Jog On...

27/08/12 - Rest Day 28/08/12 - Free Run Cranked the treadmill up to 8 mile pace and off I went for the full 45 minute session. It was boiling in the gym and the sweat was already running down my face after 2 minutes on the treadmill, It was like someone was holding a hose over my head. It was like training in Cyprus all over again. Within the 45 minutes I aim to get over the 5 mile marker, I know I shouldn't really train in miles, and look at durations but that's a target I set myself every time I go out running. I suppose its a fault by me, because if I run under 5 miles I feel (mentally) its not been  hard workout. I know later this week I'm doing hills, and I wont run over 5 miles so will that be a good session? It better be!. This session did get harder the longer it went on, and I noticed my heart rate tipping into Z5, which is a rare thing for me on the treadmill, so perhaps I haven't got over the bug from 2 weeks ago as I am still coughing a bit ...

The second race to my triathlon season has arrived already, so quick after the half Ironman, was I ready, was I fully recovered, it was too late to turn back now. As this was a Welsh championship race, I knew it was going to be a fast race and some cracking athletes would be racing it, I was lucky enough to be racking my bike next to Oliver Simon, so I knew I was going to have plenty of space to take my wetsuit off in transition as he would be long gone by the time I got there. It has been raining constantly for the week leading up to the race so I was hoping for a bit of sunshine for race morning, and just as I wanted the sun turned up bring and early. This race was a late start (well for triathlons anyway) 10am swim start, so I got some sort of lie in till 6:30, which was nice, 2 more hours than the half Ironman. While driving to the race, I noticed that we were going down hill most of the final 5 miles of the journey, I then thought "I've got to cycle or run back u...

21/05/12 - Rest Day 22/05/12 - Rest Day 23/05/12 - Open Water Swim (North Dock, Llanelli) What a lovely evening to do some open water swimming, the sun was shining and the water was.. well... warmish. I was reliable told its the warmest it had been all year, so I was happy to get in and get some meters in. I've been testing out some goggles, so tonight was a mask pair, you probably cant see them from the photo above, but I'm the head with the orange swim hat on the right. This was a great session, to get me back into the open water scene, 50 meter warm up, then then sprint 20 strokes, 10 recover, then sprint 30 strokes and 10 recovery. To finish we did zig-zag sprints, about 100 meter sprints with 30 seconds recoveries. My arms were really heavy after this session, but its a good pain! Session Details Duration 01 00 00 Distance 2000m 24/05/12 - Free Run (Llansamlet, Swansea) Its hot out there and I'm wearing black, no the best choice of colours fo...

14/05/12 - Rest Day 15/05/12 - Rest Day 16/05/12 - Brick Session (National Pool of Wales & Swansea Sea Front) After have 2 days off this week already, I had no drive to get out for this session, but when I did finally get the Speedo Jammers on I was really keen to get into it. I decided to hit the 50 meter pool and complete a 4 x 500m set (2000 meters) and get a 60 minute run under my belt. The weather was lovely and I was keen to make the most of it. I was lucky enough to have a lane to myself and so it was a interrupted set and and a quick change into some running gear I was out the door and on the sea front listening to my ipod picturing myself running the last 7 miles of the Ironman race. I felt good, really good and could have quite happily kept on going on the run! Session Details Duration 01 40 00 Distance Swim (2000m) Run (7 Miles) 17/05/12 - Cycling (Spin Bike) I was still feeling it a bit from last nights brick and the alarm clock went off far to earl...

After the rain we have been having recently I was hoping the sun would come out for this race, It was my first sportive and I needed the good weather to help me home as I knew I would find some of the climbs difficult and the duration in the saddle the main concern as it was going to be the longest ride for me ever. I woke up before the alarm after a good nights sleep and I sneaked downstairs for larger than normal pre-race breakfast, got dressed for the race, a quick kit check, packed the car and off we went to the start line, an hours drive. Parked the car up at the destination, registers and got the bike ready to go, you had a window from 08:00 - 10:00 to start so I saw a group of other riders from the club and congregated with them towards the start line. The marshals scanned my timing chip and off I went. The sun was shine, there was a cool breeze, I found a comfortable gear and off I went. The first 25 miles was brilliant, relatively flat, no massive inclines, it gav...

The sun was out, frost in the air but at least it wasn't raining so I took the chance to get outside and get some miles in my legs, I was even lucky enough to run with shades on.. I haven't run for over a week and boy did it feel like it. I waned to keep it an slow paced run but important to keep moving at a decent min mile pace. Its a hilly run so I wasnt going to get any land speed records anyway. I managed to average out under 10 minute miles, but I just wanted to get out and turn the legs over, its out of season so I was just keen get a 5 mile effort in as its probably going to be my last run of 2011 as me and wife are due our baby on Wednesday. I definitely noticed that I hadn't run for 10 days as my lungs were burning, and I couldn't get the air in them quick enough, but I think that was partly due to the cold and the amount of up hills on the run. I nearly slipped over twice due to the ice on the path, im glad no one saw my arms swinging trying to keep b...

After missing last weeks spin session I was keen to get back in the saddle and blast out a set on the spin bike. It was a smaller class than previous weeks and they have only got 1 fan working so I made sure I was sat in the middle, not that this did much cooling but ever little helps. The session was very much based on sprints and a time trial format and it was definitely a leg buster, my leg muscles were ready to explode by the time we finished, I could feel my legs expending on the final sprint. The best set in the session had to be the hill climb and decent, we started at level 10 (at 120 RPM) and every 30 seconds we upped a resistance gear, we managed to get to gear 18 and the RPM was aloud to drop by 5 on each gear, this was hard.. but not as hard as the way back down to gear 10. On the way back down we were had to up the RPM by 10 and stay in the gear for 30 seconds.. ouch! This better improve my cycling for next season as im working pretty hard in these sessions, perha...

Welcome back to a tough Monday night session with the elite group, a hill session in the poring down rain, gale force winds and its the first Monday night session I've done this winter in the dark. I wont forget this one in a hurry. We ran a mile warm up to the chosen hill, the group do this set on a Thursday morning, its a shelter hill from the wind so it made the session a little bit easier for us. The set was a mean hill one - 4 x large hill 4 x medium hill It was a tough session for me as I hadn't run with the group for 3 weeks because its landed on a recovery day for me or I have had to work late, it definitely shows I've missed it. I worked hard and kept my heart rate high. I maxed out at 188 BPM which is high for me and I managed to stick with the group till the start of the 3rd rep but then they just blew me away and my legs just got heavier. On the last hill, even though it was a medium I tried to kick on so I finished on a high and it was the fast rep ...

This was my last triathlon race of 2011 and im afraid to say it was a bad day in the office for me, I really wanted to finish in a high but after a great swim the race only took a turn for the worse for me. I was in the water in Wave 2, and I managed to post a personal best for the swim, 11 minutes, It was meant to be a 650 meter swim, but they buoys drifted with the tide and it felt like closer to 750 meters. I didn't mind this as I found my rhythm in the water pretty quick and was 5th out of the swim from the first 2 waves. My sighting on the swim was good, we had to swim through different 2 arches on the bridge (out and back) and I aligned with them fine without having to swim to far out the way. Up the ramp and out the water, I got my wetsuit off relatively quickly, socks on, shades on, helmet on and off I went on the bike leg... this is where my race changed for the worse. Out of transition and a hill, great not what you need first up and doing a fast swim, I was tr...