Braunton 10, or was it 20???

I'm going mad, my training totals are going through the roof and I don't actually seem to be doing that much. Admittedly much of this (over 10hrs) is gym work which is maybe why it seems so odd. The gym work's not aerobic exercise so I don't find myself tired out after it as I would when biking or running, this is why I feel a bit of a fraud claiming it as training hours. I can't see how it's going to make me faster, but if it's going to stop me getting injured and help my back out when I'm putting the long bike hours in then it will be improving my performance in its own way.
This week's been another biggie with 12 hours done, most of it this weekend which has been a bit of an epic.

Down to the list then...........
Monday - 1h30m gym session followed by an evil 40min run.
Tuesday - A nice steady 1h35m run with 8x60sec efforts up a small climb to bang up the HR.
Wednesday - Rest
Thursday - 50mins of running, just squeaking under 7min/mile pace.
Friday - Awesome swim session
800m Warm up.
800m T/T @ 10:45
100m steady
400m T/T @ 5:19
100m steady
200m T/T @ 2:34
50m steady
100m T/T @ 1:34
50m T/T @ 32s
2 x 4 x 100m IM
200m warm down
Total - 3000m.
Saturday - 1h10m gym session followed by a 3hr bike ride with a couple of the lads
Sunday - 20mile run in 2:14:24 (6:48min/mile pace)

The weekend has been quite interesting. On yesterdays bike ride I tried as hard as I could to do as little as humanly possible because I'd got a race today. This worked well for the first 2 hours while my training partners were fresh, but in the last hour I found myself on the front more and more. We hit the descent back into town and it was time for me to tuck in and rest my legs a bit. My winter hybrid bike just hasn't got the gears to go downhill like the other two with their road bikes so I just grab a wheel and hold on. There was an 'interesting' altercation when a woman pulled out from a side road right in front of us while we were bombing towards her at close to 30mph. Luckily there was nothing coming the other way and we shot up the outside of her suggesting she buy some glasses to which she and her passenger suggested we stick our bikes somewhere very uncomfortable. After a couple of minutes of 'banter' she finally drove off with us all 'waving' at each other. It brightened the day up no end, and probably raised my HR a beat or two aswell. First 50mile bike ride of the year all done and dusted.

Today was race day and a phone call yesterday from my planned 2nd loop running partner (an International Ultra Runner) had changed my plans. The idea was that we'd race and then do another 10mile after for training. Unfortunatly work/kids/family had scuppered her plans and she couldn't do the second lap so I was on my own. The training lap now got moved forwards as I haven't got the mentality to get out there alone after a race, I'd need to do it first which is actually my prefered option as it meant I'd have company during the miles that would hurt the most.

I rocked up at race HQ at 9:30am and quickly registered before dumping my gear and heading out on the 'warm up' lap at 9:45, this gave me 1:15:00 to get round before the race started. The aim was to get round both laps inside 2:20:00 which would be 7min/mile pace, that would give me a Marathon time of just over 3hrs at the end of a tough fortnight of training. Anything under 2:20:00 would be a bonus, over the time didn't bear thinking about, but it would all depend on the circumstances as to how I'd feel. Early on I was struggling as yesterdays bike ride plagued my legs but I kept chugging along and the Garmin was great as it inspired confidence when it kept telling me I was ahead of schedule. Warm up lap out of the way in 1:08:00 and I was happy, that gave me 1:12:00 to get around the 2nd lap. I was certain to be slower, but how much slower, that was the question!!

I missed the race start by a few seconds as I was sorting a change of clothes but that didn't matter, I dragged the start out a bit longer by chatting to the start official who I know through my running club. Once started I soon caught up with the back markers and started picking my way through them, this was quite nice as it kept a check on my early pace and stopped me pushing to hard to make up for lost time. 3 miles in 20mins and I was on target, there's a killer hill up to the 4 mile marker and I knew it was going to cost me a minute which had me hitting 4miles at exactly 7min/mile pace. As the race went on I started to feel a bit more confident, the steady pace gradually rose and I started creaping ahead of my warm up lap time, then there was 'almost' disaster. After the 2nd good climb and descent I noticed a pal of mine about 30secs ahead. 3.5 miles to go............. he was mine, I was taking him down! I raised the pace and set off after my quarry. This lasted until the 8 mile point where I very nearly blew a gasket. Suddenly I developed 'pins and needles', I went very cold and started to shake, I've been here before and it's not good. I was very close to catching my prey but I knew that I needed to ease off or I'd end up walking to the finish line. I backed off the pace and grunted to myself as he eased away from me, next time he's mine!!!

The last 2 miles were steady but also on very easy terrain with a good descent as part of the last mile and nobody close enough to worry me it was a relative cruise to the finish. Amazingly I finished 90secs quicker than the first lap in 1:06:24 which gave me a combined time of 1:14:24 for the 20mile run, over 5mins quicker than planned and better still comfortably on target for a sub 3hr Marathon. Happy Days! All that at the end of two consecutive 12hr training weeks.

For now I'm happy, it'll go all pear shaped soon though. I promise.

Until next time :)

Iain