Cycling to Oxford [13 wks to Berlin, 5 wks to Alpe d'Huez]

Lots of riding this week, which consequently meant I didn't quite get the running or swimming in that I'd have liked, but you can't have it all. Since the triathlon is going to be largely about cycling, the ratios aren't too out of kilter. 10 hours of exercise over the past 7 days, which has to be my record, and nearly 4 of which were spent on a 100km cycle from home to Oxford.


I've never ridden for as long, or for so many miles, or in such heat (30 C) before, but it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Two of us did the route and made full use of swapping turns out in front and drafting behind, to save the legs as much as possible. It obviously worked as, even 3 hours in, we were still able to maintain a steady 22 mph on the flat, although our energy levels were beginning to fade fast. Come the finish, about 3.5 hours after we set off, it's fair to say we were both completely shattered and it was all we could do to muster enough energy to polish off some of the best tasting bitter shandies ever and a bowl of cheese, potatoes and pasta.

We might have got a little lost on the way...

It's worth noting that we'd done all this on mild hangovers and little sleep, having foolishly been out for several summer evening drinks the night before. All good mental training for contesting with the Alp!

Here's a summary of the week's exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 20th June

Total exercise: 9h 36m
Top speed: 39.8 mph
Distance covered: 188km

• 164km cycling (all training, including a 100km ride to Oxford)
  
• 22.5km running
• 1.8km swimming

14 weeks to Berlin, 6 weeks to Alpe d'Huez

Another fairly consistent week of training, managing to up the run mileage to about 20 miles, which feels about right for now based on my target time for Berlin of sub-3:45 (with a hopeful sub-3:30!).

Got up early on Sunday for swim around Heron Lake. I managed to complete 2 laps, about 2.3km, in 37 minutes, which worked out as a better average speed than my effort at Blenheim, over 3 times the distance. I clearly wasn't on form on the day of the triathlon, or went off too quickly and suffered from stitch.

Off for a long weekend away this weekend with friends, so it's going to be tough to fit in a normal training routine. That's the trick of training for a marathon though, overcoming these little hurdles along the way to balance a normal life with training is all part of the challenge!

Here's a summary of the week's exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 13th June

Total exercise: 5h 58m
Distance covered: 96km

• 75km cycling (35km training; 30km commuting)
  
• 30km running
• 3km swimming

Blenheim Triathlon, 15 weeks to Berlin, 7 weeks to Alpe d'Huez

I'm one week into a 16 week countdown to the Berlin Marathon, and 7 weeks away from taking part in the short course Alpe d'Huez triathlon.

Last week saw team 'Sports Casual' place 14th out of 244 in the Blenheim Palace Triathlon Team Relay, where I picked up the swim leg, Jules steamed round on his bike and Rich finished it off with a cracking run. Total time, 1h 17m. (Download the relay results)

Here's a summary of the week's exercise:

Week commencing Sunday 6th June

Total exercise: 7h 22m
Distance covered: 132km

• 104km cycling (73km training; 31km commuting)
  
• 23km running
• 1 hour of five-a-side football
• 600m swimming

Slightly cheating there on distance as I did my long cycle on Sunday last week and on Saturday this week, so I expect next week's distance to drop a little, although I hope to add in an extra mid-week session.

The year so far

The first 4 months of 2010 have not been uneventful, anything but, but finding time to jot down anything in this blog has been few and far between. So, here are the highlights and a brief summary:

Highlights:

• Sub-39 minute 10k (38:54)
  
• Debut into the world of proper cross-country running...with hills
  
• Longest cycle ride to date - 75km in 3h 20m

February

• Baby Robin arrives 5 weeks early on the 1st
  
• On the 7th, I ran my first, very hilly, cross-country race, the Bookham 10k, finishing 25th (of approx. 250) in 50 minutes dead
  
• Spent the rest of February, not getting much sleep due to new baby and an energetic 2 year old to keep tabs on. Training for anything, holding down a job and attempting to help your wife look after two little ones is tough
  

March

• Ran my first sub-40 10k in the Bushy Park 10k on the 7th, finishing 2 seconds outside the top ten, in 11th place (out of ~300) in 39m 47s
• On the 28th, I managed to better that PB, breaking 39 minutes and finishing 12th (of ~320) in the Brooklands 10k, official time 38m 54s. Worth noting that this is an extremely flat and fast, tarmac'd course, perfect territory for a PB
  

April

• Started a new job on the 1st which has meant having to let my training drop off while I'm finding my feet
• Sunday the 11th, I took part in the Denbies 10, a fantastic cross-country race through the North Downs, starting and finishing in the beautiful Denbies Vineyard. I was very happy to finish in 26th place (of ~350) in 1:09.28, but realised just how punishing hills can be and think there's quite a bit of work to be done there
• Completed my longest cycle ride ever (having only ever really commuted on a bike before) on the 17th. This took the form of a 75km loop starting in the heart of East Sussex, heading towards the North Downs before turning back towards Brighton and stopping to take in the view from the top of Ditchling Beacon. It also racked up over a kilometre of ascent over the 3 hours something, which is something I was keen to try out, given the climb I have ahead in the Alpe d'Huez triathlon!
  
• Finally, I entered the ballot for next year's London marathon, just before the end of the month
  

Maintaining for winter

With the next event a 10k months away and no spring marathon planned due to the arrival of our second baby in March, my winter training looks to be more about maintaining a good level of all round fitness, than building up mileage.

