Training Review - Week 19 - May 4 to 10

Started the week with core and stretching sessions before going out for a 10k run in the morning. Then swim session in the evening. Nothing spectacular about any of it, but within the swim session there were some faster sections with good turns in. 

Tuesday I tried to stay as lazy as possible through the day. I did an easy stretching session in the morning and then a yoga session late in the afternoon, both with a view to prepping for the Deeside TT in the evening. Unfortunately the weather meant that was cancelled. I considered going out for a solo bike to stay on plan for the week but Thursday nights ride is going to get me all the miles I need so I decided to go out for a run instead. Did a steady but accidentally fast lap around the block in the rain. First training session averaging under 7 mins / mile since May 2011 and it didn't even feel like I was pushing hard. Also takes me through 300 miles running for the year. 


Wednesday I thought about chasing the missed bike miles in place of my planned run, since I had covered the run on Tuesday instead. The weather was still rotten though so I decided to go and swim in the morning. I went to ASV and did 4x400m, all in around 7 mins. My fastest rep was 6:51. 

With just over 4 weeks to go until racing at Forres I have to find 51 seconds to hit my target of a 6 minute 400m this year. Going from 4 reps to a single effort I can maybe push about 10 seconds quicker, long course to short course gets me 10 more, the tri-suit and the razor maybe get me another 10, race adrenaline and a bit of a tow (hopefully no overtaking) another 10, all of that leaves me with 11 or so seconds still to find somewhere. Double swims for the next few weeks should help. I may keep them in the pool rather than go to Knockburn though. 

Somehow I have managed to spin a 31 minute session into 3 paragraphs even though it was by far the laziest day I have done in months. I racked up a total of 1,288 steps for the day. Not even enough to get from here to the railway station, never mind back again. Purely because I was so appalled by that number I added in a light weights session before bed. 

Thursday I rode out to meet the guys from the Kintore Thursday group. Another brutal session. Two laps of one of the Deeside Time Trial courses, a 9.5 mile loop with some pretty lumpy sections in it. We split into groups of 4 and headed off at a fast pace, on the first lap I beat every one of my Strava PRs for the route. On the second lap we rode into a hailstorm so it wasn't quite as quick, but plenty of 2nd fastest times. These are definitely doing exactly what I need. The pace is very close to my flat out race pace. Possibly even above race pace in some sections. 

Friday I planned a short run before going to my cousin's wedding in the afternoon. But my morning had to be rearranged to fit in an interview so it ended up as a lost day. Can't even claim it as a rest day as weddings are hard work, even though most of the time is spent sitting.

Saturday I had a proper rest day. Although this was down to a hangover, even though I only had a single pint of shandy at the wedding, I felt absolutely crap all day. I did a stretching session late in the evening. 

Sunday was Peterhead Triathlon which will get a report all to itself.

The last couple of weeks I have been barely scraping over my planned numbers. I have countered this by improving he pace a lot. With all the time I have at the minute I should be doing more though. For the first couple of months off work I was doing 8-9 hours of the three main sports, the last couple of weeks I have been barely scraping 6.

Overall this week has been numerically good anyway, but it has also taken me through 30 miles swimming, 1,000 miles cycling and 300 miles running for the year. 



Target totals - Swim 2.4 miles. Bike 35.0 miles. Run 13.0 miles. 2 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 60 mins of yoga.

Monday - Stretching session.
Core session.
Run 6.3 miles in 50 mins.
Swim with TPT 2,200m in 54mins.

Tuesday - Stretching session.
Yoga session 30 mins.
Run 4.5 in 31 mins.

Wednesday - Swim session at ASV 1,600m in 31 mins.
 (4 x 400m, 1 min rec).
Light weights.

Thursday - Kintore Thursday bike 33.5 miles in 2 hours 15 mins. 
(with 14 mins of waiting).

Friday - Cousin's wedding.

Saturday - Rest day.
Stretching session.

Sunday - Peterhead Sprint Triathlon
Swim 750m in 12:40.0
Bike 14.0 miles in 43 mins.
Run 2.9 miles in 19 mins.

Actuals - Swim 2.9 miles (4,650 m). Bike 47.5 miles. Run 13.7 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 3 short stretching sessions. 42 mins of yoga.

Cumulative (Cumulative target)
S 30.8 (27.6) , B 1009.8 (894.3), R 304.5 (256.1). 

