Welcome

I started this blog in 2010 when there were 11 weeks to go before my next Ironman triathlon. People have found it interesting (mainly my Mum!) so I continue to write.
The Ironman is a long distance triathlon; Swim 2.4miles, Cycle 112miles, Run 26.2 miles (marathon). I have competed in one every year since 2004. I hope this blog can help others see what is involved. I find the process of writing it makes me more accountable and motivates me to do the harder sessions when i'm not feeling like it!

Saturday 25 February 2012

Run

Warm up - with Will!
7 x 800m on 60sec

Will did 200m - not bad for 21months old. Will post it on YouTube.
I had planned to do 8 sets but happy to bank 7 with no Achilles issues. Stayed around 2min 55 for each.
Ella took George and Will to the long jump pit.

Friday 24 February 2012

Run

10km up a mountain
I had planned to do a circuit but at the top of Blencathra decided to come back the way I went. There was only 1 hour of daylight left and it seemed a treacherous descent. It's a very human instinct to push on - There's a book called "deep survival' that talks about this so I took its advice and went back the way I came. 

Thursday 23 February 2012

Tuesday 21 February 2012

Run

10km trail - up in the Lake district. Ran off into the hills out and back. Pesky sixth formers walking 4 abreast on some sort of Geography field trip.




Monday 20 February 2012

Weigh in - 71.1kg 10.6% fat
- Up 1kg and down 1% over the week - very strange


Turbo
15min warm up
3 x 20min x 250W x 85rpm on 5min recovery

Will probably run most of the week so got a biggish turbo in. I usually do 10min recovery for this but the heart rate came down fast so went with 5min.


Just got Chris McCormack's (Macca) audiobook "i'm here to win" - here's a year's training for him in 2002;
Swim 720, Bike 18,275, Run 2907 I thought it was km but it's in miles!!!
So that's swim 2, cycle 50, run 8, miles a day!


Picture with Macca after Ironman Australia 2005 (he won) - i'm not that fat, he's just very skinny!

Sunday 19 February 2012

22 weeks to go
Run

A very easy 8km run - 3km of it was with a friend of mine who is in his late 50s who wants to loose the belly. I'm going to try and run with him once a week.

Rollers

5 x 2min on the rollers - On number 3 I managed to leave the rollers and cycle off into the room very scary!

So it's 22 weeks to go - in the spirit of the 11 week block I think the focus now has to be the run. I've lost a fair bit of pace since the 36min 10km this time last year. The London marathon is in 9 weeks. I'm just going to do it as a long slow run this time so i'm not tapering and recovering. In the back of my mind i'd secretly like to do a 100mile week - it's something a lot of runners aspire to do. If I could build up to that whilst still managing the 300W turbos i'd be very happy. Maybe build up to 74miles on the week of the marathon which would mean the marathon would make it up to 100miles - that would make for a good day.

Adding 10% a week to get to the marathon 100 would be
1. 46miles 74km this week (26th Feb)
2. 51miles 82km by 4th March
3. 56miles 90km by 11th March
4. 62miles 99km by 18th March
5. 68miles 109km by 25th March
6. 75miles 120km by 1st April
7. 83miles 133km by 8th April
8. 91miles 146km by 15th April
9. 100miles 160km by 22nd April (London marathon)

Not sure what I think about this - there are no recovery weeks, keeping the turbo where it is is important, and i'm only running 50km a week max right now! I will start and see how it goes. Running twice a day is going to be the safest way I think.