Jog On...

After yesterdays run I was going to complete a bit of swimming, its too hot for this running malarkey! (Even though I'll probably run tomorrow). I did a simple set today: 1 x 2000m I had a empty pool a completely different experience to the other day, I used my Poolmate again as there was no chance I was counting 100 laps out I struggle to count to 10 in the pool. If anyone was watching me swim tonight they surely thought this lad is nuts and he's making me dizzy. Today was the furthest I had swam in a pool before and it felt completely different to this distance I swim in open water and before today I thought  I'd never swim that far in one hit in the pool so I was pleasantly surprised and also its completely different to doing it in a tri wetsuit. It's a good job my predators (goggles) are mirrored with a tint in as when I turned to breathe the sun was there glaring into my eyes and face so it saved me squinting every time I wanted to breathe.

Second day of the holiday and I had planned to get up early and get in an interval session before it was to hot and the sun was to high, but as I'm on holiday so a lie in won! After spending 6 hours by the pool, chilling out listening to my iPod I thought it was time I got up and went out for the run I had planned to do at 8am this morning. The breeze had picked up and the temp has dropped (slightly) ideal for a holiday run. I chose a nice interval session: 6 x (2min 98%, 1min 80%, 1min 98%, 30secs 80%, 30secs 98%, 30secs 80%) I did a mile warm up and scope out the area, well I went looking for a supermarket and a bar and I think I found them, I turned and came back to start my session. The state of the roads out here are shockingly bad, an I think this made my run even harder, but I just ran through it to get to the end of the hot session and I even managed a best pace of 05.42 per mile! Tomorrow may be a swim day, it depends on the weather, as it just starte

First day of the holiday and after lying in the sun all day and chilling I thought I best get some training in. It was hot.. Really hot so the only thing I could do was get a swim in. We've got a 20 meter pool at the resort and it's relatively quiet so I decided a simple set of: 5 x 200m & 2 x 500m I managed to complete the first 1000m hassle free, pool to myself not a rubber ring in sight. After each 200 meters I did a one and a half minute recovery and set off again. I was lucky enough to borrow my mates Poolmate for holiday to try out, which is a good job really as I totally lost count on numerous occasions, to be fair I forget most times so it was nice to have the backup of the watch. Then I started to 2 x 500's and it was like a pool party had erupted everyone wanted some pool action, well everyone being 4 people, and all 4 had to get in the way and I was completing "S" bends in the pool very annoying as they could see I was doing a

 I woke up early this morning to a dark, dull and wet looking morning, I had planned a long ride, but how hard it rained last night the roads looked greasy and I was sure the heavens would open again when I was out, so I didn't fancy being out soaked through and being hours away from home. I decided upon completing a hour sprint session, as I said in my last bike post im going to do session on time based for a while, get my body used to being out for long duration, so today it was only an hour but a tough hour none the less. I completed a bike sprint session about a month ago and completed 10 reps of sprints and I remember being shattered at the end of 10, so I wanted to beat that as I think I've moved on since then.. only a little though. I managed to get 14 reps in this morning and I did my quickest time and max speed on the last set. I found the first couple quite hard to get a rhythm and I remember my heart rate going quite high on the first 2 reps. My average speed for

As I had Monday as my rest day I needed to get out and get a run in before the weekend. As Friday is normally my rest day it felt quite funny getting out there and I think my legs knew this. I wanted to keep it simple and just get a light run in. I decided to go for 6 miles and the normal route. From the times above I definately took it easier than normal, as I was clocking in over 8 minute miles, which is fine as I had a hard session Thursday and this was meant to be a gentle session. I averaged a heart rate only at 152 BPM but this is still well in my training zone, the session was all about getting my legs getting used to going out, when they are still tired. This was my last run in the UK for a week as im off on holiday on Sunday, I wonder how hard its going to be running 20'c heat.. no underarmour for me! Todays session Duration 00 48 38 Distance 6 Miles Calories 834 Average HR 152 BPM Max HR 167 BPM Average Pace 08.03 Best Pace 05.51

This was the first time on the bike since Sundays race, and I really enjoyed getting back in the saddle, I was really disappointed with my ride in the Tenby GoTri event so I'm really keen move my biking forward like my other discipline. I had decided my route, but I wanted to make sure I stayed of for an hour session on the bike, and I managed to get in just under 20 miles. I'm going to start training on the bike by time and not distance for a bit so I can get used to being out for long durations and not worry about distance. Get my legs used to it I think will be the main objective. I did 2 laps of a route I knew and it had a mixture of flats, up hills and down hills an nice challenge for a school night. I managed to get a top speed of 33 MPH, but still my average speed is quite low, averaging out at just 15.9 MPH, the group I'd like to join up with in the week are averaged 16-20 MPH so a few more weeks of hard pushing for me before I join them. Some of the ride wa

