Cycling in SNOW ! again

Ironman UK Training Week 11

Over a third of the way through my training & all good, apart from the niggly calf muscle.
Only 4 weeks till the London Marathon, can't wait for my first event of 2013.

Training time will taper down after next week, in the run up to the marathon which I'm quite relieved about. The calf is a bit of a concern but more massaging & foam rolling, plus less running, should see it vanish, fingers crossed.

Nearly Easter and we are still experiencing snow. Really need the weather to improve as it is not helping with staying motivated. On the plus side, i should be well prepared if i have to experience any bad weather at this years events

Training

Calories burnt for the year = 101,402

Training hours this week = 12 hours 48 Minutes

Monday

Swim 1 hour

300m warm up
4 x 50m kicking drill. 20 second rest intervals
4 x 50m fist/swim drill. 20 second rest intervals
100m @ 90%
400m @ 80%
100m@ 90%
200m relaxed
100m breast stroke

Tuesday

Bike 48 minute/Run 15 minute brick session

Wet ride, further spoilt by my front light packing up 20 minutes away from home. Guess who forgot to charge the battery. Think I'll start carrying a back up light just in case

Luckily I'd decided to ride round the ring road rather than heading out into the sticks. I would have been a bit stuffed with the latter due to lack of streetlights in the country.

Usual out and back to Sainsbury on the run. Calves feel a bit tender today, ran in my new trainers as well which were pretty comfortable. Need to get them broken in before VLM.

Wednesday

Run 1 hour 1 minute

Run down, round the lake and back, usual Wednesday hourly run. Left calf still giving me a bit of hassle, hoping its better in time for the weekend long run.

Swim 1 hour 1 minute

Nothing exciting in this session, just swam up and down 84 times.

Thursday

Bike 1 hour 3 minutes - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/247001350

Decided to purchase a new back light before embarking on this ride. Reduce the risk of having an altercation with another punchy car driver.
Did the Trianglia sprint cycle route, no dramas, nothing really exciting to report either. Still awake?

Friday

Rest day

Saturday

Park Run - 29:33 minutes

Not a PB but i ran this with Arleya to pace her for a sub 30 minute time. She was only actually 34 seconds off her all time PB. Normally i cannot talk when running but found i was able to so quite easily at this pace.
A different story to my first park run last year, where i ran at the same but was blowing out my backside & seeing dots in front of my eyes. Little things like that are showing just how much my fitness levels have increased this past 18 months.
Will now pace her every fortnight to help speed her up. Alternate weeks i will go for a PB.

Bike 2 hours 57 minutes - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/247610466

Overran on the planned time by 12 minutes today. Due to headwinds & snow slowing me down.
Couldn't believe it, just about to head out & snow arrived! Should i switch to mountain bike or take a punt with the racer? I'd already planned the route, heading out east into the 21mph+ head winds (another appealing thought). Mountain biking round the woods would be a lot nicer.

Decided to man up (after reading Pete Hargreaves FB status about manning up for his ride), after all, I'm training for an Ironman and it isn't supposed to be easy so cracked on. Started off OK, I was extra warm with a multitude of layers on. The snow wasn't settling & the wind didn't seem too bad.

Headed out to Postwick & came up to a church i hadn't snapped before, did think of binning the whole church picture taking thing today as i just wanted to get the ride done. Ended up stopping at everyone i came too & managed to tick another 8 off the list. http://thecyclingnorfolkchurchspotter.blogspot.co.uk/

Snowed pretty much for the whole ride but it didn't seem that cold, i wasn't getting wet & it still wasn't settling. Once half way i got a mainly tailwinds to bring me home. Couldn't use the tri bars very much due to the gusty weather, i would have ended up in a hedge or under a car so played it safe and just stayed mainly on the drops. Still need to sort out the tri bar position as well as i just cant get comfortable in them.

As i came into Mousehold (i love riding through here) the snow really did come down hard, luckily i was only 5 minutes from home & got in with no dramas. .

Walked through the door and my kind daughter had ran a hot bath & had a cup of tea waiting because she thought i would be cold, nice touch & she has set a precedent on that one.

Sunday

Swim 1 hour

Just 80 lengths today. 20 of which were pull buoy drills. Trying to improve the strength of  my stroke & keep the legs together more, so they are not constantly flapping about like Crazy Legs Crane.

Bike 28 minutes

 The extra cycle ride has been added in to Sundays now. So, should have been a 30 minute ride but was cut short due to my chain snapping. Not only did it snap but also caused me to smack my knee against something on my bike, arrival, bruised swollen knee, just what i need.
Pushed bike home and shot off to Halfords to get a new chain. They wanted to charge me an extra £8 on top of the £26 for the chain to fit it. Took longer to clean the oil off my hands than fit the chain. I'll be carrying spare chain bits going forward for roadside repairs if required.

Run 2 hours 45 minutes - http://app.strava.com/activities/45694991

New PB then, time and distance. Was a bit of a mission running with my niggly calf and recently injured knee. Not to mention the 17mph + winds. Luckily my route didn't involve too many open spaces with head wind bits though.

Ran down to Whitlingham Lake, roads were nice and quiet on the way down. Makes a change for Norwich. I guess the weather has kept more people indoors than usual. One bonus for crap weather i suppose. Did one lap of the lake then headed back towards Eaton.

Took on a gel at 1hr 10 minutes. Was planning on doing another around 2 hrs 10 but again felt OK with just the one. Legs felt good despite the niggles, in fact, after an hour there was no pain anywhere, happy days.

Ran round the UEA lake, made sure i took a diversion round the spot i went arse over tit though. Most of the mud was pretty frozen today which was handy.

For the second time in a month running through the UEA woods i ended up in the middle of some kind of Lord of the Rings battle re-enactment. Dwarves, Elves, Hobbits and other Tolkien type characters whacking the shit out of each other with plastic weapons. Luckily my invisibility running cloak enabled me to pass through unseen and unscathed.

Windiest part of the run and the main bit i cant stand about this route anyway, running up the hill from the UEA river back up to the sportspark. A real drag and a chore.

Leaving the UEA i only had 45 minutes to go which was back round the ring road to home, quite uneventful. Nice cup of tea and hot bath waiting for me again when i got in.

Other

Arleya has begun her triathlon training, although we haven't been able to get out much on her bike due to the rubbish weather. She has park run on Saturdays & swimming on Fridays. She will be doing an additional run mid week as well. We'll add in a couple of bike sessions when the weather improves.
She does already have a good stamina base, built up from 8 years Karate training.

Signed her up for the Iron kids event at Ironman UK. Just a 2.5k run on the Saturday before my race, should be fun & they get to finish under the official Ironman gantry. Only £2 to enter. http://www.ironmanuk.com/index.php/ironman-uk/event-info/ironkids


cheers

Andy


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