Tag: project 2015

Start of week 20 – 4iiii Precision powermeter is here!!!

My powermeter has arrived! Woohoo!  I ordered a torque wrench too which should be here tomorrow, so then I can make sure I have it 100% properly installed.  I plan just to ride with it over normal routes this week, and then maybe next week try an FTP test to set my zones.  I really hope I don’t mess up the installation, as long as it is as easy as described, it should be all good!

To normal business, today I’m going to run with Katja straight after work, then eat and head straight to swim training. I might swim with the group tonight, as long as they don’t have too much crap planned! Continue reading “Start of week 20 – 4iiii Precision powermeter is here!!!”

End of week 19 – 1800K in May begins!

On Monday I decided to go for a bit longer easy run, I want to keep the quantity up at reasonable levels, but with races every weekend at the moment, I don't want to do too much quality during the week.  So I ran 15.5km in the wind and rain at 5:18/km pace.  It felt like hard work, even if my heart rate didn't really agree with me (ave 129). Job done.

On Tuesday I went swimming, it went really well, I stuck with the longer 200m intervals, usually in about 3:40.  I wanted to swim at least 2k, but continued on to 2600m before deciding that was enough and heading home.  I used the pull board for quite a bit to practice my body position, it felt good, but made it very noticeable that my normal body position isn't great!  I was concentrating on my high elbows swimming still, I will keep that up from now on.

Wednesday was my midweek cycle.  I got a bit lost and ended up doing 71km, but it was pretty fast at 32.xkm/h.  I did try to keep the pace up, but I wasn't at 100%, so hopefully I'll be faster come wasserstadt in a month.

Thursday me and Katja went running together.  It was 9km in the wind and rain at about 5:40/km pace.  My HR was 120 average, which isn't much lower than when I run 5:00/km interestingly. I don't know if that means I need to runs slower more often of not, but it was a nice recovery run, even in awful weather!

Friday was the first day of my 1800KinMay challenge.  It was also a bank holiday so I had the day off.  As is customary, the weather was crappy so I aimed to hit a gap in the rain.  I got hit further south from mainz in the hills near Rockenhausen.  I started to get low on sugar on the way home too, so had to stop for a drink and a chocolate bar in Alzey, before doing the last hour home.  It was 130km with 1500m climbing at just under 30km/h.  It wasn't the most fun ride ever with crappy weather, cold and not eating enough, but as I like to say, it's in the bank now.

Saturday was Backeslauf day.  I cycled the 28km to and from Framersheim quite easy, but somehow it was over 30km/h each way.

Today it was raining all day and the wind is still a blowing.  (Un)accuweather said it would get better later on, so I waited until 2pm, then had to go.  It rained for about 95% of the ride, and it was windy too.  It was al least a bit warmer and I took some food with me to avoid Friday's 'situation' repeating itself.  I never really felt like cutting it short which is a good thing, but I didn't really go for it either, especially on the downhills or any corners, so my 28.5km/h wasn't too surprising.  My front derailleur somehow undid itself with about 15km to ride, so I was stuck in the 39 cog for the last part, but it was pretty much done by them, and I got home with 118km on the odometer, completing my 300km for the long weekend and leaving me only 1500km for May to ride!

Running: 40km (913.6km YTD)
Cycling: 396km (2318km YTD)
Swimming: 2.6km (36.85km YTD)

Backeslauf – Wingerts Cup

So today was Backeslauf day, my first run in the Wingertscup this year.
It's a 14.3km run, with an advertised 274m of climbing, meaning it is hella hilly in my book!

Framersheim is 26km away from where I live, so I decided to cycle to and from the race. Katja kindly joined me as support, but had to take the bus there.

When I arrived I was bit bit taken aback. The first few km were supposed to be flat to slightly uphill, but I could see that from metre 1 it started climbing at about 2-3%. I quickly started to reassess my goal and decided that 1h would actually be a good achievement!

When the race was about to start, I realised that we started in the other direction, so in fact it was flat then slightly uphill, phew! I ran with about 7 people in front of me, but the leader was well ahead after not very long. I felt like it was going to be a hard day. After about 4km, it was going ok, but I knew the steep stuff was yet to come. I had passed a couple of people by the time we hit the hill, but although it wasn't easy, it wasn't too bad really. It was maybe 4% for 2km, then flattened out before descending, also not so steep to start with, then finally getting steeper near the end.

