Race to fitness

I hope I don’t sound arrogant when I say that I think I have got myself to a fitness where I could plod round an ironman tomorrow… It wouldn’t be fast and it would probably hurt but it hurts whatever speed you go at!! What I’m trying to say is that I feel I can just enjoy a bit of racing and a bit of training now in the lead up to July and there’s always future events in my mind for afters 🙂 

Looking at the diary I have 6 races in the next 15 weeks and they’re pretty varied but I’m looking forward to all of them. They’re not my b,c,d,e races, they’re just events that myself or Mark have seen pop up and decided to enter, sometimes individually or timing them in with a family holiday. So ending with the ironman (not my ‘a’ race, just a focus) we have:

Brighton Marathon – 17th April

The Pony(60mile run,2 days)– 30th April

 May Mash Up(100mile bike)-15th May

 Isles of Scilly swim Run(running across the islands and swimming between them continuously with 35km of running and 10km of swimming approx) – 18th June

 Lake Annecy Swim(14.6km) (glad I just looked this up as I thought it was further,phew!) -25th June

 The Outlaw Long Distance Triathlon- 24th July

  I’m trying not to enter anything else but I think you know by now that that I don’t do willpower 🙂 

First ironman training day…

Today I managed to cycle and run- I don’t think I’ve ever done that!
I plucked up the courage to go out with the Addiscombe Cycling club this morning.  It’s a club that Mark has been a member of for over 20 years (he picked it as a kid because ‘A’ came first in the listings for local cycling clubs and he was too lazy to look any further!).
They have a huge membership and club runs can attract over 100 riders. Riders are split into groups based on their average speed. It ranges from the 15mph group through 16mph,17 mph,18mph,19mph,20mph and the training group (really bloody fast). I went with the 15mph group and instantly felt comfortable riding with a group; its nice riding side by side and chatting, it kind of makes you forget how far you’re riding. We did about 33miles with a cafe stop and I felt good even though it was pretty cold and wet. Addiscombe meet at Coulsdon South station and so with the journey there and back I managed to rack up 43 miles-my biggest ride yet.

We did a few bits with the kids and it was then time for me to go out for a run. I had down to do an hour. I emailed Mark the other day in a bit of a panic as I have got some goals to reach for my cycling but nothing for my running other than Brighton and Reading Half and Brighton Marathon. He has set me 4 runs per week- much more than I have ever done but some are very short so it should be manageable. They are as follows:

1 x long run(marathon pace)-1 hrs this week then increase 15 mins per week.
1 x tempo run(10km pace)- 20 mins this week then increase by 5 mins per week.
1 x uphill session- This week 4 reps of Waller then increase by 1 rep per week.
1 x downhill session(slight gradient 400-600m ish)- This week 4 reps of Dome Hill then increase by 1 rep per week.

Off I went for my run. My legs felt ok, I felt ok and yet my Garmin seemed to be telling me that I was going very very slowly! At one point I was running on the flat with the wind behind me, channeling Paula Radcliffe and yet my watch was showing that I had got no faster, in fact I was going slower and I literally had no more gears!
I think the cycling probably had had an impact on my speed but as I staggered though the 6th,and final, slow mile I realised all I had eaten all day was a rice krispie bar, a scone, a banana and a chocolate doughnut…this healthy and balanced diet may also have had something to do with my lack of forward propulsion…bring on the steak dinner!

Anyway today I ran(ish) 6 miles and cycled 43 miles and tomorrow I hope to cycle 40ish miles again-it should be a good training weekend!

 

Training and being Mum

People often ask how I fit my training in around family life. Firstly, I have an amazing support network around me; my mum and mum in law both look after the boys and I couldn’t do the training I do without them. Secondly, Mark is fantastic at finding opportunities to train- there’s a reason he works in logistics!

I would say I often don’t train enough for the events I do but I can always ‘get round’. I could train a lot harder and be quicker but then I would be sacrificing more family time so, for me, it is finding a balance and making sure I ENJOY the training I do. When I was training for the Channel in 2014 I would often start a 4,5 or 6 hour swim and then get out after 1 hour-not because it was too hard but because I didn’t WANT to be there (Marcus Wadsworth of Durley Sea Swimmers will back this up :-)). I didn’t beat myself up about it and took confidence in my mental and physical ability to ‘knuckle down’ in the actual event. I wouldn’t recommend not completing a training swim like that every time but there are times when it is okay to stop and it is okay if training doesn’t always go to plan.

