week 3

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)

Lindensee 10k

First race of the year, a 10k race in Rüsselsheim. I managed to rope Jochen into racing with me, he hasn’t run too much in the last few weeks but claims good form for his first 10k race ever!

After getting warmed up and 'emptied' I was ready to go. The start was a bit fast, a first look at the watch showed 3:30/km and Jochen was still ahead of me! After about 1km the pace settled and I moved past him and through the field. I seemed to be having to push a bit to keep my 3:50 pace up and my HR was up around 178… too high.

After about 4km there was a sharp turn where I could see that the footsteps behind me weren't Jochen, because he had fallen about 30m behind. I pushed on in a small group, 2 of whom then passed me, one a bit too quick, the other perfect to follow. After 6km I saw 23mins on the watch, only 16mins or so left, that's why 10ks are good!
The last few k clicked down without too much excitement. I passed someone like he had a flat tyre with 1km left, the guy I had followed for ages didn't seem to want me to pass, and I don't think he was in my age group, so I didn't fight too much (it turned out he was in my age group and it was a fight for 2nd!). The end was starting to hurt, but a quick look at the watch showed 38:36, a 70 second PB!!

https://www.strava.com/activities/242207270

Jochen managed a 40:25 or so, he was very disappointed. It's the first time I have beaten him, and hopefully not the last 🙂

I'm not planning anymore races until Frankfurt half marathon in 6 weeks. Today's time predicts a 1:25:10 half, the first goal of the season is within reach.

Midweek update

It’s Thursday morning so I thought I should give a little midweek update.

Last week I flew out of the gates with 4 workouts on Monday and Tuesday, ending up with 9 workouts for the week. This week, not so much!
The long run on Sunday apparently took more out of me than I knew, or lack of sleep caught up with me, or both. I took Monday as a rest day, only doing a bit of strength work. On Tuesday even though I wasn’t up for it at all, I went and did my 7x1km intervals, and actually they went really well, no issues and a lower HR than last week.

Last night I still couldn’t much be bothered, but I went and cycled about 90minutes on the MTB outside. I went with my big headlamp and set off in the direction of Nierstein. I wanted to climb the little hills, whilst avoiding any traffic. All went well until I decided to loop back home on an unknown route, instead of just doing a 180. The path went on for a while, until it ended, so I went off road. Then the track ended too, so I turned back to get back to the track, except that the wet track was so muddy that my tyres just span out without going forward! I walked back to the path, then looked around for a way home. After a few dead ends I was getting worried, aware that my light won’t last forever, when I found a path leading back towards Lorzweiler. By the time I got back to Hechtsheim my ultra-bright headtorch was more like a glow stick, I was happy to get home! I don’t know how great training it is, but it is certainly more fun to MTB than go on the rollers. I think I will just do what I can be bothered to! I see a sufferfest video in my near future too.

So that is where I am, only 1 run and 1 cycle in 3 days. The plan for the rest of the week is: tonight hilly treadmill with some leg/core strength. Tomorrow swim training no. 3 with Max (might squeeze a short run in beforehand). Saturday I want to do the Rüsselsheim Lindensee 10km and go under 39 minutes, then slow jog the 18km or so home. Sunday I will cycle, where and how long is weather dependent.

In other news, I have been eating like a pig for the last 2 evenings. Granted, yesterday I ate very little during the day, but Pizza, porridge and 500g Quark is way too much! I will try to get that back under control today. I am trying to get to bed earlier, so I can get 8-9h of sleep, but I am not sleeping very well. I will keep trying though.

So week 2 was a good one, so the plan won’t drastically change this week.

Run at least 4 times
Cycle: 2 times but I need to get a real longer ride done. I’m not talking 150km here, I’ll be taking baby steps, but 4 hours would be a decent start.
Swim: I might as well keep on with the 100m more each workout routine. so I expect 2 workouts of 1.9km and 2km.

I think I will try some TCEC things this week too. The ones that fit best are running on Tuesday and Swimming on Wednesday. Depending on what we do on Tuesday, I’ll either do my 7x1km or the hilly treadmill run on Thursday. Saturday long ride and Sunday long run seems fair enough. That leaves Monday and Friday, one will be a swim, the other an easy outdoor run. I might tag on an easy 5km run after the gym cycle again as that seemed to work.

These obviously aren’t set in stone, I could try to cycle on Wednesday, then go to swimming and take a day off! Let’s see how I feel and, nearly literally, where the wind takes me!