Ironman UK report. And no, it's not mine!!!

This is my mate's Race report for his awesome result in the Ironman UK. Check it out here.

Proper Day 1 now. The actual exercise one.

D-day. The beginning (of the end?). The countdown to the 2009 goal has begun. Here we go with The Plan.

Oh Bloody typical!! HMC goes for a training run and the bloody sun's out which just makes it harder. Hey ho, can't blame the weather come race day so off I trundled to the park for some interval sessions.

It's week one. The Plan will bring me in gently so this should be a walk (or run) in the park. Was it? Christ no. This has continued from what has to be my second worst* ever run that happened on Saturday morning when I didn't even get to my turning point before stopping and run/walking back. Wow, that must have been a tough run you set yourself I here you cry. Was it? Was it fcuk! I didn't even make it to the 2 mile mark before I turned round! Rubbish. Anyway, back to today and the intervals.

The Plan reads that I have to run 1200m (at my target HM pace) so 6 minutes then, walk 400m to rest, then run 2 lots of 800m at a 10k pace (which is 3.48 for me on The Plan) with a 200m rest and then 4 x 200m sprints (with 200m rests in between) just as fast as I can without collapsing on the floor in a puddle of my own sweat and vomit. The results:

1200m. Target time: 6:00. Actual time: 5:42
800m. Target time: 3:48. Actual time: 3:42
800m. Target time: 3:48. Actual time: 3:39
200m. Target: as fast as possible. Actual Time: 36 secs
200m. Target: without vomiting. Actual Time: 35 secs
200m. Target: stay on my feet a little longer. Actual Time: 35 secs
200m. Target: stay alive. Actual Time: 35 secs

I'm not unhappy with that. Timing wise it was OK but I'm sure it shouldn't hurt that much!

I was in new trainers though. My trusted New Balance 1063 (UK 9, Width 2E in case anyone has some they want to send me some in exchange for a shameless plug) turned up which is nice. One thing I've noticed is not a massive difference between old and new though so I can this with confidence. If you're a 14 stone bald bloke with a heavy tread, an extremely high arch and around a 9min mile HM pace then these could be for you. They seem to last quite a while anyway.

'The new dirt and white colour scheme'

Something else I noticed today is the e-mail from the team at the Royal Parks Half. I'm guessing it's fake and a bit of spam though because surely no one in their right mind would think that 'violet and raspberry' are particularly good colours for a fat bloke to be seen in!! Although the clincher for me is the design on the back. They say 'an uplifting message for all those people behind you!'. I think 'will make you an instant hate figure for all those people behind you!' is slightly closer to the truth.

'The picture from the spam e-mail'

*My worst run was just before I started this blog while running home from work at a time my training was going very well indeed. On a 3 mile run, I wanted to stop after a mile. Did stop before a mile and a half and was on a bus before the 2 mile marker. Truly pathetic!!

Royal Parks Half. 9 Week plan. Day 1

Rest!!

Sometimes, things just work out better than you can imagine!

I've tried to make this post more interesting than it is

Hullo there. Sorry it's been a while. There is a valid reason though. I would have bored you all to death and then been charged with manslaughter. This would have been a little harsh considering a)you wouldn't have known about your imminent death before you started to read and b)being charged just for babbling the inane thoughts that come into my head on a weekly-ish basis would just be plain wrong!

See nothing much has happened on the exercise front recently. I mean I've been doing the whole running thing and stuff with a couple of interval sessions that hurt my hip for 2 days afterwards and a couple of 4-6 milers at a slower pace just to stretch my legs out but apart from that, nothing. No revelations, no interesting sights, no funny incidents. Just general running stuff and lets be honest, we all see that every time we go out.

My hip/back/hamstring is still causing me problems but seeing as I've tried stretching, resting, icing, and running slightly differently and absolutely none of it works, I've now decided that ibuprofen and caffeine are the way forward with maybe a little freezing gel once I've finished. HOWEVER... there's another issue. Do I put the gel on the bit the feels like it hurts or the bit that may be causing the bit that hurts to hurt and if it's the second one, which one do I pick before I end up plastering the stuff all over the left hand side of my body and going numb on one side?!?!?!

I've have found myself reading a triathlon magazine the other day though. I wouldn't say inspired but certainly interest has come from a few friends of mine. A couple of them doing really well in the Sprint triathlon in London and another very disturbed man who completed the UK Ironman on Sunday in 11h 30mins and finished joint 165th!! That's 140.6 miles in total!!! That's a 2.4mile swim, 112miles on the bike and then a full marathon! I'm never going to be that insane but the Sprint or Olympic distance next year??? it's definitely a possibility!

There are other reasons for the non blog too. Firstly the moving house is still ongoing and looks like it will be fine but honestly, is there anything more painful in life than dealing with an estate agent who appears to have got his organisation skills from a Christmas cracker? Also, the people who I was planning on buying my beautifully crafted bike from decided that, after I'd ordered my cycle-to-work scheme voucher would be the best time to change it to out of stock and very helpfully answer 'I'm not sure but probably not' when asked if it was coming back into stock. Insert mad panic trying to find the bike in stock somewhere else. Hopefully, it looks like I've found somewhere. A small independent shop rather than the big corporate green and yellow bike place that employs the drones like the first time so that's good.

Anyway, fingers crossed that come 3 weeks, myself and LG shall be in the new place, with the bike, chilling out and deciding what evening to risk our mental state and well being by heading to Ikea. Ikea... Oh crap.... I'm off to cry in a corner. Actually, maybe a run would help ease the anger build up of a trip there!!

If the aching's anything to go by

So along with a few others, I've done myself a training plan for the Royal Parks Half in Oct. I found one on a website, then destroyed it and rebuilt it taking into account things such as Hard as Snails, Surrey Badger and Rat Race as well as moving house and going for a long weekend in Devon. You can see why I couldn't follow it to the letter.

It gives me 2 full rest days a week and one 3 mile easy run day so in essence, 4 days of hard work a week which I think I can do. It's only a 9 week plan so I don't actually have to start yet but I thought I'd give one of these 'interval' sessions a go and therefore copied the plan of what will be my first day of training come 11th Aug. The entire thing only involves 2.2 miles of running and a mile of walking. How that's going to help run 13.1 miles in under 1:50:00 come October, I have no idea.

I know that there's some logic to it but I have to see it doing some good first I think. Now, if doing some good means more aching in the calves than I've had since starting to run last year, then it's definitely doing some good!! Following my schedule I ran at a pace of just under 8 min/miles which was OK. The pain arrived after the 4 x 200m sprints at the end.

I'm going to do a few more of these sessions leading up to my training start date in the hope that I'll still be able to use stairs come August 11th! Wish me luck.

By the way, for the coolest thing I've seen today, check out the link above for Hard as Snails. It's a 3D fly through of the route. Oh dear. They could have made it a bit flatter!!!