Monday 16 June 2008

Finally training?

It almost seems as though I've started to get my head around IM training, even if it is 6 weeks later than planned. That's not to say that I've suddenly smashed out a couple of century bike rides, but I have managed a few decent sessions.
After last weekends long bike I had a rest day on Monday to recover, then with my work hours having changed lately I managed to have a rare session at my home town running club. I got there to be told that this was the night for the 'Tarka Mile' - balls!!! The Tarka Mile is a monthly challenge and my Running Club, basically you run 2.5miles out along an old railway track (the Tarka Trail) where I do lots of my training at a nice steady pace. The whole club groups up at a line and then we all race for a measured mile before heading off in various directions to finish our session in whatever way we want.
On the way out my legs were feeling really tired and I wasn't looking forward to the mile at all. I'm no sprinter and to run eyeballs out for that distance would hurt a lot.
I knew the boys that I 'should' go off with, but decided that I'd be better setting off behind them and running with the next group, so that's what I did. It wasn't long before I decided that I'd probably made the wrong decision, I was feeling far to comfortable sitting in my pack and decided to push on ahead. I chased down two of the four members in the lead group and finished in 5:10 which I was really happy with after expecting a 5:30 at best.
Wednesday I was off work so put in a 1h40m bike ride and an hours run over the Burrows with the pup (Rosie).
Thursday was a long day at work and I ended up in the middle of nowhere so had another day off.
On Friday myself and my training pal Phill had our normal Squad swim session, but for the first time this year we rode the 28mile round trip there and back. We're a good 5-6 weeks behind the time of year where we normally start this activity, but now we've started we'll hopefully continue for the rest of the summer. That's a good 90mins a week training rather than sitting in the car and driving there. The swim session was very congested as the local beach lifeguards seem to have decided that they need to get back in shape for all of the holiday making girls that will be hitting the beach in the near future.
Saturday was my first proper solid long run for a good while. I drove to Fremington Quay which is an 8 mile run away, then I ran home and collected the dog (and Shelly on her bike) for the return trip. We then had something to eat and drink at the hideously expensive Fremington Quay cafe while we cooled down.
Oh yeah, nearly forgot.............. I got sunburnt!!!! Summer is here!
Yesterday was supposed to be a 4hr+ bike ride, but my legs were in pieces after Saturdays run and I only managed a 2hr 36mile out and back ride before returning home to sit like a vegetable infront of the TV for the rest of the day.

Well, that's it. Update complete for now.

Oooops, nearly forgot. Congratulations to Kit 'the git' Stokes who was obviously so buoyed by his victory over me at Burnham on Sea Sprint Triathlon 2 weeks ago that it spurred him on to 9th overall and 1st Age Grouper in the IMUK 70.3 race at Wimbleball yesterday. Once again his swimming was disgraceful, but once out of the water the boy's an absolute monster. I hate him so much :-)

2 comments:

Mark said...

Sounds like you're well on the way to a good race in FL :)

IronTriTim said...

Trainings starting to ramp up, its a nice feeling to finally be getting on with. Though I know that planned 4hr ride feeling being only 2hrs. My plan was a 3hour today, but after only 3 hours sleep last night it ended up only being a 2 hour ride.