Wednesday 25 July 2012

The evening ride. Helvellyn Tri?

Top ride out this evening with Mr Ashworth. Blast round the Helvylln Triathlon bike route after work.

The Man!


The struggle was just that. Straight out from work and into this climb is not exactly ideal but it is good to feel the burn and suffer every now and then! Steve has not been on a bike for a couple months but rode strong. I am sure a little competitive spirit helped us along and there was defiantly an unspoken battle for King of the Mountains going on!

Really enjoyed this evening. Good to catch up with a mate and ride hard during a training session. Nothing like training with a like minded partner to get you out of your comfort zone! Always good to mix it up in this way.

Sections of tonight's ride were defo up to race pace and feeling good. Still training on my 8speed steel framed bike with big chain rings. Not ideal for these steep hills for too long but my legs are getting strong from it. Our total time for the ride was interesting. Just checked out last years race results. If I can just improve my swim........ Hopefully gonna get an entry in when they reopen. Perfect final hard training session 4 weeks before Wasdale! Psyched.

Nice one Mulebar for a speedy next day delivery and saving me from a total bonk on tonights ride! Lost it for a bit but a Lemon Zinger gel pulled me out of the hole!


Top fuel

Wednesday 18 July 2012

Time Trials

Just a quick post. Said I was going to do some time trials in sports to give me some times and numbers to improve on and analyse. Never really been into this before but it is defiantly an essential tool. It gives you a time to chase, motivation to train and some hard facts to track your progress.

So here are the times:

Swim 400 metre. Around 9mins. First lesson, always check your kit is working! My waterproof watch appears to be not waterproof! Used the pool clock so prob slightly out.

Bike 10 Mile time trial. 25min 36secs. On the famous Levens course with the Kent Valley road club. Very windy on way out. AVG HR 175bpm.

First lesson I need to take from these efforts is learning to pace myself properly. This will come with experience. When I try to swim hard I seem to tighten up and my stroke becomes shorter and I move slower whilst putting in more effort. Very similar with the bike. Pushing a little to hard early on means I slow down in the last couple miles, despite working much harder.

Some solid times to measure progress with. Only issue I can see is the need for some longer time trials. This would simulate my goals more closely. These two are really full, eye popping lung busting, anaerobic efforts. Still very important as the higher your threshold the faster you can go for longer amounts of time. But as Ironman is a predominantly aerobic race, developing aerobic capacity should be the main goal. Go slow to get faster in other words!

Any comments, tips, discussion or whatever are most welcome!

Oh yeh, recorded my weight and body fat this week too. Bit personal for the world wide web though! Obviously I would like to reduce this.

Need to get my heart rate monitor and watch sorted asap!!




Friday 13 July 2012

A faster swim........

As mentioned before, swimming is my least practised and therefore one of my most limiting elements in a triathlon. Any sport requires hours, weeks, months and years of practice to become proficient in and realise full potential. Skill acquisition, muscle/nervous memory patterns (engram's) and base fitness only come though time spent doing and learning.

When I started out swimming in October it really was an exercise in not drowning! I could manage about two to four lengths, felt like I was fighting to move forwards and the harder I tried the slower I seemed to move. I felt panicky and swallowed more water than you can imagine. Swimming one mile, let alone two was impossible. Sound familiar ??

Putting off getting in as long as poss!


So I practised. I watched you tube videos of people swimming. I watched others swimming at the pool. I borrowed the Total Immersion book by Terry Laughlin from a friend and even tried out some of the drills. I asked people questions about how they swam. Triathlon usually takes place in open water so I bought a wetsuit (www.headtothehills.co.uk) and started swimming in the lake at the end of February. I found a great group of friends who had experience and were kind enough to help and support me.

At times I felt down and frustrated. Some sessions I had to shorten or adjust. I had to tell myself to stick with it, one step at a time. Some things I tried did not work so I tried something else.

Soon one mile did not feel that far and and two point four was tiring but manageable. Not fast but defiantly not a problem.

One of my goals in my training for Wasdale tri (www.wasdale-tri.co.uk) is to improve my swim. First I need to gather some info to set a goal. A 400 meter time trial in the pool tomorrow will give me something to work with. A time to improve on. Future posts on how this goes.

I have also started attending the Kendal Tri club (kendaltri.co.uk) pool session on Monday night. Fantastic coaches and a real friendly crowd. £3.50 a session!!! For improving technique this is like free gold. Totaly recommended.

Out on Windermere with Pete (aka Bownessy, he spends enough time in there!) and Andrea from head to the hills this morn. Stunning morning and the lake is pretty warm. Out for a bit of time in the saddle this afternoon, make the most of the sunshine!

So now its time to practice, practice and practice some more!.......Then a bit more!

Chilly swimming back in March

Saturday 7 July 2012

Back to it!

Time to get back into the swing of things then! A few easy swims and a couple of bikes to and from work this last week have gone well so I decided to do a double session today.

Woke up early this morn to sunshine (honestly!) so headed off to Miller ground for a steady open water swim in Windermere.

Motivation was high, I had that sense of excitement walking down to the lake and felt like running. I like swimming from miller ground early morn. Its always quiet, has a nice walk down through woods and a great view of the Langdale Pikes is framed in the distance looking out over the lake. This morning was mill pond flat too.

A Mill pond flat lake Windermere
Took it steady and did about a mile. Concentrated on technique, slowing everything down and just enjoyed. Swimming is defiantly not my strong point in triathlon and my biggest gains here are to be made through learning and practice, not through hard sessions and high mileage. It is great for recovery from other sessions too.
The Langdale Pikes across the water.

Really enjoyed this morns swim.

Home for breakfast and a rest then headed out on the bike for a couple of hours. Wanted to see how my body would cope with a longer ride and picking up the pace a little. This would give a good indication how well I was recovering 2 weeks after Celtman.

Did just under 50km in a couple of hours. Legs felt fresh, felt good out of the saddle working hard up some hills and similar picking the pace up on some flats. Most of the ride was super steady though.

The route I did is here http://www.mapmyride.com/routes/view/110667329 along with a load of other training rides in the lakes. Open to the public so feel free to browse if your looking for ideas.

Looking good to start with some base training next week then. Starting to get psyched for Sep 30th now! Wasdale Tri has been entered and it looks awesome!! Bring it on.

www.wasdale-tri.co.uk

Thursday 5 July 2012

Celtman the movie!


A superb video.Nice job guys.

If you were not luck enough to be there this should get you psyched for next year!!