Best week so far

So this post is a day late, mainly due to the fact that the format of the lecture/lab I usually write this in had changed! As the title eludes to this has in fact been a great week in terms of both distance covered and getting other things done.

I have managed to clock up just under 17 miles pounding the pavement this week. The most by far that I have ever run in that short a time frame. This included a solo 10k that disappointingly came in at less than a second over the hour mark as well as my first park run early on Saturday morning at Rushcliffe (see the photo below for my unique blind running style!) The event was as the website promised, well enough organised, efficient and everyone there was friendly and supportive, which is made even more impressive by the fact that it costs nothing but your time to register and the cost of printing out your personal bar code to enter.

 Also managed to get out on the bike this week scouting out the route from home to Holme Pierrepont where I like to run. The route is 90% tarmac with a small well packed off road section near the run. Looking at the bike distance (56 miles) and allotted time (4 hours) means that I need to ride at at least 14 mph all the way round to come in under the cut off.  Which at the moment is faster than I think I can do, so I need to do some work in improving my form and endurance on the bike which can only be done with seeing a trainer and getting some time on the bike done as well.

So to that end I've ordered more stuff (because pouring money at this is the way to get better right?) Which include a set of road shoes and peddles as well as a few other bits from chain reaction.  Also went out and got a new inner tube for my bike (evident from the fact I've been out on it) but have still to sign up to the pool to start any kind of swimming training!

On kit that has already arrived my new watch and heart rate monitor (above) works really well although seeing what heart rate that I can get myself up to doing relatively little is sometimes worrying. Also my Tri suit arrived which fits really well luckily for an internet clothes order and looks interesting to say the least on!

So looking forward hopefully more shiny things will turn up over the next few weeks and be fitted to bikes etc. There is still a need to go get in the pool or some open water (going to be cold this time of year!) and start that part of my training. All in all its going better and if can repeat this weeks performance again i will be more than happy with the ways things are progressing.

And so the cold moves in

So another week has passed, flown past more like! Seams only yesterday I was being pestered about the fact there wasn't a post up yet for last week. The weeks been a busy one lots of work over time, some late nights doing course work and building PC's. Unfortunately its been what I could only call a set back week in terms of training with very minimal activity.

This week I've only managed to eek out 3 runs totalling a meagre 7 miles and have failed to put any time in the pool on the charts or get my bike fixed and put down any time on the turbo trainer or road. There's no excuse for it really, I've been crazy busy with everything else but not really enough not to nip to the bike shop and pick up a inner tube or go out for a run before a 9am lecture.

The three runs I did manage to clock this week have been good, a three mile run with my house mate Will was in perfect conditions: cool, sunny and fresh. Will is also trying to get fit for his own reasons but as a side note, he's doing Movemeber as the fabulous photo below shows and you can donate at Movemeber Donate. This was the first run at Holme Pierrepont National Water sports Centre from now on to be known in these ramblings as HPP, having kayaked on the white water course weekly, even daily at times I had often glanced over the peak of the small separating hill to to the regatta lake at its 2km+ long rectangle  disappearing of into the distance and wandered why anyone would ever run/bike round it, and now I am and will be many more times over the coming months!  The course for the run section of the outlaw goes around the lake twice as part of the route the second time coming down the back straight to finish in front of the grandstand.

The other two runs were unremarkable beside the noticeable temperature drop off, the first 2 miler late last week was a cooler morning the second 2 miler this morning was what I would call cold at -1 degrees when I left the house. First time I've ever run I a thermal top (merino wool) and it seamed to be about the right temperature so if the temps are down at that again I will be donning more thermal kit before venturing out in the ice, another interesting if slidey part of the experience!

Now although I did next to no exercise this week I have managed to keep the food intake down, which as anyone who knows me would tell you is an achievement in itself. The plan is to cut out takeaway as much as possible and try to limit the inevitable Christmas season diet damage. To that end I have been trying to eat more fruit and veg and less crisps (namely tubes of Pringles) as well as biscuits and even managed to do a food shop where maybe 80% of the food I could comfortably defend as healthy, the crate of cider, wedge of fancy cheese and crackers were my few let downs, but you've got to have something to spoil yourself with.

Another none exercise advancement (see its not been a completely bad week... right? ) is that I have ordered some more kit. I know I probably didn't need it but I like to think that it will help even if its only a mental boost, so that being said I have ordered a Tri race suit to try out and also a GPS multi sport watch and  heart rate monitor in the Amazon sales to try out. Both are due to arrive tomorrow when I am typically due to go home in the morning to see family so I may not get hold of them till later in the week and will undoubtedly have to trek across town to some hidden industrial estate to pick them up from the sketchy parcel depot.

