drinking, opening presents, driving, sorting out Ipods, Itunes, computers, launching rockets and messing about, but no activity since playing Daniels team at football. Consequently I now have a nice CMT forming. Whats a CMT? A Christmas Muffin Top. Thats where your stomache hangs over your jeans just like the top of a muffin. Nasty! So I am implementing a CMTR Plan (Christmas Muffin Top Reduction Plan) to get back into shape and to get ready for the Ballbuster in March.

Christmas is over, back to the plan!