Tag: triathlontraining

Feeling fit, bit bored of Triathlons though!

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Soooooo, i haven’t updated this for a while! I can not be bothered to fully recap everything in the last few months. I’ll do a quick recap of what i’ve been up to, a few picks, then i might rattle on about stuff.

  • May – Maltby Sprint Triathlon 1:16:41 – Was really happy with this and enjoyed the race.
  • Ripon Triathlon 2:48:08 – Swim = 31:19 – Bike = 1:21:17 – Run = 52:44 – I enjoyed this, bit warm, but was a nice day. I fucked up for about 10km on the bike, i couldn’t work my new hydration bottle thing!! And it was fucking baking, so i panicked a little! Yes, i’m the big dickhead who didn’t test things before a race!! No fucking medal either!!!!!!! Gutted!
  • Castle Howard Triathlon 3:08:25 – Swim 24:13 (Ripon was a non-wetsuit swim, hence the time difference) – Bike = 1:40:37 (This was about 7km longer than 40km, hence the 20mins time difference from Ripon) – Run = 55:57 – The swim was dirty and full of reeds, then a 600m run up an hill to T1 (T1 took me 6 mins!!!), i hated the bike, but again this is my dumb fault as the weekend before i did a 110mile bike from Filey to Barnsley! I could feel the fatigue in my legs. I loved the run, it was all off road on trails around Castle Howard, it was mainly up hill too! I might, next year just do the half marathon run as the weekend festival was good. I hate my time result on this, the 6mins in transition and extra 7km on bike ruins it!

The above are the races i’ve done, i’ve also do the Great Yorkshire Bike Ride which is 80miles, the Filey to Barnsley, about 7 Oxspring Trunces, which is a local fell race. The Dam Flask relays, which was awesome and Stan’s Toffee Run, which is a local trail race.

 

 

I’m getting bored with Triathlons, not so much the actual events but the training for them. I enjoy the swimming, the biking and the running. What i don’t like is that sometime its feels restrictive in how i train and what i want to do. Its mainly the biking and the running. The road biking i like and enjoy, i find nice rural roads and kind of just explore, which is good as there is plenty around where i live. The problem is that just training isn’t about a nice amble out. It has to be functional on the bike whether this is endurance or speed etc. So most of the time its head down and get the numbers right! And the running!! i love running, but i love running in the middle of hills, mountains and trails. I like to stop at the top and admire the views! I like that n one is around and its kind of just you and nature! i also like the kind of self sufficient thing about it. You put on your race vest, few snacks, water, rain coat and just fuck off somewhere! Training for flat road and speed gets boring.

I’ve been doing a few more trail runs lately and kind of neglecting the bike. I have about 4 to 5 weeks until Ironman Weymouth, so i need to get some biking in.

The plus point is i do feel a lot fitter than say 6 months ago. I did a 16 mile run in the Peak District the other day with 3,500ft of elevation in it. I felt brill, and i’ve not really done that for 3 months, and i have’t run over 10 miles since start of May. So i was happy with the progress.

Currently my training week breaks down into

  • Monday: Swim 2,000m (am) / 1 Hour turbo on Sufferfest (pm)
  • Tuesday: Swim 2,000m (am) / Speed work 5 – 10km (pm)
  • Wednesday: 1 hour Strength & conditioning (am) / 1 Hour turbo on Sufferfest (pm)
  • Thursday: 2000m (am) / Club ride 30km & 5km brick (steady pace)
  • Friday: 2000m (pm) / 30mins Yoga (pm)
  • Saturday: 100km bike ride & 5km brick
  • Sunday: 10 – 20km steady recovery run

Sometimes i miss shit, sometimes i swim less than 2,000m etc but i try and roughly stick to this. If i’m feeling tired or that i need a rest then i’ll take a day off. I use Training Peaks to plan shit and review my form and numbers etc. It works out to around 10 – 15 hours per week, depending on how i feel.

I do think though 2019 will be a run only year though, i’ll still swim and ride, but the comps will be run only!

6 races left until the end of 2017

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I haven’t scheduled any races/events in until September, i kind of wanted a little time to just enjoy the training, and plan some other stuff, and i had a couple of exams to do, and the wife wanted to go on holiday in August (Amalfi Coast). Also i’m not a huge fan of running in heat, not that England is hot, but i prefer colder temps!

I haven’t blogged for a while so i’m not sure where i’m up to!

The last event i did was the Ripon Triathlon, my first Olympic Distance. My aim was to do my first one in under 3 hours. I dd the swim in 30 mins, bike in 1 hour 23, and the run in 24 mins. The overall time was 2:53:33. I learned a few things from doing this, which is good. I need to practice my biking a lot!! but i was happy with the bike time. I should have eased off the bike for the last 5 mins to give my legs a little rest for the run. Also because i tracked the times on my Garmin i knew how long i had for the run, which kind of had its advantages and disadvantages. As soon as i started the run i knew i had 1 hour, which i knew i could easily do, i kind of eased off the run, with my main priority being to just finish, and get the first one under the belt. After i felt like i should have pushed the run a lot more, but i suppose next time i know i can beat my time.

The field average was like 15 mins faster than me, but i know my biking is bad, and i barely practice, which i’m going to sort out for next year. I’m faster than the average in the swim, and i can beat the average in the run (when i decide to push myself). So no more triathlons this year. All running events, then around Christmas time i’ll start upping my bike training for 2018.

The races for the rest of the year are.

  • Half marathon 03/09/2017
  • 10km race 24/09/2017
  • Marathon 06/10/2017
  • 50km trail race x2 over 2 days  18/11/2017 & 19/11/2017
  • Trail Marathon 02/12/2017
  • 10mile trail race 09/12/2017

So the rest of the year is mainly run training. Which is no different to any  other time, hence being shot on a bike!!

