Monday, 31 March 2014

Training Plan - Week 14 - Mar 31 to Apr 6

Back to a single plan for this week. With Knockburn Duathlon on Sunday. Because of this I have taken the weekly totals back down. 


Monday - Swim with TPT. Stretching session.

Tuesday - Run reps session. Core session.

Wednesday - Rest day. Cinema - ??

Thursday - Steady run. Weights session.

Friday - Works leaving party. 

Saturday - Easy ride or run. Yoga session. 

Sunday - Knockburn Duathlon. 4k, 15k, 4k. 

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.

Training Review - Week 13 - March 24 to 30


Monday I went to swimming.


Tuesday I went for a long run along the railway line. Was a lot faster than I had planned, especially on the way back in. Definitely starting to feel better about how I am running. The few hill reps sessions that I have done since the start of the year are making a notable difference. Still nowhere near how I used to run but feeling more like those levels are within reach again.


Wednesday was a cinema trip to see Captain America: the Winter Soldier. The Marvel series are really building on their own world. Lots of clever inside feedback to the fans without alienating the casual movie-goer.

Thursday and Friday I did the same 10 mile looped ride around Dyce. Thursday was a quick test of the bike. There is definitely a problem with the bearings in the rear hub. Friday I went to a couple of bike shops to get a replacement wheelset or new hubs but no-one in town had a pair. So I had to resort to the internet. Having fiddled with the bearings on Thursday evening I took it out again, but still no better.  

Saturday I still had some bike miles to get in for the week and having started drafting my end of Q1 blog I realised an extra swim mile might put me right up to my end of Q1 target. So I put in a quick splash in the pool first thing in the morning and then went with a couple of friends for what was going to be an easy social ride before lunch.

Sunday I went to Elgin and did the Moray Roadrunners 10k, which gets a race report to itself.



Target totals - Swim >1 miles. Bike >40 miles. Run >15 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30mins of wii yoga.

Monday - Swim 2,150m in 55mins. 


Tuesday -  Run 8.3 miles in 1hr 05mins.

Wednesday - Cinema - Captain America.


Thursday - Bike 10.1 miles in 38mins.

Weights session.
Core session.

Friday -  
Bike 10.6 miles in 37mins.

Saturday - Swim 1,000m in 27mins.

Ride 19.5 miles in 1hr 20mins.
And a lot of stretching in the evening.

Sunday - MRR 10k in 43:38. And a bit of a warm-up.


Actual totals - Swim 1.3 miles (2,150 m). Bike 40.2 miles. Run 15.3 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions.  mins of wii yoga.

Monday, 24 March 2014

Training Plan - Week 13 - March 24 to 30

Plan A:

I am keeping a midweek bike ride in the plan as that worked well.  Will almost certainly be solo-ing the weekend ride this week though.

Have changed the run target up to 15 to make me do all three runs this week. Also I want to be back at least ahead of one target by the time my quarterly review post has to be written next weekend.

Plan B:

I have the alternative option to do Moray 10k on Sunday. I have written this in as a separate plan for now. If I decide by midweek that I want to go to race the 10k then I will switch to the underlined yellow sessions and targets for the second half of the week and squeeze my bike miles in before the weekend. 


Monday - Swim with TPT. Stretching session.

Tuesday - Run reps session. Core session.

Wednesday - Rest day. Cinema - Captain America 2.

Thursday - Steady run or road bike. Weights session.

Friday - Short road or TT bike or short run.

Saturday - Long run or rest day. Yoga session. 

Sunday - Long ride, or Moray 10k.

Target totals - Swim >1 miles. Bike >40 or >35 miles. Run >15 or >10 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30mins of wii yoga. 10k race.

Training Review - Week 12 - March 17 to 23

Monday, started the week with a terrible swim. Haven't been sleeping well since the burglars and this has resulted in my whole right side stiffening up. It has now reached the point where it was a major impact on my swim stroke. Coupled to a kick session that didn't really suit me and I was struggling about a third of the way in. I decided to bin the session plan and just try an easy swim to get to my mile target for the week. The aching and tightness did give me the added incentive to do my stretching session when I got home, but this made almost no difference. 

Tuesday I went for an easy run along the river with a friend. 

