Mini-triathlon, sort of.

A busy day of training today. I didn’t fit in yesterday’s functional exercises, so I had to play catch up today.

Run. Warm up, then 10 mins of 10K pace, then jog back. It’s difficult to maintain a decent pace in the dark, on pavements with black ice, when the temperature is about 1 degree. But if I can run at 4 min/km pace in these conditions, I should manage it in the balmy summer sun on Dundee in May….

Then the strength functionals from yesterday. Single leg squats, hamstring raises with an ankle weight, lunges, then some ankle eversion and inversion exercises with the resistance band at the end.

Then back on the bike. The rear wheel is true again, and having cleaned it up after the race, it’s running nicely. The front mech cable has stretched significantly, so I need to tighten that up later on, but it still works. Just about. 20 mins warm up, then 12x 15 secs flat out with 1 min rest. The pleasing thing here is not the power, or the speed (although hitting 34 mph on the last sprint isn’t hanging about), it’s the HR of 140 for the warm up, and being able to bring it back to 140 after the sprints. The mad HR of 180 on the bike of a few months ago….

Monikie Duathlon Series Race 1

Monikie Winter Duathlon 1 Cycle.

The Monikie Summer Duathlon series was my introduction to multi-sport racing earlier this year. The improvement in times between the three races, without much in the way of training, certainly no structured training, is what gave me the bug to keep on with the training, and take it (more) seriously. So the winter series is another chance to get more enthusiasm, and a gauge of where I have got to.

But racing on days like this isn’t the idea of Triathlon racing I have in my mind – swimming in still calm, ice blue lakes, running in 18 degree sunshine, light cooling breeze, cycling on mirror smooth roads in dead calm…. Temperature this morning was 1.5 degrees, there was ice on the car, and snow on the ground up in Monikie. No question that I was still going to do the race, of course, but it wasn’t massively enticing!

The run went well – I took it very steady. I was very wary of killing myself on the run, leaving nothing for the cycle. So, I took it steady. The second 1km was slow, but it was into the wind, and I was able to wind it up for the second half. Negative split. I suspect I could have pushed on harder, but I didn’t know the cycle route, so I really didn’t want to be left wanting come cycle time.

Cocked up transition. I put the shoes on the bike before hand, to speed up the process, but I forgot to open the straps!!! So when I got on the bike I couldn’t slip my feet into the shoes. I took the first 20 seconds pissing about getting my feet in the shoes, at a slow wobbly speed. But, once I got going, the bike went really well. First time riding the new bike in anger, so I was a bit cautious to start off with, but the bike is pretty stable, very quick, and the position on the bars is very natural. Of course it’s not so great on the hills, but the Apex WiFli is wide range, 11 to 28, so plenty of bottom end to push up the hills. It’s not great stamping on the pedals, though – not a lot of room between the saddle and the cockpit. But, I managed to average 230W, 252W normalised, and over 30kph on the whole route. Hard work, but I was pleased with it. I was overtaken by about 3 people – on pretty flash bikes – and one fat bloke, but I overtook plenty of folk too.

Results are here. 24th overall, 10th in category, 26th on the run, 23rd on the cycle.

This is a bit of a turnaround from Summer – I was always higher placed on the run, and lower on the cycle. Swings and roundabouts. Push harder on the run, I suppose!

Back to training on Tuesday!

Build Run, into the WIND

Time to get out onto the roads again for another run in the wind. It was meant to be a build run, starting easy and then upping the pace by 5 secs a km until I hit 10K pace. That was the plan, but the wind along the riverside had other ideas. Running headlong into the wind down past the railway bridge it was tough to keep the pace up and the HR down, so by the time I got to the ‘race pace’ I was knackered.

Build Run in the WIND by tom.fardon at Garmin Connect – Details.

It’s been a tough week, actually. Tough in the pool, long hours, plenty of miles. The training time might look artificially long by the time spent doing Pilates and functional stretches. Scratch that – the functional stuff is hard work, and not a cop out. But this week, only 45 mins of the 9 hours training was functional, and the rest was particularly hard work. And there’s more – another turbo session tonight. I’m going to need a rest day soon….

Dundee Park Run – Nearly

Park Runs – they’re springing up around and about the place. But there isn’t one in Dundee, yet. I was e-mailed the other day by someone who wants to organise park runs in Dundee, so I said I’d turn up to support.

Monikie park is the chosen venue, which makes sense – it’s large enough to get a decent run, even though it’s a bit of a way out of town. It will be a great venue for the runs in the Spring and Summer – it’s essentially the same route as the Monikie Duathlon/Triathlon, so it’s familiar to me, and it’s nice and flat.

