Tuesday 25 March 2008

Gorilla Arms

Serious session down the gym tonight with one of the GAA lads. I done 30 mins on the treadmill to warmup and then hit the weights. Done a pyramid session on the benchpress, with a wider grip than usual (on my mates recommendation). What a difference...arms are absolutely killing me now. I really struggled to get my top off afterwards to go for a shower.

Rest of the session was tough enough going, but all good. Pretty wrecked now though! It'll be interesting to see how the arms are tomorrow.

Sunday 23 March 2008

Comments re-enabled

FYI, I've re-enabled comments for anyones that interested. You'll need a googlemail account to do so, which will hopefully reduce the amount of spam I was getting.

Thursday 20 March 2008

Bad day

Legs were pretty tired today after the exertions of yesterday. Got up late and didn't really have a good start by having a bounty for brekkie...lets just say the diet for the rest of the day was as nutritious.

Also finished work late so just decided to skip the gym this evening, got a paper and chilled at Starbucks instead. Altogether, not a good day!

Tuesday 18 March 2008

Swimming update

Major breakthrough tonight...actually swam a full length properly (3 arm movements per single breath). I wasn't able to do it a second time, but it happened towards the end of the session so I'm just putting that down to tiredness. Hopefully something I can build off though.

Besides that, good workout today...done a 6.8km run today where (according to Sport Tracks but not my Garmin) I finally broke the average pace of 10kmph mark! Bit of a result, but I was mainly focusing on doing intervals, so the faster paces obviously made a difference.

Sunday 16 March 2008

I must be going mad...

Just entered Gael Force 6 tonight. Crazy isn't the word...I'd talked myself out of it on at least two occasions. Thing is that I just know too many people doing it now to not do it! Not really a valid reason for entering, but what the hell...

Now, where the hell will I find hills around Cambridge?

Wednesday 12 March 2008

Quick update

Just a quick update to note what I've been up to training wise the last few days. After another quiet weekend (was up at Anfield on Saturday) I've had a pretty productive week so far:

Monday
  • Swimming lesson - 30mins. Went well, got a few things to focus on for the next week or so.
  • Treadmill - Hurtbox session of 3 x (700m @ 9kmph 1% + 300m @ 9kmph 3%)
  • Some weights afterwards
Tuesday
  • Run \ walk from work to circuits - 7.77km in 51.07
  • Circuits session ... killer
Wednesday
  • Cycle to work - 7.5km in 20m 40s in relatively heavy traffic
  • 45 mins on the treadmill (6.8km)
  • 3 x (500m + 1 min rest) at about 1m 55s - 2m pace
  • Some weights to warmdown
  • 20 mins in the pool

Thursday 6 March 2008

2008 Events

  • F3 Duathlon, 10th Feb - 5k run \ 20km bike \ 5km run - 1hr 50m 44s
  • F3 Duathlon, 13th April
  • London 10k, 26th May
  • Gale Force 6, 23/24 August
  • London Duathlon, 14th September

Tuesday 4 March 2008

NYC marathon

I entered the Lottery for the New York City marathon earlier today. Chances are very slim that I'll get in, but would definitely give it a go if I got the opportunity. Fingers crossed.

February Training Totals

Right, going to try and keep track of the amount of training I've been doing on a monthly basis. I tried to make an effort in Feb to get out on the bike a few times at lunch and which meant that I posted my highest mileage (76.9km) on the bike ever. However, that really is only over four sessions!

Running wise, I covered 56.63km in 12 sessions, which I'm happy enough with. Two of those I didn't log any time against but they were only short runs. This compares with 109.58km in January in 21 sessions (21.14km of which was walking in 3 sessions). I'd put some of the difference down to my ankle injury but I wouldn't be too sure that'd account for all of it!

Overall, I logged 28 activities in February over 16hrs 46mins. This compares with 32 activities in January over 20hrs 15mins.

Hopefully I'll get a clearer way to present this data in the future but this will do for now.

Monday 3 March 2008

New Gadgets

Got a new gadget today for the Garmin (thanks Eamo), a cadence sensor and a quick release kit for the bike. Probably won't get chance to fit them until later in the week, but should be interesting to see the cadence data.

I've started to focus lately on a faster cadence in a slightly lower gear. Before, I'd be grinding it out in the fastest gear that I could comfortably use. The real benefit to this that I've noticed is that my legs are much fresher now coming off the bike! Can't say I've really lost that much pace either, but thats hard to tell.

Swimming lesson

Had my first swimming lesson this evening with a local instructor. She's pretty old school, none of the Total Immersion stuff seemed to wash with her at all.

I forgot my goggles which wasn't exactly a great start to the session. She got me to do a length first off, which I didn't really cover myself in glory! She was saying that I seemed to be over-rotating, which doesn't really surprise me. The TI drills really encourage that, to almost over-exaggerate the moves. She seemed to also be happy enough with my stroke, apart from the fact that I was "catching up" (which basically means that I'm using one arm at a time).

First thing she gets me to do is a push and glide to see how my kick is. She seemed pretty happy with it, which is good, especially as its one of the main things I've been focusing on in TI.

Next up was basically a swim without breathing. To my surprise, I made it about 2/3's of a length. Next up was using a float and stroking with one arm. I seemed ok with that (kinda), almost being able to breath ok. Left hand stroking seemed weak.

When she asked me to put it together, it was a disaster though. Couldn't breath at all. Needs work thats for sure.

training update

Once again, a disaster of a weekend where I basically done no exercise! Was kinda half planning on doing the first of the Clapham Common 10k series, but despite getting onto a few people I thought might be interested, they all rain checked on me. Thats not to say I wouldn't do it on my own, as I've done before, but it was a hell of a lot easier to stay in bed Sunday morning without the commitment.

So today I made a conscious effort to get back into the training groove. Didn't eat any crap today and got down to the gym for 6.30pm (swimming lesson). Went up to the gym afterwards for 55 mins on the treadmill (interval work), followed by some weights. By the end of the session, I was absolutely knackered.

Hopefully do something similar again tomorrow.

Reading Half marathon

Couple of my friends ran in the Reading Half marathon at the weekend, some with a few PB's. Well done guys, keep up the training.