Another brick in the wall

After the busy week last week I have kinda slumped in the training this week. Monday saw a return to the squash court and some weary muscles strained an pulled which aid me off until Thursday. Thursday night rolled around and I got back to the pool - why I bothered I have no idea it was a total waste of time. Friday I tried to rectify the horror of the night before and had a pretty good session, mixing technique drills with some 'distance' work - I use the quotes as distance would imply a long way!

1x 50m Warm Up 1x 50m Fist Swim 1x 100m Stretch 1x 500m (250m 5:50, 400m 9:50, 500m 12:00) 1x 50m Shoulder Touch 1x 50m Fist Swim 1x 100m Zip Swim 1x 250m (6:00 min)

So after a relatively successful swim I thought Saturday would be a good time to try another brick session. 9am rolls around and off I set into the frost dusted morning down the cycle track aiming to be only as good as my last session. A slightly longer route this week but only 2 seconds in the 16k (10mile race distance) so all in all quite chuffed as it felt agonisingly slow at times. The initial stages were fairly painful due to forgetting my gloves so I was glad to return home with all fingers in tact!!
Parking the bike up I was in 2 minds whether to do the run as the week before was particularly difficult as I couldn't feel my toes, feet, ankles & knees! Putting that out of my mind off I trot on the old faithful route - still not feeling my toes, feet, ankles or knees & fingers this time! Having completed the 4k route I was slightly slower than last week but the knee was much sorer and still aches a little now - back to the docs it would seem!

Well a week off work now so hopefully plenty of training to be done including testing out the new semi-slick tyres for the MTB and maybe even back out into the trails for a run!

Brickin' It

Whilst I'll admit the thought of next years events is daunting, my biggest fear being not finishing them, that is not what the title of the post means!

For those not in the know, a lot like me, a brick is a triathlon training technique completing 2 training sessions back-to-back - ordinarily the bike and run portions.

"Triathletes train for this phenomenon through transition workouts or "bricks": back-to-back workouts involving two disciplines, most commonly cycling and running. (The term "brick" has multiple claims of origination/derivation. Among those is the derivation from a partial anagram of Bike-Run. Also, it may simply be a descriptive term for how your legs feel for the first part of the run. Another is credited to Mark Sisson and Scott Zagarino (1988), who associated the term brick with the idea of "Just another brick in the wall"... as noted in a song by the group "Pink Floyd". Another association of this term has been claimed to originate from a New Zealand athlete by the name of Matt Brick.)" (Wikipedia (bound to be completely factual))

Now we have the definition sorted I thought I'd attempt one. So off out I head on a lovely frosty, crisp Saturday morning - I say frosty and crisp what I really mean is bloody freezing! Bearing in mind this was my first attempt at these back-to-back training sessions I decided to reign the distances in ever so slightly.

Cycling down the quieter than usual cycle path I decided early sessions are going to be the future to avoid dog walkers and all the other users of the path helping me to get into a better rhythm. I soon warmed up with the constant pumping legs although my toes and knees were still taking the brunt of the cold air as I watched parts of my legs get redder and redder. A quick jaunt into Lancaster and a modified route from normal saw me complete a total of just over 17k, now all I had to do was work my legs.

As I set off on my usual route it wasn't so much the feeling of whose legs are these as the lack of feeling in my ice block toes that hindered my start. Being unsure of where and how you are landing yet being able to see every step is quite odd. 2k out and roughly half way my kneed begins to give me a little gip, it may have actually hurt more but my knees were still relatively cold - on the upside I could no feel my toes - ish.

So just over a 17k bike and 4k run complete and I felt ace, especially after the swim session on Friday that was quite productive. All in all a good first brick session.

The training begins

Well it's been a busy old week since the last post - a couple of swims, a cycle and a run (there should've been another run tonight but ....)

Monday saw the return of the weekly squash game where I crashed into the wall straining my neck but not to worry the swim on Tuesday went ahead that was until the cramp in my left leg halted me - a sufficient stretch and back to it this time the right light flying into spasm and putting an end to the session. Walking on Wednesday was stiff as was today so no run :(

Since entering the triathlons I suppose I best start working on my swimming and running and cycling!! Whilst I don't have a dedicated plan I feel just plugging away at each event should get me there whilst throwing in some dual event training sessions - with that in mind I will attempt my first brick on Saturday a 20k bike followed immediately by the 5k run with hopefully a decent swim session either side of it on Friday and Sunday.

I hope to start working my swim time down to 10mins, the bike to 40mins and my 5k time down to sub 25 mins. Plenty of work to do then.....

A trilogy of triathlons

Oh dear what have I done - as the end of my last post said the Fylde Tri-ology Series opened for entries....so I entered not 1 event but the whole series. So next year I, along with some workmates, will be competing in at least 3 sprint distance triathlons as part of Team Penguin!

To see and be seen!

So with that in mind last nights swim was quite productive and the longest to date - only 750m but still the longest to date. Tonight I thought I'd try a run now that the knee is allegedly fixed - so off I trot into the dark winter night with my latest accessories in tow.
The Led Lenser H7R is quite probably the best headtorch I've used. It has variable brightness and a zoom focus - perfect for lighting up the entire cycle path. The 2 Silva LED lights have a solid and blinking mode making them ideal for visibility.

Anyway back to the run, the knee was holding up fine until about 3k, so backing off the pace a little I managed to 'limp' it home to 4.3k in total. Not bad for the first time out in weeks and the knee felt fine 5mins after getting home so hopefully a few more steady runs and we should be getting somewhere!! Let the training commence......

Motivation

With the injury having stopped the running and now the clocks have changed too, not to mention the cold and wet weather my motivation has slipped - I say slipped what I mean is completely disappeared, I can only assume it is on a hot Caribbean beach drinking a Mojito!

Despite all the will in the world I have, of late, only managed a couple of poor swim sessions (1 lasted a total of 8 mins due to the pool lighting), a couple of weight sessions and a bit of boxing. However, all that could be due to change.......

....for those that have read the previous post you will be aware of the ITB issue. After a week or so stretching and rolling it does feel better and is now easier to roll plus Friday gone I had the steroid injection to hopefully free it so I can get back to running.

And as I type this the entries for the Fylde Tri-ology series have opened - so all I need to do now is enter!!!