This week there was one guy, didn’t get any names, and two ladies. We went round the reservoirs once, only 4K, did some circuits, then warmed down. It was very windy. VERY windy.

It didn’t stop me heading out for a second go around the reservoirs, though. Another 4.5K around the Duathlon route. It was windier, if anything.

Dundee Park Run by tom.fardon at Garmin Connect – Details.

This afternoon I have the scheduled turbo session, on the new bike!

No such thing as a day off when you’re a triathlete.

A rare day off work. But a day off work that I really needed. The plan was to get down to Edinburgh to pick up the bike, but when I phoned the Tri Centre at lunch time, it turns out they didn’t get the double chain set, so no new bike today. They say I should be able to pick it up at the weekend. I’ve taken a half day on the morning of Friday morning, so I *should* be able to pick it up then.

So, as I had the whole day off, plenty of time for training!

Functional Threshold Test. Holy Crap this was hard work. Like doing a 5K erg test back at CBC. Never done one before, so no idea how hard to go off, what power to aim for, what to expect. Graeme reckoned to go off 10% lower power than the expected average for the whole thing. To be honest, the warm up was bad enough, so hopes weren’t massively high for the test.

I tried to treat it like the ergs we did back at CBC – first 1/4 go off hard and settle quickly to a relaxed pace; second 1/4 keep it smooth, focus on technique; third 1/4 is the hardest part, so mental strength, toughness, and digging in; last 1/4 is the home straight so start to wind it up from 2 mins to go, whatever distance that is, as we can always lift for the last 2 mins, and for the last 30 seconds, give it the kitchen sink. I think it went to plan. 240W to kick off with, lift to 250W for the middle half, and then give it beans for the last 3 mins. I was stuffed at the end. Not done anything as hard as that since, well, bumps, maybe? 5K erg tests? Really really tough.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/130445766

No rest for a (very) amateur triathlete – after a quick trip out to the pet shop (don’t ask) time for a run in the afternoon.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/130488074

Nothing too strenuous, Graeme said. Just some 30 second strides, he said. 30 mins of strides and recovery, it was. Wore the cushioned shoes, as my calves were stuffed. Good decision, I reckon, after such a hard morning session.

I remember doing outings, and land training on the same day when rowing, and managing a few beers, and never felt that sore. Can’t do that anymore, it seems. But, I’m not 21 any more, and if anything I’m fitter now than I was; I can certainly run quicker….

Tempo run.

This is a great lesson in Fardon household rule #1. RTFM – read the fucking manual. I *thought* the training plan said 50 minutes of tempo run, 4:30 to 4:40 per km. So I set off on what I knew was going to be a tough run – 50 minutes of pretty quick half marathon pace, and very quick marathon pace. 7:12 minute miles means a sub 3:10 marathon….

I wore the Inov-8s again, the Roclite 285s, mainly because it was a bit damp underfoot. They’re lighter, and they’re easy to run in, but I still get sore calves after running in them. It’s easing off, with each run, though.

The run *was* tough. I went on the usual route, but instead of coming up from the Airport to the Invercarse, I carried on and went along to Invergowrie and went through the underpass and up back up to the roundabout by A&E, and back the usual route.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/130320331

The first part is fine, nice and flat, but the way home is always uphill, so always a pech. Interestingly I went through 10K at 44 mins, which is faster than I did the Edinburgh 10K a couple of months ago, and I carried on to do a few more K. The total was about an hour. When I got back, it turns out I was meant to do a 50 min run, with 20 mins of tempo in the middle. RTFM.

I’m starting to actually enjoy the running now. In fact, at the moment I would say it’s my favourite of the three disciplines, as I feel it’s the one I’m making biggest inroads into. By next week, hopefully I’ll be more into cycling, what with the new bike, and everything.

I’ve been looking at the new bike – the frame set really is great. The same frame is on the 7.0, 7.2, 7.5 and 7.8. The only difference is the group set, and the wheels. I don’t really care so much about the group set – particularly on a TT bike. I *do* care about the wheels though, and the 7.0 comes with crud wheels. So with the spare money I “gain” by buying the cheaper bike, I can put that money, and the next couple of locums, and talks, towards a really nice pair of aero wheels. Not sure I’ll stump up for a pair of Zipps, but maybe some Dura Ace Aero wheels? Or there’s the Easton EC90s, if I can find some in a sale…. Next year, I suspect. Maybe in time for birthdays.

