LMV recce

Made my way to Church Stretton this morning to pre run the Long Mynd valleys race route. We had snow this morning (about 2") and so was expecting a fair covering on the tops. For some reason i've done this race for the last 3 years. The route begins fairly gently with a few little kicks and a flat fast section on the top.
The second half is where the pain starts. One after another comes 3 long steep climbs which all come within 4 miles of the finish and accounts for about 3000' of climb and 70% of the routes climbing all in the final third.
The race is next weekend and i'll be looking to go sub 2 hours again. I just hope the weather improves.

12.75mile/4656' 3hours (plenty of stops)

Week 4

Sunday - saturday

Sunday - race 10k (6.2m) 33.54min

Monday - club run - 6.03m/829' 43min

Tuesday - Rest day

Wednesday - Rest day

Thursday - run 6.71m/1035' 48min + 1hr circuit training

Friday - Rest day

Saturday - Rest day - went to watch Altrincham vs Wrexham (like Brazil c1970)

Totals Run 19mile/2000'

Funny week,i've been on a first aid course all week and it's completely disrupted my normal sleeping patterns. Not been able to get out on the bike all week,which is an absolute disgrace ! Hopefully a return to normal hours next week will bring some kind of routine.

First race of the year

Today was race number one of the season. There are normally some good races early in the year but due to the poor weather most have been cancelled or postponed. This was an event twice cancelled and was initially due to be held in December.
Telford 10k is a flat and fast course with a slight downhill start,which means any idea of "not getting carried away at the start" are thrown out the window.
If I'm to qualify for the World duathlon champs later in the year this distance is one I'm going to have to get familiar with,as it's the distance of the first run leg within the duathlon (10k-40k-5k).
I arrived in good time (50mins prior) and had a decent warm up with plenty of stretches,an area i am getting better at and seeing some positive results.
I started pretty well,felt quite comfortable going through the first mile (4.50) and tried to get in a group to get some rhythm going. However i managed to tuck in with a lad who had the most bizarre running style I've ever seen,legs all over the place. If i got to close i was being kicked !! So i pulled ahead of him and tried to settle into a good pace.
The last couple of weeks has seen me running pretty much at a plod mainly due to the underfoot conditions being so icy,and so with the lack of speed work this initial pace was completely foreign to me. However i stuck in there despite getting a slight stitch around the 3.5 mile mark. I ran through 5k at 16.40 and finally finished in a time of 33.54. I was pleased with the second half as i kept the pace up pretty well,we didn't benefit from the downhill start on the second loop.
All in all a good days work. I feel with a bit of speed work i can bring that time down by quite a bit.

Result 10k

15th 33.54

New week

A quick run down of this weeks training.

Sunday-Saturday

Sunday- Bike 32mile/2000'/1hr50
Run 7.91mile/1027'/59min

Monday- Run 6.32mile/57min

Tuesday- Day Off

Wednesday- Day off

Thursday- Run 6.76mile/1211'/50min + 1 hr circuit training

Friday- Day off

Saturday- Run 3.08mile/576'/21min

Totals- Run 24.07mile/2814'/3hr09
Bike 32mile/1hr 50

Another average week. Started well but maybe too much Sunday led to Tuesday off. Have to get out on the bike much more.
I've paid my money to be considered for GB representation at the World Duathlon Championships in Edinburgh. The first Qualifying race is at Clumber Park on the 6Th of March.
First race of the season for me tomorrow is the Telford 10k. Not expected anything special,but a sub 35min would be nice.

Good day

Sunday is my favourite day of the week. No work for starters,but it usually means a race or like today,plenty of time to get out and put some training in.
A quick text on Saturday night had a return of 3 other riders for my first road ride of the year. At 10am the four of us met up for a steady ride across the border into Wales and back. The roads were icy in places and due care was needed especially in the gutter where the sun was not shining.
I rode with 3 lads. Firstly Nick,he lives only 300 yards down the lane. He defies his years by comfortably riding with the best local riders.
Secondly Andy who excels at many disciplines from triathlon to fell running. He has recently exchanged vows with Claire and returns after possibly and understandably having his eye on other aspects of life other than training.
Finally Nick Thomas who is beginning to build up to Ironman Lanzarote. An event Nick has completed many times and regularly mixes it with the elite athletes in this tough discipline of triathlon.
Nick T had already ridden 10 miles to meet up with us. We did a steady/good paced ride,involving a few climbs and some good views(should have taken the camera) off into Wales.

