overview – Richard Rae

June Race Calender – It’s busy!

Just as a note for me, and so that I can grade their importance, here is my upcoming race schedule.
June is pretty packed to be honest, but most are quite small races so I should be able to train through them.

31st May – Rheinhessen Time Trial – 43.5km – C – Ride to power and stay sub 1:10

7th June – Wasserstadt half Iron distance – 1.9km-90km-21.1km – A – Sub5 is a must, sub 4:45 would be great

13th June – Wallertheim 10km – 10km! – C – as high a position as possible, more a test to see if my running is still there.

17th June – JP Morge corporate Challenge 5.6km – C – Run a fast time get a free t shirt!

21th June – Wiesbaden Duathlon – 5km-25km-5km – B – Interesting one, no weak swim = no excuses!

28th June – Worms Sprint Tri – 750m – 22km- 5km – A – TCEC league debut, don't want to embarrass myself!

Review of my 2015 Running Season

Last week I looked on this very blog, and clicked on the Race Reports tag and read through the 4 races I have done this year. I started this blog at the end of December and wrote what I thought were realistic but really hard goals for the year:

18:30 for 5km – well I haven't done this one, but I think I might have done it as a 5km split in a 10km race! I can run 18:30 for 5k
38:00 for 10km – done and then some. My PB is 37:22 and I think I could be in sub37 form now.
1:25 for HM – done and another 3:10 more off! I didn't even dream of a sub1:22 at Christmas, but it's done now!
London Good for Age time – done – Goal creep led to 3h being the true goal, but I did my original goal, and 3 is just a number, I'll do it some other time.

So all in all, I can't complain!
I obviously need to keep running, but I will take some down time, then I think I might try the Jack Daniels 5 week cycles, but skip all of the easy runs as they will be replaced by cycling.

I still have a 10k run in the Köln bike and run to do, a 14.3km run in 2 weeks as part of the Wingerts Cup (maybe a chance to win too) and Mannheim relay marathon, but now I have learned that it is unofficial distances, it somehow doesn't seem as important anymore!

After Mannheim I might take a month or so of just easy running, then start on the 5 week cycles.

I hope the cycling season goes as well as the running season did. It's a lot harder to quantify things in cycling (until my power meter arrives anyway) but a 5:30 bike split is required in Köln, 5h would be even better obviously!

Midweek update – week 12 and random thoughts and plans

I have been quite busy this week so far, so I thought I would write a little midweek update 🙂
On Monday, I went to the gym did some leg strength work and did a hilly run on the treadmill for 45 minutes. As always the 6% and 7% parts are quite tough, but I think it has got a touch easier than last time I did it a month or so ago, so that was a good thing. I think I will try it at 11.5km/h next time out.

On Tuesday I ran before work, just faster than 5m/km pace and nice and easy. Not much to report.
I planned to swim straight after work, before going to the Irish pub for St Patrick’s Day, so at about 18:30 I went to Taubertsbergbad, only to find that only one double lane was open to the public. A quick glance inside revealed about 15 ‘swimmers’ in this lane, all swimming back and forth ‘breaststroke’. There was no chance I would actually be able to swim there, so I binned it.

After St Patrick was celebrated (I’m a lightweight nowadays, I only managed 3 Guinesses), I ran on Wednesday evening. I decided to go for simple 400m repeats, the first of which was in 73 seconds, then gradually slower down to about 80 seconds over the next 7 repeats. The toilet was calling and my calves were screaming, so I left after only 7 intervals and jogged out a just longer than 10km run. I need to work on my speed work in minimal shoes, my calves were not happy at all, and still aren’t now as I write!

This morning I got up at 6am and went for an easy run. I realised that that means I have run everyday this week, and I plan to do my long run tomorrow, so that will be 75km or so before the weekend, but the weekend will be very light on running, so I think that is ok. I didn’t fancy my normal loop this morning for some reason, so I cut back through the part of town where I live and did a slightly shorter 10.6km run.

Tonight I want to swim, I won’t lie, haying not been to a TCEC swimming practice for a long time, I am a bit worried about it, but I will go anyway. Then tomorrow I will run long after work. I am going to try to eat simple low fibre food until then, so hopefully I won’t have the stomach discomfort I have had during my last 2 long runs. The current plan is 5km normal to start with, 20km of 1km marathon pace, 1km easier, then 5-10km easy to end the run.

I’ve planned a long ride on Sunday, I plan to ride the Undenheim RTF route.
http://www.gpsies.com/map.do;jsessionid=D3CEAFDB8C941269908C3076FE020DEC?fileId=mjbeuzipodvejfon

It’s ‘only’ 110km, but Undenheim is 17km from home, so that would be 144km total. I have posted in the TCEC facebook group to see if I can get a group to ride, no positive replies yet! Dimi is in though.

On Saturday I want to keep it relaxed. A swim and a short cycle. There is important balcony work to be done, so I won’t fill my day too much with training!

To the random stuff: profile-design-fc25-hydration-system-17

I want me one of these bad boys, it has a GPS holder, is aero and holds a load of liquid. It would be good to have before Wasserstadt.
I need to get a torque wrench. By some sort of amazing coincidence, both of my bikes have the same bottom bracket and I can use my ordered powermeter on either, when it arrives. Apparently a torque wrench is pretty necessary if I want to not break the cranks, so I will get one before the power meter arrives.

I have been reading about ‘proper Ironman training’, the general consensus seems to be that running can be reduced to very little, as long as you’re fit and can cycle like the wind. I think this summer might be a big cycling summer!

One last thing, I have been looking at when the outdoor pools (Freibäder) open. Apparently it won’t be until at least late April, which sucks, I don’t see me getting in a big load of swimming until after that happens, and even then it is unlikely! The clocks change next weekend, then it is go time for evening cycling…. 300km weeks here we come!

Oh yeah, I weighed myself once and was 77.5kg, not great but not bad. 76kg for Bonn would be good.

End of Week 3

I’ve already written quite a lot this week, so this will be a short run down of the week and a plan for next week. On Thursday I ran my hilly treadmill run, it went well, quite easy actually. On Friday swim training was cancelled, so I swam at TBB, only 1850m, but I started to feel a bit of cramp, so I left it at that.

Last night after the 10k race, I did some upper body and core work at the gym, and as I had to wait for Katja, I ran at just over 10km/h for 45 minutes or so.
Today I cycled for 2 hours, it wasn’t great to be honest, about 55km cold, a bit windy and I just didn’t enjoy it much. I need to get into my cycling, but a few degrees extra would make that a bit easier!

Weight – 77.9kg (-1.1kg)
Running – 39km (162km for the year)
Cycling – 83km (181km for the year)
Swimming – 1.85km (6.95km for the year)

Start of project 2015

Well 2015 is upon us, and I want to chronicle my training year leading into my first long distance triathlon in Köln in September. I think it is too far away to really stress about now, so I plan to break this year into parts.

Part 1: Running season – Now to start of May – Run lots and do a few 10ks, half marathons and a marathon. There will be some cycling and swimming in this phase, but it is of secondary importance.

Part 2: Cycling season – Start of May until July – Cycle like I did for Marmotte training. i.e. 300km+ every week, possibly 2 long rides on the weekends and 2-3 50km rides during the week. Running will go down to 50km a week. Swimming will be increased in this phase in Freibäder.

Part 3: Bringing it all together – July to September – Now I can worry about Köln! Run more and cycle less, but keep volumes high. Lots of bricks, some high intensity. Increase swimming if possible.