Currently my training is

Monday – PT session, work on mobility, flexibility and core

Tuesday – Club run, either hills or speed work

Wednesday – Open water Swim

Thursday – Middle distance run from 8km to 12km

Friday – Open water swim

Saturday – Long run (20km – 40km)

Sunday – Rest or recovery run

Thrown in between, is sometimes i cycle to work, this is like 8km on a long straight road, so when i do this i try to use it as a kind of time trail. I also go to the gym every now and again do some weights and swim at the pool.

I’m going to stick with this for rest of year, then change this to incorporate more bike work. The open water swims will end in a month or so, so i will have to up my pool swimming.

Training & Comps

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Everything’s been going good, had a little unmotivated few days last week, but apart from that on track.

Benn running about 3 times a wee, and swimming around times, my biking hasn’t been really going anywhere. Started commuting to work (when the weather is good), but that is more of a 9km sprint to see if can do it faster than the car!

I did the Maltby Sprint Triathlon a month or so back, this was a new event put on by Huub, the wetsuit/triathlon brand, was really well orgainsed. Really enjoyed it, but it made me realise how shit my bike is/was, so i bought a new one.

This is my ride home from the shop buying the bike, i know its only 4km, but the point is i got to the top of a Strava leaderboard 😉

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After that i did another Dark & White event, this was a 26km run. This was the most annoying event to date, I smashed the first 21km (half marathon) in less than 2 hours (this is all off road on trials, so i was really happy with this time), then my knee proper fucked up, i had to hobble the last 5km, which ended up taking me 45mins. I was so disappointed with is, i could have finished in around 2:20 which would have put me in the top 30! I got over it though, and just focused on the fact i was doing so well for the first 21km.

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We then had a Triathlon orgainsed by the Tri Club i go to, Manvers. This was an 800m outdoor swim, 15km bike ride and a 5km run. I enjoyed this, was a good day, and really nice that other clubs turned up and took part. The bike was off-road, which meant i had to use my mountain bike, which is slow as fuck when compared to road. You just feel like you’re peddling like mad to get nowhere! The swim and run went well though.

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And yesterday i did another Trail Marathon, this was the Peakrunners Ladybower Marathon. I love running in the Peak District, the views are incredible and the terrain is ever changing, and some of it gets really technical on the downhill trails. I did this in 4hours 36mins, which i was over the moon with for a trail marathon. The run was really good, as normal the last 6 miles were hard going, and they decided to throw in a huge hill at mile 15! always nice.

So all in all a god few months. And last week i also book this 🙂

Screen Shot 2017-06-25 at 18.51.58

So this will be in September, i’m going with a mate who owns a pub in London, which he also lives in (the flat above the pub, not just randomly in a pub), which worked out brill, as we’re flying from Gatwick. The holiday is Friday to Monday, i’m going to London on the Thursday, and coming back from London on the Wednesday. I have never been more excited about a trip!

And finally here are some snaps of a few runs, swims etc and other shit. Oh and the Vibram 5 Fingers are awesome, but fuck me start of steady, i did the 4km run and honestly i could not train for about 4 days, my calves were in bits. The picture below with the blue skies and 28 degree heat (Celsius) was a run to my sisters, about 15km the heat was pretty unbearable (not used to it in the UK), the other pic of me having run 15.67km, in a Salomon waterproof coat, with constant heavy rain and wind was exactly a week before the other one!The 50km one is a bike ride, the other is the Lake and a few open water laps. Next week is the Ripon Triathlon, Olympic Distance.

 

Training going well, over due update.

adamslifejourneyLeave a comment

Ok, so, its been a while. Still be running, swimming little bit of biking. Quite a bit in fact since the last update. My instagram is updated a lot more if anyone cares to follow achambers81

So i did the Bradfield, in the Peak District, it’s a lovely little village in a valley! 17km, awesome event held by Dark & White. I did the Langsett half marathon, which was a tough event. The hills are not too bad, and all runnable, but the terrain you go over makes it hard. Its on trail tracks for around the first 5 mile, than into the Peaks, then the track literally turns into a stream and bogs! hard going, then up to Margery Hill, which is basically, no path, just heather and bogs! Would recommend this if you like trail running. I then entered the Sheffield Half Marathon, so this is a road race, which i haven’t really done before. Everyone i talked to mentioned the hills in the first half, basically the race is 7 miles up hill then 6 miles down. Everyone was saying take it easy on the hills then speed up for the last. Now my bad here, i didn’t really distinguish between the trails runs and road running, and the people i talked to are road runners. On trail runs when someone says its hilly, its generally a bitch. The Bradfield 17km had a 120m rise over 400m, it was pretty much vertical climb, Winhill is 463m high, and around 1.5km, and i run that. So when the road runners were saying hilly, i was expecting a hill. I held back expecting hills, and it was just a steady incline for 7 miles, not really a hill! I was slightly gutted i held back on the first half.

I have bought a wetsuit ready for the open water swimming starting next week. I bought an Orca S6, after a lot of research on the net and speaking to people. It is supposably a good entry level wetsuit, with good buoyancy in the legs and chest. All to get ready for the Olympic Tri at the end of May.

I’ve felt a bot sketchy the last few weeks, but i think that was due to the bank holiday and going to Cambridge for a few days. It all threw my training off a bit, but i’m back on it now. And i’m starting to commute on the bike to work!

And here’s some photos

Langsett half marathon

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Dark & White Bradfield 15km

Sheffield Half Marathon

Training in the Peak District, up Winhill, to Loose Hill onto Back Tor, up to Mount Tor and back.

The wetsuit and the Lake

Few Random Snaps