Sunday 19 February 2012

Moar Cyclin

So thanks to Alex, I was back out on the bike again today. After a brief detour, we headed out down the A77. It was a sunny day - just a shame about the temperature.

Considering the km's I'd put in yesterday on my rusty legs and after a brief period of adjusting to the bruised feeling at my sit bones, I settled into a rythmn of sorts, finding the climbs more comfortable than most any I did last year. Sure, the biiiig long drag through Newton Mearns was a right royal pain in the bahookey, but I'm still surprised at how I can tackle the hills - I've got a bit better technique, a bit more power and a little less fear of the hills. I could get OK at going up them there hills! I ached a bit at times, and my hips felt like they wanted to tighten up big time occasionaly, but I kept moving, and kept finding the zip coming back into my legs in surprising places (like at the start of some climbs???).

I'm also reasonably happy with my nutrition on the day, getting my gels in at regular intervals and a coconut bar for something a bit more solid. With what I had & my efficiency (inefficiency?) on the day, I would really have started to struggle if there was much more cycling and my stomach was growling with the lack of solid food in it. Need to see how my body copes with cheese & ham baguettes on the bike for sustained power!

But again, I cannot stress how much more comfortable the Adamo is on the dangly bits, dropping into a much deeper position on the bike than I ever could with my last two saddles. Once I get some more miles into my legs (and cheeks...) its going to be very comfortable I reckon.

The one negative side of this training is how much money I'm going to have to spend on food in the coming months - when we finished the route I was slightly more than peckish.......

So 65km on top of yesterdays 30km + 11k run = reasonable weekend. I want to try and get a cycle in next Saturday morning, then the bike is getting packed up, cos its almost
time
for
PLAYITAS

Tonights blog is brought to you by
Emperor: I Am The Black Wizards
New Model Army The Hunt
Sepultura The Hunt (cover of the above)
and heres footage from Challenge Fuertaventura 2011 70.3 to give people a taste of the island & the roads

Saturday 18 February 2012

It's not Rapha, its Sports Direct

In the last few months I have bought numerous articles of Muddy Fox cycling gear from Sports Direct and, particularly when you take into count the much cheapness of it, they seem pretty decent quality. 
Take the Elite cycling jacket at £20 in the sale. I wore it out today & it performed quite well in the cold, and easily shrugged off the light shower that passed over. What most impressed me was how little wind came through it; zipping down the crow there was barely a tickle to be felt on my body. I've also got shorts, cycling tops and a couple of lightweight water proof jackets.
In short, reasonable quality on a budget.

Back on the Bike

First time on the bike in far too long, and while it showed, in that I didn't have the stamina for a long ride there were many good points:

The Adamo saddle looks to have been a good investment.
It wasn't as comfortable on the sit bones as my last saddle, but the pressure (or lack of) round the family jewels gives me a much bigger range of positions on the bike. It also feels like I've set the saddle height and position better, as the hips felt open, loose and relaxed. I have high hopes.

Hill climbing technique is still improving.
I give a lot of credit to Alasdair Marshall's hill session before Christmas. The skills I learnt there have been supported by my yoga practise and off road hill running, which feel like they've added plenty of power in my legs, to make this improvement. Just need to do more & regularly.

For the bike, I need saddle time.
It felt relatively comfortable today on the bike so I didn't push it too hard, just steady, and I know its going to be better.

I ran steady off the bike.
Following a 30km bike, I ran a steady 11km out to Maryhill and back. Again, nothing brutal, nothing fast, just a tempo run to see how my legs were holding up and to get some km's into the legs. My cardio wasn't an issue, but legs need more miles in them.

So, topped off with a long stretching session and a soak in the bath, it was a very good day!

This afternoon's blog is brought to you by:
Aerosmith: Back in the Saddle
The Blazing Saddles Theme Song

Sunday 12 February 2012

Much More Enjoyable

I had wanted to go with the club for the long run this morning, but chose to leave the alarm alone and sleep as long as my body wanted to. After a much needed long lie in, I looked out the window to see low clouds. Boooooo, campsie running in heavy clouds wouldn't be so much fun. But wait a minute, that was quite a low layer and theres a higher layer, so I should be above it on my favourite off road route, eh? And right enough, once I suited and booted & drove out, I was nicely above it so off I went.

Initially I had planned to go out for 2 hours, but with the cold still lingering in my chest, early on decided to knock it back to 1hr 20. There were some patches of ice still hanging on, but for the most part the ground was just wet and slippy, in other words, exactly what I was looking for to put a big grin on my face!!!

So I ran up and out for just over 40 minutes, then back in a little over 30 (what with there being a significant

Its lovely out there, the undulating earth with the brown grasses calling seductively at me to just keep running off over the horizon and teh more I'm up there, the further I want to run and the more trails I want to follow. I'm starting to build loops in my head for when I feel stronger running distances off road (and off trail quite a bit up there) rather than the out & back I've been doing, so there is loads to keep me going back).

Really, there is something amazing about streaming down a really steep hill, putting faith in the little bits of rubber strapped to your feet to stop you rolling head over heels. Its liberating.

I ran out today without music and put the headphones on to bring me home, and got some fantastic tunes on shuffle to help eat up the miles underfoot. This afternoons blog is brought to you by those banging choons:
Faithless Tarantula
Pendulum Tempest

I hit this section of Tempest as I topped a rise, which produced the most amazingly fun descent of the day!

