W13XW#2 - Cycle

Went for a 2hr cycle on my own this evening - nice evening for it, bit slightly windy which of course meant it felt like a gale out of the flat open areas around Cambridge. I obviously had it on my back for the first 40-50 minutes (20km), where my average speed was up on 31kmph!!!

That was up to the point where I turn westwards (I'm cycling in an anti-clockwise direction) in the screenshot below. Pretty uneventful, if tough for the next section of the cycle - the section around Needingworth was particularly tough - just long, straight and slightly uphill into a headwind. At this point my average speed had dropped to 29.3kmph.

Went slightly wrong at this point (almost ended up on the dual carriageway) and was starting to tire, so pace dropped a bit despite no longer being affected by the headwind. My knee's were playing up a little as well but soldiered on, my main aim to keep up the average pace.

Made it back to the start in 2hrs 15m, total distance 65km at an average speed of 28.9kmph. I think it's safe to say this is one of my fastest cycles (a shorter time trial may have been faster) - it'd have been nice to break the 29kmph mark, but will leave that for another day.

Weight Charts Fixed

I've fixed up the weight charts on the right hand side of the page. These are taking the values from the balance scales I got at the end of the last year.

As you can see, things haven't been going great on the weight loss front so far this year, but it's started to look a bit better in the last month or so. I suppose the main change there has been the start of the marathon training in earnest. I've also been less inclined to eat chocolate \ junk - for no apparent reason. That's not to say that I haven't - just that on a few occasions I've actually fancied a snack but have turned my nose up at a chocolate bar.

That said, I still have an ice-cream problem :)

W13KW#1 - Intervals

Tonights interval session called for the following:
20 mins warmup
5 x 1km intervals @ 5m 14s with 400m recovery
10 mins warmdown

Found this pretty tough but made it through to the end in one piece. Due to lanes 1 & 2 being closed, I had to run in Lane 3 and just decided to do the 2.5 laps from the start finish line instead of figuring out where to start to just do 1km exactly.

For the recovery intervals, I walked for 3 mins (approx 300m) and slowly jogged the rest.

It was an absolutely lovely evening for a run and really enjoyed the warmup. It was starting to get dark as I done the last interval and I was starting to struggle, but still managed my fastest interval of the night. It'll be interesting to see how the legs are in the morning.

Overall, I done 12.47km in 1hr 20m 39s (6m 28s per km). The splits were as follows:
1.05km - 5m 11s
1.04km - 5m 18s
1.04km - 5m 14s
1.05km - 5m 09s
1.04km - 5m 08s

Darn football

Got roped into my first game of football for the 2009 season due to a lack of players. I was supposed to be running the 17 miles on Saturday morning, but probably just as well that didn't happen.

I'd been planning on playing in goals, mainly as I didn't fancy getting injured but ended up playing in the forwards. Scored a point, but wasn't too happy with my play overall - that said, it was the first game I'd played since last year and first time with a ball in hand for a few months.

The main result of that was that I was pretty much unable to walk on Sunday morning - firstly because my right ankle had seized up and secondly because of a blister on the heal of the same foot. There went my plans of doing the 17 miler that I aborted on Saturday.

Going to continue with week 13 of the FIRST plan tomorrow down at the track. I'm a bit worried that I've a 20 miler beckoning at the weekend, but just got to see how that goes I guess.

Bad run

Supposed to do a 17 mile run this morning at 10m 58s pace. Got up early (for me) at 7am and was out the door around 7.45am. First half hour was un-eventful, until I had some "gastro" problems - luckily, I was beside the main hospital here in Cambridge and decided to use their facilities.

Got back out, figured that wasn't the best start but that I'd crack on - try and get another two hours under my belt. 15 mins later, I'm strolling home :(

I'm going to have another crack at it tomorrow morning.

W14KW#2 - Tempo

My first good tempo session of the training plan so far - it was always going to be a reality check as my main excuse from the last two weeks was gone - it was an absolutely perfect evening for a run - nice, cool, calm, etc. After my laziness yesterday, I went out for a relatively easy cycle at lunchtime, which looking back I probably shouldn't have (since the run was the more important training session).

So the plan called for

• 1 mile easy (10m 43s)
• 5 miles long tempo (9m 38s)
• 1 mile easy (10m 43s)

As I always seem to get my pacing wrong from the start, I decided to just do the main part straight off - I was feeling pretty good and legs were strong after the first two miles, despite the quicker pace (around 30s / mile faster than the required pace on average). I kept that sort of pace up for the next two miles and was hoping at that point to do six miles at that quicker pace. However, I really struggled in the fifth mile and decided to take a rest afterwards, the quality part of the session done.

Rest of the run home was a series of run walks. Just after I'd stopped on the hour mark, I came across the biggest bunch of foreign students I've ever seen - I thought Dublin was bad during the summer, but Cambridge definitely takes that prize now! There must have been over 200 of them going over the railway bridge close to my place - just as well I'd stopped or I'd have had to run out on the road.

Splits:
1m: 9m 02s
2m: 9m 04s
3m: 8m 59s
4m: 9m 15s
5m: 9m 27s

I've posted a screenshot, which should illustrate the difference between today's run and the corresponding run last week :)

Lazy day

Was supposed to be a cross training day, but after working late and my usual Wednesday cycle partner pulling out, I took the evening off. Have to admit, it was a bit wierd doing nothing for the evening up here in Cambridge - any of my usual rest days I'm either travelling, visiting friends or taking Spanish lessons.