Race Review - Peterhead Sprint Triathlon

Looking at the weather forecast the night before was not encouraging. The BBC had 25 mph crosswinds and rain. 

Race preview here.
Updated Results here. 

I was drawn in the same lane as two guys I raced at Turriff and two others with similar swim times. I hate Peterhead pool, it has funny undercurrents and the walls are not particularly grippy for turns, and the shallow end is very shallow. Compared to Turriff the same two guys didn't lap me this time. This was partly me going faster, but I think partly them going slower as well. Again I abandoned the tumble turns quite early. Still need to work on them at full pace. I got passed by the guy behind me, but I then managed to drop the last guy in our lane, and I managed to keep enough ahead of the three in front that they didn't get round to lap me. Swim time 12:36, not as fast as I wanted, but inside my predicted time of 12:40 and faster than Turriff, so going in the right direction. Edit: This was actually a 750m swim PB but I hadn't even noticed because I think I should be going even faster.

T1 was pretty shocking. I went through everything in order, but doing gloves and socks cost me too much time. They were necessary for the cold though.

It turned out the BBC had the weather pretty much spot on. The rain had eased while we were in the pool but the road surface was still damp and the wind was pretty strong. I decided to go with the TT helmet, which in hindsight was the wrong choice. I started off ok, I caught a couple of places on the way out, but I was using a lot of the road to fight the wind. At one point there is a small stone bridge and I had to go into it angling to crash over the side and then let the wind carry me over. That was right on the line of what I felt was safe behaviour. 

Trying to ride into the crosswind being blown to the verge was tough, bordering on dangerous. In a couple of places I was pushed onto the verge, fortunately  they were both quite smooth and I was able to steer back onto the road without a problem. But this shredded my confidence and I had to back off and just try to handle the bike rather than ride it fast. This actually made things worse as the TT bike is very unstable when it isn't going fast so slowing made things worse rather than better. 

In a couple of places I was getting so frustrated I even took to swearing at the wind as if that might help. I was very tempted just to climb off the bike, but it was too cold and too far to walk it back. So I would have just had to climb back on it after I had a strop so I stayed on it.

On the return leg of the bike my heart rate actually dropped by 20bpm as I was simply trying to keep the bike on the road rather than push it along at anything approaching race pace. Bike time 42:45.

T2 was very slick. Despite chatting away to the organiser about how dodgy the bike course was in the wind I was still in and out in 26 seconds. Equal fastest time through T2.

Onto the run I felt quite good. As usual on triathlon runs my stride length was terrible, but my turnover was good and the pace was better than I expected. I had seen one of my targets leave transition just as I arrived and I set off to chase him. I got out through the first mile before seeing any of the leaders coming back. This meant I was within a mile of the winner. I figured I was probably about 11th at this point but as I passed people coming back in it turned out there were only 7 ahead of me. That meant catching one more would get me the same place as last year.

After the turn though I spotted two guys behind me who were going faster than me and I had to worry about them catching me as well. I pushed on as hard as I could but I couldn't make any inroads into the guys in front, and I had to start checking over my shoulder. Run time 19:02.

Time overall was 1:16:55. About 3 minutes slower than I wanted, but the bike alone was 3 minutes slower. And all of the cyclists were slower. Comparatively I actually did better than usual against most of them. The better bike handlers (or better equipped for the crosswinds, I didn't get a chance to check their bike set-ups) still went a few minutes quicker than me, but a few of the others were around my time or slower. 

Finished 8th against a much stronger field than last year. Pretty happy all round, just the bike wasn't particularly enjoyable. 

Race Preview - Peterhead Triathlon

Here are my preview and my review from the 2014 Peterhead Sprint Triathlon. 

This year is a very different story. 

The race was put on the calendar early and knowing the course suits me I had it in my calendar very early. 

The swim is unlikely to be as fast as last year as the chances of getting tapped out of the water two lengths early for a second year running are beyond remote. I should be looking at going a very similar time to last years preview target though, 12:30 - 12:50. Anything under that would need to be a very clean lane with some fairly equal swimmers. 

The bike I think I can trim a bit off. Last year I wasted some time when I wasn't confident about a turn and stopped to wait for the next rider for confirmation. And I wasn't sure of the course so I didn't work hard enough in places. On top of that my new bike fitness should put me in a better place to push the bike. I think there is potential here to go under the 40 minute mark.

