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

Time for a Plan

I committed to the Ballbuster in March. Filled out the entry form and put it all in an envelope.

Told Sarah and the kids, 'I'm going to do the Ballbuster in March'. 'Ohhh my god', said Daniel, 'your going to die'.

Urghhhhh, gulp, that fills me with confidence! I'll show him the little ......

So my training started, 1 day of manic excel work and I have a plan. Here it is Ballbuster Training Plan and as it always is with my plans, I am falling behind already!

Time for a run

I am entered for the Tadworth 10 in January and figured I should start training at the beginning of Nov. So towards the end of Nov I did my first run. I snatched an opportunity whilst Oliver was playing Rugby. He was away at Worthing and the map showed me I was about a mile from the coast. So off I went, 5½ miles later I reached the coast! Navigation never was my good point. What I thought was heading South was heading East. If I had know the wind was from the South coming straight onshore, I would have known, but I didn’t, and having set myself a goal to run to the coast, I had to reach it before I could turn around. Why? Because I am a man, goal orientated and need to achieve. What a twit! On the way back, instead of backtracking, I thought I would take a different route. Why? I don’t know, what a twit. Thankfully I had my Garmin on. It’s the first time I have used it to navigate. So I did manage to navigate back, although it was a little difficult trying to tell which direction you were heading. So I would run along for about 500 metres before I could see if I was heading in the right direction. A few detours later I managed to get back onto my outbound track and find my way back to Worthing RFC. I thought I was in time to see the second half, but wasn’t.

So my first run in a long time was 12 miles and now I ache a lot.

New Discovery: Legs

At one end of me, I have 2 legs. I know, and they are wonderful things, but at the top end of me is a brain. Brain is not so big and can’t handle the constant barrage of thoughts that happens when I try to swim. High elbow, rotate shoulders, reach, catch, pull, push, S shape, head down, breathe in, breathe out, use your core muscles, holy crap I’m so slow, is that a cramp in my foot, I’ll never be able to swim 1500m, I’ll never be able to swim 1900m, yuck that water does not taste good, follow the bubbles, glide, angle your hand on entry, enter just above your head, aghhhh water up my nose, water in my goggles, I feel tired. Well in all of this my brain appears to have forgotten about Legs. Poor legs. Until last night. Daaaaa daaaaaa, I remembered to kick my legs and did I detect a new gear? It sure felt like a speed improvement. You see I normally kick slowly, the idea being, triathlon swimmers kick slow to conserve energy for the bike/run. Well that’s what I thought I had read, but there is an awful lot of people swimming with a faster leg action than me, going faster than me and swimming further than me, so I figure I can speed it up. Go legs go, welcome to the swimming party.

Boooo hooooo, back to work

October 1st came and went. 1 contract with a large public sector department did not start and another contract came along and started within 4 days. So Thursday I found myself chained to a desk, staring at a computer screen. Ohhhhh, boo hooo, whooa is me, poor me. It's a curse, having to work. It's about time society found a way of keeping me, paying for everything my family needs. I've paid tax, it's about time for some pay back! OK, I'll shut up and get on with it!

Still I did manage to not start work until Thursday. So Monday, swimming, Tuesday, Biking, Wed, swimming. Then Thursday and Friday its commute into London and back so no time for training. I can see its all going to be downhill from here, or time for the turbo trainer (thanks Phil for the reminder). Maybe I should get off at Clapham Junction and run in? There are showers and it is casual wear, there is even somewhere to park your bike securely, but can you really cycle into London? Ummmm running from Clapham Junction, must look it up.