project 2015 – Page 4

End of week 16 – Duathlon training

As it was Easter, I had Monday off work. I wanted to really utilise this extra free day, especially as the weather was great, but my legs weren't playing ball. I ended up going for an evening spin of 57km, so it was better than nothing, but not really the best use of a bank holiday. It was a fairly good example of going too hard the day before meaning I couldn't train the day after, I won't make the same mistake again in a hurry.

On Tuesday I was really tired, I went to the gym and did some strength work, then went onto the treadmill thinking I would do a hilly run, but it wasn't worth it with my legs feeling so heavy, so I ran about 3km easy and left it at that.
Wednesday was a lovely evening after work, so in shorts and t-shirt I went for an outdoor 11.6km loop. It was really nice, and felt easy but ended up being 4:44 pace which was faster than expected. I definitely sweat more than I have been, I'll have to be careful with nutrition in Bonn if it is warm for my marathon.
Thursday was a good one. I worked until about 17:45, but instead of binning training as I may have felt like doing, I ate quickly then headed out for a cycle. I did give a little bit more effort, but not 100%. I was very happy to see that I had averaged 31.9km/h at the end of the 53km ride. It was my first ride of the year in shorts and short arms, I really enjoyed it, even if I could have picked a better route.
Friday was another lovely evening, so I ran my extended 15.5km route at easy tempo. I didn't push at any point but I ran a 4:48 pace with a 144bpm average (75% of max HR). That is a pretty good pace for me whilst running easy and in the warm, so I was happy with that. On Saturday I was a bit time crunched and wasn't too sure of what to do. I decided on an intervals session at Willy Wacker running track. I don't want to over do it and injure myself a week before Bonn, so I ran at 3:45/km for my km repeats. That would have been crazy fast not too long ago, but the first 6 repeats all felt quite easy. The last 2 were a bit tougher, but still fine, I ended with 8x1km all between 3:39 and 3:44, the run was 13km total in just under an hour, it's possibly my last intervals before Bonn, not sure yet though.

On Sunday I went for a solo bike ride. I freestyled the route a bit, and it ended up being pretty flat, but it was 118km at 31.2km/h and 800m of climbing at the end of the day. I am getting used to my TT bike a bit more now and feel like my position is pretty good. My shoulders/neck do get quite tight though. I have decided to try to power through and get used to the aero-position, hopefully it will pay dividends later in the season. Last year in Wasserstadt I was out of aero-position a lot of the time due to my neck/shoulders, I don't want that to happen again.

And that was that, a good week of training no doubt, but again no swimming. I was thinking about it yesterday on the bike, I will swim 2+ times a week after Bonn. That is not a promise, but I will really try to do it. Freibad season starts soon which will make it easier for me to get to a good swimming pool, I can also swim before work in Nieder-Olm if I ever feel obliged. It is getting a bit ridiculous with my lack of swimming at the moment though, I will be happy with another 38m swim in Wasserstadt, but I don't want to convert that to a 90m swim in Köln like Jochen did.

Running: 43.1km (787.1kmYTD)
Cycling: 228km (1527km YTD)
Swimming: 0km (28.25km YTD)

End of week 14 (distant memories)

Right, here is what I remember, along with what strava/movescount say I did!
Monday I did my 7x1km intervals, I did the last 2 faster and the last 1.5km in one interval instead of 1km.
Tuesday Swimming 2km in Mombach, so 22km cycling there and back too. I seem to remember it being better than I had feared after a long lay off from swimming.
Wednesday: I did some 400m intervals but my calves were feeling dead tight after a few in the Kinvaras, so I went and did some general km repeats instead. Mainly pretty quick, like 3:45 or so pace. was 12.5km at the end at 4:26 pace, not sure the GPS is right with that though.

Thursday: I ran before work my 11.6km route. I noticed that my feet were hurting afterwards, day 1 of Plantar Fasciitis! I decided not to run my planned long run on Friday because of that. If it wasn't called Plantar Fasciitis, I wouldn't have been worried, but it is and I have heard lots of horror stories about it, so I was being cautious! Arne telling me in seminar that my running career is over but i just hadn't realised it yet was too comforting either for some reason!

