A quick one as we're a bit busy at the moment having moved house at the weekend, trying to work for the first half of the week and packing to leave tomorrow!
Now the training's basically finished, a brief summary of what I've done in 2013 up to now (24 weeks):
Swim: not much! 43M or about 22 hours - less than an hour a week (scary now I see that!), although most of that was in the last couple of months.
Bike: lots (for me). Nearly 3,000M or about 159 hours.
Run: average. About 830M or 98 hours. Just ticking over at about 35M per week, but had a couple of pleasing runs (marathon at end of March and a 10k PB a few weeks ago).
But the key is that I think I've done more training than Andy. Also, the training wasn't evenly spread, with a large volume in May (75 hours), which I'm hoping will have given the overload to add a bit of strength.
So as previously mentioned, my target would be to qualify for Kona, which I suspect will need about 9:30 or thereabouts. The plan would be roughly 60/5:20/3:0x, plus transitions, but I don't really have a feel for whether that bike split is doable on that course, and if it's hot the run will probably be a bit slower. Forecast is looking OK at the moment - warm but not ridiculously hot as it has been in some other years.
Anyway, nothing can be done now other than making sure I'm fresh and ready to go on Sunday morning. And trying to get a bit of a tan to reduce the sunburn during the race!
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
Wednesday, June 5, 2013
Sportive season
Just a quick update on the last couple of weeks - the key training was 3 days of sportives (2 days of the Tour of Wessex and the Chiltern 100). I also somehow beat my 4-year-old 10k PB in the first of the midweek league races at Welwyn with 32:35, which also took the club record by 3s (apologies to Tom, particularly as he led me round 8k of the race!).
Tour of Wessex
I went down to Dorset on the Saturday to visit the family while some of the "Superstars" were doing the first day. So when I got there early on Sunday I was expecting them to be a bit tired and we would start off steady. But no, Tom went off at about 22mph for the first couple of hours, and we were flying past all of the earlier starters in our nice matching new kit! (See pic below for the kit.) The route went down to the south coast, over the Purbecks with a few nice hills, but nothing too severe. I really enjoyed it and we averaged about 20mph for the 116M, including a couple of short food stops.
The next morning my legs didn't feel like they had too much in them, despite eating a huge roast dinner at the pub the night before. After agreeing to start nice and steady, again we did 43M in the first two hours along the flat, mainly caused by Tom. The climb up Porlock toll road wasn't as bad as I expected, just a long steady climb, except for a minor tumble at the top when someone came past me on the inside at the same time as I was pulling in to let a car through! But the following 3 hours was not pleasant - the combination of wind over Exmoor, relentless steep hills and mechancial issues (Andy's rear wheel - not an imaginary problem this time!) caused a bit of a sense of humour failure. The icing on the cake was taking a wrong turning, inevitably down a big hill which we then had to climb back up. Even when we got to the flat last 20M, I was hanging onto the group, and when I did eventually recover enough to lead for a bit, some hangers-on attacked up the final hill. But I hung on and we got round 114M in about 6:50 hours including stops.
My legs were pretty dead for the following few days, so had a bit of an easier week except for the Tri Force duathlon on the Saturday where I put in a bit of effort. Then on Sunday we had:
Chiltern 100
Knowing the route, and having done the Tour of Wessex, I was much more confident about getting round at a decent clip. It basically went to plan with the majority of the group staying together (Tom got a couple of minutes ahead in the last 20M and we dropped a couple of guys), and we reigistered 7 of the top 10 times. 5:35 for me for the 105M.
So, that was the last long ride, and I'm looking forward to a bit of a rest before 23 June!
Last night was the next midweek race - Tom got his revenge by kicking away from me in the last mile or so, but he'll have to wait to get his club record back as the route had to be changed to avoid some roadworks!
I'll try to do one more update before the IM with a bit of a summary of my training and the "plan" for the race. The main aim will be to not lose to Andy or Matt, who both seem to be going worryingly well.
Tour of Wessex
I went down to Dorset on the Saturday to visit the family while some of the "Superstars" were doing the first day. So when I got there early on Sunday I was expecting them to be a bit tired and we would start off steady. But no, Tom went off at about 22mph for the first couple of hours, and we were flying past all of the earlier starters in our nice matching new kit! (See pic below for the kit.) The route went down to the south coast, over the Purbecks with a few nice hills, but nothing too severe. I really enjoyed it and we averaged about 20mph for the 116M, including a couple of short food stops.
The next morning my legs didn't feel like they had too much in them, despite eating a huge roast dinner at the pub the night before. After agreeing to start nice and steady, again we did 43M in the first two hours along the flat, mainly caused by Tom. The climb up Porlock toll road wasn't as bad as I expected, just a long steady climb, except for a minor tumble at the top when someone came past me on the inside at the same time as I was pulling in to let a car through! But the following 3 hours was not pleasant - the combination of wind over Exmoor, relentless steep hills and mechancial issues (Andy's rear wheel - not an imaginary problem this time!) caused a bit of a sense of humour failure. The icing on the cake was taking a wrong turning, inevitably down a big hill which we then had to climb back up. Even when we got to the flat last 20M, I was hanging onto the group, and when I did eventually recover enough to lead for a bit, some hangers-on attacked up the final hill. But I hung on and we got round 114M in about 6:50 hours including stops.
My legs were pretty dead for the following few days, so had a bit of an easier week except for the Tri Force duathlon on the Saturday where I put in a bit of effort. Then on Sunday we had:
Chiltern 100
Knowing the route, and having done the Tour of Wessex, I was much more confident about getting round at a decent clip. It basically went to plan with the majority of the group staying together (Tom got a couple of minutes ahead in the last 20M and we dropped a couple of guys), and we reigistered 7 of the top 10 times. 5:35 for me for the 105M.
 |
| The "Uperstars" at the finish of the Chiltern 100 |
Last night was the next midweek race - Tom got his revenge by kicking away from me in the last mile or so, but he'll have to wait to get his club record back as the route had to be changed to avoid some roadworks!
I'll try to do one more update before the IM with a bit of a summary of my training and the "plan" for the race. The main aim will be to not lose to Andy or Matt, who both seem to be going worryingly well.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)