"if you can get through this week without crashing then i think you'll have a good season", says scott last weekend - i wasn't sure what he meant at first; why is THIS week significant? think i get it now. I'd planned a few fun, social events into my calendar and Scot didn't want to compromise too much on the work that he'd set to accommodate them.
so, week the week went like this:
monday - solo ride from london to taunton. 160 miles 10.5hr with 2 hrs total stoppage time (3 x 'meal' stops, 3 x pee stop, 2 x garage/pub water fill, 2 or 3 map checks and all the traffic light/junctions along the way)
tuesday - easy day with heavy 2hr gym and 20 min jog each way to /from gym late in the day
wed - 12mi run incl. 6 x 1 mile reps on track. 5km swim . train back to london
thursday- midsummer regents park night ride - 100 miles around regents park starting at 1:30 am. average pace 21mph - though i was on a wheel for virtually all of this, and took an easy lap every 90 min or so. the boys rode 100 miles in 4:45 - my time for the ton was 5hr. 3km easy swim, then 4km leg of the London Bridges Relay that evening. With 3hrs sleep in 24 hrs i'm feeling pretty mashed by the end of the day.
fri am - hard club swim ( aided by Lidl 'stimulation' drink) main set was 6 x 4 x 100m reducing, we were knocking out 1:24's ! couldn't believe it. pm: Gym - upping the load, but lasted about 45 min before the desire to sit in the sun and drink beer overcame me.
sat - with hangover! 4hr hard ride, hanging on Gabriel's wheel ( again) in Surrey. 30 min run off bike with 2 km at LT
sun - Bishop' s Stortford 10 mile multi-terrain race. felt like death barely even warmed up for this, but was surprised to find myself running at good pace. Won in 68 min - not blistering time for 10 miles, but a hot day and hilly off road course certainly gave me a workout! suffered for the rest of the day from the heat ( its about 28 degrees and stuffy).
However, I'm not quite sure if i qualify as having survived it, having cut that gym session and my scheduled swim today (sunday) due to combination of bad timing, heat/dehydration induced headaches and no desire to move more than necessary!
the telling will be how next week goes, i guess. Either way i believe that its necessary to have a bit of fun and challenge yourself with a mission every now an then, to keep the motivation up.
Sunday, 28 June 2009
Sunday, 7 June 2009
merseyside mission
Having distributed my baggage from Lanzarote trip in various locations around London, catching up with club mates as well as the guys at Diadora (who are sponsoring me by way of some free shoes to review for tri247) and a brief visit to Somerset, it was straight up the M5 in mum’s little purple Nissan Micra to Merseyside. The last week has been spent on an intense painting and decorating facelift project of my Nan’s old house, which has had the sh*te kicked out of it by various short-term tenants since she passed away 2 years ago. During the recent 4 day heat wave we’ve done a head to toe job on the place, and I’m now sitting here using paint cans for furniture having just whipped up an improvised meal of steak and marmite sauce followed by angel delight (a Lanzarote throwback) – whisked up using a fork in the electric drill. The steak and marmite sauce is a bit of a revelation, actually – it’s bloody delicious. The marmite goes all sticky – just like the stuff that’s on Twiglets. Actually, I think that’s what it is, isn’t it? Imagine how many Twiglets it must take to make a whole jar of Marmite- I’m surprised it’s not a lot more expensive. Anyway – that’s irrelevant. The point is that after 7 days of pretty hard physical work and inhalation of paint fumes, 4 of which were accompanied by a pretty nasty gastric upset, I’m spending my last night in the house and looking with satisfaction on a vast improvement on the place that we walked into last weekend. Though it’s not exactly been restful it’s been a complete, and necessary, break from life as a triathlete. Scott had scheduled a week in which I’d have returned to fairly solid training routine by now, but with limited knowledge of local facilities, 8-10 hours of work each day and being ill really made that unfeasible. So, whilst acknowledging that Scott really does know what is best in theory, I know that the added stress of trying to cram 3-4 hours a day in would not have done me any favours and just tried to get one of his sessions done each day, amounting to about 10 hours this week. The break has done me good – I don’t feel tired when I have managed to get out and have renewed enthusiasm for it.