The Tri Centre phoned to tell me that Madison have sent a strange chain set – a 50/39, rather than the 53/39 double. A 50/39 seems particularly weird – worst of both worlds, with no top end speed, and no bottom end for climbing. So they’ve sent it back, and they should get me a double, hopefully for tomorrow afternoon….

Easy run? It never works out that way…

JEdge up staying with Edg boys this weekend, so I suggested he come with me for my planned Saturday run. JEdg was a 3 hour marathon runner back in the day, but he tells me that he’s not run more than 5K since 2003. So, the planned 35 mins around Dundee, which naturally turns into 45 mins whenever I go out, and more like 8K, would be a bit of a voyage of discovery!

I’m sticking with the Inov-8 RocLites tonight. I think my running is getting back on track, pretty much, so I’m keen on going back to running in lighter shoes again. This might not have been the brightest idea I’ve ever had, of course. My soleus have been tight since I got up, probably as a consequence of running in the RocLites 2 days ago, but I figure it’s good for me….

Here’s the data:

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/129607710

I’m getting used to this run now; tonight the Tay was flat calm, like a mill pond. Beautiful. Who would want to live anywhere else, when they could run along the bank of the Tay on such a lovely evening as this…

10K, with some 5K pace strides.

Shitty day at work. It’s been a shitty week at work, to be honest, but being able to head out into the rain and run 10K makes things a lot better. I had a headache when I got home, and it didn’t get much better with getting home, but the run sorted me out.

I set off into drizzle, then rain, then it cleared up a bit, leaving it just cold. The roads were wet, and a bit sloppy, so I decided to wear the RocLites tonight. They don’t have the cushioning that the Asics do, but they’re much much lighter, and more like a racing flat. Not as extreme as the Road X 255s, but a good middle ground. And I think my running technique has improved a fair bit in recent times – I’m definitely using my gluteus a lot more, I feel it when I’m running, walking, standing, sitting… My knees are higher, by heels lift higher, and I’m more upright when I run. Not perfect, my any stretch, but just like the swimming, I really wish I had before and after video footage to look at.

The run was great – got rid of my headache, blasted away the cobwebs, gave me time to think, or more importantly, not think, and get another 10K in the bank.

Here’s the data:

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/129302309

I suppose it remains to be seen if I have crippled soleus, and a knackered achilles by the end of the run….

Recover, run, and strengthen.

I had another really good night’s sleep last night, 12 hours of slumber, so when I woke up I started to feel much better. Eyes still stingy for the morning, but improved as the day went on. In fact, by 4pm I felt pretty much back to normal, apart from the eyes being a bit stingy. So, out for a run.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/128460648

Easy run. It was cold out, and easy wasn’t quite as easy as it was earlier in the week, but it was good to be out and about, in the cold. The run up to Ninewells and back, around Balgay park, is becoming a favourite, nicer than running down to Discovery, mainly because I don’t have to run through town twice.

Functional strengthening exercises when I got back – mostly the GS exercises, with a bit of HEAL exercises tagged on to the end.

I think the eyes being sore is a combination of chemical conjunctivitis, probably a bit of viral conjunctivitis, and generally being very run down and tired. All the training makes me feel good, strong in the pool, fit on the bike, and quick on the run. But adding in all the work, and late nights I think took it’s toll. I need to get to bed earlier – fitting in a 48 hour job that inevitably takes up more like 56, and 9 to 10 hours of training a week means I need to get to bed earlier….

Plan for this week is to concentrate on the running and cycling, no swimming for a week, new goggles and some new anti-fog spray. In the meantime, I can concentrate on the running and cycling in preparation for Monikie Duathlon 1 in 3 weeks.

New bike chat – I still fancy the Ridley Dean RS, but it’s very expensive… Cannondale Slice Ultegras are £2.5K at the moment, and there’s Felt B12s with SRAM Red front and back for £2.6. Decisions decisions.

Interval Run

Tonight, a 45 minute run out to the airport and back. 10 mins warm up, 5 mins 10K pace, 5 mins jog, repeat x3, then warm down.

I managed the “ons” at about 4:05 – 4:15 pace, with the “offs” at 5:00 pace. My glutes continue to be sore, which can only mean that I’m actually using them now. Knees are better, and bending them more seems to help a lot. Quads are sore, but I suppose that’s the point. My achilles is fine, thankfully.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/125846085

Nice run, feeling stronger. Still tight glutes, but that mean’s they’re working, right?

I have HEAL tomorrow, and a sports massage, which I’m equally petrified of, and really looking forward to.

Up early tomorrow for Turbo session.