Started this week with the TPT annual swim time trial. The idea is to swim as far as possible in 20 minutes. I was aiming to do 1,200m. I did 1,150m. I could be disappointed about not getting there. I could be really upset about not even matching last year's 1,175m. Instead I am going to look at the swim itself. I had a lot more traffic than previous years. From my garmin track it looks like I had 14 overtaking moves, either following someone for half a length till they get out of my way, or moving out of someone else's way to let them pass. At an average of 5 seconds each that is a total of about 70 seconds in lost time, that is over 50m. So I 'think' in clean water I could do my 1,200m target. If I can find a lane session this week I may try a solo attempt at it.
Worth noting that I also went through 400m in 6:48 and 750m in 13:00. That is a 10-second lifetime best for 400m, and is a 20-second lifetime best and spot on my end-of-year target through 750m. Bodes well for the rest of the year. 6:30 does seem like a very ambitious 400m swim target now though, I am going to need the tumble turns to get it. I did get one videoed this week so maybe I can see some of the things I am doing wrong and sort them out.
Tuesday was mountain biking. As it was a later start than normal I decided I had time to come home and change, and to pedal to and from Kirkhill to add in a few more miles. It was horribly windy and a hard 4 mile slog around the airport to get to the start. Then we did a loop around Kirkhill, sheltered from the wind apart from a section at the top, so it wasn't too horrible. Mostly fire track but the odd bit of slightly tougher riding. A bit hit and miss on the off-track bits. Sometimes I seem to be getting better at it, then I start spinning wheels and toppling over and it just gets gradually worse until I get fed up. Anyway after 6 miles of that we were back to the start. And then I had another very windy 4 mile ride home. Total of 14miles. That is a pretty good distance for a whole day weekend mountain bike ride nevermind a midweek school-night ride.
I also did my weights and core sessions.
Wednesday I did a run around Dyce. Nice and easy but keeping the average pace under 8min/mile again. Nothing too exciting. Surprised not to be suffering after the long mountain bike ride. I also managed to sign up to the new health challenge at work. It is all around scoring diet points for eating more healthily.
Thursday night was Date Night. The Wolf of Wall Street is a very strange film. It is basically a slightly more extreme remake of Caligula. Lots of drug taking and nudity for no real reason. On the subject of bad films, I also go to see the video footage from Monday night. As expected my turn was terrible. But at least having seen it there are some things I can now see how they work and I can start to fix some of them.
Friday I had planned to do a short run, but I got an email in from Strava in the morning showing I was outside the top-10,000 for their January 10k challenge. This annoyed me enough to want to another shot at it. So despite the terrible weather conditions I decided to do a 10k out and back along the railway line. I managed to carve almost 9 minutes off the time I set during my rep session 2 weeks ago. Moving myself up into the top-4,000, out of the ~29,000 people who have logged a time. Much happier with that, especially given that very few of the 4,000 people ahead of me will have been clocking their times in 3 degrees of rain, in the dark, on a wet muddy track. If I had been a bit smarter I might have jogged another mile and a half loop somewhere to finish out my miles for the week and give me a day off tomorrow but I was too busy thinking about not drowning or freezing to do anything smart. So still need a couple of miles, either reps or a warm-up run somewhere.
Saturday I went for an early swim. My original plan was to do a solo T20 but it was clear even before I got to the pool that I was much too tired and stiff. I started off as hard as I felt I could go, but within 400m I was already 20 seconds down on my time from Monday. By 750m I was only 15 seconds down, but I was really suffering, and it was clear that even if I could make up the lost time from Monday I wasn't going to go any further. So I called it a day on the T20, dropped the pace a bit, and did some turns. In hindsight I should still be really pleased. Despite going in tired, achey and underfuelled I was still through 750m in 15secs faster than my fastest race.
I did my wii yoga session in the evening.
Sunday was weather for ducks, and only hard-core survivalist ducks at that. Only a complete lunatic would go out cycling in it. So I met up with 6 other complete lunatics at Kintore and we rolled out into the storm. I got dropped about 5 miles in, but I rolled on for another 3 before I turned and headed back. Was just wet but not cold on the way out, but after I turned the water was getting inside my clothes and my left glove especially. Was losing feeling in my fingers but my core was still warm. I got back to the car, hopped off the bike and jumped inside the back of the car to strip off some of the wettest gear and warm up. Took me another 5 minutes to realise the boot doesn't open from the inside! But by then I was at least warm enough to use my fingers and my brain. Turns out the button on the key that unlocks the boot allows you to get back out. So I was able to get out and put the bike in.
When I got home I was still not defrosted. I decided to get the last of this week's run miles on the treadmill to try and warm up. And in the evening I did my stretching session as well.
Then we went to see 12 Years a Slave. Certainly one of the dullest films I have seen in a long time.
All in another solid week. Shame about another miss on total bike miles but the weather was just too nasty. Pretty poor week on the film front though. Both were terrible.
Target totals - Swim >1 miles. Bike >35 miles. Run >12 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30mins of wii yoga.
Monday - Swim with TPT. 1,450 m in 35 mins.
Including T20 test: 1,150m in 20 mins
Tuesday - MTB 14.2 miles in 2 hours 14mins.
Weights and core.
Wednesday - Run 4.3 miles in 34 mins.
Thursday - Date Night. Wolf of Wall Street.
Friday - Run 6.3 miles in 49mins.
Saturday - Swim 1,000m in 21mins.
Wii Yoga.
Sunday - Ride 15.4 miles in 1hr 06.
Treadmill 1.6 miles in 15mins.
Stretching.
Actual totals - Swim 1.5 miles (2,400 m). Bike 29.6 miles. Run 12.3 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 36 mins of wii yoga.
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