I went to Hamburg for a weekend of drinking on Friday. I don't think bowling or pool count as exercise, though I did swim 2km and run a single 1km on the treadmill, just to do something and not hurt my feet. That was it for the weekend, not a big training weekend.

Running 35km (702.1km)
Cycling 0km (no chances 1083km YTD)
Swimming 4km (28.25km YTD)

End of (where are we now?) week 15

I didn't write last week, poor from me, but I was in Hamburg and had quite a bit on at work. I'll try to remember what I was up to!

First: this week. It's been a really good one (for cycling and running!). My plantar fasciitis was a bit painful at the start of the week, but now I can hardly feel it, so that's pretty good. On Monday I decided to do a hilly treadmill interval run so that I wouldn't further injure my feet. It went well, I even sped up to 12km/h for the last intervals, which I'd never done before. I did a bit of strength work before that, all good.
Tuesday I went to the gym again, this time I ran 20+ minutes very easy, then did 25 mins hard on the elliptical. I didn't even know that the elliptical could be hard, but my heart was up in the 160s, so that counts as hard! Again I did some strength work.
On Wednesday I was feeling a bit lazy and the weather outside was awful, so I cycled on the trainer for about an hour (a bit less due to trying to fix the trainer!) it wasn't hard riding or anything specific, just better than a day completely off.
Thursday I did proper 1km intervals on the treadmill at the gym. I cleverly decided to do them in the evening after eating dinner, so I managed 2km, then a toilet break, then 2km then a toilet break then 1.5km and a final toilet break before giving up and going home! Again I had done some strength work beforehand…

Good Friday is a bank holiday, so I met up with a bunch of TCEC guys and went to ride some hill repeats. We decided to do 2×2 climbs with a loop between, but that became 2×3 climbs. I started off a bit too fast, getting to the top in 1st place on the first climb, even though I felt like I was holding back. 2nd climb was 6 seconds slower, and I was 2nd place, then it got worse and worse. I was always 3rd for the other climbs, so it wasn't a nightmare, but I lost 30+ seconds per climb (3:20-3:54) from the first to the last few. I think I went too hard and lack muscular endurance on the bike.. it'll come when I get the miles up in spring/summer.

See the race report for yesterday. It was a great confirmation race before Bonn in 2 weeks.

Today I cycled 114km with Jochen and Dimi. I was a bit peeved to start with when they were giving it everything on the flat and every bump, I just wanted to go easy as my legs weren't feeling 100%. in Hausen they went off ahead on the 6km long hill, but soon enough the gap plateaued and I started to catch them near the top. I got back to Dimi and was about 10m behind Jochen. As the day went on they seemed to be running out of gas, and I was feeling better and better until I was having no issues staying with them on the way home. It ended up being a good ride.

Running 42km (744.1km YTD)
Cycling 216km (1299km YTD)
Swimming 0km (28.25km YTD I am an idiot)

Race Report – Rheinzabern OsterLauf (Half Marathon)

Right I haven’t updated for last week but I ran a half marathon today so will do my race report and get back on track with the regular updates tomorrow!

Jochen has been planning the Rheinzabern Osterlauf for a while, but it is a long way from home for me, and he wasn’t going to come back to Mainz after, so I was going to give it a miss… until on Thursday he changed his plans and offered a ride there and back, so I was on for a last tune up race before Bonn!

Last year I ran the 10km in Rheinzabern, I was really happy with a 39:56, a new PB, but things have moved on a bit since then. My aim for the half marathon was a 1:23:00 or better, as that would mean that my half marathon time is as good as my 10k time, and both would predict a way faster than 3h marathon, my big pre-season goal. I did also hope for a top 10 finish, but that was very dependent on who turned up..

So we signed in and did very little warm up. The weather was cold, about 4 Celsius and raining, good race weather in my opinion. With only 300 runners in the field, there was little traffic, so I wasn’t held up at all. The first k I was actively trying to run slower, but I passed the KM marker after 3:47, too fast. Jochen had planned to hang on as long as possible, as he wanted to run as fast as possible, with 1:25 being a goal time. He stayed just behind me as I tapped out km after km in just under 4:00/km pace. After 6km I was feeling great and the wind was behind me and without really trying I accelerated to 3:45 pace.