Wednesday I was meant to go to the cinema, but there was nothing worth watching. So next plan was to go for a road ride. I planned to go with a friend but she bailed at the last minute (literally I had my hand on the door handle when she texted!). So I went out for a solo ride. Decided to just roll out to Kintore and back for 20 miles. Went fairly hard on the way out into a headwind. Turned in the town and headed back. Got caught out by the railway crossing for a minute. Then on the first climb out of town a guy on a nice carbon pinarello pulled alongside, said hi and went past. I decided to try and stick with him and we took turns for the next 4 miles. Was a lot quicker than I had planned. We got to the next serious climb at Hatton of Fintray and I said goodbye and watched him climb off into the distance. But then as I came over the top I could still see him in the distance. So I spent the next 5 miles trying to time trial across the gap and get back to him. I was making ground but couldn't quite close him down as we came back into Dyce. By far the fastest ride I have done this year.

Thursday I decided to take the opportunity to catch up on some swim miles. As I have only been trying to get in 1 mile a week I am a bit behind my annual target, knowing that I can make them up once outdoor swimming starts. 

Friday I decided to take a rest day. I wasn't really in the mood for anything when I got home from work. 

Saturday I got up, realised that by not doing anything on Friday I was 10 miles short of running for the week, though about doing 7-8 and then finishing with a run off the bike on Sunday, and then decided to do nothing. Was struggling against depression all day for no obvious reason. 

Sunday, I went out for the Kintore Sunday ride. I decided to go with the faster group for about 30 miles and then drop off. For the first 10 miles I was fine, losing a bit of ground on climbs but managing to chase back on the downhills and the flats. Then we turned into the wind, up a small hill and that was it. The group eased away and no matter how hard I worked I couldn't make any progress against the wind. I kept working as hard as I could for the next 4 miles or so until a T-junction. At this point I had no idea where they had gone so I took the shortest route I knew back to the car park and called it a day. After the good ride from midweek I expected to be in a much better place.

Strange week. I should be happy with the bike miles, and halfway through Sunday's ride I was. But those last 10 really ruined them all for me. Swimming, I made the miles but over 2 swims, which were both pretty awful. Running I can't even pretend to be happy about doing 4 out of 14. More importantly going into the weekend and having such an up and down time with depression through Fri-Sun, and through Sundays ride it was on and off within a couple of miles.



Target totals - 
Swim >1 miles. Bike >40 miles. Run >14 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30mins of wii yoga.

Monday - Swim with TPT. 1,600m in 42mins.

Stretching session.

Tuesday -  Run 4.0 miles in 36 mins

Wednesday - Road bike 20.1 miles in 1 hour 10 mins.


Thursday - Swim 1,050m in 25mins.

Friday -  Rest day.


Saturday - Off day.

Light weights.

Sunday - Bike 21.6 miles in 1 hr 32mins.


Actual totals - Swim 1.6 miles (2,650 m). Bike 41.7 miles. Run 4.0 miles.  short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions.  mins of wii yoga.

Monday, 17 March 2014

Training Plan - Week 12 - March 17 to 23


Not having a mountain bike means I am limited to running and road biking, for a while at least. I am hopefully going to start  on some short midweek evening road rides from now to catch back up with the missing road miles.



Monday - Swim with TPT. Stretching session.

Tuesday - Easy run or reps session. Core session.

Wednesday - Rest day. Cinema?

Thursday - Steady run. Weights session.

Friday - Short road bike. Or short run.

Saturday - Run - Rep session. Yoga session. 

Sunday - Long ride. 

Target totals - Swim >1 miles. Bike >40 miles. Run >14 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30mins of wii yoga.

Training Review - Week 11 - March 10 to 16


Monday, swim session started really badly. But by the end I was back to top speed. Putting in another pair of sub-7 400m reps at the end of the session.


Tuesday I did an easy jog around Dyce. I think I have found the cause of my up and down form. I think it is related to when I take my asthma medication. I am going to experiment a bit over the next couple of weeks and see if that is the case. Before today's run I missed my morning dose of my asthma medication and the run was a real struggle. Looking back at the previous week the bad days tend to be where I have gone out for my session within an hour or so of taking my inhaler. This may be further influenced by the cold air.

In the evening I took the opportunity to grab all of my weights, core and stretching sessions for the week. 

