Your going where?

Feeling guilty at the lack of training I have done and missing the Wednesday night swim session I decided I was going to do the Saturday morning session. 6:30am and I leapt out of bed. Sarah looked at me as if I was mad and maybe I am! 6:45am and I was in the pool for a good swim session, in the second lane. Ohhhhh, not in the first lane with the ladies then? No, in the second lane, 10 ft away from the edge, ohhhh, I've graduated! Probably only temporary though. SO in the second lane I was with the swimming ladies. The swimming ladies were all ogling the 20 year olds and their 6 packs in the top lane. 'Stand back skinny runt and let us see the young men!'

After swimming with the outside temperature at ohhhhh all of zero degrees, Daniel and I played in the boys vurses dads football match, 50 mins of end to end play, abit like a speedwork session.

Bring on Christmas.

Happy Christmas everyone.

Another Week

The weather turned colder this week and the train service into London took a nose dive. I guess the rain from last week softened the ground up, and then there was a landslide up the line. So no trains to Waterloo all week, ohhh joy. The consequence of this is, Monday getting home was a nightmare. Tuesday I gave up before starting and went home for the day (probably the best idea all week). The rest of the week I got the train into Victoria and walked across London, the good point about this is that I get 60 minutes fast walking per day and in the cold sunny morning its quite pleasant striding past Buckingham Palace and down the Mall.

Training is going good at the moment. Tuesday, 8 mile run, Wed Masters swim session. I got some new toys for my birthday. Swim fins , pull buoy and paddles. Great fun. Fins mean you rocket down the pool, flutter kick on my back is the most restful, even practicing butterfly kick, which is a total first. Felt good with the pull buoy as well, I think I am developing more upper body strength as I am nowhere near as tired after a swim session as I used to be. Phil (swim coach) tells me the paddles are good for developing your stroke, if you get your stroke right you can really feel it, but they also tire you out quicker. Looking forward to playing more with these things. So I lead the lane all evening. The ladies pushed me to the front and followed me. Which means you need to count lengths and remember what strokes/drill your meant to be doing and not hold anyone up. Ohhhh the pressure. But hey, 1 year ago (and not that many swim sessions) I was at the back struggling to keep up and getting short of breathe.

Tuesdays 8 mile run was a Ballbuster curcuit, nice country road, bit of sandy/muddy track running. Ohhhh its good to be alive, ohhh hold on, I should be at work earning some money! Strange running is. I get to about 4 miles and feel like I can't carry on, then do carry on, grunt my way up Boxhill and then get a second wind at the top for a fast run back home. Heartrate was up in the 160's virtually all the way so this was a good session, if I can just do this in March I will be pleased.

Week 2 - A rest week

Ha, rest week. Well I took that one literally. 30 mins on the turbo trainer and an hour in the pool with the kids! Motivation, motivation, where are you? Are you here:

No, are you here:

No, all they want to do is go Skateboarding. How about here:

Well I don't know. But I hope it comes back soon.

Week 1

Week 1

Not a good week then. A couple of sessions on the turbo trainer, a masters swim session and a 8 mile run. The week started bad with a bit of a cold. I thought it wise to give it time to go away, and it seemed like a good excuse. Wednesday was swimming, yeah, enjoyed this session and stayed on in the pool to do another 400 metres after everyone else from the lane had left. I’m still pretty useless at swimming but when I think about the fuss I made in the summer about a 750m swim, I just have to call myself names, what was I on? The idea of 1900m for the New Forest Middle Distance Triathlon (the 2008 goal) is daunting but I’ll do it. Found a bargain wetsuit on Ebay and just couldn’t resist it. An Orca Sonar, retail 180 gbp on Ebay for 99 gbp. An early Christmas present. I hope it not an Ebay scam! Doh, hadn’t thought of that!

I have also rediscovered the turbo trainer. This is probably the easiest thing to do, as it means I can fit it in with my own schedule. So why have I only done 2 sessions? Moving on, Saturday morning I was up and out early to do a Ballbuster circuit. An 8 mile circuit, in the event I will do 5 of these, I did this 1 circuit in 1:05:36 did not feel too bad afterwards and was powered by 1 bagel and 1 energy gel. At some point I am going to need a nutrition strategy for this Ballbuster. I mean it’s got to be as tough as a marathon. I believe that based on 1 circuit in 1:05:36 I can complete this Ballbuster in 3:45, a similar time to my marathon time. So there is my target which I think will put me in the middle of the pack.

The run was good, Ipod in, not too cold, no traffic, felt good, tried to vary my pace and lift my knees. One thing I have found in the past is that my head says to me, take it steady, theres a long way to go, so I don’t speed up, I just plod along. I think cycling has taught me that I can vary my pace, speed up and slow down to recover and I will still be able to make the distance, so I’m going to try and remember this in training and put in some faster stretches.

Roll on week 2