Jog On...

Week 5 - 9 - Toughen Up Week 9 has arrived and gone when I write this review of my training, time is flying and I'm starting to get nervous about race day. The past 4 weeks have been all about building that lactate threshold and I must say there has been some killer sessions in the plan already. I'm still enjoying it so something must be going right... well when I say enjoying it, one thing I haven't enjoyed was the sea swimming. My wife raced ISOMAN so she has been in the sea plenty of times and seems to smash it every time she goes in, I find myself retching with the taste of the water which is really hard to get a good rhythm on my stroke. I really need to work on this as its given my confidence a real bashing! In this chunk of training we went on holiday to Centerparks for a week, which mean no pool swims, I did ask if I could swim in the lake and I was told no, so I packed extra run kit and bike kit do sneak an extra session in. On an early morning bike ride I...

Week 1 - 4 - Building A Routine  So the countdown to race day has started and day one has been and gone and I'm now at the end of my first block of 20 weeks training for Ironman Wales 2016. If I'm honest I've really enjoyed getting back into multi-sport, after concentrating on marathons last year its been great to get back in the pool and on the bike, and I'm full of enthusiasm currently so actually doing the sessions hasn't been a chore (I know I'm only 4 weeks in) but when marathon running some/most of the runs were done with the mentality of "Have I really got to do this, for this far". Back to the training, week 1 was a nice gentle reminder to triathlon training. I missed no sessions and clocked in a 7/7 that week, same for week 2, zero sessions missed, week 3 I missed my 1st session and it was a bike effort and I felt so guilty, but people tell me don't force the training to catch up on what you missed, just put it to bed and move on...

So its nearly Brighton marathon time, I've been really committed to my new plan for the past 24 weeks, all in the aim to hit a sub 4 hour marathon. Its been a mix of 3 runs (tempo, intervals and long run) and strength and conditioning with weights. This is the 1st time I've followed this plan and I feel in completely different shape to the previous 3 marathons. Is this good news.. We will soon find out... I've also starting making the transition to triathlon training by getting  out on the bike and on the Ironman Wales bike course too. After the Brighton Marathon I get 2 weeks off from structured training, but I'm sure I'll end up doing something and then its back to committed 20 week plan for Ironman Wales. I have struggled to get 1 session in a day for the marathon plan so I haven't a clue how I'm going to plan doublers. I MUST... I WILL! Ive also starting changing supplies for race day from ZipVit to Powerbar so its less for me to pack on rac...