Jog On...

I decided to include an extra rest day in over the weekend, AS I said before my legs were tired, I felt drained so Friday and Saturday became rest days for me. Call me lazy but I haven't had 2 days off on the trot for as far as I can remember (before January 2011). I haven't been running far enough for my liking lately, so I though I'd get in a 8 miler for the session which involved a 3 mile run though the forest. It was a really humid day, so I knew it was going to be a tough one on the lungs as the air was going to be "dirty", no fresh cool air for me to breath, but muscle on and stop being a big fairy.   My legs felt great after the extra day off so I made every effort to give this session my all and try and get a personal best for the route. As I hadn't done this route for some time I had forgot how hard this route actually was. I compared it to the last time I did this route and I was over 4 minutes quicker, I was amazed how far I've come in

The start of this was a very different start to any other I have had to date, as this was a club run we went thought the normal warm up routine which covers stretches and light jogging. The coach also worked on our Plyometrics (fast twitch muscles) the main areas we worked were achilles and calf muscles. If anyone was driving past must of what the hell are they doing jumping around in squares and shuffling on the spot as hard as we could.. We must of looked a right bunch! After the warm up I needed to go for a relief stop (A quick Jimmy Riddle) so I decided to cross the road and jump into the long grass and I was greeted with an all mighty hiss! I was an adder just by my feet, I have never moved so quick, I was so stunned by the time I got back to the group they had already gone, so I missed pressing the start button on the Garmin, so I've manually added the set I missed. The session was: 4 x 1min 95%, 1 min 75%, 1min 95%, 1 min 75%, 2 min 95%, 2 min 75% This was a great

My run was cut short because the police stopped me running down the planned route, all the blue lights, riot vans and unmarked cars.. the works! I wonder what was going on, but it totally through my run session I had planned and I ended up a mile short of planned distance. It was only short run in this session as I was once again late coming home from work and I was attending a leaving party which involved a curry, so I needed to get out there to leave the stress from work behind and burn some calories off for that all important Indian cuisine. My first mile was my quickest last night, as it was all down hill and then after getting deflected by the cops I had to do a route which was mostly uphill. It wasn't good on my already tired legs, I need to get a sports massage on my calf and shins. I took this chance to wear my new Newtons once more and I wasn't disappointed, I've got a few more scheduled runs with them until I write my review so please stay tuned for that rep

When I turned up to the session, the lake gates were already open and I drove straight in, only to find that other users were in the big lake using their jet skis so the triathlon club had to move to the smaller lake, not that I mind it was less to swim.. so I thought. We had a massive turn out of 24 club swimmers in the lake, this is the biggest turnout I've ever seen at a club session. It was great to see so many people there, even though it was a little crowed and it was going to be hard to listen to the coach as there was so many people in attendance. This session was based on a drafting and arm technique, which i definitely need work on so I was happy with that. The more I swim the better I think my arms are getting, obviously I've got a long way to go, but im enjoying it and that half the battle. I dont fear swimming 2000 meters plus and this is great news if I want to do an Ironman in the next year. As we were swimming in the smaller lake it meant less room to turn

After gettig my new shoes from Netwons and having a rest day on Sunday I was really looking forward to this run session. Its been a while since I'v joined up with them due to races and recovery days its a hard session which blows awy those cobwebs. I was not expecting s half road half beach run... and especially as I was in my new shoes. The set was 1km on the road and 1km on the beach, we did this session back in April and I got soaked through, but lucky enough for me the tide was out so at least I could keep my shoes dry. I was a tough session, and it was far harder running on the beach to the road, on the first set I managed to hang off the back of the lead pack I managed to gain the majority of catchup on road. Once we completed eh 2km we had 1 minute rest/recovery and then off we went again. The second set I was blown away by the lead pack and found myself back in the main group I kept on thinking it as the Peloton, just like the TDF. It was another hot evening, I

