Devil's Elbow 20km

The Bank Holiday weekend had poor weather forecast so when I awoke to sunshine this morning it seemed that I had to do a run. I've done 3 swim days this week anyway. I planned to do around 18km as a step above the 14km done over the last few weeks but the route ended up a few hundred metres over 20km. This is the first time I've done that since my minor ankle sprain 4 months ago which was followed rapidly by gut upsets.

The run was hard work from the beginning. I felt tired and lethargic. I'm on the edge of getting a cold so perhaps that  affected my performance? Perhaps my central governor knew it had to make me take things easy to complete the task? As the first long run in ages I decided to accept the early fatigue and walk uphill sections and keep my hear rate low. The main thing was to be on my feet for a few hours.

My various leg annoyances (left knee, right ankle)  made themselves felt at a very low level but not to a degree that they can even be called niggles. What is clear now is that size 9 Roclite 295 are too small and that the size 9.5 pair don't really aggravate my ankle more than the smaller size. I still think the old 315s suited my feet better, a pity that they are obsolete.

April 2016 Week 1 Session 1

The first long swim in these 12 week blocks has been tough before and it was tough again today. It did include two PBs, as the warm up was my fastest ever at 5:11min/200m with no pull buoy and the total distance was 3533m which took nearly 90 minutes. I know that over the next weeks the difficulty will be less apparent and the time will drop by a few minutes.

I tried to start very gently and make more effort at the end but a drop in pace through the session is quite clear. At least the pool was nearly empty so I could potter away at my own pace and not get in anyone's way, no often catch someone up.

Swimming PB but not quite to target #2

I was in Acton for my three monthly review this morning. The air temperature was cold and I was very glad to have my new DryRobe. After a chat about progress and the warm up we set to with filming and then the 400m time trial. In January I'd hoped, but without any real backup, to do the 400m in 8 minutes. Today I really believed it possible and set off firmly, but not too fast in the hope to achieve it. I reached 200m in 3:57 but then faded to come in at 8:03 minutes which as a personal best but just below my target. It was still 20s faster than January so progress is solid.

Julian said that he thought I looked stronger, with a good rhythm and indeed I did feel that I could have pushed a bit harder or a bit longer. Previously I didn't think there was any reserve. I've been set a new programme to lengthen the long swims and sessions to focus on power. The latter should help with strength and body position which even I can tell is much improved in the video.

January 2016 Week 12 Session 3

That's the January SwimSmooth programme completed. I'm still having serious problems with 'fast' sets in that they never are. I do far better when working at a firm aerobic level as attempts to go faster are still linked to more splash and less action.

In my first 400m set I was making an effort and aimed to keep it up until the end. That worked really well with a clear ramp in pace until I was at 2:05min/100m. A pity it wasn't the clear 2 minutes! However in the subsequent 'slow' 'fast' sets I didn't manage to reach this and indeed by the 40th length my pace is declining due to tiredness. If I want to have any chance of achieving the 8 minute time trail later this week I'll have to focus strong but steady.

January 2016 Week 12 Session 1

Ten seconds faster than last week. After over 75 minutes of swimming I completed the sets a mere 10 seconds faster than last week. Much of that derived from a fast-ish warm up set  but to my mind the most important bit was that today I could have gone faster in the later sets

Although my pace reduced towards the end I felt that I had reserve but  not enough to accelerate past the swimmer in front. For the last 2 sets I was pausing after each length to let him pull away and then catching up by the end of the length. I didn't have enough power to accelerate past though. So you could look at this as either I could have been a quicker, or, even though I was a tiny bit faster than last week I didn't feel as tired. Either position shows a gain.

Incidentally, to be fair to the swimmer in front, he didn't have a pull buoy to help him along. So he was doing 2:18min/100m for 1500m or so whereas I managed a best of 2:29min/100m in my 200m set.

Three runs this week

It's not all that much, but this week I managed 3 runs, varying in length from 5km to 14km. After various illnesses and irritations that's a significant step forwards. This evening I set out to reach Oxstones for sunset but time was getting on and I was going to be late home. I decided to push on as I felt that I'd been cheated of the sunset twice before over the last month and the weather was so good that it was a great chance to be on the fells.

It was a crisp evening with excellent visibility and really I needed a thin pair of gloves in the chill breeze. I rushed down the road back home hoping that 30 minutes of downhill tarmac wouldn't hurt any part of me. I noticed that my right ankle was a bit tender as a washed the dust off...

January 2016 Week 11 Session 3

This has been a poor week for swimming as I've failed to find time around work to do it. Evening runs seemed a little easier to fit in. Today I completed week 11 just before the pool was reconfigured. It was apparent that I've had a week off as I felt out of form and struggled to get power on for the slow/fast 66m sets. It wasn't too awful but I didn't reach 2:00min/100m at all.

The best I could manage

The important thing is that I've been and put some effort in. In fairness my shoulders felt tired before I went! I think week 10 was hard on them and subsequent circuit classes have added to their fatigue.