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Tuesday 5 June 2012

Jubilee Weekend = lots of training and a bit of relaxing

Right so this über long bank holiday weekend has seen me doing some conventional and unconventional training.


On Friday I went for a run after work. My wife (@NotanAMbird) joined me for the first mile or so but jibbed out as she was too tired. In total I plodded for 3.88km over the 32 minute interval run. I was quite happy with this as to be honest, the Mrs was a bit of a hinderance for the first mile. Sorry love.


The route for this run is below.





I'm still not that happy running but I have formulated a plan for this.


On Saturday my workout consisted of building a new base for a new shed at home which involved lots of lifting. Not a conventional workout but my arms hurt afterwards. Unfortunately this was probably undone by several pints at the pub with my mates. Well I can't be good all the time, can I?


On Sunday my plan for improving my running was put into place. I met a personal trainer and went running for an hour.


It turns out I'm not that bad at running but I have been trying to run too fast and thus tiring myself out. In the 50 or so minutes I did nearly three laps of the lake at Lakeside in Doncaster (about 7km, which is the furthest I have ever run). Many thanks to my new personal trainer. She is now preparing me a training plan to help my running and overall fitness improve and stated that I should be running the 10km in a few weeks. This would be a great weight off my mind as I have been quietly bricking myself over the run. I really do feel like I have turned a corner with running thanks to Samantha.


On Monday, the Mrs was desperate to go to the gym to do some cardio and powerplate. To be honest I really wasn't feeling it but went along and did 5 minutes on the cross trainer, 5 minutes on the running machine and my usual 3 sets on the powerplate followed by a quick swim. In total I swam a measly 400m, like I said I wasn't really feeling it. I still averaged 50m/min which I am chuffed with.


After we finally got home via trips to Evans Cycles and Asda I then had to do some more work in the garden where I had to relay some turf. Because of the rain on Sunday, the turf weighed a lot more than when I stripped it. Hey ho more exercise.


Today (Tuesday) I had to go on a bike ride as I felt like I'd neglected this over the weekend. Well to be fair I had. I finally set off at half 10 with the aim of completing 40km again. The headwind for the last 6km of each of my laps around Doncaster was soul destroying. I very nearly gave up at the end of my second lap but decided to continue. Riding uphill into a headwind is about the least fun I have ever had on a bike. It very nearly broke me, but I have no idea what the conditions will be like in either of my triathlons so it was a good test to my willpower. In hindsight I am glad I completed this ride.


My route can be seen below. To put the headwind into into context there is a section of the route that is fast and downhill and in a bus lane so I have no cars to worry about, last week I managed a maximum of 40.45km/h along this section, this week I struggled to keep the speed above 30km/h on this section.


Very frustrating.





I think I am going to go for a run later but not using my training app as I feel this is counter intuitive to what I got told on Sunday by my PT. Hopefully I can manage over 5km on my own although I do find running boring still.


Another thing I got told during my training session was that I need to listen to less high tempo music as this has been causing me to run too fast, breath faster and has contributed to me tiring myself out. Who knows what I can listen to now? Any ideas let me know please.


I am selling some items on eBay if anyone is interested, this is so I can purchase the Garmin 910XT sports watch which is basically all singing and all dancing as it tracks speed, cadence, route, heart rate, swimming metrics, and a million and one other things which I am sure I will find some use for at some point. Everyone who I have spoken to about this can't stop saying how good it is.


The items I am selling are below, please click to follow the links. The auctions end on Sunday 10th June


 Bike


 Bike Computer

Thats about all I can think of for now apart from my first triathlon is in 54 days and remember you can sponsor me via my Justgiving page, I nearly have enough to compete in the London Triathlon but that is not the end to my fundraising I am aiming to raise as much as I can as it is for such a good cause. Thanks to all for your support so far.

Cheers for reading,

Michael

Update


Well I went for a run this evening and felt ok apart from my calves were really tight. I struggled through the 4k. Can't wait for the training plan to come from my PT and my next accompanied run as my confidence was through the roof on that run. Still struggling to keep my pace even but it is a lot better than it was. Route below.



Thanks for reading,

Michael

1 comment:

  1. Michael,
    Well done, having been a 20+ stone, 20 a day man prior to discovering triathlon I know how hard it can be. Three years down the line and I am training for Ironman Wales.......keep on believing, it can be done.

    You may find my blog useful?

    kind regards,

    Rob

    ReplyDelete