This leads me onto my future training ‘plan’. I admit, I’ve never followed a tight training schedule and I don’t think this year will be too much different. Mark has helped me come up with some milestone distances so that I know what I’m working towards and I will continue to try and swim, run and cycle each week.

January has been spent getting some fitness back and I’m really happy with how I’m feeling. Just to give you a little outline of what I have been doing on an average week:

Monday: Wattbike 20-30 mins(whilst Bodi naps)

Tuesday: Run approx 30 mins(Usually in the evening when Mark get’s home from work or in the day if I have childcare.)

Wednesday Evening: Tri Surrey run(40 mins) then swim(1hour)

Thursday: Wattbike(whilst Bodi naps)

Friday:Rest

Saturday: parkrun or similar (Myself and Mark are going to alternate taking Indie to rugbytots so the other can run)
When I get my confidence on the bike up I may consider doing the Addiscombe cycling( www.addiscombe.org/ )club run.

Sunday: Bike ride.
Striders( www.stridersofcroydon.org.uk/ ) running club also go out on a Sunday morning so this is also a possibility as the mileage increases.

My training for this year will involve getting fit enough to hit the following targets:

Cycling:

February – 1 x 20 mile ride and 1 x 30 mile ride
March – 1 x 40 mile ride and 1 x 50 mile ride
April – 1 x 60 mile ride and 1 x 70 mile ride
May – 1 x 80 mile ride and 1 x 90 mile ride
June – 1 x 100 mile ride and 1 x 112 mile ride
July – 1 x 112 mile and race

And other training:

March – Half Ironman over 3 days
April – half Ironman same day with rest in between
May – Ironman over 3 days
June – Ironman over 2 days

I believe training should be organic and not too rigid- rest when you need rest and hammer it when you feel good :-))

 

 

 

Another chapter

On 11/11/15 we welcomed Bodi to our family. The name is inspired by Bode Miller, the skier, and we happen to quite like Point Break too in which one of the main characters is Bodhi. Ironically, Mark was watching Point Break when I went into labour with Indie!
Bodi is 10 weeks old as I write this and a very content little boy…he loves watching Indie play and seems to put up with lots of poking, prodding and ‘cuddling’ from his big brother.

As much as I love being mum and spending lots of time with the boys, I am also relishing returning to doing some sport. As many of you know I tend to sign up for things and think about the consequences later. That is why I am currently entered to do 2 half marathons(Reading and Brighton), a marathon(Brighton), an ironman(The Outlaw) and a 45km swim run event over the Scilly Isles ( http://www.islesofscillyswimrun.com ). Mark suggested that it might be a step too far(literally) to sign up for the Pony Express 60 miler, one of my favourite runs/jogs/walks. Are you laughing nervously? Just me then.

I am really looking forward to challenging myself with a triathlon-I have only ever done 2. One was a supersprint at Eton and one was an Olympic at Windsor. Both were 6 years ago. I am in the minority of triathletes in that I am not daunted by the swim. I’ll make sure I am strong enough to swim well in the Atlantic waters for the Scilly Isles event(it will be quite chilly at about 12 degrees celsius) but this will involve some short, sharp training and I am lucky that my swimming fitness comes back relatively quickly so I can get away with proportionately less swim training than most people doing an ironman.

Running is running. You put one foot in front of the other until you get to the end. I’m not fast but a marathon does not daunt me either.

Now the bike…aah the bike. This scares the hell out of me. I am assured that once I get riding, it will become second nature and I will just be able to plod away but at the moment, a 10 mile ride feels like a marathon and don’t even get me started on the hills! Get me on a hill and I’m weaving, I’m sweating, I’m clunking the gears and panicking that I’ll fall off if I go any slower. I am nervous on a bike which doesn’t help and so my biggest challenge is to get the mileage up and to get comfortable and economical on it. We have hired a Wattbike so that I can cycle when I’m at home with the kids- just 20 mins here and there really does add up. I’ve got a lovely little  Specialized road bike that is women specific and is so comfortable to ride, even for me. Mark is going to take me out this week so we can practise going up a few hills and get my confidence up enough ride with the TriSurrey group or Addiscombe cycling club at the weekends. Right now I feel a long way from being able to do that so watch this space!

Training in January has not had much structure. I think its important for me to listen to my body at this stage and for training to be organic and flexible but I am managing to do some running,swimming and biking most weeks.  I’ll update this blog with a bit more of my training and hopefully some race reports when I’ve done them!