Wednesday I missed a trip to the cinema as my cinema-buddy was sick. Instead I took the opportunity for some extra miles and did the reverse version of Tuesday's run around Dyce. Took about the same time but on tired legs. 

Thursday was something of an adventure. Separate blog for that but need to hold off on it for a while until the Police finish with things. In the meantime, stolen mountain bike to look out for:


Friday was a cinema trip to Need For Speed. Much better than I expected.

Saturday I went out for a longer run. I wanted to put in a score for this month's Strava 10k challenge and to get my miles up to the larger total that I have set for this week. 

Sunday I skipped the Kintore ride as they were planning a hilly 50-miler which is more than I need or want to be doing. Instead I went out for a solo ride. There was a tough wind to deal with in parts and solo road biking is pretty boring so I cut it a little bit short of the plan for the week.

Apart from the excitement of burglars on Thursday night it was a pretty good week all in. Another week where a few more bike miles would have been good but happy enough with everything else. 


Target totals - 
Swim >1 miles. Bike >40 miles. Run >14 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30mins of wii yoga.

Monday - Swim with TPT 2,200m in 54mins.


Tuesday -  Run 3.6 miles 28mins. 
Weights session. 
Core session.
Stretching session.

Wednesday - 
 Run 3.6 miles 27mins. 

Thursday - Rest day.

Friday -  Cinema - Need For Speed.


Saturday - Run 6.8miles  in 54mins.


Sunday - Road bike 27.7 miles, in 1hr 57mins.

Wii yoga 36mins

Actual totals - Swim 1.4 miles (2,200 m). Bike 27.7 miles. Run 14 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 36 mins of wii yoga.

Monday, 10 March 2014

Training Plan - Week 11 - Mar 10 to 16




I have bumped up the run and bike mileage targets a little bit. Partly to try and make up for some of the lost weather miles from earlier in the year, but mostly just to make it more difficult for me to dump sessions. 



Monday - Swim with TPT. Stretching session.

Tuesday - Easy run or reps session. Core session.

Wednesday - Rest day. Cinema?

Thursday - Steady run. Weights session.

Friday - Easy run or mtb. 

Saturday - Run - Rep session. Yoga session. 

Sunday - Long ride. 

Target totals - Swim >1 miles. Bike >40 miles. Run >14 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30mins of wii yoga.

Training Review - Week 10 - Mar 3 to 9


Monday was my usual swim session. In lane 4 again as everyone was squeezed up. The aim for the session was to do a 400m rep, then 4x100m, 2x200m, 1x400m, all at the same pace as the original 400m. Mis-paced the first one slightly though and started with another 400m PB. 6mins 45. Made the rest of the session really tough. By the final 400m I was down to 6mins 58. But that in itself is as fast as I have ever raced.

Tuesday I went for a supposedly easy run around Dyce. Since doing the same run last week though I seem to have crashed into a sudden streak of form. It didn't actually feel all that fast but came in averaging just over 7 minute miles rather than 9s. Did my weights session afterwards as well.

Wednesday I took my planned rest day. Went to the cinema to see Ride Along. Pretty funny, but most of the best bits are in the trailer.

Thursday. Depression breeds apathy. Crappy day at work resulting in another rest day.

Friday I still wasn't in much of a mood for doing anything. I had to pick up my parents from the airport so I cunningly took their car and handed them the keys, so that I had to run home. Wasn't a great run but got a couple miles in my legs and at least made me feel like I had done something. As with Tuesday, seem to accidentally have found a faster gear than I have had for a few months.

Saturday I went out for a very slow run. Felt like I was carrying another person around as I struggled to stay under 9 min/mile pace. No idea why, after the two much faster runs this week feeling so easy I thought I was into some sort of running form. I did some of my stretching session in the evening.

Sunday was a ride with the Kintore Sunday group. No other obvious leaders available this week so I volunteered to take the Lite group. Four of us rolled out for 45 miles. Everyone survived, no mechanicals, no crashes. Couple of minor detours from the planned route but nothing massive and the end result was less than half a mile out. Averaged 14 mph and was feeling fairly comfortable at that. The bike definitely needs some new parts though the crunching and grinding noises were getting quite bad on the climbs.

