It's been a couple of weeks since I last posted a blog, In the last couple of weeks I have introduced a speed session into my run training on a Tuesday evening and I've even been out on the road on the TT bike.
The winter seems to have been good to me the first run session I tried was round the 2 bridges as fast as I could just to give myself a benchmark as to where I am with my running, what a start, I ran a PB for the run, the last PB was posted about 4 years ago when I was doing quite a lot of running with aspirations of doing a marathon, This route is 5.9 miles in total which I ran in 37.40 the mile splits were 6.32, 6.23, 6.22, 6.10, 6.38 (hill in Normanston Park!!) and 6.21 to finish, well chuffed with that for a starting point.
Swimming is going reasonably well, I'm still only doing 1 session per week but feel much more comfortable in the water and swim stamina is getting better.
I went out on the TT bike for a ride round the Island, which is 24 miles this took me 1.07 which is an average speed of 21.6mph a bit disapointing as I can go just as quick on my road bike now, I will need to do more on the bike as I didn't feel comfortable or powerfull in the time trial riding position.
I've been doing a few more runs and rides but running at a slower pace as active recovery from the hard sessions, still only running about 12-15 miles per week but cycling between 70 - 90 miles per week on average.
The following Tuesday night I did the 2 bridges run as an interval sesson, broken down into mile sections, first mile easy second mile hard, third easy fourth hard and so on, the hard sections I was aiming for 6 min. mile pace but just missed this doing 6.03, 6.01 and 6.08 the easy miles I ran at 7.03, 6.54 and 7.06 this gave me an average of 6.33 pace for the run, I was pleased with this effort as I was still maintaining a resonable pace on the recovery miles.
This has been a good training week again although I havn't run as far I've done quality sessions and managed to get a long ride on the bike on Sunday of 56.78 miles riding down to Framlingham to watch Joe run a X country. I averaged 19.5 mph and felt strong all the way.
Things are going well enjoying the training and motivated to get quicker, just a couple of weeks before the easter holiday and time to do some more sessions before the season starts properly.
Monday, March 19, 2012
Sunday, March 4, 2012
first race of 2012
The first race of 2012 for me took place on Sunday 26th February this was the Fritton X country duathlon, the event consisted of a 2 mile run 6 mile bike and finished with a 2 mile run.
I started well not, going off too fast but not stuck behind slower runners once the trails narrowed and overtaking became a bit more difficult, fortunately the course was good and not to tight anywhere on the run, there were a couple of areas on the bike course where back markers and slower athletes could hold you up, but on the whole well designed and no problems for me personally, I finished the first run in 12.23, which put me in about 7th place, onto the bike and it took me a little while to find my legs and was overtaken by 1 person but then found a rhythm and pulled back a few places and moved up to 4th, the off road course was quite challenging there were only a couple of short areas of easy riding and a chance to catch your breath the rest was hard work to maintain a good pace.
the last run section for me was quite painful my legs didn't want to go fast and I was running slower than the first run section, fortunately I had built up a bit of a time cushion from 5th place and was able to hold on for 4th place overall, the first 3 were well away and left me for dead, so I've still got a long way to go before the Brownlee's need to worry.
A good start to the year and a pleasing result against good competition, a solid hours racing and a good test of the legs.
the last week my legs were a bit stiff Monday and Tuesday, but still working, Friday this week I ran home from work to try and get some long running into my legs, this was a good session, 11.23 miles in 1hr 17.35 which is an average pace of 6.54 mins/mile I felt happy with that I was able to maintain a constant pace and speed up for the last couple of miles, I'll try and do a few more of these sessions it made my Friday night pint taste much better!!
Training is back to normal, doing about 8-9 hrs a week at the moment a reasonably solid winter seems to have given me some strength in the legs if not loads of speed,
one day I'll get round to doing some of the speed sessions I keep talking about.
I started well not, going off too fast but not stuck behind slower runners once the trails narrowed and overtaking became a bit more difficult, fortunately the course was good and not to tight anywhere on the run, there were a couple of areas on the bike course where back markers and slower athletes could hold you up, but on the whole well designed and no problems for me personally, I finished the first run in 12.23, which put me in about 7th place, onto the bike and it took me a little while to find my legs and was overtaken by 1 person but then found a rhythm and pulled back a few places and moved up to 4th, the off road course was quite challenging there were only a couple of short areas of easy riding and a chance to catch your breath the rest was hard work to maintain a good pace.
the last run section for me was quite painful my legs didn't want to go fast and I was running slower than the first run section, fortunately I had built up a bit of a time cushion from 5th place and was able to hold on for 4th place overall, the first 3 were well away and left me for dead, so I've still got a long way to go before the Brownlee's need to worry.
A good start to the year and a pleasing result against good competition, a solid hours racing and a good test of the legs.
the last week my legs were a bit stiff Monday and Tuesday, but still working, Friday this week I ran home from work to try and get some long running into my legs, this was a good session, 11.23 miles in 1hr 17.35 which is an average pace of 6.54 mins/mile I felt happy with that I was able to maintain a constant pace and speed up for the last couple of miles, I'll try and do a few more of these sessions it made my Friday night pint taste much better!!
Training is back to normal, doing about 8-9 hrs a week at the moment a reasonably solid winter seems to have given me some strength in the legs if not loads of speed,
one day I'll get round to doing some of the speed sessions I keep talking about.
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