Having spent many holidays here as a child, I am fond of this area. Despite a slightly ‘rough’ appearance, it’s a very friendly part of the country; with struggling and run –down but decent, cheap and very well used facilities and some great locations. This evening I met with Alex – a distant Tri London member temporarily living in Liverpool – and his girlfriend Becca for a run along Crosby beach to see the Gormely installation. A fantastic piece of public art –a typically eerie display of probably a hundred cast metal figures arranged on the shore, looking out to sea, static as the incoming tide swallows them up…An additional treat this evening were the flocks of swallows (or swifts?) flying in massive swirling formations over our heads. The noise of hundreds of thousands of beating wings was astounding. I certainly had the feeling that I’d feel pretty happy spending a longer period up here, if this house ever came available to us to occupy – a reasonable possibility given that Mum’d do us a mate’s rate ;o) Reckon I have my work cut out convincing Steven though, who is convinced that living on a peninsular would limit his cycling repertoire too much.
Getting back onto the triathlon related stuff - I cant help wondering whether I have unusual difficulty in recovering after a race. Speaking to Alex i was staggered to hear that he was out performing very hard chain-ganging session with his local cycle club, and swimming 5k sets just a week after Ironman Lanzarote. It really does seem to take me much longer to get back training again, with distinct muscular fatigue and racing heart at even a moderate amount of exercise for about a week following the race. This is also the second occasion that I have been really quite ill roughly 2 weeks after a race. I am beginning to conclude that this is likely to be largely attributable to a sudden change in diet and lifestyle, specifically where alcohol is concerned. Which in turn is likely to relate to the mental pressure of the control that training towards an event has over my life – I suppose I’m a characteristic all or nothing type. Whatever it is that I may become involved in, I tend to get ‘on a mission’ with it, becoming totally absorbed and obsessed with doing it the very best that I can. This has generally worked to my advantage through life, but the flip side is a constant level of stress which I have learned to manage, but not without certain tensions in other areas and the occasional need just to derail and denounce responsibility for a period. In this case the behaviour could be proving damaging to the longer term goals, and it may be worth tempering it. Or maybe not - perhaps the sickness response is my cue to regain control, focus and get back on the case with renewed vigour. Having wrapped up this latest ‘mission’ I’m certainly really ready to resume my life as a triathlete, though I'll be taking the beer that my mum owese me on my return (and trying to get bargain for a curry too!)
Having spent many holidays here as a child, I am fond of this area. Despite a slightly ‘rough’ appearance, it’s a very friendly part of the country; with struggling and run –down but decent, cheap and very well used facilities and some great locations. This evening I met with Alex – a distant Tri London member temporarily living in Liverpool – and his girlfriend Becca for a run along Crosby beach to see the Gormely installation. A fantastic piece of public art –a typically eerie display of probably a hundred cast metal figures arranged on the shore, looking out to sea, static as the incoming tide swallows them up…An additional treat this evening were the flocks of swallows (or swifts?) flying in massive swirling formations over our heads. The noise of hundreds of thousands of beating wings was astounding. I certainly had the feeling that I’d feel pretty happy spending a longer period up here, if this house ever came available to us to occupy – a reasonable possibility given that Mum’d do us a mate’s rate ;o) Reckon I have my work cut out convincing Steven though, who is convinced that living on a peninsular would limit his cycling repertoire too much.
Getting back onto the triathlon related stuff - I cant help wondering whether I have unusual difficulty in recovering after a race. Speaking to Alex i was staggered to hear that he was out performing very hard chain-ganging session with his local cycle club, and swimming 5k sets just a week after Ironman Lanzarote. It really does seem to take me much longer to get back training again, with distinct muscular fatigue and racing heart at even a moderate amount of exercise for about a week following the race. This is also the second occasion that I have been really quite ill roughly 2 weeks after a race. I am beginning to conclude that this is likely to be largely attributable to a sudden change in diet and lifestyle, specifically where alcohol is concerned. Which in turn is likely to relate to the mental pressure of the control that training towards an event has over my life – I suppose I’m a characteristic all or nothing type. Whatever it is that I may become involved in, I tend to get ‘on a mission’ with it, becoming totally absorbed and obsessed with doing it the very best that I can. This has generally worked to my advantage through life, but the flip side is a constant level of stress which I have learned to manage, but not without certain tensions in other areas and the occasional need just to derail and denounce responsibility for a period. In this case the behaviour could be proving damaging to the longer term goals, and it may be worth tempering it. Or maybe not - perhaps the sickness response is my cue to regain control, focus and get back on the case with renewed vigour. Having wrapped up this latest ‘mission’ I’m certainly really ready to resume my life as a triathlete, though I'll be taking the beer that my mum owese me on my return (and trying to get bargain for a curry too!)
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