That was when Jochen dropped behind and I started moving through the field. There is a cross-back after about 9km and I counted that the first 8 were well clear, then came 2 groups of about 10, then me. I was pretty sure of catching the 2nd group, but the first would be tougher. 2km later I was into the 2nd group, which had started to splinter. A guy in red was going off the front, but I caught and passed him by 12km. There were a few people falling back from the first group but not enough yet, and man in red was hanging on behind me. I had gone through 10k in 38:42 and then 15km in 58:04, so the pace was consistent and good. After 17km I caught 2 more with man in red still behind me, then came the 2nd cross back (its a 2 loop race). I counted 11 ahead of me, all pretty well clear too, so top 10 was out, but sub 1:22 was looking good. It was only after the 19km marker that I really started to feel the pace and it hurt.

The last 2.1km were purgatory, I knew that any decent pace would get me my goal, but I think the man in red passing me hit me mentally, even though I had expected it to happen. I saw that no one was behind me, so I could just do what I could do, and see what happens. Through 20km I worked out (possibly incorrectly) that a 3:45km would get me a 1:21:30, I fancied that and was even mumbling 1:21:30 with each breath! but Through 21km in 1:21:25 I realised that wasn’t happening but I ran in a self-timed 1:21:49, great!

I got a cup of tea and saw Jochen sprint in a 1:24:58 (somehow rounded up to 1:25:00 by someone!), to round off a very successful day. The results were soon posted and I was 13th overall, and 3rd in my age group 🙂 So I got a little easter basket for my effort, which was nice.

So there is not much more to say – don’t F up the last 2 weeks to Bonn, and run and even paced 2:59! Vdot says I can do a 2:50:45, so 2:59 should be easy… right!

End of Week 12, Start of week 13, Midweek update!

I am running late… again!

So last Thursday I already had run, and said in my midweek update that I wanted to go swimming. Well that thought didn’t stay in my head for too long, because by the time I got home, I didn’t want to swim anymore! I was a bit tired so took the evening off. On Friday I did my long run straight after work. Without the stomach problems that had plagued my last 2 long runs, I managed a 32km run with 10x 1km marathon pace/1km easier pace in the middle. There were some hard uphill intervals which I pushed through to keep marathon pace up, and one in Zornheim where a 4:15km wasn’t happening, not up a 7% hill!

I felt fine after my run, and on Saturday I wanted to cycle a bit and swim. I ordered a new cassette and chain for my road bike, so decided to put them on my bike. Now I am not the world’s best mechanic, but I was happy to get the cassette off easily and get the new one on, no problems.. Then the chain. I opened the old one, took it off, put the new one on and went to close it, except that I had to wide links facing each other. I couldn’t take another link out, because then it would be too short, so I tried to re-add links in. After a bit of a fiddle I managed to snap the chain tool, so I couldn’t ride my road bike. I was really really peed off, so ended up doing nothing all day Saturday!

On Sunday I cycled my TT bike to Undenheim to meet up with Dimi for a long ride. The weather was a bit chilly and breezy, but not bad. I was happy to be able to stop in Undenheim before he got there, as my bike was so badly set up for me it was hardly rideable! With the saddle about 4cm further back and 15degrees higher, and the back brake closed(!!) I was good to go. We cycled south over quite hilly terrain near Rockenhausen, with the wind, before turning back towards Mainz, against the wind. The last hour and a half were hard work, but sharing the work we managed it quite well. Dimi was fast on the hills again, occasionally putting me in difficulty, but by the end of the day it was pretty level, I tried to drop him on the Wolfsheim climb, but couldn’t quite manage it, damn! End result was 125km at 28.9km/h, a good ride.

Embarrassingly, I didn’t swim at all this week. I really couldn’t bring myself to do it, I need to get back into it somehow, but it was a bad week for swimming.

