Nervous Times

Nervous times now! I’ve linked my twitter feed to my facebook page which means that when I publish this post it will eventually be seen by friends on facebook. I haven’t told my friends about my blog, if I’m honest because I know they will take the p*ss! So come on do your worst!

Biked into work and home tonight again, pretty uneventful trips. Although I registered a PB time of 1:14mins for the return leg. Going to add a loop on next week to increase the distance slightly, I’m not sure where though.

Interval training in the gym tomorrow night and I’m going to try and get up for an easy turbo session in the morning but we’ll see, I didn’t make it out of bed on Wednesday morning so watch this space!

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Look At This Guys Leg!

I commuted to and from work today in an effort of increase my milage on the bike. Felt a bit strange after my crash last week, I kept expecting the bike to disappear from underneath me again, but it didn’t. By the way take a look at this photo from the indoor cycling world championships:

Splinter through leg

The guy has a 7inch splinter from the wooden track straight through his calf! I hope this doesn’t appear sick, I do feel for this man and imagine how much bottle it must take to get back on a bike and race again. This makes my fall seem very insignificant.

Ok, early start tomorrow, going to try for an easy ride in the morning and then club run tomorrow night, can’t wait. I’ll let you know how I get on.

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12.4 Miles

I usually publish a new post on Sunday nights but last night I was shattered!!! (Three explanation marks).  Sunday morning I ran 12.4miles in preparation for my first half marathon of the year and it really took it out of me.  I have to say I didn’t hold back and I completed the run in 92min.  I was very surprised with the time because it felt like longer, I was expecting to see 105mins when I checked my watch.  I enjoyed the run overall and the small country lanes we ran through were beautiful even though it was a bit misty.

I have new widget on my side bar that takes you straight to my recent Garmin Connect activities so I should have to embed them anymore, just click on the activity to view it.

So, good long run completed and my time looks quite promising for a reasonable first race although my legs are sore today.  I was supposed to get up and do an easy session on my bike this morning but as soon as I woke I knew I had to rest my poor legs.  You know that feeling not of stiffness but tenderness.  I know that training cause tiny tears in muscles that need to be repaired but these tiny tears feel like gaping holes!

I’ve had plenty of protein today and a relaxing game of 5 a side football tonight should short them out. Haha…

It’s a Dogs Life

Had a nice short easy run this afternoon, it was only about 3.5 miles.  I ran with Kim and Alfie (my little west highland terrier), he loved it!  We’re trying to build him up so that when we get to the lakes this summer we can take him up the trails with us.  So the pace was nice and steady and he trotted around with us getting absolutely filthy in the slushy snow.

He’s had a fresh bowl of water and a plate full of roast chicken and he’s now crashed out in front of the fire… It’s a dogs life!

We have a long run planned for tomorrow morning, 13 miles hopefully.  That should be a good test for my legs and it should give me an idea of how my legs are going to handle my first half marathon of the season in a couple of weeks time.  I’m looking forward to it, hope the weather is OK!

OUCH My Hip Hurts!

This was supposed to be published on the 17/02/11.

The club run went well last night although I could of done with it being a bit longer, 6.5 miles isn’t bad though.  I kept a decent pace and my legs felt quite good.  In my last post “Hot Chocolate Before Bed?” I said that I had started a training program for time trial cycling to try and improve my speed on a bike, which is quite gruelling, but my legs felt great even after the training session on Tuesday night.

http://connect.garmin.com:80/activity/embed/68675864

I’ve been trying a recovery shake after my evening training sessions and after my first few days of it all seems well, very well in fact. It seems to be giving me the best chance of recovering well before my next session.

Ok, disaster struck on my way home tonight! I came off my bike and hit the ground hard. I must of hit a patch of oil on the road as I rounded a bend and my wheels just went from underneath me. I landed on my left hip and slid on the road a bit. I never fallen off a road bike before, usually when I’ve come off a mountain bike you can tell when your going to hit the deck, no such look tonight. Ouch my hip hurts!!

Hot Chocolate Before Bed?

Had a average start to the week. Got up early on Monday morning to cycle indoors which went well, it was just an easy 30 mins to get the legs going. I had planned on getting up early this morning to begin a training program for time trial cyclists, but I was so tired. I woke up to my alarm but ended up just lying in bed. Never mind, I figured that I could really do with the rest, so I started to program this evening. The idea is that I this program runs along side my running and is aimed to speed up my commute to work and back.

I have tried this program before and its a killer. Its a year long program designed to make you peak at the beginning of the season. The first 2 months are about building an aerobic base to then work on speed so it should fit in well.

I tried to eat a little bit more this week. I’ve started increasing my breakfast portion, having a low calorie hot chocolate on an evening made with milk. I’ve also started having a protein shake through the day to feed my tired muscles. Not sure about this but I’ll let you know how that works out.

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I Need to Eat More!

I managed to fit in a decent 7 mile run of Saturday afternoon between walking the dog twice and laying a floor in my new garage. And after not being able to record my interval session from Friday night I was eager to get another run downloaded. I decided to do a favourite run, the Duckpond with a small loop on it. http://connect.garmin.com/activity/67883467. I knew my legs were tired so I just wanted to take it easy and cruise around it, which I did. I got my head up and peered into the fields. I got home and downloaded the run and to my surprise I had managed an average of 7:30 miles with a low HR of 152 bpm average. I was so pleased with that! At the beginning of the year I remember struggling at 8 min miles. I worked hard throughout January and now I can see improvement!

Ok, so over the last 7 days I have completed 8 activities. I have ran around 23 miles and cycled 73 miles. I have burned 6846 calories during exercise. I you remember I said I have been recording what I have been eating throughout the week and the results are in… Drum role… On average I consume around 2000 calories which is about right maybe slightly under what I need if I was not training which explains why I’m hungry a lot, and loosing weight.

Conclusions: I need to eat more… Great!!

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