Drainpipe?

No Kerry tonight (on some work jolly drinking vodka ;) so Phil stood in as coach. Not many people turned up, I guess many are swimming earlier at the lake, so it's a good chance to get some advice. Phil had an interesting way of putting the need to stay compact in the water: imagine you're in a drainpipe. It seemed to work in a way, but then we were on to drills - specifically, one-arm catch-up, which I find so far removed from actual swimming it's hard to take any useful tips from it. Only doing half the stroke means that there's no continuity, no smooth rolling, and breathing is not so easy either. If I had been in a drainpipe I would have been wedged!

Warm up 100 f/s, 100 pull, 100 f/s, 100 kick
3 x 100, 40s rest
3 x 50, 30s rest
3 x 25, 20s rest
3 x 50, 30s rest
3 x 100, 40s rest
All at RPI 8/10

Drills: catch-up and kick interspersed.

Still recovering?

Acutely aware that I need to run longer, I went out for "an hour" tonight. I struggled around 5.6 miles, but with a 0.2 mile break in the middle when I had to walk (needed the loo - same old story). Time excluding walk was 56 minutes, so not even 10 minute miles. And for all the time after the stop, I had calf cramps threatening, and had to stop and stretch a couple of times. It's a lovely evening, and I'm glad I went out, but boy that was a rubbish run.

Recovery run

After yesterday I was feeling pretty much OK, and thought a recovery run would be a good idea. I think it was, overall, but the hot weather wasn't very comfortable. As it was beginnner/improver night, I found myself at the back run/walking, but that's no bad thing really. I'm a bit disappointed I didn't feel like I could have done anything more, though! A fairly miserable 3.3. miles in 37 minutes, but I still feel better for getting out.

Norwich 100

After doing 50 last year on the hybrid, I felt it was time to tackle the 100 mile route on my road bike. The changed saddle setup seems to have worked to some extent - I wasn't really uncomfortable until about 75 miles, as opposed to 40 when we did the 112 miler. However, I think it still needs some work to improve my overall position. I'm not forward enough, and still feel crunched up, so it probably needs to be higher - but that feels scary :(

We had almost the same weather as last year - misty (even foggy) to halfway, then blazing sunshine. The sun came out just as we biked up THE hill at East Runton to Felbrigg. Thankfully the hill is in the shade at least. I was fooled into thinking I had a puncture (back wheel all over the place, feeling every bump), but the tyre was fine - I just couldn't get on again until I had found a flat(tish) bit to start off!

Felbrigg as a stop was lovely, marred only by Trish's tube exploding randomly (the bikes were parked). The second half had no major hills but plenty of minor ones, especially in the last 20 along the Ludham road and on to Coltishall. That last 20 miles was mentally very tough, especially as Debbie and I had lost the other four and were cycling alone (apart from the unknown people behind who were drafting us - thanks for your help...). You don't realise what a difference a group makes until you aren't in one.

We made it, though, and even managed the cycle home from the city without too much trouble.

I know it's not a race, but I'm going to tag it as one since it's an event.

On the boat

Open water swimming tonight, and I set out to do the long swim (1200m). The water seemed chilly, and it just took my breath away - 300m out, feeling wheezy and breathless, I called the safety boat over and went back to the deck. After some time acclimatising I was able to join the short-swim group, but it was damned annoying not to make the longer swim. I was fine once I had settled.

Lessons learned - acclimatise before setting off, and dose up on the old inhalers (and always have one in the swim bag).

I was going to run once around the lake with Mark beforehand, but a late lunch and things to do meant it got squeezed out. Really should have fitted something in today.

Flatten it out

Fairly leaden swim session tonight, but I have done something every day for the last week, after several weeks of next to nothing, so I reckon I'm just tired.

Did 200m warm up, then 3 x 400m (8:20, 8:38, 8:40), and got cramp halfway through the fourth. Just a twinge (inner thigh), and I think I managed to stave it off by stretching and a few lengths of pull. Annoyingly I swam much better with the pull buoy (clearly I would be better off without legs at all!) - Kerry complimented me on my swimming without knowing that I was using it, but then pointed out it makes me flatter in the water. Goodness knows how my lardy backside doesn't provide enough buoyancy, but I did a few more lengths really pressing my chest down into the water (to make my legs rise) and it made a big difference. I was still tired, but it felt much easier. Something to pay attention to next time.

The drills at the end were kicks on one side, switching from side to side after 12, then 6, then 3 kicks, to encourage proper rotation. OK in theory, in practice the breathing was a bit of an issue, and in the correct position (flat, i.e. head horizontal), you just get a nose full of water all the time. I have to admit that complete rotation feels like a waste of energy to me, like I'm just going up and down and it's not translating into forward motion. I must be doing it wrong!

Over an hour

...for the first time since Broadland I think!

