Feeling good

Last week was my last full week of training, had a good week of plenty of miles, time and effort. 18 miles running 143 miles on the bike and 7km in the pool/lake. Felt tired by the middle of the week but here comes the tapering weeks.

This week starts today having yesterday off, out for 5hrs on bike and 15min run after today, sun sun sun and more sun. Good weather out there. Lake swim tomorrow, Thursday Swim morning, physio afternoon and 90min TT on the bike. Friday swimming morning, 60min Fartlek run evening, Saturday bike to and from work and finally Sunday 2hr endurance run with 30min easy bike. That will complete a 15hr week then it reduces down to 10hrs week 2 taper, then 4hrs for race week.

Slowly but surely I am coming to the end of my 24 week programme, already trying to come up with things to target next. Let's get through the Ironman first. The rest of the Ironman Tri-Anglia club team are in Nice France this weekend 28th June www.roblines.blogspot.com
All the Best Team 10 in total.

Weather forcast Roth, Germany http://weather.weatherbug.co.uk/Germany/Roth-weather/local-forecast/7-day-forecast.html?zcode=z6286&lang_id=en-gb

Things not so bad

Well I am still in the hands of Physio, but it is not as bad as I thought it was. Basically I have had a slap on the wrist, should not have done Edinburgh so close to Ironman, and also should have continued with training programme and even done some light training after Edinburgh. Any way have to move on and not ponder over the past, "learn from your experiences" not from your mistakes.

Anyway back in action and back on full programme, this is my last week of full hours of training 16 hrs this week and then I will start my tapering down for 3 weeks. My official Taper is 2 weeks.

The goal of an IM taper to make sure you are physically and mentally ready to execute on race day. Period. Half a second on the bike doesn’t matter when you have T2 and, oh, 26.2 miles to run afterwards.

2 Weeks Out –
70% of typical week’s volume. Key Workouts are 2 Bricks, both 90mins bike, 30mins run. Bike should include 3 x 8 at just over goal race effort with 4 min recoveries. Run should be 15 mins out hard, 15 mins back jog. Include 2 open water swims to practice sighting, etc. Consider a massage this week and buy all the extra gear you could ever think you need. Consider taking you bike to the shop to get all cables, gears, chain, brakes, etc., checked.

1 Week Out / Race Week -
50% of typical week’s volume. Swim every day, especially on the course. Bike 2-3 times, with longest ride being 60 mins on the run course to check it out. Run 3-4 times with longest run of 40 mins. All workouts should include 3 to 5 x 30 seconds hard with 2 min recoveries to stay sharp. Focus is on getting all your stuff together, memorizing your race plan, and preparing for potential damage control.

Norwich 100 Bike

Another 100 bike session under my belt , however this was a different performance. I don't think I had recovered from my Marathon. I rode with work colleague , Dave does cyclo-x and mountain biking. First 45 miles was good effective riding averaging 19.3mph, not in team time trial format as i was doing most of the work at the front. Stopping at half way "ish" point then carrying on just when the rain started. Norfolk Norfolk Coast has good views but noit in the rain, our group was down to 3 now but soon to 2 as they punctured and got dropped by Dave and myself.

My knees started to go through quite a bit of pain around 60miles so had to stop to try and stretch them out. Pace dropped as I was unable to get an effective pedal strike, dropped into spinning gears and plodded on. Dave dropped me with 10 miles to go and I just found a comfortable position to bring it home.

5:33hrs average 18 mph

Needing to have some rest now and also will need to see the physio to get some treatment on my knees. At the moment the discomfort is coming from just above the patela region, there are a few things it could be but I will wait to see physio and get some sessions in before "I" day (Ironman Day)

May Totals and Results

May Totals.............
Swim 3:20 hr 10700 meters
Bike 11:01 hr 207 miles 134 bpm HR
Run 8:59 hr 75.5 miles 134 bpm HR


Race Results;
Suffolk 100mile bike; 5:36hr 17.9mph

Fritton Aquathon; 16:45 min

999 Sprint;
swim 10:05min, bike 29:19 (25.4 mph), run 22:52 (6:08/mile)

Marshman 1/2 Ironman
swim 27:35 min (1:27/100m), bike 2:44:56hr (21.4mph), run 1:35:59 (7:20/mile)

Edinburgh marathon
3:31:49hr (8:05 /mile)

3:31:49 Marathon

Wow what a HOT weekend, of all places Scotland at least 26 degrees C with no coastal breeze and very little shade on the course. I always new this was going to be a quick course but along with the weather a challenge of watching your fluid intake.

After a review of my race, heart rate and pace there is a few conclusion and experiences to be taken on board for Roth (37 days to go).

My initial pace was too quick, difficult to control as you are running down hill for the first 4 miles covering it in 27 min. Tried to settle into relaxed running position but just found myself crusing

10km; 42min.

1/2 ; 1:37:32

30km ; 2:18:24

20mile ; 2:26:55

26.2 mile ; 3:31:49

Average Heart Rate 146 bpm
Average Pace 8:04 min/mile

It all started to go wrong around 21 miles, my knees started to hurt, I felt good energy wise and the heat was not effecting me as I had taken on good fluid. Started to have quite a bit of pain on my knees and they decided not to be pounded any more, so I submitted to walking. Completing the last 5 miles in 55mins, 11 min/mile not good, I was on for a 3:10hr marathon, but hey I did not do that. The last 3 miles were tough but I took it easy as I did not want to do any more long term damage for Roth.

