April Training Update

We had a holiday booked after the Pwllheli Triathlon to see family in Mexico so whilst the training was low the fun and chill out was high and just what was needed! :-)

I managed to get a couple of early runs in around Puerto Aventuras Marina and a 3/4 mile open water swim over coral reefs across the bay whilst away which was fab!

Jet lag on the return wiped me out so overall the training this month has been a bit sparce...

1/4/12 ~    Pwllheli Sprint Triathlon (as below) in 1.28.00

3/4/12 ~    2.5mile run around Puerto Aventuras Marina in Mexico in

                24mins 37 secs 

5/4/12 ~    2.5mile run around Puerto Aventuras Marina in 24mins

                31secs

9/04/12 ~  3/4mile swim across Puerto Aventuras bay and back in

                32mins 52secs (Avge 28 strokes/min)

21/4/12 ~  7.8mile bike around Bradwall Green and Brereton Green
                 in 28mins 11secs averaging 16.6mph
24/4/12 ~  7.6mile bike ride from Total Fitness in Crewe to

                Wheelock, Winterley, Haslington and back in 26mins and
                                                                        4secs averaging 17.5mph

                                                                    ~  3mile run around Crewe from Total Fitness in 25mins
                                                                        59secs

26/4/12 ~ First UK open water swim of 2012! 800m swim at a cold Boundary

                Water Park with Uswim in just over 19mins 27secs (Avge 25

                strokes/min)... 13'c water temp and 8.5'c air temp!?

28/4/12 ~ 8 mile run around Pwllheli Marina out to Aberech and back in 1hour

                10mins averaging 8.44min miles
30/4/12 ~ 3 mile run around the Wheelock rail trail in Sandbach in 24mins 13secs
                averaging 8.06 min miles

And finally... The folks from work that I'm doing the team challenge triathlon with at Capesthorne in June have kindly agreed to fund raise for the RNLI which is a massive boost :o) Just got to beat the girls team now! ~ http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/team/FindelTri

Pwllheli Triathlon ~ Done! (Time: 1.28.00)

A great day out at the Pwllheli Triathlon today but slightly disappointed with the overall time which was 49 seconds slower than my last outing here. Even more so as I coasted the run thinking due to my own timing error that I was going to finish in just over 1hour 24mins... Turns out I'd accidentally stopped my watch between swim and bike rather than get a lap time for T1 :-(

The 400m pool swim was completed in 10mins 19seconds which was far from my best.

T1 (Swim to bike) was fairly respectable at 2mins 7 seconds.

A lovely 20km bike route out of the leisure centre, around Pwllheli Marina and then a two mile steep hill climb out of Pwllheli back towards Caernarfon turning right at Four Crosses towards Chwilog and then dropping down hill to the A497 back to Pwllheli... 48mins 4secs

T2 (Bike to Run) was 1min 19 secs

Followed up with a reasonable 5km run around Pwllheli Marina in 26mins 12secs

The transitions were all quicker than last time but with the exception of the run my other disciplines slower. Perhaps the 14mile 'dry run' bike ride the day before (which turned into a race pace sprint for the last 8 miles) followed up with a couple of pints of San Miguel and burger and chips the night before weren't the best pre race preparations?! ;-)

March Training Update

My birthday present arrived this month in the shape of my new Garmin forerunner 910xt GPS training watch with heart rate monitor (http://sites.garmin.com/forerunner910xt/?lang=en&country=GB#). Promises to be a great unit but had more than my fair share of trouble with it. Initial trouble getting the heart rate monitor to pair with the wrist device. Evan Cycles replaced it for another without quibble but that unit wouldn't pair with the computer to log an analyse the data. Garmin support when I got hold of them were very good and all now happily resolved! It's not yet made me any faster yet though and it must have cost a fortune!? Perhaps I need more stuff? :-) 

As well as the training I did some collecting for the RNLI in Sandbach on the 17th March with South Cheshire branch of the RNLI. A rewarding morning meeting some very generous folk!

This month's training has been going well with some particularly nice cycle rides up Mow Cop in Cheshire and on Anglesey. Preparing for my first Triathlon of the season on the 1st April in the shape of their pool Sprint Triathlon. My training summary for the month is as follows...
3/03/12 ~ 4.3mile run around Pwllheli marina in 40mins 53secs.
4/03/12 ~ 13.5mile bike ride around the Pwllheli Traithlon bike route on my mountain bike.
               1hour 9 mins averaging 11.5mph
5/03/12 ~ 6 mile run across Winsford in Cheshire in 55 mins
6/03/12 ~ 1,600m pool swim training with Crewe Tigers Tri club
8/03/12 ~ 400m pool swim in 9mins 43Secs
10/03/12 ~ 37 mile bike ride around Cheshire taking in Malkins Bank, Haslington, Crewe, Church
                Minshull, Winsford, Middlewich, Holmes Chappel and Sandbach. 2 hours 34mins
                averaging 14.5mph
13/03/12 ~ 12.2 mile bike ride from Sandbach to Crewe and back averaging 15.6mph in 47mins
14/03/12 ~ 6 mile figure of eight run around Winsford in 54mins 37secs
15/03/12 ~ 2.4 mile run around Sandbach in 20mins 39secs
18/03/12 ~ 40mins weight training at the Living Well Gym in Northampton
20/03/12 ~ 1,000m Pool training with Crewe Tigers Tri club
21/03/12 ~ 7 mile run run looping Winsford in 1 hour 5 mins... Getting some good hill training in in
                Winsford!

