Amstel Gold Race 2013

Another weekend, another week of training done & another classic cycle race. The Amstel Gold Classic. http://www.cyclingnews.com/amstel-gold-race/preview

Ironman UK training week 14 completed. 16 training weeks to go.

Cutting my training down a lot more than planned as part of my taper for the London Marathon. Did a bit of Internet research on tapering & i think my original plan of trying to continue doing my full Ironman bike and swim training up to a few days before the marathon was probably a bad idea, even without the injuries.

Need to hope this damn calf issue has cleared up properly this week so again no more running. Doubt my fitness would improve drastically over the next week anyway so going to play it safer & hopefully run fresher and injury free. Also done something to my hip at the allotment on Saturday so nothing seems to be going 100% well at the minute training wise.

Putting extra time in on the foam roller & stretching my weary limbs helps a lot. Shame i've had to cut down so much as the weather has turned quite nice this week.

Marathon after party passes and grandstand tickets have arrived. Hopefully get my run finished before Planet Hollywood starts kicking everyone out. Happy days, cant wait to get going now, although starting to feel a bit apprehensive about it.

Really hoping after the marathon i am able to start getting back on plan. I have a fairly easy week after it. Long runs are back down to around the 1 hour mark.

Training

Calorie burn January = 29,160
Calorie burn February = 34,932
Calorie burn for March = 47,799
Calorie burn for April =  14,926
Calories burnt for the year = 126,817

Put 1lb back on so weight up to 13st 6lbs. Putting that down to Easter Holiday eating & also the reduction in training runs etc.

Training hours this week = 4 hours 53 minutes (hangs head in shame)

Monday

Swim 1 hour 1800 metres

350m warm up
4 x 50m kicking drills
2 x 50m wide catch up drills
2 x 100m - 20 sec rest
1 x 400m - 20 sec rest
4 x 100m - 20 sec rest
1 x 50m
100m Breastroke

Seemed to go quite well tonight. Kicking definitely feeling better and also arm stroke getting stronger

Tuesday

Bike 1 hour

Easy bike out to Surlingham and back. http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/256538426

Wednesday

Bike 30 minute - http://www.mapmyride.com/workout/257112028

Swim1 hour

Had to do breaststroke all night because i forgot my goggles, still managed 73 lengths. Felt like the most boring swim of my life though.

Thursday

Rest day

Friday

Rest day

Saturday

Run 23 minutes - Park run.

Calf was starting to feel a lot better so thought i'd do a gentle park run. Should have just jogged round with Arleya but wound up running it in my 2nd quickest time ever. Calf was pretty tight for first 5 minutes but was fine after that.

By the evening though my calf was bad again so thinking park run wasn't the greatest idea after all. Going to bin any running till the marathon now just to be safe.

Sunday

Swim 1 hour

83 lengths done. Seems to have helped loosen up my dodgy hip.

That's it for this week, not really a great deal to write about. Next weeks blog should be better as it will have a full write up on the London Marathon weekend of excitement.

If you want to track my run in the event my race number is = 27476

cheers

Andy

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