So, its been a while, far to long you could argue but at least I'm writing another post again. I've been busy, life has got in the way work, university and everything else has taken time away from me being able to do any considerable training let alone sit down and write and proof read (an ungodly number of times, and I'm sure its still full of mistakes) any blog posts. All this being said I've still managed to lay down over 50 miles running including 3 distances at 10k-12k, my Saturday morning timed 5k race (ParkRun) time is starting to drop off to now under 27 minuets. So at least for the running things are improving at a rate I'm happy with and I feel a lot more confident about the 13.1 miles in 3 hours that caps of the end of the event in May.
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| Looking very happy (this was pre swim) 4th from the left, back row |
Managed to get in the water on boxing day for the Activities away annual boxing day dip which this year helped to support the charity Age UK, it was cold to say the least and it was only a short lap round the nearest set of marker buoys but anything that's for a good cause gets a try I'm my book, also there was a hot tub to get in after and pigs in blankets to eat!
More generally fitness wise I am feeling a better, there's still a way to go definitely before I stand a chance of crossing that line at the end of May. To that end I have been in contact with a swim coach at the adventure centre Activities Away in Lincoln, to organise starting some open water swimming work in March. The realisation of the physical toll swimming all the way up and down the rowing lake below is going to have on my body at the very start at the start of the race is starting to dawn on me! I'm also planning to go to the leisure centre later tonight for the open swim session and figure out how much they are going to rip me off to have access to everything they have in the building just so I can use the pool.
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| The unending lake at HPP |
With my next to none existent knowledge about how to go about training for such an event, let alone doing a half Ironman as an overweight, unfit and completely inexperienced athlete (yes, that's right even with that damning list of attributes I still referred to myself as an 'athlete') I decided to purchase myself the 'Ironman 70.3 Training for the Middle Distance' book to look at what their guides are for training plans, times and more detailed things such as heart rate zones for each activity. With a stroke of what I could only call blind luck the training plan in the book aims for a first week in June race plan starting in January, which is only a week off my race so is should be easy to adapt to the plan to suit me.
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| My reading for the next week or so! |
That being said the distances and times for daily runs/swims/bike sessions in the book are far above what I already do, which whilst not completely unexpected does show me just how much further I have to go before I even stand a chance of crossing that finish line at the end of May.
It also shows how little I know about the rules and procedures for things like transition and the rules for overtaking bike segment. Hopefully reading through the book, the next week or so's reading before bed, I will be able to pick up most of the basic procedures and rules. I feel that the only really way to figure all this out though is to take part in at least one, preferably a few of increasing distance, triathlons before May so that I can experience first hand the transitions and the flow from one activity to the next.
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| Not quite as shiny and new as when I left the house! |
Before today I hadn't been outside on my bike since I've got my clip in peddles but I've been trying to get on the turbo trainer when I can. As the photo above shows, my shiny new peddles took a few hits first time out, as did my poor body! 3 times over a 21 mile period I went over still partially or fully attached to the bike, every time when moving slowly failing to get my feet out of the cleats before tipping over.
Other than the bone jarring contact with the pavement on the above stated occasions it wasn't a bad ride, the route needs some work mind you, suddenly realising that what I thought was a small single lane road curved round into 3 lanes onto a dual carriageway roundabout was interesting to get across to say the least! My speed needs to come up a significantly about though averaging only just over 13 mi/h on that ride wont cut it. To come under the 4 hour cut off time I need to average at least 15.5 mi/h. This is something that will hopefully come with a combination of increasing fitness and more miles out on the bike getting used to the new clip ins and doing progressively longer distance rides.
All in all its not been to bad, I'm not really where I wanted to be but I could be in a lot worse position in terms of general fitness. There's a good 2 more stone I would like to lose before I would feel that I was at a fit weight but that should come with an increased amount of training and some better diet planning. I am hoping to put into place a more structured training schedule to work from aimed at training for the event more specifically as well as general fitness, to that end any advice those of you have done triathlons before or even any longer distances individual events could give will be greatly appreciated!
Until next time (hopefully next week or at least a lot sooner than the last gap in posts!),
Alex
