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Thursday 10 April 2014

Family: my support crew

The family are going great guns.

My wife completed her first half-marathon this year at Reading. I'm really proud of her, and she's come along way since being last finisher at Margate parkrun on a windy June morning last year.

My daughter started in January at the local Tristars club. Her little legs wizzing round and round on her tiny 16" wheel bike around the Palmer Park track. Luckily it was her birthday recently so we took the opportunity to upgrade her to a 24" Islabike with gears. Well overdue. She can now accompany me on my runs.
She took part in her first triathlon; a practise one as part of the club. A single length in the pool followed by 2km on the bike then a 1km run. Good effort!

My son has been accompanying the family at the local parkrun where they've banged out a few 5kms over the past quarter. He has his eye on his 10 t-shirt!

It's really nice to see them get out and about and be active. I'm off work next week so we'll spend some more time on our bikes together :)

Tuesday 8 April 2014

The come-back kid

My last post was back in February after finding out I had pneumonia.

The 3 weeks off work gave me some time to reflect on what I'd done, and where I could go. Initially I was angry at missing out on an early season goal (Wokingham HM) and future goals. I moved on to acceptance, trying to work out how soon I could get back out there. Then I stopped caring about training and focused on getting better. Kuebler-Ross at her finest.

I'll admit I started back too early. I ran about 6km easy one Tuesday, then followed it up with an easy 10km club run the Thursday after. Plus some MTBing. Looking back I can see that this lengthened the recovery. It's hard to sit around doing nothing!

The grand plan was to smash out the HM, then work with an as-yet-unidentified coach towards PowermanUK.  Obviously the plan had to change, but by how much? I knew from past experiences that I had an idea of what training I should do, but scheduling it was always a problem, frequently ending up injured. I likened myself to a 2-stroke race engine; running at high revs and needing frequent rebuilding. I could see from my premature return to exercise that I needed someone to curb my enthusiasm. I set out to find a coach with a two-fold purpose; control my return to fitness and get me fit enough for some form of attendance at PowermanUK.

During the latter week of illness and the subsequent weeks I had researched who was available, how recommended they were, and what the styles of coaching were. After some digging, I narrowed down and made my choice.


It was strange to begin with, devolving most of the decision making to someone else. I questioned a lot; Is that really the HR limit? Turbo or outdoors? I like to question, I like to understand the whys and wherefores. I'm probably quite annoying. However the aim was to return slowly, and not over do things, and that is what is happening.

I'm doing HR based training, which is something I don't think I've done since I started to run, some years ago. More recently I was doing paced-based running and power-based cycling. HR training was odd to begin with, but I can now see my average pace increasing for a given HR cap over a given course. Proof of something working at least.

Quarterly data:
Bike: 390km, 22h12
Run: 173km, 20h38


March alone:
Bike: 302km, 16h16
Run: 108km, 11h55

Last week was my biggest week back with longest duration and furthest distance run & bike since illness. If you believe in ATL and CTL then they're still shadows of their former selves, but also at a post-illness peak!

So just under 5 weeks until PMUK. I'm not where I wanted to be. I had an early season planned, plenty of TTs and longer sportives, some running, some shorter duathlons. However you only get the hand you're dealt, and it's up to me to make the most of it. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade, etc

So I'll be there on the start line at 7am on the 11th of May. I may have to hold something back when the horn goes off, and it's going to hurt. But I'll be there, and that's what counts.