   <- 24/03/12 ~ An 18mile cycle ride from Sandbach to the summit of Mow
                         Cop on the Cheshire / Staffordshire border and back taking in
                         the infamous 'Killer mile' climb from 108m above sea level to
                         310m :-)
       25/03/12 ~ A lovely 30mile cycle ride over undulating coastal roads from
                         Holyhead in
                         Anglesey, around Holyhead
                         Mountain, Treaddur Bay, Valley to
                         Church Bay and back in 2 hours 5
                         minutes ->
        27/03/12 ~ 900m swim training with Crewe
                                                               Tigers
28/03/12 ~ 5.5 mile run across Winsford in 49.5 mins
31/03/13 ~ A dry run of the Pwllheli Triathlon bike stage, 14.6miles

February Training Update

Well... Winter hit with a vengance in the early part of this month! Lots of snow and ice curbed getting out on the roads on the bike and even made running outside a bit hap hazard so the first couple of weeks were spent concentrating on Triathlon bricks sessions at the Gym to try and get more comfortable on the bike to run transitions (albeit from cycle machine to treadmill). Training indoors is tedious so the hardest part was the motivation to run on the treadmill! Better towards the latter part of the month, getting out on the roads a bit more which has been great.

Suffered a setback in that the RNLI are closing their Northern Regional Events office and with that Lisa and her team there will be moving on to pastures new which is a real shame as they've always done a fantastic job! The upshot of this is also that the Way of The Roses coast to coast cycle event has been cancelled! With £158 of donations already I'm busy looking in to how I can organise this myself as I really do fancy this challenge now! Plotting with a few friends to try and organise something ourselves to keep the challenge on... Watch this space!

My February training summary has been:-
2/02/12   ~ Tri Bricks session of 400m timed pool swim in 8mins 36sec,
               ~ 10km Bike m/c
               ~ 1km treadmill run (8:15),
               ~ 15 mins weight training.
4/02/12   ~ 4km run around the Wheelock rail trail in 23mins
               ~ 30mins weight training in the gym
               ~ 400m pool swim
7/02/12   ~ 1,000m Pool swim @ Crewe Tigers Tri club swim training session
9/02/12   ~ Tri bricks session of 400m timed pool swim in 9mins 34 secs
               ~ 10km bike m/c in 19mins
               ~ 1km treadmill run (8mins)
11/02/12 ~ Bike to run bricks session of 6mile bike ride in 24mins 30 secs avg 15.2mph
               ~ 3km treadmill run in 21mins
               ~ 25mins Weight training
16/02/12 ~ 4 mile run in a figure of eight loop around Sandbach in 38mins 7 secs averaging 9.5 min miles
19/02/12 ~ Bike to run bricks session... 6.2 mile road cycle from Sandbach to Winterley and back in 24mins
                  & 35 secs averaging 15mph and then a 5.5mile run through Elworth, Ettiley Heath and
                  Wheelock in 52mins and 55 secs averaging 9.39/mile
21/02/12 ~ 950m swim / cross training with Crewe Tigers Tri swim club
25/02/12 ~ 13.2 mile road cycle from Sandbach to Holmes Chappel and back in 53mins 33secs averaging
                  15.6mph
28/02/12 ~ 2,000m endurance swim training with Crewe Tigers Tri swim club

I've also followed up on my threat and entered the Olympic Distance event at the Liverpool Triathlon on Sunday 1st July where I'll be attemting once again to get under that elusive 3 hours mark!... Stay tuned! :-)

January's training update

Welcome to the 2012 training BLOG! I've signed up for a few events already this year...
- Pwllheli pool sprint Triathlon on 1st April
- Great Manchester 10km on 20th May
- Capesthorn sprint team relay Triathlon on 10th June (a boys v girls works team challenge!)
- Way of the roses coast to coast cycle challenge from 7th to 9th Sep which is going to be my main RNLI fundraiser this year.

Perhaps going to do the Liverpool Triathlon on the 1st July too and try once again to get under 3 hours for the Olympic distance... We'll see!

In terms of fund raising, I've got off to a great start with £128 raised for the RNLI already this year! Thanks to those who've donated... It's very much appreciated!

A relatively slow month on the training front, difficult to get out on the dark nights and the weather has mostly been too windy, too wet or too icy to get out on the bike. The Crewe Tigers Triathlon swim training sessions have been good though. My January training summary has been:-

8/01/12 ~ 14.3 miles cycled in 59 mins avge 14.4mph
10/01/12 ~ 600m swim and circuit training training
15/01/12 ~7.85 miles run in 66mins and 56secs
17/01/12 ~ 900m swim training
19/01/12 ~ 4 miles run in 37mins 19 secs
22/01/12 ~ 6 miles run in 53mins 46 secs
               ~ 35 mins weight training
               ~ 600m swim
24/01/12 ~ 1,450m swim training
28/01/12 ~ 6.1 miles cycled in 28mins
29/01/12 ~ 6.2 miles run in 62 minutes
31/01/12 ~ 1,000m swim and circuit training

I've invested in a new pair of Brooks running shoes and also tweaked the bike a little to try and get a better riding position... Results are pictured above! Bring on Spring!