Total 31.5 ml / 2000' (guessed ascent,garmin stopped.mileage correct)
ave. 17mph

After hearing Nick T had gone onto ride over 90 miles in 5 hours i felt pretty pathetic and so after a bath,an hours kip and a cup of coffee i dragged Nick (neighbour) out for a run. Nice and steady along the local lanes.
All in all a good days training with good company. Looking forward to racing now mind. Training is all good but i do enjoy racing.
Telford 10k next week,not done a 10k for years and not a race i particularly like but not much on at the moment.

Run - 7.91 mile/1027' 59.44 min

Week 2

As from this week i'm going to post twice a week,once on a saturday reviewing the weeks training and again on a Sunday detailing the days race or long bike/run.

So second week into the new year has gone as follows.

Mon- 1 hr turbo session

Tues - Day off due to heavy cold

Wed - Day off

Thurs - 6.59m/934' 48 mins
Road/lane run in tricky icy conditions

Friday - 7.16m/1191' 49 mins
Another lane run,picked up the pace a little tonight and feeling stronger.

Saturday - Day off

Week totals (Sun-sat) - Bike - 1hr turbo

Run - 25.69m/4523' 3hr 13mins

A decent week considering the continued icy roads and unavailable off road trails. Also the cold mid week put a stop to two days training. Feeling stronger and getting leaner day by day. Sunday will be on the bike with no race this week. Telford 10k next sunday (24th)

Day off

Full of cold,hope a day off training will stop it turning into something more serious. See how i feel tomorrow. Struggling to breath !

Does it get any more boring ....?

Turbo session in the shed !
This is possibly the most boring form of exercise. It is however very effective,an hour of solid peddaling is impossible to replicate on the road with junctions,descents etc. So this workout is a good way of cramming in a good session within a short space of time.
Hoping this snow thaws pretty quick so i can get out on the lanes and trails.

1 hour

Good start

Took a friend of mine on a jog around his local lanes. Many of them are still quite deep in snow and sheet ice was tricky in places. Plenty of climbing involved for a road run. Weather was OK once you got going,probably only around the freezing point but with a cold NE wind.

Dist - 11.95 mile
time - 1hr 35
climb - 2398'

Felt OK. Need to shed a few pounds to improve the climbing but pretty happy with fitness at the moment. In desperate need of a race,but everything is being cancelled due to the weather at the moment. Good start to the week.

Week 1 complete

Due to my Garmin training database running a week from Sunday-Saturday this is the last day of week one.
Went for a local head torch run on the lanes. Felt OK,the weather has changed sligtly. We have lost the stupid low temperatures,only to be replaced by a bitter northeasterly wind and temperatures at an almost barmy 0c !
Running is certainly better in these conditions than cycling. In fact it has to be many degrees below for running to feel uncomfortable assuming you have some good kit on.

dist - 5.36 mile
time - 39.12 min
climb - 946'

WEEK ONE TOTALS

Cycle

Dist - 38.04 mile (not including 2x rides to work,16mile)
time - 4hr 30 min
climb - 5200'

Run

Dist - 11.42 mile
time - 1hr 22 min
climb - 2080'

Two runs and two bikes are a pretty poor effort for the week. The distances are irrelevant at the moment with such tough conditions and the cycling is entirely off road. To put it in perspective,a 38 mile road ride in the summer would be a steady sub 2 hour ride. Total of 6 hours training is not bad and sounds much better than the mile totals suggests.
Took 2 days to realise that cycling 4 mile to work is not worth the hassle. It is not far enough to count as a session and all it does is waste 30 Min's of the day and makes me cold and wet. I think to drive home and get ready for a quality session later in the day is definitely the way forward.
Oh Well you live and learn....let's see what next week brings.

No end in sight

The big freeze continues. What's such a shame about this period of weather is that it's amazingly beautiful out there. Clear blue skies and stunning sunshine is only off set by the icy roads and cold temperatures. I biked into work again this morning,temperatures were as low as -9 when i arrived at work at 5.20am.
Found out the Telford 10k has been put off again until the 24th January.
Only the bike to and from work to show training wise (8mile). Will have to step it up over the weekend.

Ice ice baby...