Running 74.8km (667.1km YTD)
Cycling 125km (1083km YTD)
Swimming 0km (24,25km YTD)

So as I am writing this on Wednesday 25.03, I am already well into the training week of week 13.
On Monday I did my 7x1km intervals on the treadmill. I felt great and my HR was lower than normal, so I increased the speed to 16km/h. I also did the last 1,5km as one interval. I was feeling very happy with myself, but then I clicked on the gradient and am now not sure if I was running at 0% or at my normal 1%. If it was 0% then it wasn’t so great, at 1% it was a great workout!

Last night I cycled to swimming! I swam 2km, all not crazy fast, but it wasn’t too bad really. I will try to get to the pool again sometime this week, though as I am going to Hamburg from Friday to Sunday for a stag-do, it could be difficult.
I am planning on doing more track intervals tonight. I haven’t decided what exactly, I think maybe the 1-2-3-2-1 pyramid that I did a couple of weeks ago. Tomorrow I might cycle, otherwise I won’t be cycling at all this week. That wouldn’t be great, but the clocks change this weekend!! WOOHOO, then I can actually ride in the evenings. I am really looking forward to it. I want to kick start my cycling season with some 250km weeks, I hardly managed any last year, so getting them in early this year would be good.

Friday I will run before going to Hamburg. Saturday I hope to be able to sneak away and either swim or go to the gym, same on Sunday, though I get back at about 5pm, so I could go when I get home.

I entered Bonn marathon, it’s only 3.5 weeks away now. I want to find a race on Easter weekend, but I can’t find anything that I can get to and from easily… If not I will try for a big cycling weekend over easter, maybe with a running time-trial to keep me ticking over. 3 hours is looking on, and last year 3h would have been 2nd best man in my age group, so I would have won 100€, that would be awesome, I’d basically be a pro!

Back on Sunday!

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.

Start of week 12

As I am writing this on Monday evening, I can accurately predict that I will do hill intervals at the gym on the treadmill on Monday after work! I also did some leg strength work.

Tomorrow’s plan is to run before work, then swim after work at Taubertsbergbad, before celebrating St Paddies Day at the Irish Pub. On Wednesday I would like to run before work again, and cycle after work. I feel like doing some short intervals on Thursday for some reason, I might do a pyramid again but 400-600-800-1000-800-600-400, the paces would be hard to work out as I have little idea! lets say now 1:15-1:55-2:40-3:30-2:40-1:55-1:15, is that reasonable? I really don’t know but lets find out!

Friday would ideally be long run day again with a good portion at race pace, followed by a Saturday swim and cycle and Sunday long cycle.

I pre-ordered myself a powermeter today, I am both excited and nervous about it! It is a 4iiii Precision, a new crank based powermeter that promises to be like stages but cheaper and more accurate. Fortunately they will be pre-assembled on the crank arm, not DIY like they first planned!
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I have never trained with power before, but I think it can only help for pacing the long distance and middle distance races I have planned this year 🙂 I have no idea when it will get here, but I am looking forward to it, I can plan some proper intervals too, it’s done wonders for my running, hopefully it’ll be the same for cycling…

5 weeks to Bonn marathon, oh yeah, I am not going to do the Tour of Flanders, too much effort, I would have to do it alone and I could better use the 4 day weekend training at home, sad but a good choice I feel.

End of week 11

Sorry, sorry, I a writing this late I know!

So last week was a good one, maybe not quite as good as I had ambitiously planned, but nonetheless good.
I had really tight calves for the first half of the week after my half marathon on Sunday. I didn't post it last week, but I picked up my TT bike last week. It's a Canyon Speedmax Al, ok I know it isn't the most expensive bike in the world, but it looks class and I am sure it will be fast when I finally get a chance to ride it!

1907455_10153179692238478_1908868658268869744_n

So onto actual training. Monday I cycled on my road bike for 38km in the evening. It still gets dark pretty early in the ride, but I really enjoyed it. On Tuesday I got up before work and did my 11.6km route at 4:51/km pace, quite decent, again I started a bit slower but soon got going and even had some at marathon pace or above at the end of the run. In the evening I cycled to mombach to swim… That was the low point of the training week for me, I was slow, I got leg cramps and to be honest with you, I just couldn't be bothered with swimming. I love the feeling of being outdoors when I run or ride, I get so bored swimming back and forth. Anyway, enough of my bitching, I swam 1.5km wuhoo!

