Tuesday 30 June 2009

No Rush

While my left calf strain/injury is on the mend my running is still very much on the easy side, which i'm not too worried about (yet!) as my next marathon build will probably be for Dublin at the end of October and if push comes to shove a 12 week programme should do, provided I get a decent base in first. I must say both my calves are as tight as a....caption competition time... both before, during and after most of my runs. With just under 31 miles last week and 26 the week before my running has seen better days. The only quality work has been 3 or 4 x 30 second hill sprints twice a week (injury prevention workout I believe). I have avoided the temptation to run local 3.1, 4, 5 and 6.2 mile races that appear to be on every other day as I fear my calves are on a knife edge and I don't want to push them over the wrong side. With the lack of quality training I suspect my run time in the upcoming Lough Ine Tri will be longer than last year. However I hope to improve on my bike time a little (particularly as last year I spent about 6 minutes putting my saddle back on after it "came" off) and even perhaps shave a few seconds off my swim and transition times. I think a 2:45 target wouldn't be unrealistic (2:52:39 last year). I have certainly been feeling lazy over the last few weeks opting to stay in bed more often than getting up to get a run in before work. I'm still managing to get 2 swims and bike rides in a week (although mechanical problems x 2 on the bike the week before last resulted in a very poor single digit weekly mileage). At least one swim a week is in open water in Inniscarra Lake, the longest of which I completed this evening, swimming about a mile from the car park to the yellow buoy near the pumphouse and back. I swam relatively easy for the first leg (25:51 - suspect that it is less than a mile) and harder for the return leg (28:37 - must have been zig-zagging all over the place) - total time 54:28. My left calf cramped up fully on the return leg when I stopped and treaded water to get my bearings. Thankfully a couple of on the spot flexibility exercises sorted it out and I was on my way. Take it easy. Mon 29th June 5.08 Miles in 38:59 (07:41 pace @ 139 HR) run in park after work Tue 30th June 2.5 Miles in 19:49 (07:56 pace - Treadmill) June Total (Run 77.2 miles, Bike 197.4 miles, Swim 14,250m) Year to-date (Run 1,139 miles, Bike 621 miles, Swim 56.0km)

6 comments:

  1. I'm really impressed with your open water swimmimg, I'd be sinking after
    50 m !

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  2. Good luck with your training for the triathlon. I think you have a very realistic goal time.

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  3. How good does one have to be at swimming to be able to do a half-decent triathlon?

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  4. Thomas, Once you're able to do the distance you should be fine. Remember you have to start somewhere.

    I met a guy recently who is slightly faster than me in local road races (check), cycles to and from work (check - although he's been cycling for years and has recently upgraded to a serious bike) and was near the back of the pack coming out of the water on his first sprint tri a month ago(new to swimming) yet he finished well up the field - top 1/3 (and obviously no one passed him on dry land). He's also signed up for Lough Ine next week. Half decent i'd say - go on, take the plunge - I know it's the dark side but it's so much fun.

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  5. Good luck with the training and the triathlon... I want to hear all about it.

    If you want some inspiration check out this site:

    http://simonwhitfield.blogspot.com/2009/06/so-that-happened_27.html

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  6. "Tight as a Scotsman's wallet"?

    I hope the calf has come good. At least you have the swimming and biking to keep you out of trouble. No chance of open water swimming in our lake - it's been full of blue-green algae the last six months!

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