Tag: no swimming

End of week 16 – Duathlon training

As it was Easter, I had Monday off work.  I wanted to really utilise this extra free day, especially as the weather was great, but my legs weren't playing ball.  I ended up going for an evening spin of 57km, so it was better than nothing, but not really the best use of a bank holiday.  It was a fairly good example of going too hard the day before meaning I couldn't train the day after, I won't make the same mistake again in a hurry.

On Tuesday I was really tired, I went to the gym and did some strength work, then went onto the treadmill thinking I would do a hilly run, but it wasn't worth it with my legs feeling so heavy, so I ran about 3km easy and left it at that.
Wednesday was a lovely evening after work, so in shorts and t-shirt I went for an outdoor 11.6km loop.  It was really nice, and felt easy but ended up being 4:44 pace which was faster than expected.  I definitely sweat more than I have been, I'll have to be careful with nutrition in Bonn if it is warm for my marathon.
Thursday was a good one.  I worked until about 17:45, but instead of binning training as I may have felt like doing, I ate quickly then headed out for a cycle.  I did give a little bit more effort, but not 100%.  I was very happy to see that I had averaged 31.9km/h at the end of the 53km ride.  It was my first ride of the year in shorts and short arms, I really enjoyed it, even if I could have picked a better route.
Friday was another lovely evening, so I ran my extended 15.5km route at easy tempo.  I didn't push at any point but I ran a 4:48 pace with a 144bpm average (75% of max HR).  That is a pretty good pace for me whilst running easy and in the warm, so I was happy with that.  On Saturday I was a bit time crunched and wasn't too sure of what to do.  I decided on an intervals session at Willy Wacker running track.  I don't want to over do it and injure myself a week before Bonn, so I ran at 3:45/km for my km repeats.  That would have been crazy fast not too long ago, but the first 6 repeats all felt quite easy.  The last 2 were a bit tougher, but still fine, I ended with 8x1km all between 3:39 and 3:44, the run was 13km total in just under an hour, it's possibly my last intervals before Bonn, not sure yet though.

On Sunday I went for a solo bike ride.  I freestyled the route a bit, and it ended up being pretty flat, but it was 118km at 31.2km/h and 800m of climbing at the end of the day.  I am getting used to my TT bike a bit more now and feel like my position is pretty good.  My shoulders/neck do get quite tight though.  I have decided to try to power through and get used to the aero-position, hopefully it will pay dividends later in the season.  Last year in Wasserstadt I was out of aero-position a lot of the time due to my neck/shoulders, I don't want that to happen again.

And that was that, a good week of training no doubt, but again no swimming.  I was thinking about it yesterday on the bike, I will swim 2+ times a week after Bonn.  That is not a promise, but I will really try to do it.  Freibad season starts soon which will make it easier for me to get to a good swimming pool, I can also swim before work in Nieder-Olm if I ever feel obliged.  It is getting a bit ridiculous with my lack of swimming at the moment though, I will be happy with another 38m swim in Wasserstadt, but I don't want to convert that to a 90m swim in Köln like Jochen did.

Running: 43.1km (787.1kmYTD)
Cycling: 228km (1527km YTD)
Swimming: 0km (28.25km YTD)

End of (where are we now?) week 15

I didn't write last week, poor from me, but I was in Hamburg and had quite a bit on at work. I'll try to remember what I was up to!

First: this week. It's been a really good one (for cycling and running!). My plantar fasciitis was a bit painful at the start of the week, but now I can hardly feel it, so that's pretty good. On Monday I decided to do a hilly treadmill interval run so that I wouldn't further injure my feet. It went well, I even sped up to 12km/h for the last intervals, which I'd never done before. I did a bit of strength work before that, all good.
Tuesday I went to the gym again, this time I ran 20+ minutes very easy, then did 25 mins hard on the elliptical. I didn't even know that the elliptical could be hard, but my heart was up in the 160s, so that counts as hard! Again I did some strength work.
On Wednesday I was feeling a bit lazy and the weather outside was awful, so I cycled on the trainer for about an hour (a bit less due to trying to fix the trainer!) it wasn't hard riding or anything specific, just better than a day completely off.
Thursday I did proper 1km intervals on the treadmill at the gym. I cleverly decided to do them in the evening after eating dinner, so I managed 2km, then a toilet break, then 2km then a toilet break then 1.5km and a final toilet break before giving up and going home! Again I had done some strength work beforehand…

Good Friday is a bank holiday, so I met up with a bunch of TCEC guys and went to ride some hill repeats. We decided to do 2×2 climbs with a loop between, but that became 2×3 climbs. I started off a bit too fast, getting to the top in 1st place on the first climb, even though I felt like I was holding back. 2nd climb was 6 seconds slower, and I was 2nd place, then it got worse and worse. I was always 3rd for the other climbs, so it wasn't a nightmare, but I lost 30+ seconds per climb (3:20-3:54) from the first to the last few. I think I went too hard and lack muscular endurance on the bike.. it'll come when I get the miles up in spring/summer.

See the race report for yesterday. It was a great confirmation race before Bonn in 2 weeks.

Today I cycled 114km with Jochen and Dimi. I was a bit peeved to start with when they were giving it everything on the flat and every bump, I just wanted to go easy as my legs weren't feeling 100%. in Hausen they went off ahead on the 6km long hill, but soon enough the gap plateaued and I started to catch them near the top. I got back to Dimi and was about 10m behind Jochen. As the day went on they seemed to be running out of gas, and I was feeling better and better until I was having no issues staying with them on the way home. It ended up being a good ride.