On Wednesday I decided to do my intervals on the track. I have been doing 7x1km for a long while now, but I thought I would switch it up a bit and do a little pyramid. So I did 1km: 3:35 – 2km: 7:32 – 3km: 11:48 – 2km: 7:38 – 1km: 3:42. I went off too fast and could have come back as fast, but was faster than I had planned so didn't push it. It was really good, except for all the parents who stand on the running track for no reason and seem to get a kick out of blocking runners going past!

Thursday I ran before work again, it was a bit slower, but just a nice easy 4:57/km pace. I was a bit tired on Thursday evening, so had the evening off.
Friday I tried out the after work long run. I will spare you the details, but my stomach was almost as bad as last time I did my long run after work 🙁 With a good few pauses I ran 30.7km with 10.7km at just faster than 3h marathon pace in the middle. It felt quite tough in the marathon pace part, but the route I run is far from flat. I recovered really quickly after the faster part so could easily jog it home at 5:00/km pace.

On Saturday I met up with Jochen and Dimi for a cycle. These rides are always a test as they are pretty aggressive riders! It soon became clear that Dimi had come through winter with the best legs, and that Jochen isn't quite on form yet, and I fell in the middle, but not far behind Dimi. The climb to Ebersheim after 100 cold km, was interesting, I had decided to give it some as had everyone else apparently! Dimi shot off as he does, but I started to gain back to him, unfortunately once the gap got to about 10m, it stabilized and I couldn't get on his wheel, like I said to Jochen in the ride, we'll get him later in the season! The ride ended with 111km at 28.1km/h for me, a nice ride just spoiled a bit by the cold and wind.

Sunday I ran a few km in the morning, but my stomach was still playing silly buggers, so I came home after 8.5km and called it a week. I decided that I need to look at my diet to solve this ever worsening stomach problem. 1st test is, no more sweeteners, no more multivitamin tablets, no more oranges, no more quark 🙁 and no milk in my coffee at work. Lets see what that brings.

Running: 74km (592.3km YTD)
Cycling: 161km (958km YTD)
Swimming: 1.5 unenjoyable km (24,25km YTD)

Start of week 11

I have a bit of muscle ache after yesterday’s half marathon, so that will effect my training plan for this week. It’d be nice if I could actually get all of my planned training done this week, instead of being ill, travelling or some other quasi excuse.

I think tonight I will go for a little cycle ride, maybe 50km or so, just to get the legs moving and hopefully loosen things up too. Tomorrow I want to run before work, then after work I will swim. Wednesday will be the first real run of the week, I’ll do my intervals, 7x1km as always, I’d like to do them outside if possible.
Thursday another before work run, and after work cycle would be ideal, then friday I will do a longer run with some at marathon tempo.

Saturday will be swimming and cycling, then Sunday maybe cycling and running. That would be a good week! Lets see what comes out in the wash!

End of week 10

Well it wasn't a great week, but it was a great week!
I was at home and suffering from allergies from Monday to Wednesday, that was on top of a cold, so training wise it wasn't a great week.

I ran on Tuesday, a sore lunged 10k at home. On Wednesday I ran 11.6km back in Germany, also not great, even though the lungs felt a bit better. Thursday I went to the gym after work to try my 7x1km intervals, but between the intervals I was having so strong muscle ache in my abs, that I was almost keeled over in pain. After 3 fast kms, I decided it wasn't worth it so went home. I had done some strength work before the short 5km run.

On Friday I ran nice and slow before work, still not feeling good I ran 9km.

Finally on Saturday there were signs of life, I went for a 50km bike ride as the weather was lovely (after winter lovely, not actual lovely!) I managed about 29km/h average and was giving it some on the hills, it was great fun, I was really happy when I got home.

Then today, Frankfurt half marathon day! Even after 2 bad weeks of training, it is still there. A big PB and a 2015 goal reached.

Running 56km (518.3km YTD)
Cycling 50km (797km YTD)
Swimming 0.0km oops (22,75km YTD)