Saturday 11 February 2012

Frustrated

Ended up having another quiet week without training, as I've been suffering with a cold most of the week - I say suffering, but its not been that bad, I just feel that if I go out and train I could make it worse, so I've stayed in doors & I'm getting a bit antsy.

I reckon it was my own fault mind; last Saturday I had a good scoop watching the rugby - several pints of Guiness were involved - and then wnet for a run the next morning with a hangover, hit about 15.5km, and had a swim session that evening. So really, the thing I have to do is chuck the booze again - while I can restrain myself to a glass of wine with a meal (and won't take this pleasure away from myself), if I'm in the pub and I start, I struggle to stop. Its counter productive to my goals, so sorry peeps, I'm back to the soft drinks when I'm out for the rugby.

Staying in today has been frustrating, but I've put some of that energy to proper use & got stuck into the flat; I'd let it get back into bomb site mode and as the training intensifies, this will be harder to battle against, so I need to be doing better now and get into the habit of being tidy. It will make my life easier and less stressful.

Anyways, I'm hoping to get out for a run tomorrow, depending on how I feel there the long club session, a solo canal run later in the morning or an off road run; I'm more likely to go for the off road run for the fun factor to be honest - its been raining so my Mudclaws'll put that smile on my face! Then its a swim session to work on my horrific kick some more!

Today's blog is brought to you by
Children of Bodom - Touch Like Angel of Death (damn you lurgey!)
Machine Head - Real Eyes Realize Real Lies

Monday 6 February 2012

Back to Basics

In an effort to improve my somewhat inefficient freestyle technique, I'm taking the chance to go back to the beginning with my stroke and trying to rebuild it with a strong foundation.
I've got a functioning stroke, in that it will get me round a reasonable distance well clear of cut off times, but its far from efficient, and with Roth beginning with a 3.8km swim, I don't want to gas before I even make it onto the bike!
Last night was the first lesson on learning to swim freestyle, so there was lots of body position work and lots and lots and lots of kick. I hate kick drills. They frustrate me no end, because I never seem to go anywhere; I listen to what I'm told to do, think I'm doing it, but just lie there, facedown in the water, drifting. After one length of that, when my legs are gassed & I've been passed 4 time by a school of bricks, I want to throw a hissy fit and have a sulk, which makes me tenser & so kick even worse.
But Alex diagnosed a couple of major flaws for me to work on, so I just gotta learn to chill a bit more in the pool & get on with it.
It has helped that I'm mates with the teacher mind. To go back to join a beginners class would have been a hard pill to swallow had I not had several chances to talk over what the class would be like, what my issues with swimming are and how she could help in the lessons. I also trust her completely, which is important when you can get as flustered and frustrated in the water as I can still, and am fully prepared to put myself under the watchful eye of a swim teacher for a while.
There is a roster of brilliant coaches in the club, and I'm learning more from them every time I make it out. So find yourself a teacher/trainer/coach (or group of!) that you can develop an open dialogue with & trust to nurture your skills, and you'll go a long way.

Goto youtube time:
Therapy? - Screamager
VNV Nation - Illusion

Sunday 5 February 2012

Sunday Run

Yesterday I wussed out of cycling, which was handy as it turned out as my new Adamo saddle turned up, even though I'd put delivery address as my work. I need to play with it and tweak the seating position, but on first trial, I can get into an aero position or down onto the drops without the same level of pain as on other saddles.

This morning, I woke with a bit of a drooth on & a smidgen of a hangover, which wasn't going to be the best for running on. Follow that up with a foolish mistake thinking that the run session started at 9:30 rather than 9, and there was a temptation to just hit the hay, but instead I drove round to Bishopbriggs Leisuredrome, parked up and went for a run along the canal to Kirkintilloch. Given the club run had planned to be 13.5km and I need to be upping my milage to prepare for Lochaber Marathon in April, this needed to be the minimum distance.

With still, crisp air and plenty of layers on, it was a rather pleasant run out past Kirkie and back, though I slowed towards the later part of the run as my back felt like it was tightening in the cold and my energy levels in the hungover state were nse diving.

I'm quite pleased with how I managed to pace myself and not push it on too hard, as can be seen in my heartrate profile throughout. I finished at just short of the 16km mark, though had I been properly fueled, I could've easily carried on for a while longer.

Tonight I plan to go to a swimming lesson, to pull my technique right back to the basics, so that I can start to develop on good foundations. There will be a bit of suspending my ego, but I reckon it'll be well worth it!

Today's Run was brought to me by the following albums:

Devin Townsend Project: Ghost
Faithless: Forever Faithless (best of album)
Devin Townsend Project: Addicted
Strapping Young Lad: City

Friday 3 February 2012

Cold, Dark Evenings, Not So Lonely A Run

So my plan of spending the evening on the sofa watching a dvd somehow transformed into a steady 8km run followed by a fantastic pasta dinner with more veggies than you can shake a stick at. And I ate courgettes without complaing. Cheers Lexy!

I noticed a few things this evening; we ran a reasonable, steady pace that a year ago I could not've maintained and held the conversation we did this evening; I'd've been rather wiped out, rather than today where I could've done the whole thing again.
Running in cushioned shoes is a bit like running blind - switched over to the Supernovas tonight to break them in for marathon training, but there is frustratingly little feedback from the road. I may try Sunday's 13.5 k run in my Inov-8 Road X 255s.
My altering of running style is showing improvements in my calves! My inner calves are firming up when once theywere soggy.

In short, I've improved.

Go forth to youtube
Record Breakers theme tune




-- Sent from my Palm Pre