After getting off the bike I did a short run to finish off my week. Had to go slightly further than normal to make up my weekly mileage but managed to put in a pretty quick 1.5 miles despite being tired off the bike. This just makes Saturday's slow run even more confusing though.

Good week all round. All miles done and some extra bike miles to clear the backlog. Speed on most of the run miles has been a good surprise. 


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. 2,150m in 53mins. (Including 400m in 6:45).


Tuesday -  Run 3.7 miles in 27mins.
Light weights and stretching sessions.

Wednesday - Rest Day.

Cinema - Ride Along.

Thursday - Depressed. Day off.

Friday -  Easy run. 2.8 miles in 22mins.


Saturday - Slow run. 4.0 miles in 34 mins.


Sunday - Ride 45 miles in 3 hours 21mins. 

Run 1.5 miles in 11mins.

Actual totals - Swim 1.3 miles (2,150 m). Bike 45 miles. Run 12 miles.  short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions.  mins of wii yoga.

Monday, 3 March 2014

Training Plan - Week 10 - Mar 3 to 9

After the disappointment of only just making my miles last week, and with no holidays this week to fit any extras in, it is back to normal this week. At least the lighter evenings should start to help with midweek sessions a little. 


Monday - Swim with TPT. Stretching session.

Tuesday - Easy run or reps session. Core session.

Wednesday - Rest day. Yoga session. Cinema?

Thursday - Steady run. Weights session.

Friday - Easy run or mtb. 

Saturday - Run - Rep session.

Sunday - Long ride. 

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.

Training Review - Week 9 - Feb 24 to Mar 2

Monday was my usual swim session with TPT. Had to move in to lane 4 again because it was so busy. Managing to survive at that pace though. And throwing in turns on the slower reps. I have to breathe too hard on the fast reps to put in a turn as well. The turns are occasionally better as well. 

Tuesday I missed my run. I had planned for it but not well enough and had a panic attack just before. Wednesday I did nothing but that was planned.  Thursday I had Dexter but the depression and apathy won over even his help. We did go for a walk on the beach, and a walk round the park in the evening, but no real training.


Friday wasn't much better, but I felt guilty enough about having Dexter and not doing anything that I did force myself to go out for a run with him. Only half of what I had planned and even that was really slow.

Saturday, I finally started to make some progress on my weekly plan. Did my wii yoga session in the morning and went for my reps session in the afternoon. Then stretched out the rest of that run to pick up the rest of my miles for the week. In the afternoon I got my short weights session in as well.

Sunday was another good step forward. Weather was just about perfect for a bike ride and I have finally found some bike form. (Possibly aided by fiddling with my seat position through the week). The weather seems to have broken now and it was sunny and barely a breath of wind. Spent a lot of time at the front of the group and was even making decent progress on the few climbs that were in. Had to do a bit of clothing rearrangement as I was over-layered and a bit too hot. Off the bike I did a quick mile run just to practice running off the bike. That also went surprisingly well. 

Went to see Dallas Buyers Club. For a movie shot in 28 days with a make-up budget of $250 it is a pretty amazing job. McConaughey, Leto and the make-up team are absolutely deserving of their Oscars. How 12 Years a Slave got best film and Gravity got best director still escapes me.

I finished off the week with my core and stretching sessions. 


Slightly disappointing week in all. The first half of the week was really interrupted. By the end I had made all my basic numbers but with the two extra holidays I had hoped for more. My run plan is still ahead for the year and my swim plan is pretty close. Still short on bike miles but it looks like the weather might finally be stable for a while and I have been slowly picking at the losses on the weeks that I do get my long ride. Things did improve towards the end of the week and having a couple of extra days away from work has helped improve my mental state. 


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 2,150m in 57mins.


Tuesday -  Nothing.

Wednesday - Nothing.


Thursday - Walk at the beach. 2.5 miles.

Friday -  Run with Dexter. 6.9 miles in 69 mins.


Saturday - Wii yoga.

6 x Zara hill reps, 5.3 miles in 49mins.
Short weights.

Sunday - Bike 43.5 miles, 3 hrs 13mins.

Run 1.1 miles, 8mins.
Core and stretching sessions.

Actual totals - Swim 1.3 miles (2,150 m). Bike 43.5 miles. Run 13.3 miles.  1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 36 mins of wii yoga.