The route wasn't the smoothest in the world, with lots of gravel and dirt tracks, but that didn't seem to cost too much time, and no ankles were turned, not by me anyway! After the first loop, which didn't go right back to the start, rather about half way down the hill before re-climbing it, I was feeling in the zone. Knowing that the last 4km were pretty much downhill meant I was looking at the 8km marker thinking I was nearly finished! A guy had been less than 50m behind me on the decent of the first loop, but seemed to burn out on the 2nd climb. I went up it at my pace, then knew I could just roll down the hill to the end. There was one small shock, which was the steepest section of the day with about 1km to go, but it was only 100m at most. Then straight back to descending.

I had hoped 58m would be possible, with 2.3km to run I had 8:20 in hand, with 0.6km to go I had 2m, which seemed like it would be hard to do to me, given that a 90s 400m is going some for me, but the downhill helped all the way to the end and I skipped over the line in 57:40.

I thought I had counted 5 ahead of me, but as there was also a 1 loop race at the same time, I couldn't be too sure. Katja thought I was either 3rd or 4th. I waited an age to find out the results, but eventually found that I was 4th, so didn't win any bread and wine 🙁

I really enjoyed the race, a long downhill to end the race meant that I felt ok as I crossed the line, even if my heart rate was 184! My average HR was 176, which is a hard day at the office for me, so I think I paced it pretty well.

I happened to run into a colleague of mine Ronald just before the start who was running too, he also beat his goal time, so it was a successful day all-round!

1800k in May challenge

I have just looked at my calendar and have seen that in May there are 3 bank holidays and I have 4 extra days off work.  There are also 10 days of weekend, meaning I have 17 full days off work.

That seems like a lot to me, so I started thinking about how much I can cycle in May.  I remember when I was training for la Marmotte in 2013 I had a big month in May, including a week in Mallorca.  I checked on Strava and found that I cycled 1600km that month, not bad, but also beatable!

So I decided to set myself a little challenge, I am going to aim to cycle 1800km in May 2015.

Rules:
1) Cycling to work does not count (5km each way)
2) Cycling to the pool does count (11km each way)
3) Cycling into town or to the football etc does not count.
4) For it to count, it has to go on Strava.

I liked the sound of 1800k in May, so that will be my challenge name.  May 1st is a holiday here, so I will be after a flying start to the challenge!
I am off work for the week of the 25th of May, so will be able to pick up a lot of Ks in the last week.
To end the month I have a 43.5km TT in Wörrstadt.  It would be good if I could arrange it that I break through 1800km on that day, without having to do too much the day before to allow me a better chance of doing a good time!

Start of week 19 – Let the cycling begin!

May Day or Tag der Arbeit is this week on Friday, so I have a 3 day weekend.  I aim to cycle 300km over those 3 days and 400km this week total.
I will be running my first leg of the Wingertscup running series on Saturday in Framersheim.  It's a hilly 14.3km route with the winning time usually being 55m or so.  I should be quite close to the front.  I will cycle there and back, so that will be 70km, so Friday and Sunday will have to be 230km at least, not too crazy.

I will swim at least twice, three times would be better.  Running is slightly less important at the moment as I have the running fitness and need to improve my cycling and swimming.  I will run this evening (monday), probably 15km or so, as the weather forecast looks a bit crappy, so it's not ideal for cycling.

Possible week plan:
Monday – run 15km
Tuesday – Cycle 30km (+22km) and swim 2km
Wednesday – Cycle 60km
Thursday – Run 11.6km before work, Swim after work (22km cycle)
Friday – Cycle 130km
Saturday – Cycle 70km, run 14.3km
Sunday – 100km, maybe swim

My powermeter should arrive this week – I'm excited!  I plan to just cycle with it to start with and see what numbers it spits out, then next week I can look at setting some zones!

End of week 18 – Post marathon

Strangely enough the week started out for me with me having pretty heavy legs, possibly something to do with the Marathon on Sunday.  I wanted to get things moving though so I cycled 30km on Monday evening.  Pretty much everything hurt, I couldn't hold aero position, my legs wouldn't really push the pedals, and slight inclines were like mountains, but I did my 30km and it probably helped the recovery a bit too.

On Tuesday I went swimming in Mombach.  There was only me and one other in the lane, so it was pretty clear water to swim in.  I did my 2000m, with more 200m intervals than normal.  I actually quite enjoyed the longer intervals, I have pretty much been doing 100m intervals all the time this year, I need to get into a rhythm more and improve endurance too.  I cycled there and back too, so chalk on another 22km cycling.

