2018 - the return to Ironman Austria

Last week was a holiday away from Northampton so I took the opportunity to run around the Lancashire coast around Thurnham and Glasson, flat roads, coastal paths, great views on some days and not much traffic on the minor roads. Monday was supposed to be a shorter recovery run after the long run on Sunday, but it was a beautiful cold, crisp frosty morning so I headed to the coastal path running along the edge of Morecambe Bay past Cockerham Abbey a great but bleak location for a run.  I ran for 6.65 miles in 66'14" at 9'58" pace.  We the headed into the Lake District - it was crowded for half term - great views, bracing walk at Hardness Roman Fort. Tuesday was a short hills session with 12x1minute (200m) up hill sets with 2 mins downhill recovery.  A great session if somewhat boring and bemusing to the locals!  Wednesday was an evening run with the sun setting, again headed to the coastal footpath, great tricks of light as the sun was setting and birds swarming and ...

The countdown is really underway, in 2 weeks I will have finished and hopefully celebrating in NY. The last week has been busy meaning that planned sessions have had to be moved around.  No Pilate's on Monday as I had a WRR committee meeting so made do with an easy recovery run after last Sunday's 21.1 miles run.  I ran for 47'38" covering 4.52 miles at a 10'33" per mile pace mainly in HR Z1.  I was up early and working so I could get in a bike ride once it was light.  I went out on the Litchborough loop in 71'39" covering 18.97 miles at an average of 15.9mph. I managed a swim on Wednesday morning, I swam for 46'56" covering 1,520m.  The session was a mix of drills playing catch up with fins as well as an endurance set.  In the evening I ran 8.41miles in 1hour 14'59" averaging 8'54" per mile - it was a good run with a diversion to explore the hospital grounds new build.  I was planning in doing a WRR session on Thursday bu...

After the Peterborough half marathon last Sunday this was planned to be an active recovery week, mixture pf sessions building up to a 22 run today. Monday felt good, no reaction to the race, so normal Pilate's session to end an easy day.  Tuesday was the first of the 2 speed sessions for the week with the plan to do 1 mile warm-up, 5x1 mile fast sets with 0.1mile recovery in-between and then 1 mile cool down.  This had to be a Swan Valley session on the long loop near Sainsbury's again.  It felt a good session, the 3rd and 4th set were the hardest, but overall all sets within the 7 minute time slot.  A total session of 60'55" covering 7.33miles (short cool down run) with overall 8'19" per mile pace.  50% of the effort was in HR Z5 which was not surprising. I had hoped to do 2 sessions on Wednesday with a swim in the morning and then a run in the evening, unfortunately it seemed to take forever to get to Gateshead for an overnight business stay that I arrived ...

All week's seem to be funny week's at the minute, I do not seem to be able to fit in my training plan as planned.  I missed a couple of sessions this week, including  a mid-week bike ride, although I had 2 good speed sessions and a half marathon on Sunday (today). I started the week with an easy early morning recovery run at 10' mile pace covering 4.1 mikes in 41'05", even the HR data agreed for a change.  The evening Pilate's session was good fun but I getting tired of the discussions about Spooks - I may need to watch it sometime to see what is so good about it! Tuesday was a fast running session.  I headed over to Swan Valley so I could run around the flattish .8mile loop and have no traffic and people getting in the way.  It was a 1 mile warm up, followed by 4x1.5miles sets in an 11 minute target time with 3 minutes recovery. I was pleased that I was able to run within the times, just about.  It was a tiring session but felt good afterwards.  I w...

The last week has been hectic to say the least, not all the planned training happened nor on the days planned, but with 5 weeks to go and after a good 17 mile run this morning I am feeling good and looking forward to the Peterborough Great Eastern Half next week. Last Sunday was planned to be 3 laps of Pitsford reservoir, however once I got started from the Holcot Road car park the wind was very strong and in my face so I had a change of plan and headed off to run along the Brampton Valley Way looking for some shelter.  I had forgotten how boring the BVW can be especially over 6 miles between Brampton Holt and the Draughton Road but I did get some shelter and when I got to Lamport I headed off to Old and Holcot on roads I had not run on before.  When I got to Old I asked to check my directions and was sent in the wrong direction to get back to my car probably adding at least a mile onto the run.  I ran 21 miles in 3hours 12'28", in what felt like a slow and heavy legged ...