The run should also be quicker. My times at the minute are about 1 minute faster for 5k. 20:12 is definitely a beatable run time. I would at least like to get under 20 minutes.

I think there is an opportunity to go close to 1 hr 14 mins for this course. But it could be very weather dependent. Cold or windy could make the time target very tough, but will hurt everyone equally so I can always do a comparative time. 

In terms of places I was quite lucky to get 4th Senior and 7th overall as 2014 was a fairly weak field. It is likely to be much tougher this year.   

Race Review - Deeside 10-mile TT

Cancelled for weather.

Good decision by the organisers. I think quite a few of us would have braved it if it hadn't been cancelled but the risks were probably just on the wrong side of the line for it to go ahead safely. You never know what potholes are hiding in puddles,what the drivers behind will do if you pull out for a puddle, how bad the wave will get if you hit one that is deeper than it looks, and so on. 

Training Plan - Week 19 - May 4 to 10

Another very strange week to plan through. So much so that I am going to use it as an example of how I plan my weeks.

In order of importance; 

Friday I have my cousin's wedding to go to. That effectively takes it out as a heavy training day, but means that I have to do an early morning session to try and burn enough adrenalin so that I can deal with the crowds in the afternoon and evening. So an easy run around the block in the morning. 

Then Sunday is Peterhead Triathlon. This should be one of my best races of the year as the course really suits me. It is a dead flat bike, so is a pure test of power with no bike-handling or climbing to think about. And the run is pretty much the same. I placed in the top-10 last year, and am looking to do the same again this year. This takes out Saturday as a heavy training day, as I have to take it as a rest day with maybe some minor stretching and yoga sessions.

Then I also have the first of the Deeside Thistle Evening League time trials. That is on Tuesday evening. This effectively takes out Tuesday night as a heavy training day as well. Also gives me a good chance to go flat out on the TT bike on a similarly flat course to Sunday.

Then Kintore Midweek and TPT swim sessions drop in to their slots on Thursday and Monday evenings respectively.

So that now leaves me having covered my bike miles (10 at TT, 14 at Peterhead and at least the remaining 11 at Kintore) and if I get to 38 on the bike I will also be through 1,000 miles for the year. For the rest I am somewhere about 7 miles of running and 1.2 of swimming. So I am still looking to fit in another 6 and 1.2 respectively. 

I possibly have an interview on Monday, because it is only a possible it didn't make it into the priority list. I am going to pencil in an easy run but may drop it. Wednesday is now the only day left so the second swim and a reps run go in there.

Scatter in the remaining yoga / stretching / core / weights at random and here is what my week looks like below.

I have missed off my speed targets again from this weeks plan. I really have them covered this week under my previews for the Deeside TT and Peterhead Sprint Triathlon.

Monday - Easy run.
Swim with TPT.

Tuesday - Deeside 10-mile Time Trial.
Yoga session.

Wednesday - Reps run. 
Longer swim. 
Weights and core sessions.

Thursday - Kintore Midweek. 
Stretching session.

Friday - Easy run.
Wedding.

Saturday - Yoga session and stretching session.

Sunday - Peterhead Triathlon.

Target totals - Swim 2.4 miles. Bike 35.0 miles. Run 13.0 miles. 2 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 60 mins of yoga.

Training Review - Week 18 - Apr 27 to May 3

Monday I started with core and light weights sessions before I went into town for appointments. Then in the afternoon I took an easy run round Dyce to ease my legs off and get some easy miles in. 

Looks like a heavy start to the week with 4 sessions in one day but the first 3 were all fairly light. Swim set was tough, but did include some super-fast 25m efforts. Also had a lot of turns with paddles which I can't normally get to work, and a few turns at pace when tired which are a better indication that I can use them in races.

Tuesday I had an interview in the afternoon so I had to train early and keep it fairly short and sensible. I took the road bike round an easy 10-mile loop of Dyce. It was a bit cold and windy so I had my full winter gear on. I also took it far too easily the first half so no huge surprise that I was five minutes slower than last month. The side effect of that is that I felt pretty good in the afternoon and decided to go out and do a rep session as well. 

