Frustration!

So just as the training was starting to go well - running back down to 5:30-5:45/km times rather than 7min/km I have devleoped a chest infection. There are several nasty bugs going therough Anja and Julia's school at the moment and of course I have to pick one up....I wonder if it is because I am calorie restricting at the moment - in all of my training up until the IM I did not get a single bug even though there were loads knocking about...however as soon as I restrict calories to drop the weight...bang infection city - vey annoying, I'll just have to hope the Klaricid works quickly! Rather amusingly the GP suggested I take at least a week off.....hmmm can I see that happening...nope maybe a couple of days but a week.....

On the plus side however I have started to drop body fat :-) but for some reason not weight well not much....

The image above gives a snapshot of the last 28 days from Training Peaks (the software I use with my coach to manage my training - it is fantastic, works really well and does both nutrition as well as training - the image below shows my training pan for the month - on each day it is possible to look at what training I am doing and below this see what I have had to eat etc that day, that way I can manage colories in vs out.

Anyway for the next couple of days I will be trying to get over this bug and recover - hopefully I can get in a run and bike this weekend - in between sorting out a celebration as it will be eighteen years this Saturday that Lizzie and I have been together....OMG where has the time gone!

Later

I.



The new training year

I know it is only October but the new training year has begun already! I had the last two weeks of September off completely - I really needed it to recover both mentally (I was frazzled by the year's training and starting to feel fed up with early starts etc) and physically (I had a number of irritating niggles).

So into my second week of training and things are going okay so far - the swimming is picking up, focusing a lot on technique like today's session:

4 x 200 (swim, pull, swim , pull)

4 x 50 Single arm
4 x 50 Reverse catch-up
4 x 50 Kick board
4 x 50 Paddles
1 x 100 Swim - best stroke count
400, 200, 200, 100 (First half of each rep stead and relaxed, second half strong and fast) - Keep form
100 Easy - put stroke back together, finish with good form

A good set felt really smooth. In addition my running is coming back, although I am struggling with residual ankle pain a little - achilles and p brevis both hurt a bit..but the run efforts tend to be focusing on technique and pace rather than distance.....and as for the bike well anything seems a breeze around here compared to Wiltshire/Switzerland (it is a littl eflat in Cambridge!!)

My goals between now and Christmas - pick up the running pace and loose some weight (no booze in the week and NO snacking!)

Read this!

If you want to know why I did the Ironman this year - why I put myself through the 1000s of miles of training and the days of hard work read the introduction to this book - Tim Carlson has summed up superbly well exactly what drove me to do an Ironman - sure I am a little OCD and certainly a type A personality but it is more than that - read it and you will understand!

http://www.velopress.com/sample/sample_17HG.pdf

I.