Week 8 training log

D50, After the excitement of the triathlon the day before it was back to the hard graft of training, just a quicky today. A two mile sprint set. A warm up jog for the first half a mile then intervals of sprints over about 75 metres then back to a jog to recover.

D51 2000mt swim today followed by a 15 minute kick and pull set. It was good to be able to push up the distance a little on the swim and I'm quite pleased with the time.

D53, An 8 mile run yesterday was followed by a 5 mile run today. A standard run for then first half the I was working on technique for the second half, trying to increase my stride and lift the legs higher. This was with the help of a new pair of running shoes which I got yesterday.

Week 7 Training log

Not much going on through the week this week due to work commitments. A swim on D43 and a 4 mile gentle run on D47 to warm me up for the weekend.
D49, Sprint Triathlon. My first triathlon and I have to say I really enjoyed it.
As far as triathlons go this was a short one, 400 metre swim 15k ride and a 3k run, but don't let that fool you into thinking, "easy". When your giving it everything any distance is tough and this was tough.
I found the swim quite easy after some initial nerves and climbed out of the pool in 7 min 59 seconds. First transition was a mare, this is why they say that transition is the fourth discipline in triathlon. I was standing in Tenby leisure centre car park surrounded by fast and furious two wheeled machines in only my swimming shorts, trying desperately to get my cycling shoes on. In these moments your brain doesn't work, at all. Which to put on first, my jersey or my helmet? Your jersey obviously. this is when I realized that when I pinned my number to the back of my jersey, I managed to pin the front of the jersey to the back. Not very helpful.
Eventually I got out on the bike and tried in vain to get the legs to work. The first half of the bike route was mostly up hill and I struggled to get any kind of rhythm or indeed breath. After the first 5 miles I settled in and stormed into transition 2 in.....I don't know what time because I completely forgot to look and press the lap button on my watch. A much cleaner transition this time and I was out into the run in no time. again the first part was up hill and it was murder on the legs, but as it went on I could feel myself getting stronger and I pushed the pace on a little. The last half a K was the hardest, I started to suffer again and my heart felt like it was trying to escape, cant blame it really. Back through transition and under the finish arch in 1 hour 11 minutes.
I have to be pleased with that time because I couldn't have possibly given any more.
The next one is in Haverfordwest in about 3 weeks and I now have a target time.

D37, A bit of a disaster today, see last weeks post, "Yesterday".
D38, The week wasn't getting any better, I set out to do a 64 mile ride from home, ride out to Fishguard and take the back roads to St Davids. Got quite lost which is unusual for me, I usually have quite a good in built GPS. Any way after all of that I arrived home after 58 mile which I wasn't too unhappy with.

D39, I've started adding a kick and pull session to the end of my distance swim in an attempt to increase strength. This is how it works. 50m of kick with a float followed by 100m of pull with a float between the legs. Repeat until unable to kick any more.
Simple.

Yesterday!!! all my troubles seemed so far away.

Actually yesterday wasn't responsible for the whole problem, part of the blame has to lay with the day before yesterday. That's the day we went to the beach,that's the day we played rounders on the beach, a nice piece of beach with a gradient, not flat. This was the day that I didn't even consider stretching out after rounders, why would you, it's only play. That was the day before yesterday.
Now, yesterday, I did my duty at eleven o,clock and gave a pint of my finest blood to the Welsh blood service, had my cup of coffee and free biscuit and went on my way.
Around 5.30 yesterday I went for my run and the previous 24 hours began to reap their rewards. After the first 500 meters my calves felt like they were being pulled away from legs with meat hooks, every step hurt more than the last, I thought, if I just push on it will ease as it quite often does after the initial warm up period, but it didn't.
As I pushed myself on my exertion levels rose, the more exerted I became the more my body wanted to shut down and go to sleep. I pressed on for 2 miles before the head stared to spin and the legs screamed STOP!
I stretched out a little on a telegraph pole and turned round back for home, walking with some little jogs,
The problem with the legs was obvious from the start, the day at the beach. The light headed drowsyness took a bit more figuring out, then it hit me, giving blood, of course. It takes longer than you think for your body to re-set its self and restore all the relevant levels of oxygen and blood cells. What a complex species we are. Going out on the bike today, lets see how it goes.

D31, 1600 mt early morning swim, after some good advice I changed pools for my morning swims to get more space. I'm now able to swim from 6am.
The run on the same day was a little slow, It's hard to keep training going through the summer holidays, fortunately the kids don't mind tagging along with my runs on there bikes. the problem is that I have to stop at each junction and keep turning round to get one of them to catch up, bless em they do there best.

D35 Managed to stretch the run distance today, I'm going to drop back to 6.5 for the coming week then perhaps push on again.