Tag: triathlontraining

Time to Taper

The end of this week has been the tale of 2 lakes! My final week of training before I head into the weekend and start my week of tapering prior to race day.

Thursday night saw me head down to Liquid Leisure in Datchet to brush off the open water swim cobwebs. You can spend as much time as you like in a pool swimming length after length but nothing compares to open water and no turns. I settled for a little 750m swim as I wanted to test my wet suit and new goggles. I went with my new aqua sphere polarised goggles and they seem ok, little mist coming half way through makes me think I may go with a different pair next week. I’ll test my other ones in Vegas next week and make a decision. The water was a glorious 18 degrees and a beautiful evening. I did however stop too many times as I get nervous in lakes as hate being able to see the bottom! It’s when it comes up and surprises you, that’s when I panic! I don’t know why! Need to snap out of that before next week. The lake had a fair bit of weed and leaves on the surface that I had to swim through at times. Overall it was a decent session and when I did put some freestyle stints in, I felt quick! I’m sure the chop in San Fran may have other ideas but we will see!

From swimming in the lake to running around another, last night I stopped by Virginia Water on the way home from work to run a steady pace 4 miles. Half a mile into the run my battery died on my walkman, typical! Oh well they needed a charge before I go anyway. Such a scenic run with the lake, flowers, ruins and totem pole. I settled for a mid 9-10 minute mile pace, something similar to what I want to run next week.

All week I’ve been trying to break down a knot in my left calf. It’s still there and something I’m hoping I can get released when I touch down in San Fran. My only other current niggle is a twinge in my left knee. Felt when running down a hill last night. I’m hoping the next week of tapering will help, and the 15 hours of flights in between won’t cause be too much hassle!

I’ve started my Saturday off by watching a lack luster Lions performance in NZ. It’s going to be some late night watching over the next week or so as the tour progresses.

I will now be looking to pack all my stuff for the next 2 weeks including my bike, then hopefully out to see some friends on what seems a beautiful day.

Hercules Duathlon

So with only 2 weeks to go until Escape from Alcatraz I entered the Hercules Duathlon with my training partner Angela! This was a standard distance Duathlon and was a perfect brick session before the race. 10/40/5k distances were combined longer than what I need to do in San Fran. I have broken down the splits and stats later for each discipline.

The event was held at Old Merchant Taylor’s school and the surrounding grounds. What a beautiful place and well organised event. The weather helped as it was glorious sunshine all morning. I wanted to treat this as training so didn’t push the pace at all and completed every leg at a comfortable pace. Training sessions like this always bring out little niggles and pains which you have to just bite your teeth and run through. My hamstrings were tight on the cycle and then my hip flexor on my right leg was in pain come the final 5k.

This was 4 weeks post a 10k run in Frimley where I spent 3 days after the run walking like John Wayne! This time I made sure to focus on the recovery, stretching straight after the race followed my ice and massage on the legs. 3 days on this time round and my legs are in a better place, calves are a little tight but nothing this mornings swim and evening spin class didn’t sort out.

Times for the disciplines are below, happy with the pace on both runs, could have gone quicker on the bike but didn’t want to push too hard.

10k Run – 9:13 min/mile

40k Cycle – 14.8 avg mph

5k Run – 9:38 min/mile

I managed to burn off 2550 calories across the 3 hours which made me feel a little better when it came to stuffing my face with BBQ food later that day!

I only have 2 more training days to go, tomorrow evening will be a lake swim and to finish the week I plan to run round Virginia Water on Friday.