Quick run through of this weeks training then i will give a report on yesterdays Triathlon.
Monday - Open water swim - 30 minutes. Bike went in for a service
Tuesday - 3.77 mile run http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/122652445
Wednesday - 1.03 mile swim - 28 out of 66 lengths was front crawl !
Thursday - 8.87 mile bike ride http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/123519943
Friday - rest day
Saturday - Wattisham Triathlon
Sunday - Waveney 1 Triathlon Marshaling
Starting to enjoy running a bit more now that the shin splints are not as bad. Found wearing the compression socks after the run has helped. Knee feels numb still after my fall a month or so back. May have to go see the Doc about that.
Zogg goggles arrived & used them for the first time on Wednesday. They are brilliant and well worth the extra money. I did start to get a bit of a headache towards the end of the session though as they seemed to be sucking my eyes out my skull.
The Tri bag arrived (good little thing), the saddle bag didn't, grrr, hopefully here before the Norwich 100 as you cant get a lot in the one bag.
Open Water Swim
Got my wetsuit from Tri Harder who came down to Whittlingham open water centre on Monday. Went with an Aquasphere suit. Basically wanted the cheapest as I've still got a bunch of weight to lose so didn't want to spend a fortune. Will wait till I'm where i want to be weight wise before splashing out a few more bucks. Still, pleased with the buy & does the job.
We were only allowed to swim for 30 minutes due to the temperature of the water. 11 degrees. Loads of advice & help from the more experienced people which was nice. Needed help zipping the wetsuit up as it is quite snug. Getting in the water wasn't too bad although feet felt like they were being stabbed by 1000's of needles. Took a while to get used to putting my face in the water. The cold took my breath away every time i did it.
I think one lap was about 150 metres. Did the first one breast stroke & it felt like it took me ages. Also felt like i was swimming through mud due to the resistance wearing a suit. Second lap started doing some front crawl as i was able to get my face in the water. Had a bit of a mare with direction & kept veering off to the right when my face was in the water. Will need to work on that. Apparently i should have a look forward every few strokes. Another bloody thing to remember.
I removed my false teeth prior to the swim in case they fell out. Didn't fancy paying out for a new set again. Enjoyable despite the cold. Next session will be on Wednesday. Worth pointing out how clean & tidy Whittlngham open water centre is.
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| tropical waters |
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| sort of front crawl |
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| That's enough of that ! |
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| wheres my tooth? |
Wattisham Triathlon - 400m Swim, 20K cycle, 5k run - 1hr 16mins for me
http://www.wattishamtriathlon.co.uk/
So, this was yesterday. Venue was an hours drive away, on the plus side, the start time was 1pm. Registration between 11 & 12. Arrived at Wattisham Airfield in good time. It is a active military base so collected security pass & directed to parking. Brought back memories of my basic training at Bassingbourn as these bases always look the same.
Got to registration and found my number (21) turned out that slower swimmers were going first, unlike the East Coast Tri. Shit, means everyone will be watching me flounder about in the water. Turned out not to be the case thankfully. So, got my goody bag, T-shirt, Gatorade, banana, couple of book marks & stickers. These were for SSAFA which is where proceeds from the day were going. http://www.ssafa.org.uk/ Girls marked me up with my number then off i trotted to transition.
Racked my bike laid out my stuff (towel on top) hid my bike computer in my cycle shoe & forerunner in the other cycle shoe. Race number on belt, helmet, gloves & sunglasses on handlebars. Job done. Even had flip flops this time so felt well prepared.
Swim started bang on time. 2 lengths, then under the rope & so on 6 times. Surprisingly numbers hadn't turned up so there were gaps of more that 30 seconds. Three people hadn't turned up before me so i had a 2 minute wait. Meant i didn't catch anyone on the swim though which was handy. Nobody caught me either despite my breaststroke either. Chip around my ankle didn't feel very secure so i was stressing a bit about that falling off, even though it didn't.
Havent got my spilt times yet so unsure how long the swim took. anyway, out the door to the bike. All going well apart from putting my stuff so far under my bike i had to get down on my knees to reach my shoes &socks. Gels into back pocket, socks on, helmet on, gloves on, shoes on, remembered computers this time though ! Garmin edge is jammed in the toe of the shoe, grrrrrrrrrrr. Must have lost a minute faffing round trying to get that out. Forerunner put on as well. (some big learns from T1 again)
Out on the bike, went great, caught up with at least 6 of the earlier starters. Averaged around 19mph again. Wind was a bit of a mare particularly coming back up the runway.
Here's the route http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/124337981
T2 went smoothly, no dramas so straight out for the 5k. Legs were like jelly this time & took a good mile before they felt OK. Coming up to the finish line was good. It was about 100metres up an avenue with spectators either side cheering you on. Apart from my wife & daughter who had somehow not managed to find the finish line! Rock music playing you in then an announcer calling your name ' & here comes Andy Baxter of Tri Anglia' over the loud speakers which was a nice touch.
Got a few pics but as this was a military base spectators were restricted to around transition & the finish.
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| T1 before Garmin drama |
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| Charity the day was about |
Spent this morning marshaling at Waveney 1 Triathlon. Myself & Arleya were on mount/dismount duty. Quite remarkable how many people didn't understand the instruction don't mount your bike before big yellow line on the road, that I'm pointing at. lol. I guess you get caught up in the moment. Was interesting seeing the different types doing their thing.
Quite a few people really struggled to get their bare feet into the shoes that were already clipped on the bike. I'll stick with putting shoes & socks on & then running to mount area. Seems a lot less complicated. That being said, there were also some very impressive mounts and dismounts at break neck speed.
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| Arleya busy marshaling |
If your into the Strava app, I've also started uploading activities it.
here's the link http://app.strava.com/dashboard
Triathlete Blogs
Couple of new blogs to share from members of the FB group 'The Ironman Journey' Well worth a read
http://www.runwalkcrawl.com/
http://iamamamil.blogspot.co.uk/#!/2012/05/are-you-smarter-than-12-year-old.html
I think that's about it for this week. Have a good weeks training.
Facebook Group - The Ironman Journeyhttps://www.facebook.com/#!/groups/287319678021088/
Fatman to Ironman forum
http://www.runnersworld.co.uk/forum/forummessages.asp?dt=&UTN=191464&last=1&V=1&SP=
My charity page
http://www.bmycharity.com/clearseaz
Glad the shin splint are getting better - its miserable when they hold you back.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on the Tri... a great time. I'm hoping to get under an hour in my first but that is only a super-sprint (cos I can only dream of 19mph on the bike... a steady 12mph seems to be my sticking point).
Having to swim first is one of my worries. For the events I am doing I have registered very slow swim times and know that the slower swimmers start out first and am dreading having everyone watching me... probably wondering what on earth I am doing there in the first place. ha!!
Keep training hard!
Thanks.
ReplyDeleteThat was your tip to wear the compression socks after the run so thanks for that. Really starting to enjoy running now.
I bet you surprise yourself on the bike. My normal average is 13mph - 14mph. You get caught up in the moment with a race i think.
You tend to forget about who's watching during the swim. Untill you climb out the pool & they are all clapping you & shouting encouragement :-) It's a buzz.
All the best