I got home from work late so I didn't have a chance to get a quick turbo meal in so I turned to me trusty energy supplement Orbana. For those who dont know its a cracking product, no crashes, no upset stomach, exactly what you need pre exercise. Check it out HERE We started the session with a gentle warm up and simple and dynamic stretches. This then led us onto a sprint session up hill too! It really enjoy sprint session, it takes me back to my rugby days where we used to a similar drill but it involved pulling tyres and you best mate on your back, so im really happy its just me sprint now, no additional weight as this is hard enough. I managed to get up the hill the same distance each time so I made sure I worked hard on each sprint, but not to hard as we still had a endurances set to complete. The set was 5 x (4 minutes 98%, 3 minutes 80% Jog recovery), this is a tough set and one that tests the lungs, it was important to keep jogging in the recovery period so you keep y

After last weeks swim still in my head, I remember as the water was so cold and went you leave the house your all up for the swim and when you arrive at the session you see eh water and you think.. Do I really want to get in. There are only 2 more club session in the lake left this season, also as Ironman Wales will be done and dusted I can see the numbers for this session dropping, so I'll be back to the pool. We started tonights session with a light swim around one of the buoys to get familiar with the water temperature, when I put my face under the it took my breath completely away, now this was cold.. really cold. I think it would be warmer swimming in the sea. After the warm up the sets were called, on the first lap we would work on our sprints and the second lap would be a standard swim lap. We were split into groups of 3 for the first lap, I definitely noticed the difference in speed when I was sprinting I tend to have only one speed when I swim but I really surprised m

I was praying for sunshine and guess what it came! After 2 days off I was ready to race, my alarm was set for 5:45 and I woke about 10 minutes before it went off. I got up and followed my standard process and today I managed to eat my breakfast, no pre race nerves, and breakfast was a packet of malt loaf. My swim heat was starting at 8:25 so I arrived at the race at 7:30 to set up my transition, plenty of room to set up the bike and plenty of room for my trainers and bike shoes. I checked in the ins and outs for the transitioning and I know it cheeky and against the rules but I put a bit of talc on the floor in front of my bike so it was easy to spot coming out of the swim. I striped off and was in my tri suit ready to race. As it was a pool swim it was a phased start the slower times going in first and then building up to the fast lot, I had a decent swim, I went out a little to fast, I had the open water in front of me so I had no pacer, I soon found a rhythm and caught my br

This is my final session with Celtic Tri before race day on Sunday, I didn't want to miss this session as I really enjoy them. We did the normal warm up session and work on our explosive muscle groups in our legs with some sprints, and some drills to work on our calf muscles. The session was 6 x 3 mins 80% 2 mins 70% (Recovery) - The percentages were low due to the tapering. I definitely took the foot off the gas for this session and at eh end of the session I had plenty left in the tank which was great as normally im nearly maxed out. After doing some light jogging and stretches we do some explosive work, which involved sprints im really happy that I still have my sprinting left in my legs and in the drill at this session you have 6 seconds to get up as far as you can up a hill on the roadside, the only bad thing is if there is only a small group the further you go the less time you have to recover and get back down the bottom before its your go again. As this was a light ses

You can tell winter is coming, the water is definitely getting colder and the wetsuit isn't thick enough to keep me warm. I know I should swim faster to generate more heat and if I swim quicker, the further I go in the hour session. The session was a simple swim this week, as the Ironman Wales 2011 date is getting closer and all people want to do is get the mileage in, I dont blame them I'd be the same. We started on time this week and we were straight into the large lake, and swimming around the edge, I'm definitely over my phobia of seeing the lake floor, its quite interesting seeing the bottom, but I dont like the reeds touching my hands sometimes.. Yuk! At the end of my first lap of the bigger lake , I could see our coach trying to get our attention, we had to get out the lake, no it wasn't a shark attack or any kind of threat! We had to make way for 2 jet skiers. So, we had to get out the big lake and straight into the smaller lake, and this was even colde

After a unexpected rest day on Sunday, I was keen to blow the cobwebs away and get in a quality session with the elite group on a Monday. I haven't trained with the lads for 2 weeks as I've had no car to meet up with them so I've gone out on my own, so I was raring to go! The set was called, 3km, 2km, 1km, 2km, 1km - 2 mins recovery in between each km effort , (98% max thresh hold) km efforts. On my this was a hard one, but I didn't mind, I'd missed this kind of session with the group. I switched the Garmin to KM auto lapping and the times above include the recovery, I should have push lap on the breaks but I forgot on the first recovery so didn't bother after it. This was a really enjoyable session, hard, but enjoyable. The session started really quick, and my pace was really fast under 4 minute KM efforts, but by the end of the session it dropped 5 minute per KM. I was still working at the same intensity throughout the session and still finished 3rd in th

What a tough run! I was one of those runs, that nothing clicked, my shoulders felt stiff, im knees ached my stride was wrong, it just didn't feel right.I ran my normal 6 mile route, nothing aggressive, the normal up hills, the normal flats and the normal down hills so why was it so different. I still managed to clock in seven and a half minute miles on the training run, I dont normally go running early afternoon so that have something to do with it, I had a small lunch to so that could be the reason why it felt so hard to do this run. The roads were really quite for a Saturday afternoon, perhaps they were all at home watching the football, as the premiership kicks off today. I had planned to go out on the bike early this morning but the heavens were open and lots of water was coming from the sky, so that put a spanner in the works, so hence why I went for an afternoon run. My heart rate maxed out at 172 beats per minute, which isn't relatively high for one of my runs, a