Happy as can be and pleased with my nutrition and fluid for the race. I have recovered from the marathon now and my finally training race is the Norwich 100mile bike ride this weekend. I will be running for 30 min after the ride.

http://www.edinburgh-marathon.com/?p=searchable&action=search&name=&number=1947&position=&year=2009&sex=&category=

Track my progress for Edinburgh Marathon Sunday 31st

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

click this link and refresh page by pressing F5 every now and then to follow me during the Marathon tomorrow start 0900
http://www.instamapper.com/ext?key=14974387190169486625

Edinburgh Marathon

Well it has been a relaxing 2 weeks, however I have just got over a bit of an inner thigh niggle which came on after the Marshman. Fully recovered and keen to go for this weekend.

Edinburgh Marathon

From the Profile potentially a fast course, it is one of the fastest marathon courses in the world, however let's not get carried away yet. I am looking to achieve something a lot better than my London Marathon 2007 attempt (which was my 1st marathon ever) 4:20hrs. So the plan is to be approaching it from the angle of good pace, good nutrition and negative splits. Negative splits basically means that as I go through the splits, in this case looking at 13.1miles and then the next half, I run the next split faster. So first 1/2 8:00min/mile, second 1/2 7:30min/mile or better. This will bring me in at half way for 1:44:52hr and then the second 13.1 miles 1:38:19hr. Bringing me home in 3:23hr ish, which I will be very happy with.

Let's see how it goes.................... MY RACE NO. 1947

I will be running my GPS tracker device again so keep an eye out for that on Sunday morning click this link............

http://www.instamapper.com/ext?key=14974387190169486625

Marshman 1/2 Ironman

It was the 1st hosting of the Marshman ½ Ironman, however after many changes to course routes and distances they finally settled on the 1900 m Swim ; 58.4 mile Bike ; 13.2mile run. The Swim was a “z” shape swim in a small pond on the Romney Marshes region. The Bike course was potentially a very fast course being what I thought was flat, however there was some short and sharp climbs throughout the route, also I think the whole country was hit by the high winds today they got up to 40mph gusts, not nice losing control of your bike several times.

The Run, has potential for a fast time not having any hills in it as we ran around the Marshes. Out on a tail wind and then on return for the last 3 miles, you guessed it turn around and hit the gusty 40mph head wind. Also having to cross 4 farm styles, which took a bit of an effort.

Not all that bad personal goals for the day was to run under 1:40hr for my ½ marathon, which was achieved 1:35:59hr. With my Ironman Roth in 8 weeks this was a good time for something like this events. Finished 8th overall and very pleased with times and efforts.







Swim Time Avg. Speed Avg. Pace
00:27:35(12) 4.13km/h 00:14:31 T1 00:02:17

Bike Time
02:44:56(10) 32.74km/h 00:01:50 T2 00:02:28

Run Time
01:35:59(14) 13.13km/h 00:04:34 Overall Time 04:53:16

FULL RESULTS
http://www.stuweb.co.uk/swp/default.asp?a=2&e=245&s=y

Aquathon and 999 National Champs

Thursday Night was the first chance to try out the new wetsuit Orca 3.8. Fritton Lake was the location 400m lake swim ans 2.5km run. Very cold water 12 deg C, was 3rd out of the water and 2nd onto the run, finished 2nd overall. Not really up for the sprint stuff these days, hence Ironman training is a lot longer.

RESULTS...... http://activeoutdoorsport.co.uk/sites/10161/files/fritton_aquathlon_race_1_results.pdf

999 National Sprint Champs (Friday 12 noon)

750m Swim / 20km Bike / 6km Run (should have been 5km)

Wow never seen so much rain before, it stopped rainy by the start thankfully, even colder water today, well it felt colder. A field of about 140 athletes all from different Emergency Services (Police, Fire, Ambulance, LifeGuards/Boat, Coastguard)

Awaiting final results online and splits hopefully

RESULTS......

http://www.xtramileevents.com/event_results.asp check here for results

The Fire Service pulled off the Top spot winning overall and the top 5 fire service athletes won the team event. I finished top 10, I think I was about 6/7th waiting for overall results.

Travelling to Kent tomorrow for my 1/2 Ironman event on Sunday

1900 meter Swim / 56mile Bike / 13.2 mile run...................................

Suffolk 100 mile Bike

Well yesterday was one of the longest rides I have ever done, so new challenges on fitness and also nutrition use. Things went really well it was not a race it was a fun ride for upto 400 people raising money for Action Medical Research Group.

http://www.routeyou.com/route/view/21756/cycling-route-suffolk-sunrise-100-long-route.en

At mile 15 we had to stop and climb on board a ferry to get to the other side at Felixstow, interesting and different, like I said it is not a race. I had arranged for "support crew" family to meet me at mile 63, which was a good point to have a fuel stop and enjoy the fantastic weather. Getting going was tough after that, but got going and back into my rythyme. Mile 90 was where I started to fall a bit dropped in avg speed to 14mph and just poodled home to finish in 5:34:17hr avg 17.9mph.

Reasonably happy with my efforts, 8 weeks to go and will need to get few more miles into my legs just to get me home for the 112miles of the Ironman bike course.