Monday 31st of May 2010

So last Friday I managed to get my self motivated and stop at the pool on my ride home. I put in a none stop swim for 45 minutes then went home. The swim was good and I feel that I am now in control of that side of things.

Saturday I went for a 100k bike ride, Did it in 3 hours so I pushed quite hard. I am going to focus on my bike and see if I can get my avg to 35kph and then start to do some regular longer rides of over 100k.

Sunday the weather was panst so I didnt do anything...which I must admit was quite nice!
This morning I was up early and I ran the normal Monday morning 24k. Didnt feel too bad but a little slower than normal due to marathon a week ago.

I have also enetered my first ever triathlon for Sunday morning! Its a sprint tri (750 swim, 23k ride and 5k run). I just thought that as it was close to home and easy to enter I would have a go just to get some practice!

Friday 28th of May 2010

Yesterday I cycled to work and then went for a 55k ride home. Had a weak slow start but then got warmed up and felt strong and went fast.
I had planned to swim this morningbut I was too tired and I was going to go this eve but still tired. I need to do a big bike ride this weekend but the weather is looking quite bad so I will have to try to time it right! damn that rain...I dont mind the getting wet its just the punctures!
We will see.

Wednesday 26th of May 2010

Up early and went for a swim. Swam solid for 50 minutes. didnt count lengths just swam. Felt ok and was good to get some swimming done at last. Cycled to work and it didnt feel to shocking so will do a short run tomorrow.

Tuesday 25th of May 2010

Still in a fair amount of pain but I guess that is to be expected. I am still very happy with the result. Its funny how you forget just how hard these events are. I had to work very hard to keep the pace going but all in all it went to plan. I had two cups of water at each aid station and walked while I drank. Those walks got longer for each break and I think I lost 5 minutes in total so I could improve on that but i dont really care as I will never be super fast anyway. I took 7 gels with me and I used one every 5k which seemed to stop me hitting any kind of wall - it just got harder and harder slowly but I never got that sudden feeling of "oh my god where has the strength gone!".
Shoes were perfect. I wore a singlet for the first time in my life and appart from feeling a little naked it was great. Wore compression tights which didnt make me too hot - I have no idea if they did anything except make me look silly but they didnt do any harm!
My garmin watch worked well ish for pace and time but the HR monitor side didnt work again so was a little pissed off with that. It turns out that  the watch is not what i expected and I am very unsatisfied with it to be honest. Ill keep it for my IM anyway as I like to see the pace and speed but I dont think I will even bother with theHR strap.
Plan to do a slow 10 or 5k run this week and a 60k ride at some point but Ill see how it goes.
Got to focus 100% on the IM now as I still have a lot to do on that! I think my training now is all going to be longer and slower.

Sunday 23rd of May 2010

Quick update as I am now in lots of pain! 3 hours 25 minutes in the Copenhagen marathon! Pb by 1 hour 17 minutes! Took me almost as long again muster the strength to get home again after! Feel very happy but really sore. No pain no gain etc etc..

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Thursday 20th of May 2010

Up early and cycled to work. Had a good nights sleep so I feel like I have slept enough for the first time in weeks. Did a 5 k run at 10am. Felt really hard! weather was 18c and very humid so I was hot and bothered in about 2 minutes! doh! lets see what Sunday brings...please dont be hot and humid!

Will cycle home, may swim tomorrow but my legs are now on holiday until Sunday..yipeee

Wednesday 19th of May 2010

I had planned to get up super early and get in a 60k ride before work. Didn't manage to sleep very well so just swore at the alarm clock and went back to sleep. Woke up and decided to take my trusted steed to work and try to crack a quick ride in on the way home. Turns out that it was a beautiful day and my running mate had decided the same as me so we just left work at 1pm and did a 70k ride together! wow that guy can ride a bike! I was tucked in behind him for 75% of the time and we were flying. Avg including all the traffic lights etc was 37kph! everytime I looked down we were doing over 40, in places we were up to 47kph on the flat! I did have to work very hard but what great training. I feel quite lucky to be able to train with a 1 time Ironman finisher who can run as well as he can and ride as strong as he can. If I keep this training up I am sure I will be in a good position to finish the ironman in August. My legs are dead once again and I know that its not a great idea to push my self this week as I have the marathon coming up in 4 days but I keep reminding my self that my goal is the ironman not the marathon! its going to be great if I can do a good time in the marathon but at the same time if I have to push my self 110% just to finish then that will also be great mental training...there is always a silver linning!
Tomorrow I plan to do a very gentle 5k run just to losten the legs up and then Friday and Saturday almost nothing. Sunday will be the marathon.

Monday 17th of May 2010

Did nothing Thursday, Friday or Saturday as far as training goes. Did eat lots drink a little and play with my kids a lot. Felt really great to have a few days break. My stomach has bee a little messed up over the last week so I think that I have had some kind of bug. I know, poor ikle me!
Sunday did 85k bike ride with a local tri group on the race course. Road surface is pretty bad but it looks like the local councils are going to do something about that by the end of May! Weather was pants and I flatted!! took me ages to change it but was great practice in case it happens on race day. To anyone coming to Challenge Copenhagen, bring lots of spares with you! if you are on Tubs please bring 2! if using inner tubes bring a few of those too. I had a hard start and felt that I was going to have a nightmare but then once I got up to the front and onto the bars I settled into a good fast pace for 20 or 30k which was great. Everyone was pushing harder yesterday so I felt that we had a fast ride. Some 10k splits were up at the 40kph mark which to me is quick.
This morning I did the 24k run again, was going to take it nice n easy but instead we started off at 4:30 per k pace and finished with a PB again! nice but now my legs are tired!
Not sure how this week will pan out but I intend to some kind of cycling even if its spinning and another couple of small runs, maybe even get a swim in at some point :)

Have a good one.