Wednesday I cycled again.  This time my legs were in much better shape and I did just over 60km at about 31km/h.  The wind was a bit weird, I guess it was a cross wind most of the time, but I felt like it was a head wind both south and north!  That's usually a bad sign, but it was still a decent speed for me, so no complaints.

On Thursday I wanted to try my first run after the marathon.  I went out with Katja to run, but she had picked up an injury running in Bonn, so had to turn back after less than 1km.  I ran off feel, but that feel was probably too fast, so I was at 4:45 pace.  My quads weren't feeling too happy, but the 10.7km run was still nice, and my 3km loop near Marienborn now has 3 portaloos on the route, perfect, even though they weren't needed.

I was feeling tired on Friday.  I hadn't slept too well and was a bit worn out, so I took it as a rest day.  I had planned to swim, but couldn't be bothered to go to the pool!

On Saturday I had to get to Köln for Sunday's Bike and Run.  I decided to cycle to Koblenz, which is 100km away, then get the train the other 100km or so.  The weather forecast had said that the northerly head wind would flip and become a friendly southerly blowing me towards Koblenz.  I thought that if that was the case, I might go further than Koblenz, but it wasn't so 100km was enough for me, especially with a rucksack on.  Again my average was 31km/h, but along the flat Rhein without  much wind, I was nearer 33km/h, which is good for me.

Sunday was the Bike and Run.  I did't do any run warm up, but I did cycle for 20 mins, so I will give myself 50km cycling and 10km running.
I was feeling pretty good in the evening, so I cycled to Nieder-Olm on the mountain bike and swam 2km.  It started off pretty badly, but ended well.  I noticed the pool was closing soon, so started doing longer intervals, and ended with a 5:30 300m.  It's not really fast or anything, but as my last 300m from 1700-2000m, it is fast enough.  That would give me a 35min split in a half iron-distance race, which would be awesome!  The cycle to and from the pool counts as another 20km, so 70km for the day.

Running: 20.7km (873.6km YTD)
Cycling: 283km (1922km YTD)
Swimming: 4km (34.25km YTD)

Pretty good week all-round.

Race Report – Bike and Run Köln – Team Sprint

This isn't going to be a long race report, but it was a race, so there is a report!

This was my second year of doing Bike and Run Köln in the team event.  We cycle 42km then run 10km, there are four in a team and the clock stops after the 3rd person crosses the line.  Last year we were pretty good, but I struggled to keep up on the bike, and was the 3rd fastest runner, making it a hard day for me!  This year I fancied that I would be able to run much faster and hopefully ride better too, though that was less certain.

Dimi doesn't run too much and has been actively telling us that he won't be able to keep up on the run for a while now.  He is a strong cyclist though, so we were dropping hints that he could put in more work on the bike so that we are fresher on the run!  Christian was our best cyclist and best runner last year, but he told me that he hasn't run at all since January, so he wouldn't be strong on the run.  Jochen is an all-rounder, if he was our weak link, we would be doing ok!

Last year we went out of the blocks like a bunch of idiots, only to have to slow down gradually over the 42km, this year in slightly damp, but not wet weather, we started off quite controlled, much better.  We were pushing about 40km/h which was the same as last year, with the speed gradually increasing.  Last year my pulls were short and I was really struggling to stay on the back of our train, this year it felt 100 times easier, I could push the pace and get back on a really rest.  After 3 loops surprisingly Dimi started to struggle, he wasn't coming through to take his pulls very strongly, then he would fall of the back after the corners, I shouted for him to take shorter pulls, and he skipped a few too, and we continued on at about the same pace.  After 4.5 of the 5 loops, he couldn't keep up anymore, and me, Jochen and Christian pushed on for the last 4km or so.  We didn't want to break up on the ride, but as Dimi had said he wouldn't run fast, it seemed a waste to wait for him on the bike.