Today marks a new record for me, its the furthest I've ever been on my bike, I'm slowly building up my bike distances and today was the start of this by clocking in a 40 miler. As my wife was at work all day this gave me an ideal opportunity to get out. I normally get out at the early hours to avoid the traffic as there are some idiots out there, but my bed was to nice at 6am so 1pm was the new time of departure. I had planned to meet up with some friends at the halfway point but I had a text while I was out to say the were running late so I may miss them which was a shame as they good give me that morale boost to get home, another boost for my trip home was, I had to pick my wife at 6pm so I couldn't be late. It was definitely a tougher leg on the way out then on the way even though it looks to be more of an incline on the way home. After watching the tour its making me want to get out more on my bike, and teh sun today really helped, those guys get to max speeds o

I recently purchased some new swim gear from Swimwear and I was pleasantly surprised with everything they offered my shopping experience. It was the first time I used this store and I can say how good there service has been, during and after the purchase of my products. The site offers users live chat assistance which is brilliant as if you want more information about a product (i.e does the product come up small) then they are there to be asked. The site is easy to navigate and the search function is very reliable unlike some sites I've used. Simplyswim stock all major brands in the swimming arena and has plenty of stock so you've never disappointed. I needed some new fins for my swim sessions and I did look long and hard for what I wanted and I came across the Cressi light fins, they come in 2 colours so I went for the blue set. I've used them a few times now in club sessions and haven't been disappointed, they fitted nicely and haven't rubbed my heels at

As there was no interval session last week, I was raring to go for this one as I really enjoy these sessions as I tend to work that little harder with the club than on my own. The session was a 6 x (2 minutes 95%, 1 minute 75%, 1 minute 95%, 30 seconds 75%, 30 seconds 95%, 30 seconds 75%) a great speed session, one to concentrate on your fast twitch muscles and keeping your head up and fast moving arms. I loved this session, a hard workout in 60 minutes. I'm still wearing my compression socks for run training, Its helping me recover and perform at every training session im completing, well running ones anyway. In this session I was doing a walk recovery to get my heart rate down to the 75% I tend to jog in this session but Thursday night I wanted to go flat out in the max zones I made sure I got the fully recovery in. My pacing on the max zones was pretty good, and I felt I had more to give in the max periods and I felt good for the duration. It was really humid for an evening

I ended up staying longer in the office than I had planned which messed up my training plan totally. I had planed to hit the saddle and get out and get some miles on the bike. As I ended up coming home over a hour late, I was already hungry which stopped me going. I decided to cook my dinner and then go out after for a run. I was chancing it as my legs were still a little tired from the weekend. I started slower than normal and I knew something wasn't right, I'm not sure if I left long enough for my dinner to digest so I could feel that repeating on me, but it was only poached eggs so that wasn't to bad, but my legs just seemed heavy and only got heavier, which was effecting my pace. On average I was clocking out 8 minute miles which I relatively happy about as my legs are still a little tired from the weekend. The route I tend to keep under the 8 minute mile pace, but I did have to stop 3 times for cars to pass and a massive JCB, It was a tight squeeze so I had to j

I've really missed this session, as the last 2 weeks its either landed on a pre or post race day, so I was really happy to be back in the open water. This is a simple session, 2 laps within a hour, swim within a group so if you get into trouble your not alone, the past weeks there has been a support canoe but this week we were all alone. We were asked to swim close to the lakes edge in the session so we all started off in one line but as soon as I saw the bottom of the lake  I started to panic and scare myself so I pushed into a more central position in the lake and sighted on the horizon rather than the swimmer in front of me, which I didn't mind as I need to work on that area of my swim. It just felt like whenever I saw the bottom I envisaged something coming out and grabbing me, it was hard enough to concentrate on my arms, so thinking about something is going to get me was a right distraction. The water was colder than I remembered but I soon acclimatised when I stuc

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I woke up early, to a windy and rainy morning, I was already nervous about the event, this was the Welsh Championships so a high standard was expected. I had read that this was a tough course so I needed the weather on my side. I forced down my 4 weetabix and poached eggs down as I made the mistake of not eating enough for the Welsh half marathon as that was a 12pm start similar to this race, so I wanted to make sure the tank stayed full enough to complete this Olympic distance triathlon. Off I went with my support team (my wife) in the rain to set up my transition, we went up to Llandudno a few days earlier so I could acclimatised with the seaside town, all that sea air is completing different to what im used to, in Swansea! We just fancied making a weekend of it so we didn't have to rush on race day which I can do with out especially on my first Olympic. It took me long enough to find me place in transition, the number places weren't the clearest, but im guessing the r