Wednesday 12th of May 2010

Went for my swim lasy night. Didnt bother with warm up or drills just jumped in and swam 2k. Could have done more but was glad to get out and home. This morning I was up early, cycled to work and was running by 6:20. Weather was pants and hammering with rain so we just did 21k today. We did an avg of 4:40 per K and we were both suffering in our legs. A couple of days off required!
Just for a change in sport I am going to go canoeing this evening! great, Ill be getting wet from above with the rain and all around me with the sea! doh how do I get myself into these situations!

Tuesday 11th of May 2010

Cycled to work fast. Legs felt a little sore. Did a 12.5k run at 10am where we done some 3k intervals so pushed quite hard but felt that the running was strong. Legs a little sore by  the end. Will cycle home and go swimming this evening and hope to push out 3k in the pool. Tomorrow morning will do my weekly 24k run but I will do it slow. I will limit my self to running between 4:35 and 4:45 per k. Lets see how that goes :)

I have been following a few blogs and reading a lot of posts on forums like slowtwich.com. Its amazing how many people are into this kind of thing and the lengths they will go to. Its inspiring stuff. I think we can do so much more with what we have been given than we think we can. The trick I guess is to find out how to unlock that potential - I think its to enjoy what your doing. If you can enjoy the results of training and the buzz from beeting your PB then you can easily cope with the pain and hard work. Right before I fall off my pedestal ill go! ;)

Monday 10th of May 2010

Saturday I did nothing but yesterday I did an 80k bike ride with other people doing Challenge Copenhagen. Its organised by tri4.dk and we did 1 loop of the course. Started off at 9am with the fast group who are meant to avg 33kph. Rear bottle mount fell off after 5k so I had to stop for 2 minutes to fix. Put my foot down hard and managed to catch the guys again after doing 40kph for 10k! legs were a little blown after that so I sat at the back for 5k to recover. Turned left inland and decided to go to the front, onto my tri bars and put some pace into the whole occasion. Stayed at the front until near the end and kept the pace up. Had to hold back quite alot which I was pleased with and its actually good training as I guess Ill have to do that on race day too or Ill tire myself out. Bottle holder broke towards the end so I just stamped on the damn thing (yes toys were thrown way out of the pram at this stage!) and I will have to buy a new better version online today. I think that my winter training is starting to show through now and I can see who hasnt put the hours in.
I have been taking it easy last week but I am going to try to ramp up the hours a little again now - going to be tough with the marathon coming up in one more weekend as I would also like to do well in that!!
have a gereat day!

PS here is what I looked like on day 6 of the training week!

notice the wrapped left wrist due to using a tri bike to climb 12k in 1 week and decent 12k!!!

Thursday 6th of May 2010

Back to normal today with an early start. Cycled to work and was ready to run by 6:15am. Jesper met me and we set off fast for out normal 24k run. Felt odd to start with but quickly we got into a fast pace (for me anyway). Felt strong most of the way and got a new PB for the half marathon by 2 minutes (1:33 was my time) and then we rolled in at 1 hour 45 minutes for 24k. Really great run. Legs feel sore now but I dont feel too bad.
Am going to try to get out on the bike (which arrived back yesterday from Mallorca safe and sound) maybe tomorrow morning for a 60k ride to work.
So far I think I am starting to recóver from my weeks cycling. I feel like if I had dropped 10 sec a Km from my pace I could have kept it going for maybe the full marathon...we will see on the day I guess.
A mate of mine did a marathon in Stratfor the other day in 2 hours 50!!! how the hell does anyone do that!!!

Tuesday 4th of May 2010

Still feeling quite tired today but went for a 12.5k run and did it in around 59 minutes. Felt strong after a few k. Ran good to the end and had no real problems. Later though I had a few pains in my groin and right foot but I dont think its anything to worry about just a few niggels. Got my marathon coming up in a few weeks so will start to focus a little towards that now. The cycling I intend to just keep rolling along for the next few weeks and then step it up again in June.
Suns out, a little breeze so all in all very nice :)

Monday 3rd of May 2010

Back to reality today. Had a great trip away, also very glad to be home to see the family and to give my body a break. Have done nothing after Sat morning swim. My whole body feels tired and needs a good rest. I plan to do a v gentle 10k tomorrow just to get the legs moving again. My next goal is the Copenhagen marathon in around 3 weeks. I hope to do that in around 3:30 so will need to build up my running again. After that I am just going to be focused on the Ironman race. I have two weeks hols planned in France in June and I plan to take my bike and put in some Kms there too.
This was the view from hotel room and the place I did my two open water swims:

One of the hills we did, does no justice!

My two cycling mates from Denmark just after this climb:

Here is the Sa Calobra mountain that we climbed on Thursday:

 

Friday 30th of April 2010

What was meant to be an easy day with 1 climbe and 70 k turned out to be 4 massive climbes of up to 25% gradients! With a tri bike with gears for the flat it was not fun! Amazing views and we did 100 odd k again. Quick swim sat morning and then home.