I decided to have Wednesday off, 1 reason was I was really tired and I didn't want to train while feeling drained as that can only cause damage, the seconds reason and the most important reason was, we found out the sex of our baby and proud to say we are having a boy! so we had to go out and look for all the boy like clothes possible so we can dress him when he comes out of Christmas day (expected date of arrival) so I think thats a great reason to miss training. So this session I had to work twice as hard to make up for Wednesday, and it started by me having to run to the club run as my wife had the car so my normal warm up with the club started 2 miles down the road, so I was already into my stride when I met up with them, only to turn around and do some hill sprints... I was already feeling it and we hadn't started the "guts" on the set. The session was the same as last week, but just 1 more rep and yes I did feel the difference. 9 x 2 min 95%, 2 min 75% R

Once again we were forced into the little lake as there was some bloke speeding around on his jet ski and didn't look like he was coming out and to top things off we have a massive 26 turn out for the session. You can tell Ironman Wales in nearly here, everyone it trying to get there miles in before the event. This weeks session was a simple one, laps. I'm starting to swim further and further which is my aim but after about 2000 meters my stroke starts to take a wobble. I know im getting tired so this is effecting it, but I am concentrating really hard to keep pointing in the stroke and bring my elbow up high and this is definitely helping me, as its stopping me crossing my arms across my bodying creating drag, as im pointing and pulling this is creating the complete opposite and its giving me more speed.. which is always a help! We did a mass start all 26 and ir felt like a race situation, so sighting was very important as I didn't fancy a smack in the face like my on

After my long ride on Saturday morning, I still had tired legs, so I decided to turn Sunday into a rest day. I know it wasnt planned but I hadnt fully recovered so I though it would be best to rest. As I was fully recovered I decided to complete a brick session, I haven't completed one for a while so I decided it was going to be a bike run brick. I knew the route I wanted to do, I just hope the weather would hold out for, it was sunny when I left the house but when I got home from the run it was a different story. This was a PB for the 10 mile route, and its been a while since i did that route, my legs are definitely getting stronger and I can peddle flat out for a lot longer from when I first started on the bike and I think that's down to the North Wales triathlon, that was a killer, up hill and into the wind. There were a few hills on the 10 mile route but nothing to steep, but I still only managed a average speed of 15 MPH. This needs to be closer to 20 MPH if I want to

As I had a rest day on Friday I was ready to get out there on the bike, I had planned to do a new ride which upped my mileage to 50, 10 more than my last long ride. I'm really enjoying the road bike and I cant wait to get out there again. On my last ride I ran out of water about 10 miles from home, so I went out and bought a new cage for the bike, and put on another bottle. I also have been given some aero bars to try out, and I tell you what they were amazing and there the reason I ended up doing more miles than I planned. I spent 80% of the ride on them, I found it pretty easy to get my balance on them, so there was no stopping me. As I was borring them from a friend I want to keep them in the best conditional possible, so when I thought I lost a part of them I was really worried. About half way through the ride I hear a little pop, and as I was going up hill I though nothing of it, and after cycling 10 miles down the road I had noticed one of the rubber bar ends from teh bars

Who does a warm up on hills.. we do! After our streching and light jogging we started the session with some hill sprints 15 seconds up hill and and then back down.. we did this 8 reps then then the proper session started. The session was a tough one, 8 x 2 mins 95%, 2 mins 80 Recovery jog, It was really important that it was a jog for this session and not a half walk, half jog like past session and I completed this task from the coach. I kept the same pace throughout the whole session, which was my main aim, I managed to clock over 0.30 in each 2 minute 95% session, which is great pacing (about 7 minute mile pace). There was a slight breeze running one way in the session which definitely effected my speed, but it I didnt mind as it keep me cool. I got into my training zone each time and the graph shows that after the intense 2 minutes my heart rate recovers pretty quickly which was great as I could give it all in my 2 minute 95% sets. In this session I managed to total my furthes

What a great run I had in this session- You know those runs you have when everything seems to click and nothing is tweaking, hurting, twinging.. well this was one of them and it felt GREAT! Garmin connect have tried to upgrade there service but its been rolled back so all there new great new ideas have rolled back to the previous state which is a shame. Here is a screen shot of my whole run from the player function - Click on it and the it goes to a larger image. I'm now clocking in under 7 minute miles, which I never though was possible for me but my running is going strength to strength and all I need to work on now is to get an average pace of under 7 minutes an getting closer all the time. The last mile is still catching me out as its all up hill, but its getting quicker, im a 5 minutes quicker than my last time I did this route, which is very quick and all I can put it down to my new powerbar purchases and easting my lunch in 4 sittings rather than one. Its definitely