What a complete change from my last swim session on Monday night. This was my first triathlon training session down the pool on a Thursday night I normally do the club interval session but as the coach was on holiday and I'm on a taper I thought I'd give the pool session a go. I was told to bring my wet suit and trainers as the first part of the session is done in suits and the second is just in your Tri suit or bathers. The trainers we for aquathon training as this was mentioned by the coach before hand. When I got there some of us got into our suits and we did a little drafting set, in threes and then into sixes. We also knocked out some sprints as we had to overtake people without suits and they had a few seconds head start, oh my it's soooo easy swimming in a Tri wetsuit why can't I always swim in one? On the last set of sprints we had to get out the pool as quick as we could and get out the suit before the non suit swimmers finished there length... I think

I got home from work late and as I had a rest day on Tuesday, I had to get out there for a run, I needed to stop using the weekends race as an excuse and get out there. I deicide to have my dinner before my run on Wednesday as I felt really drained and low on energy so I went and made jacket potato beans and cheese, dinner of champions. After consuming my dinner and waiting for an hour and a half I got changed and got out there on the road and got a run in. The plan was to keep it simple and light, even though I had a rest day the previous day I didn't want to end up blasting out a hard run, so I kept some back for the weekend. I decided the route ans the distance was gong to be 5 miles if I felt crap and 6 miles if I felt good. The 5 mile marker came and I still had a spring in my step so I carried on for the extra half mile before turning for home. The sun was shining and the breeze was keeping me cool so why not keep going. . Last time I did this run I was a little bit

Run club was cancelled as the team are racing tomorrow in Swansea's 5km series, so I decided to get down the pool for some indoor swimming. I was really looking forward to a different session, but it all seemed to go wrong from the moment I got into the water. I got in the pool and it was freezing, as funny as it sounds but I felt warmer when I was in my wetsuit swimming outside in the lakes. I soon warmed up in the pool when I got some meter-age in. After swimming about 400 meters I was starting to get tired for some reason, which was a shame as I know the rest of the session was going to be a drain. I know it was hard work getting out of bed this morning so perhaps an early night could be on the cards to catch up on my sleep. The longer the session went on the worse my stroke got, I really concentrate on keeping my rhythm with my arms but over 25 meters its hard to get that rhythm. I think I need to get to some lessons under my belt, Celtic Tri have coached lessons down t

I've been wanting to complete one of these for a while, get some pain in those legs and this was the ideal time to try it out as it gives me a week to recover before I race next Sunday. The plan of action was a 1 mile warm, and 10 sets of recovery and sprints over a mile, and then finish with a 1 mile warm down. The 10 sets would be a half mile recovery with a half mile flat out sprint, till your legs feel like led. ad you cant peddle any more. After watching the Tour De France time trials I really wanted to see how hard it is... and my suspicion were right, its rock hard, those riders are machines! Lap 1 was a recovery/warm up lap and then lap 2 was a flat out sprint, this continued all the way to lap 20. I can honesty say laps 12 and 14 hurt the most and I remember grinding my teeth to get to the end of the lap. The course had a very small incline but enough to keep you working on the rest phase and enough to give you a good speedy start of the sprint stage. The spikes i

This was a planned late evening short run, enough to blow the Friday rest day cob webs away, and enough to get me sweating! I had lit the barbecue before I left for the run so I couldn't be too long, I was hungry before I left so the thought of barbecued food made me run that little big harder. I was really please with my mile pacing, if anything hits the 8 minute mile im starting to get disappointed, so I do need to work harder on the last mile home. It is mainly uphill, a slow incline but its enough to make me hit that 8 minute mile marker. The roads were really quiet, no bikers, no cars, no runners everyone must have been down the beach, I dont blame them... Why was I out running? I'm still wearing my compression socks as I think its helping my recovery, I'm sure I still look a daft but as there was hardly anyone out on the road I didn't mind. I managed to clock in 998 miles for the year to date, so my next session which is the bike I will hit the 1000 ma