Running 42km (744.1km YTD)
Cycling 216km (1299km YTD)
Swimming 0km (28.25km YTD I am an idiot)

End of Week 12, Start of week 13, Midweek update!

I am running late… again!

So last Thursday I already had run, and said in my midweek update that I wanted to go swimming. Well that thought didn’t stay in my head for too long, because by the time I got home, I didn’t want to swim anymore! I was a bit tired so took the evening off. On Friday I did my long run straight after work. Without the stomach problems that had plagued my last 2 long runs, I managed a 32km run with 10x 1km marathon pace/1km easier pace in the middle. There were some hard uphill intervals which I pushed through to keep marathon pace up, and one in Zornheim where a 4:15km wasn’t happening, not up a 7% hill!

I felt fine after my run, and on Saturday I wanted to cycle a bit and swim. I ordered a new cassette and chain for my road bike, so decided to put them on my bike. Now I am not the world’s best mechanic, but I was happy to get the cassette off easily and get the new one on, no problems.. Then the chain. I opened the old one, took it off, put the new one on and went to close it, except that I had to wide links facing each other. I couldn’t take another link out, because then it would be too short, so I tried to re-add links in. After a bit of a fiddle I managed to snap the chain tool, so I couldn’t ride my road bike. I was really really peed off, so ended up doing nothing all day Saturday!

On Sunday I cycled my TT bike to Undenheim to meet up with Dimi for a long ride. The weather was a bit chilly and breezy, but not bad. I was happy to be able to stop in Undenheim before he got there, as my bike was so badly set up for me it was hardly rideable! With the saddle about 4cm further back and 15degrees higher, and the back brake closed(!!) I was good to go. We cycled south over quite hilly terrain near Rockenhausen, with the wind, before turning back towards Mainz, against the wind. The last hour and a half were hard work, but sharing the work we managed it quite well. Dimi was fast on the hills again, occasionally putting me in difficulty, but by the end of the day it was pretty level, I tried to drop him on the Wolfsheim climb, but couldn’t quite manage it, damn! End result was 125km at 28.9km/h, a good ride.

Embarrassingly, I didn’t swim at all this week. I really couldn’t bring myself to do it, I need to get back into it somehow, but it was a bad week for swimming.

Running 74.8km (667.1km YTD)
Cycling 125km (1083km YTD)
Swimming 0km (24,25km YTD)

So as I am writing this on Wednesday 25.03, I am already well into the training week of week 13.
On Monday I did my 7x1km intervals on the treadmill. I felt great and my HR was lower than normal, so I increased the speed to 16km/h. I also did the last 1,5km as one interval. I was feeling very happy with myself, but then I clicked on the gradient and am now not sure if I was running at 0% or at my normal 1%. If it was 0% then it wasn’t so great, at 1% it was a great workout!

Last night I cycled to swimming! I swam 2km, all not crazy fast, but it wasn’t too bad really. I will try to get to the pool again sometime this week, though as I am going to Hamburg from Friday to Sunday for a stag-do, it could be difficult.
I am planning on doing more track intervals tonight. I haven’t decided what exactly, I think maybe the 1-2-3-2-1 pyramid that I did a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow I might cycle, otherwise I won’t be cycling at all this week. That wouldn’t be great, but the clocks change this weekend!! WOOHOO, then I can actually ride in the evenings. I am really looking forward to it. I want to kick start my cycling season with some 250km weeks, I hardly managed any last year, so getting them in early this year would be good.

Friday I will run before going to Hamburg. Saturday I hope to be able to sneak away and either swim or go to the gym, same on Sunday, though I get back at about 5pm, so I could go when I get home.

I entered Bonn marathon, it’s only 3.5 weeks away now. I want to find a race on Easter weekend, but I can’t find anything that I can get to and from easily… If not I will try for a big cycling weekend over easter, maybe with a running time-trial to keep me ticking over. 3 hours is looking on, and last year 3h would have been 2nd best man in my age group, so I would have won 100€, that would be awesome, I’d basically be a pro!

Back on Sunday!

End of week 10

Well it wasn't a great week, but it was a great week!
I was at home and suffering from allergies from Monday to Wednesday, that was on top of a cold, so training wise it wasn't a great week.

I ran on Tuesday, a sore lunged 10k at home. On Wednesday I ran 11.6km back in Germany, also not great, even though the lungs felt a bit better. Thursday I went to the gym after work to try my 7x1km intervals, but between the intervals I was having so strong muscle ache in my abs, that I was almost keeled over in pain. After 3 fast kms, I decided it wasn't worth it so went home. I had done some strength work before the short 5km run.

On Friday I ran nice and slow before work, still not feeling good I ran 9km.

Finally on Saturday there were signs of life, I went for a 50km bike ride as the weather was lovely (after winter lovely, not actual lovely!) I managed about 29km/h average and was giving it some on the hills, it was great fun, I was really happy when I got home.

Then today, Frankfurt half marathon day! Even after 2 bad weeks of training, it is still there. A big PB and a 2015 goal reached.

Running 56km (518.3km YTD)
Cycling 50km (797km YTD)
Swimming 0.0km oops (22,75km YTD)