My ITB niggles have subsided and have been replaced by the start of lower back problems, especially noticeable following my recent intense interval sessions at the track. A little research confirmed I wasn't alone. It seems that a lot of casual longer distance runners suffer the same trouble when doing sessions at mile race pace and quicker. I suppose it's not entirely surprising, when you look at the differing physiques of short and long distance runners.

I've trained my body to accept running at a reasonable pace over distances of 5k and above, without picking up injuries, but introduce some pacier short distance work and I can almost guarantee something will go. Speaking with a physio and reading various articles, it all points to the same cause, my core's too weak. How many times does a runner hear that?

Solution? I've joined a Pilates class! I'd never considered a gym class in the past, aside from weekly runs with the running club, I've done the majority of my training alone and wasn't sure how I'd feel about it. Of course, it was totally fine and, although heavily outnumbered, I wasn't the only man. It was an intense workout, with no real let up throughout the hour...It felt like it was doing me good and I'll keep you posted on whether it actually works.

Track sessions and ITB niggles

I launched myself back into running two weeks ago, having felt I'd been a bit lax in letting it slip back to only going out for a couple of 5k runs a week. The result was a fun, run-filled week including a sub-20 5k on our regular Tuesday lunchtime run and a track session of Yasso 800s.

This was my first experience of a track session, in fact, I realised it was the first time I'd run round a proper running track! School runs took place either on grass, with whitewashed lane markings, or through woods and fields for cross-country. The track was made out of something similar to the kind of surface they lay down in children's playgrounds these days, adding a real spring to your step. It felt set up for speed and it was definitely the environment to test yourself.

We took off for 5 sets of 800 metres at 6 minute intervals, it being lunchtime on a work day, we couldn't fit in much more than that, nor could we have probably taken it to be fair. The idea with the Yasso 800 is that if you can do 6-10 of them, at an even pace, without going flat out, then the time you complete the lap in minutes and seconds, is a rough indicator as to your potential marathon time in hours and minutes. Of course, it's entirely reliant on you putting in the adequate training for the distance and if you go too flat out, it won't scale up fairly. So, if you complete our laps consistently in 3:00 minutes, then you could theoretically be on for a 3 hour marathon.

Needless to say, I pushed myself, probably a little quicker than I should have and came out as 2:48 on average. I was consistent but I'm not sure I'd have managed another 2-4 laps at that pace. This is significantly inside my marathon PB of 3:51, but it's got me fired up to train for another to at least have a crack at 3:30!

Open water swimming in the River Lyd, Dartmoor, Devon
A chilly 13℃

After a week of getting back into running and enjoying it, I had the realisation I'd pushed myself too hard and that a 20 mile week off the back of running 5-10 on average, was too much. I stumbled into the beginning of the following week with knee trouble. I related the pain back to some trouble I'd had previously with my ITB (Ilio Tibial Band) and I've been RICE-ing, stretching and strengthening it since and the pain seems to be diminishing. Fortunately, I'm many months away from my next event, so a week of just swimming (not in a river this time! see above) to keep up fitness, was no bad thing.

TIP (and note to self): Don't increase pace and volume so quickly. 10% per week, as a guide. Lesson learned...again.

Back again...another triathlon of larger proportions

Darker evenings and a new long term objective have given me good reason to start writing my blog again. So here goes.

Over the summer

Summer was busy and productive, managing to set two PBs in the 5k (18:57) and 10k (42:02) and some firsts, namely a sprint triathlon and relay and two open water swimming races, and in one of which (1km Great Big Open Water Swim at Dorney lake) I was 3rd fastest male finisher!

Managing to break 19 mins in the 5k was definitely a major milestone for me and something I never would have thought possible just 12 months ago. Finding someone similarly competitive, running at around my pace for a regular 5k lunchtime run was absolutely the reason I was able to achieve this. I just started to get used to running faster than I usually do, recognising the pain and going with it, there's a lot of psychology at play. I never really knew how fast I could actually run, I just used to ease off when I felt a bit uncomfortable. Now I'm targeting 18:30 as my next goal in the 5k.

Triathlons

I really enjoyed the training towards the triathlon, the mix of cycling and swimming complimented the running training I'd done to date. The event atmosphere was great too and it's something I'd thoroughly recommend to anyone considering it.

Our Tri Relay Team -
"We'd Rather Be Crown Green Bowling"

I'd managed to convince a friend to sign up too, so we did some training together and compared notes, which is always helpful, especially when you're venturing into the unknown. We both had a great experience, realised we were both reasonable all-rounders and decided to sign up for another, this time a team relay, where each member would complete every leg. We had to bully a 3rd team member into joining us, but think he's now a convert and will be back for more!

More?

Oh yes. Much more. Two months after completing a first sprint triathlon, I read an article in 220 magazine on the top 20 triathlons in the world and saw the photos of the Lac Vevey (near Alpe d'Huez, France), surrounded by mountains, crystal clear water awash with swimmers steadily making their way towards the start of the bike leg, which climbs up the famous 21 hairpin Alp (that's over 1km of vert), before demounting and running back down to the lake! It's the Alpe d'Huez Triathlon and it's fair to say I'm slightly nervous, but excited at the same time and I've got plenty of time to train, so watch this space for an update.