All things said and done I've not really advanced in my training plan and another week has slipped by, this coming week needs to see some miles being clocked up in at least two of the three disciplines if not all three of them! And I need to read up on the rules and regulations of the race to check what actual kit I need to buy to be within the rules and start looking into things I need to practice such as transitions, something I've never done before!

Until next time,

Alex

One Week In

That time has come again yes that's right 2 hour of maths and graphics lecture so it must be time for another blog post. So a week into what should be a fat busting, muscle building regime I would say i'm doing OK. now this would preferably be 'i'm doing really well' but there is no point in kidding myself and you can't have everything! 

Its been a week of setbacks and other commitments as well, I know excuses are excuses but between an inner tube that decided to split and let itself down shortly after a 2 hour session on the bike and starting a new job a Morrison's and spending 8-5 on inductions both days of the weekend i don't think I've actually done to badly. 

For those of you who might be interested in either seeing where and what times i'm running or could give any advice on what i'm doing my Strava  profile will have most of my runs on it, that being said I sometimes forget to turn it on and/or my phones flat so its not a complete log by any accounts. 

So for this week i have only managed spent 2 hours on the bike in the turbo trainer before it decided to give up on me so my aim for the next few days is to get out and get a new tube at some point, this though brings me nicely onto one of my fears of the event. What if my bike fails to make it the 56 miles of the course? Now making my body do that much physical exertion and still cross the finish line is another problem all together, i'm talking about failing kit. My bike, though not awful, is still a base level Halford's road bike and i need to get out on the road and put it through some longer rides to see if it is going to be A) comfortable enough to do that kind of distance and B) if it will take the abuse. 

One thing that is going really well is the running, having done 4 morning runs in the last week i have figured out a nice 2 mile loop from my house i have done 2 x 2 mile runs and 2 x 4 miles (twice round the route). Luckily i managed to maintain some running form from when i ran the 10k and this has meant i have found these runs (almost) enjoyable and will be looking to repeat and extend the distances this coming week. Now a quick look at pace times tells me that i 'could' run at just under 13 minuets 45 seconds a mile and still  scrape in under the time limit obviously i would be looking to not be that close to the cut off but we shall see how the training progresses!

Having been over to the local pool/gym during the weekend and will be looking to start going some point over the next week, they do an early morning swim so the plan is currently (depending on how many days a week i can take running in the morning) to use these sessions as run rest days and do a swim to bike morning session instead. 

Laying out the plan for the coming week. First fix and do some more time/miles on the bike, continue and extend the run to start getting some miles under my belt and finally get in the pool and learn how to swim again. On that note i would like to thank Activities Away for allowing me to swim in the lake a few times to try out open water swimming and the support from the staff there in starting this madness! 

Now comes a bit of a ask from anyone who actually reads this! I am completely new to all of this even in the running i only have the base that the guys at my work placement helped me to form. So any advice, training tips or 'I found this really helpful' information would be greatly appreciated from you! 

Again until next time.

Alex 

200 days not as long as it sounds ...

So my phone kindly reminded me, as it does every time I unlock it, that it is now only 200 days today till my Half Outlaw (half ironman).

Now most people would do something like this because they enjoy it (god knows why), they are raising money for charity (always a honourable thing to do) or that it is for the competitive element to it. That for me is not the case. I am endeavouring to do this for the simple reason of setting an 'achievable' goal for getting fit and healthy again after reaching a worrying weight and level of fitness over the last year.

With that being said I have yet to fully engage into my training plan, getting fit and losing weight. But that changes today! Yes I can hear you chuckling away, 'yea right' and other such comments but no as of tomorrow I shall begin in earnest. The morning run will start anew, I will look at booking/singing up to the local pool (I have no excuse really its 2 minuets down the road!) and putting new tyres on my bike and either getting out on the road or on the turbo trainer.

So to peg a start point to look back to and see if there is any change, this morning I weighed 14 stone 11 pounds (93.9kg), the furthest I've ever run was a 10km at castle combe in 58:34:80, I've never biked competitively and I've never swam competitively.  I've also never competed in a multi sport event, if you haven't picked up I've throw myself in at the deep end, with a set of ankle weights on and am hoping that I will still float!

The plan then is to keep a track via this blog (used to be a kayaking one so it needs to be gutted and revamped!) As much for my own personal tracking as much as for others to read, that being said if my complete beginner to hopefully crawling my way across the finish line in may at the 8 hour limit mark experience can help any others then all the better.

Until next time.

Alex