We got into transition and I was incredibly slow.  I don't know why exactly but the others were ready before I had my first shoe on!  I was shouting for them to run as I felt confident that I could catch up, but they waited not sure if we had to leave transition together or not.  After about 500m, it was clear that Christian's lack of run training was going to make him our number 3 for the day.  He wasn't slow, but in comparison to last year, he didn't have his edge.  One team had passed us on the bike (we had passed 2) and after about 3km another team came past us.  There was nothing we could do about it, it was more a matter of getting to the end now!  I noticed that the team that overtook us was pushing one of their runners, I offered to do the same with Christian, which I then did for 6km.  It was new experience for me and quite hard work!  It means you have to work harder and you can't swing one arm, quite a strange feeling.  The next 2 loops of 3.3km went by and we ran in a respectable 44min or so 10km.  That was about 2 mins slower than last year, but our bike was about 1 min faster, so we were 1 minute slower overall.  Unfortunately there were 3 real triathlon teams in the race this year, and they were all minutes ahead of us, so we were 4th.  I'm not sure that we could have been top 3 on our best day…

Dimi came in a few minutes later and we enjoyed our well earned alcohol free beers and cake!

I think a big difference this year was that me, Christian and Jochen all had tri-bars on our bikes, with me and Jochen having TT bikes.  Dimi is a strong rider, but without the tri-bars, he was giving himself extra work to do, which caught up with him.  I know that next time we climb a steep hill, he'll still be racing off up the road!  It was a shame that Christian hadn't trained for the run, but he has a new job and where he lives now isn't great for running.  I would have like to see what I could have done, I had the feeling I could have gone sub40, maybe even more.  It isn't too important anyway, it was a great brick workout and I'd be keen to do the solo version next year if we can't get the team back together.

End of week 17

Ok I'll make this quick just to keep everything up to date.

Monday: 2km swim, went quite well, no cramps, not as bad as I had feared swimming in the bigger TCEC group.
Tuesday: Ran straight after work 11.6km at 4:34/km felt very easy and nice in the sun, probably too fast though.  Ate then rode 30km at about 31km/h also quite easy.
Wednesday: I did a 60km evening ride.  The wind was blowing from the south, so I attacked the strava segments on the way home. 2 new segment PBs blowing my old 2013 PBs away, still more to do though to get nearer the KOMs!
Thursday: Another 11.6km at 70% HR 4:58/km, could almost sleep but it was a nice run.

Friday and Saturday I took off before Bonn Marathon
Sunday: 42.2km in 3:00:15!

Running 65.8km (852.9km YTD)
Cycling 112km (1639km YTD)
Swimming: 2km (30.25km YTD)

Race Report – Bonn Marathon – Goal Achieved (kind of)

So the big day was upon me, I had travelled up to Bonn on the Saturday and spent a bit too much time wondering around, but had a nice day.  I wasn't feeling overly stressed, mainly because Katja was stressed enough for the both of us! I got up and ate some bread and cereal bars for breakfast, not much else was available.  Katja’s half marathon started at 8:30 or 8:45, it wasn't really clear, but it meant we were up at 6am and ate breakfast well in advance of the race.

We went to the start area, it was really cold but sunny.  I was well wrapped up and watched as Katja started the race, I went to the bridge that is about 600m into the race and watched her come back over it at the 8km mark, and then saw her again at about 9.5km.  As the HM started late, it was already 9:55 when I had seen her a second time, so I went to check in my bag and get ready.  I decided for a minimalist warm up, mainly just wanting to be sure I was done with the toilet and have a very short jog.

I got to the front of the race corral by 10:20, the 3h pacers were basically at the very front of the race, barring the few Africans who were there.  The race started and I had no issues with people around me, so tucked into the 3h group where I intended to stay.  After only 2km I noticed that I had to pee, I wasn't desperate, but I needed to go.  I decided to run a bit more before going, so that no 2nd stop would be needed.  I stopped, peed and started off in pursuit of the group.  I caught them back up after maybe 1.5km, maybe a bit too quick but not a crazy sprint either.

The group running skills of people was pretty bad, lots of trips and one guy was swinging his elbows everywhere and hit me about 5 times, later after he hit someone else the person he hit got really annoyed and shouted at him.  A 3rd person had a chat with him, and he immediately apologised profusely.  5 minutes later elbows man hit into me, so I moved to the side, where he followed and hit me again, I said "come on man! FFS" or words to that effect, then realised that he had a disability, not good…

After 10km we were almost perfectly on pace, so I stopped checking my watch.  my heart rate started rising over the next 10km, which was worrying to me, but I still felt good.  After 20km I realised that we were way ahead of 3h pace, the 3h group went through the half in 1:28:30, I went through in 1:28:45 having noticed and slowed my pace.  I was happy to have a cushion, but worried that it could be too fast..