The old Keswick loop, with Hannah H, we took 1:01 and it maps as 6.3 miles, so just under 10 min miles (and we felt really really slow!). Still, good to get a longer run under my belt for a change.

Improving

Well, Mark is, anyway. Previous longest run - 28:15 last week at Wroxham. New longest run: 35:30 tonight - made it to Earlham Park and walked the rest, but that's 3.5 miles so 10 min miles, a good pace. Route. That was enough for me - nice recovery after last night though.

Relay fun

A new race for me, the Alex Moore relay - in a team with Kerry & Darryl. Interesting structure, based on 2.2 mile laps of country roads:

Runner 1 (Kerry) - 1 lap
Runner 2 (me) - 2 laps
Runner 3 (Darryl) - 2 laps
All runners - 1 lap

The total distance is just about a half marathon (6 laps = 13.2 miles), and we finished in 1:45:29 (results). Quickest half I've ever been involved in :)

Although the course involves a big hill in the first mile, most of the second is downhill, which is a good opportunity to go for it. It felt tough at the time, especially lap 2, but overall it's a great race. The last lap all together is a brilliant idea, as is finishing at the pub!

Top & tail

This feels kind of serious, doing something each end of the day :)

8am - run with Lizzie, 45 mins (couple of walk breaks), fab weather and a good run.

5pm - swim at the lake, 1hr. I took the opportunity of the technique session rather than a long swim, so I now know that I take 107 strokes to do 100m, and I've tried a mass start, swimming in packs, and removing my wetsuit reasonably quickly (moisturise legs beforehand = the key). I'm settling down really well now and enjoying it loads - looking forward to a long swim next week. It was much easier to get going today.

Benchmarking

Time for a quick swim today, so after 4 lengths' warm up, it was into a 1500m set. Overall time 32:36 with 250m splits of 5:16, 5:22, 5:25, 5:29, 5:30, 5:34. Fairly consistent, although also consistently slowing! I made an effort to go at "tri" pace rather than all-out, i.e. imagining that I had a bike and run to come. It will be interesting to see how a lake swim compares, although from measuring last week's distance I am not sure the lake swim in training is 1500m. I feel like the turns slow me down, but I do gain from the glide.

Anyway, so much for putting myself in the "about 40 minutes" group.

Dragging myself back into it

So, Wroxham over and done, it's time to start training (I always was a bit backwards). Went out with Lorraine around the block from UEA, made it to the pavilions then she went on for a bit more and I snuck in a walk since I was in need of a loo break. Still, 35-40 minutes at a reasonable pace, and it helped offset the chips and beer later...

Wroxham 5k #1

I knew there was a reason why I should have been running more during my slack couple of weeks - Wroxham. However, even though Mark had done little since he dropped out of the beginner program with suspected shin splints, he was up for the race no matter how long it took. I figured I'd have a nice easy little run with him, maybe with a walk break or two if necessary.

Ha.

Mark powered round (I think he has been training in secret) in 28:13, almost leaving me trailing in his wake on a sprint finish in the last 200m. Where the hell did that come from? Fantastic!! But he now has no excuse for not coming out occasionally. Mwa ha ha. On the other hand, I'll have some serious training to do for the next one!

Results are here.

Open water - going long

I couldn't make the novice session tonight so joined the big boys and girls this morning, and swam with Lucy who I know a bit from Wednesdays, freeing Marie up to swim with someone faster. I innocently asked how far we were going (remember I went about this far before) and she pointed to a tiny yellow blob in the distance: "there and back". A full 1500m swim (or possibly not quite, according to Google Maps). Hmm.

I figured I'd just go for it (no point struggling into a wetsuit for nothing), Lucy was happy to take it easy so off we went. The water is much colder in the morning, which didn't help, and it took me about half of the "out" lap to really calm down and get swimming. I found that every time I immersed my face I wanted to gasp - not a good plan. I wasn't enjoying it at all for those 300m and was wondering whether I should turn back (plus questioning my decision to enter Norwich!), but decided it wouldn't beat me and I would make it no matter how slowly. I really couldn't settle to freestyle so I tried breast stroke, ducking my head each time. That helped a bit, but it was only after we'd decided to tread water for a minute or so that I really had time to catch my breath and start off properly. After that it was plain sailing!

We made it to the yellow buoy (which was actually huge), paused for a moment or two, and then swam back. I actually found that, once I was in the flow of things, I was a bit quicker than Lucy, so it was good to be able to slow down and concentrate on acclimatising without worrying that I was annoying someone by being slow. Taking it easy helped me enjoy it, and by the end I probably would have been happy to go round again (OK, maybe not, but I was having fun!). No idea of the time but I was happy just to get round. I don't even know what I can do in the pool for 1500m!

Also this week I remembered to take a second hat, and bought some new goggles from Wiggle (practically a mask), although I had to tear off up to the sorting office to get them before the swim. It was worth it, though, as they were much better than the others.