The heavy snow turned to ice by this morning,but to be fair to the council they have been along with the plough and gritted which is a first for this winter down my lane ! I'm not sure what the temperature was this morning but the forecast was for it to get no higher than -1 all day. I'm guessing at 10am this morning when i set off on the bike it was no more than -4. I went to see a friend who is a teacher who's day of schooling was cancelled this morning. Went on the single speed mountain bike. A good tool in this weather as you can only get up to about 14/15mph without spinning out,that's about as fast as you want to go with the wind chill. I was starting to get a headache half way due to the cold !

miles - 18.82
time - 1hr 31
ave - 12.4mph
climb - 1080'

Very cold to state the obvious,very steady and restricted due to one mountain bike gear (32~16) and the fact i was braking on the descents to restrict wind chill to a minimum.

Snowed in..

Day off Tuesday mainly due to the snow.Finished work very late due to getting stuck in the snow for almost 40 mins.
Woke up today to 6-8" of snow.Not a chance of getting the van out the drive,so decided to bike into work.Only about 4 mile but was tough going on untreated roads.Another disaster in terms of training.8 mile is hardly worth noting so must make the most of rest day tomorrow.Plan to double up,will see how the weather holds up.

Night run

Ran with the club tonight along the canal towpaths and around Colemere.Pretty cold at -3 and quite icy under foot.

6.06 mile
42mins
100ft climb

Felt good,nice and steady.Must lose some timber to kick start some decent race pace.Hard going in this weather,dare not push too hard with conditions so difficult under foot.You can't train much with tears and pulls !

Sunday ride

My initial plan for today was to go out to Eastridge wood nr Shrewsbury to check out some new trails. I woke up this morning to treacherous roads and so decided to leave the van at home and do some local riding in search of some new trails. The weather was pretty cold (doubt it got above freezing) but gloriously sunny and not a cloud in the sky. Decided to use the singlespeed again for some extreme gurning !


For some reason local trails are never considered to be as good as trails further away,but a return to the local stuff soon reminds me that I'm lucky to have such good local rides. The lanes were icy and one particular ford had me on my backside due to a full lane covered for 25 yards in thick ice. Within the woods the trails were free of ice and snow and rode very well for the time of the year. I spent most of the day looking for some new trails within several woods and had little success. I spent a lot of time walking back up trails that looked good and so had another almost embarrassing mileage total at the end of the day. It certainly felt I had put in a decent days riding come the end so happy in that respect.

Miles - 19.22
Time out - 2hr 59 min
Climbing - 4120 ft

A good day in perfect weather (for Jan). This singlespeeding is becoming addictive,even lane plodding is made interesting due to the effort required up moderate ascents. Might try a night ride in the week.

Day two,first gallop of the year..

Worked this morning which had one positive,the walking managed to loosen the calf that has been a slight aggravation of late. Didn't get out 'till 1700 so stuck to the roads (yawn). We've had drizzle this afternoon and this was starting to freeze as I was setting off. I think I'm getting used to this freezing weather as I felt very comfortable in only a light t-shirt and very light gillet.

Distance - 6.79 mile
time - 47min 15sec
climbing - 706 ft

Felt quite springy tonight. Took it nice and steady due to the ice.
I have the rearranged Telford 10k a week tomorrow,so a road run was probably the right choice. In no kind of shape to think of any great times so plan on training pretty hard right up to the race next week.

Day one...

New years day. Woke this morning with only a mild alcoholic haze. A full day today with no work only brings the problem of what to go out and do. Well I tweaked my calf at work on Thursday which pretty much ruled out any running. I have just converted a spare hardtail mountain bike into a singlespeed and I'm keen to see how this strange concept works. I Decided to retrace my daily postman route in the hills to see if I can possibly get to any of the 100+ houses I have been unable to reach due to the recent bad weather. The ride was very slow due to the almost impossible conditions at times,ice rink like or compacted tractor tyred rutted snow. I also bumped into a few familiar faces on the route which led to some "weather talk" and 20 minutes of shepherding with one of the local farmers! A trek up to the local high point (1200ft) also kept my average speed very low. The average speed and total mileage are not a concern at this time,time on the bike is everything at this stage.

Time out - 2hr 25mins
Miles - 17.3mile
Climbing - 2664ft

Fitness wise felt pretty good,still a way to go but not such a low base to start from. The singlespeed is good fun and will improve fitness and climbing in particular pretty quickly. I didn't feel the calf,so should be good for a run tomorrow.