After 24km I noticed that I would need a portaloo, this wasn't a simple run to a tree problem.  I got to the drinks station at 25km and quickly got everything done and started off again.  It cost me very little time, maybe 15-20 seconds, and I could run in comfort to the end.  I finally got to see Katja after 29km on the bridge, she looked very worried, but i reassured her that everything was ok, it was going to be close, but it was ok.  I reckoned I had about 50 seconds "lead" over a 3h pace at that point, though I wasn't gaining anymore, I wasn't losing too much either.

In retrospect and looking at Strava, the next 6km are where it all went wrong.  It felt hard and it had warmed up quite a bit.  I didn't have any idea of my pace, expect for the KM markers but at this point all I could work out was that it was really tight.  In the last 5km I gave up the ghost of getting a sub3 about 10 times, each time then thinking of how much I wanted it and surging on.  I had decided that I could do the last 1.2km in 5 minutes, but faster would be a push. I came around the corner to see the 41km sign and passed it with about 4:45 to spare for a 3h run.  Again my head dropped, but I knew I had to give it my all. A slight downhill made me think I might do it, but the km dragged on until eventually I could see the finishing line ahead of me and my watch read 2:59:45.  The finishing line as more than 15 seconds away though, so with the crowd screaming me on, I crossed the line in 3:00:15.

I wrote at the start of the year that a London good for age time of 3:05 was the goal, but it hasn't been my real goal for quite some time.  It was so close that I could only laugh after the race, that is laugh and almost cry from the pain of my legs!

My excuses:
1) Strava shows my running time as 2:59:33, without the toilet stops I would have broken 3, almost no doubt.
2) The 3h pacers went out 90 seconds fast, in fact they ran the 11.1km between 10km and 21.1km about 75 seconds fast.  It doesn't sound a lot, but I am 95% sure that if they had run an even race, I would have broken 3h with or without toilet breaks.
3) It was a touch warm in the 2nd half of the race. I don't know why they start the marathon at 10:30am, thus ending at 13:30ish for me, but the last few km were getting pretty warm, especially as there was not a cloud in the sky.  I think on a cloudy day I would probably have run sub3.

It doesn't matter now anyway.  I can hopefully run London next year off real marathon training and I am sure I will smash 3h, I want to be looking more at 2:50 really.  Now the next part of my training season starts, cycling season.

Week 17 – Bonn Marathon Week

The first really big race of the year is only 6 days away now, and I am nervous, but quietly confident too!
I have run 2 marathons before, the first was in Istanbul only 16 weeks or so after I started running for the first time.  I thought everything went well in training and I aimed for a 3:30, but I blew in completely and ended up limping in a painful 3:57.  My second marathon was Frankfurt in October 2014.  Training was more consistent, but plagued by my iron problems leading to low haemoglobin in the late summer.  I never really got on track to reach my original goal of sub3, on race day I was aiming for 3:15 and I ran in a not dreadful 3:18:xx.  It was definitely better than Istanbul, but still not ideal.

I think that my under-performance in my marathons is down to my tapering.  I had done long runs that were faster than my marathon pace last year, and with a much lower heart rate, but come race day I couldn't do any more.  That's why I have decided to keep Bonn as close to being the end of a normal running week as possible.  I'm not going to be stupid, but I am going to train fairly normally thins week up until Thursday.  I don't want to have heavy legs on Sunday, but unless I go crazy or do short intervals on Thursday (I won't), I expect my legs will have recovered by Sunday.

The weather is looking a bit warm and sunny for my liking, though 15 is better than the 22 they were predicting last week.  If it clouds over then 15 would be pretty much perfect.  I start at 10:30am, which is a bit late for my liking, it means that I will be running until 13:30 or so, which will be the warmest part of the day.  I can't do anything about it though, so I will just run and see what happens.

I plan to run with the 3h pace group, and this time I will forget my HR and just run with them (I ran to HR in Frankfurt).  It is a "do it or go out in a ball of flames" tactic, so if my HR is 170 after 15km, it could be a painful day, but that shouldn't be the case.  The way I see it, I have 23s/km spare from my HM pace to my marathon goal pace, that's quite a lot!  Hopefully I can cruise the first half, then after 30km or so start to move ahead of the pace group.  My prediction is a 2:57:30.  I'll write a race report, hopefully titled Bonn Marathon – Sub3 – Goal Achieved!