My plan was to use the track to do 10 x 200m with 200m jog recovery. But the council was cutting the grass on the track and a junior football team had set up their pitch to cover half of one bend. So I adapted the session to be 10 x 1min rep, 1 min recovery on the path around the track. That worked out really well, felt good and was going fast on the reps. This reminded me that I have dropped speed targets out of my plans for the week, and that they need to go back in. 

Wednesday I switched my sessions as it worked out to be convenient for me to get an extra swim. I started the morning with a yoga session. Then in the afternoon went to ASV 50m pool to swim. I initially planned to do a similar 3 x 400m session to last week but faster. As I came up to the 400m mark I realised I was only on the same pace so I decided to stretch that rep to a 750m instead. Somewhere in the 350m or the minute rest I realised that I hadn't allowed for the pool being long course, flat calm etc so I had actually been working harder than last time I did this session even thought the clock wasn't showing it. So I went back to another 400m in just under 7 mins and then did the last 50 m just to take the session up to the same total distance. 

Thursday was the first of the Kintore Thursday sessions. Definitely higher pace than the Sunday sessions. I very quickly got an answer to the question of how long can I live with the fast guys. Answer turns out to be about two corners. I think I had more in the tank it I really buried myself but it seemed like a more sensible approach to drop to the trailing group and complete the full session properly rather than burn myself out in the first half. 

Friday I did yoga session and then took an easy loop around Dyce to try and ease my legs off a little. Then back to the cinema for a second viewing of Avengers Age of Ultron. 

Saturday I went out for a slightly longer but slower run. 

Sunday was nominally a rest day, so obviously I spent the whole day at a race. Deeside Duathlon / Triathlon, I was acting as crew for two friends who were brave enough to tackle the weather and the 60 mile duathlon version. 

This week looks like a lazy biking week as I only just racked up the miles on the plan and did 2 hours instead of the 3-5 hours I have been putting in recently. It was above plan and the pace on the rides more than covers that though. 

Looking at the overall times this week actually looks like a lazy week all over as I racked up less than 6 hours on the major sports. I was doing more than that when I was still working. Looking deeper though, the runs were all at decent pace, both swims and both rides were fast too. 

The second swim was good, but I will need to do more in the coming weeks. The runs were all pretty solid as well. A month ago I was trying to get to 7:30 pace on fast sessions. This week that has felt fairly steady. Pace targets need to go back in next week though. 


Target totals - Swim 1.8 miles. Bike 35 miles. Run 13 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 51 mins of yoga.

Monday - Core session.
Light weights session.
Run 4.1 miles in 32 mins. 
Swim with TPT 2,050m in 54 mins.

Tuesday - Bike 10 miles in 40 mins. 
Reps run 4.3 miles in 31 mins.

Wednesday - Yoga 30 mins.
Swim at ASV 1,200m in 23 mins. 

Thursday - Stretching session.
Kintore Thursday 26.1 miles in 1 hour 27 mins.

Friday - Yoga 21 mins.
Easy run 4 miles in 30 mins.

Saturday - Easy run 5.0 miles in 40 mins.
Stretching.

Sunday - Crew at Deeside Duathlon.

Actuals - Swim 2.0 miles (3,250m). Bike 36.1 miles. Run 17.4 miles. 2 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 66 mins of yoga.

Cumulative (Cumulative target)
S 27.8 (25.2), B 962.3 (859.3), R 290.8 (243.1). 

Race Preview - Deeside 10-mile TT

I have only done one pure bike Time Trial before. 

Here is my review of that race.

As much as it hurt, it did give me some good insights into how hard I can ride my bike and I put that to good use in the following triathlons last year. Those lessons could use a refresher at the very least. On top of that I have had a very good winter on the bike and I want to see how well I am riding now. 

Deeside Thistle have an Evening League Series that runs every Tuesday night all summer for their members. I got a one-off guest slot last year for a single race. This year I have joined them primarily to get access to the full race series this year. 

So there could be a few of these coming over the next few months depending on how they fit in with the rest of my programme. In particular I want to do the same one that I tried last year so I get a straight test against myself from last year. 

This one is 5 miles out, turn round a cone and 5 miles back. Elevation on the route can probably be measured in inches rather than feet. It should be very fast, depending on any wet and wind. I should be able to rack up an average over 20 mph for this one without any difficulty. It is a nasty U-turn though, so anything under 30 minutes I will be happy with. This course comes up again late in the year so I can have another comparison test against it later in the year.