Daz Does Tri

Yesterday I read the session slightly wrong, think I was supposed to do 9 miles LT with 4 @ tempo whereas it turned out to be 9 miles 'general' and 4 miles LT. Nonetheless was a good run at a decent clip and didn't kill me. Todays run was always going to be harder, even though these 'general aerobic' run are at a very comfortable pace, I have not done big miles for months now. Pace wise, bopping along at 7/mm is easy enough but 12 miles I would still consider a long 'un - although from now long is 16+. So, 12 miles general endurance (138 - 155 bpm). Started off easy enough, first mile up in 7.14 followed by a decent 6.46 with wind behind and well under 150 bpm. 3rd mile took a different route for a change and last bit was into bang wind. Garmin beeped for low battery - shite !! Thought it was good. So, knowing Garmin wouldn't last, ran back the way I came. Would have to do 2 loops whatever happened so decided to do 3 mile out and back twice (ya

Christmas was a fest of excess. Went to Potters resort in Norfolk, outstanding place, very opulant with loads of activities for the kids and more than enough to do for the adults. What makes the place amazing is the 3 meals a day. There is so much food it's rediculous and you spend time waiting to shovel even more unneeded food in. God knows how many calories I consumed but it was enough for 3 adults a day! Top that off with all day drinking with family and friends and I am shocked I csme back in the same clothes I went in. Me and the missus joked our table was the diabetes express there was so much rich food being eaten. Had planned to do Park run at Goreston Cliffs but with the 9am start and 9-10am breakfast window it just never happened. Got out for 20 mins on Christmas day, very lethargic and 45 mins on Boxing day. Started OK but ran last mile on the beach so pace was 9+ mm. Came back today, missus is still unpacking all the prezzies, there is shite everywhere! Go

January is fast approaching. Hip issue ruined my December racing plans but things are still on the up in terms of training. Going alright and on shedule to start marathon mileage! Looks busy, I hope to race myself into shape and use training races at harder tempo sessions with plenty of miles either side! Better get entering! January looks busy race wise. Will aim to get some decent finish positions in there rather than times. Jan 2 - Mid lancs Half Jan 8 - County XC Jan 15 - Frostbite league February will be a hard month as miles should rise a bit. Feb 5 - Frostbite Feb 19 - Sleaford half training run March - hopefully be fit at last ! Mar 4 - Frostbite Mar 11 - Silverstone half Mar 18 - Ashby 20 training run Mar 25 - Victoria Park 5 Training wise, still can't get my head around a plan. I will try and get a steady longer run in, a couple of runs at LT and mix up intervals and racing. January so far in my head looks like this ... Rest days will

December is traditionally a booze fueled, food stuffing, sicky piss-up. This year I have tried to limit all of the above and so far has been OK. Knowing how bad December is and knowing I have a) no races and b) marathon training coming up - the aim has specifically been to maintain fitness. It's a pretty unusal and nice place to be for me right now. I have spent the last 18 month chasing fitness and trying to get faster all the time. This month I have just been doing enough to get me into January in the same shape I went into December in ! I've really enjoyed running with little pressure this month. I don't feel in great shape but the sessions keep going well and all the extra recovery is giving my hip flexors some time out. Tonights session was 3 x 3k at St Ives. Really didn't feel up for this after a long day at work. Short warm up as I was running late and got straight into the session. No Garmin like last time I did this one. Ran it pretty hard from

After a great long run on Sunday, Hips were slightly sore on Monday so I just did a session on the Turbo. Tuesday kicked off boozing season. Trying to get through this booze/run/injury cycle and not loose too much fitness! Was aiming to get a short run in first thing but was far too busy sorting kids and grandparents out for big partners night out. Went into London, did shopping, cocktails on 5th Floor at Harvey Nicks, drinks in hotel bar (Rembrandt - bit dissapointing) followed by 14 course dinner on chefs table at Marcus Wareing The Berkeley. Unreal food & wine was flowing! Wednesday morning hangover was followed by a tired HR test - 5.17 miles with some great results against baseline. Beats per mile 1036 is one of best this year and close to Amsterdam levels. Thursday flew to Dublin for Spurs game. Took running kit, unfortunately hotel room was not ready on time and we hit the Guiness. After about 6 I started chewing so had a bottle of red then moved on to Magners f

Today I was spoilt for choices on the racing front. First priority was the Bedford Half Marathon. This was my A race for the year - more by the fact that it was going to be my last chance to get fit and nail a sub 75 ! At the same time by incredibly poor annual timing was also the 3rd Frostbite league race at Hinchingbrook Park. So after seeing the specialist on Sunday today's race would be ... neither! Half marathon would be a risk, I know if I felt any pain I would probably continue and make things worse. Shit, even after doing it twice before with the same injury I know I'd do it again! Hinchingbrook has the risk of a couple of slippy uphills and some hard and fast downhills. It's a great race but there is no chance of getting into a rythem which is the only way I can keep running right now. So I opted for a long run. Aim was 14 @ 7's which was pretty much exactly what it was - 7.11, 6.57, 6.48, 6.49, 6.56, 7.00, 7.08, 6.47, 6.59, 7.05, 6.57, 7.05, 7.01,

Nice gentle 7 miles tis mornign over the trails. 8/mm or so, HR little high but hills and tiredness accounted for that. HR wa sin the loe part of the 'endurance zone' so probably achieved what I set out to. Saw the specialist today. Conclusion is that it's stress related - not likely a fracture but some kind of bruisng around the bone. Need an MRI scan to find out exactly what's wrong and then look at a plan to rehab it. Specialist said to reduce volume and intensity and to guide my training by the level of pain. At the moment I get a dull ache but no pain so all good. Nice rest day tomorrow so hopefully be in shape for a good long run on Sunday. Obviously can't race which I am gutted about but got to keep an eye on the master plan, which is to wrap in cotton wool until January and not take risks.

Tuesday I started to run again after 3 days off. Was OK but felt hard work. Felt pretty much the same on Wednesday, 12 miles @ 7.17 pace. HR was OK - 149 bpm for the run and never got too high. Felt a little lethargic but to be expected after not running much recently. Today was aiming to do a tempo, HM effort tempo which should be fairly comfortable. Aiming to do longer tempos than the traditional 5 miles @ close to race effort. Started off with no Garmin signal but know this run like the back of my hand. Clicked first mile at same bench in 6:31 - not great as it felt quite hard and HR was up to 164 bpm by then. It was quite windy and the canal route to Dobbs Weir is a 3 mile out and back and wind was dead into first 3 miles! 2nd mile clicked off at 6:17 under the train bridge near Rye House dog track. Feeling a bit battered and HR needed to be looked at to keep down to 167 target. 3rd mile started fine as was out of wind but last 400m or so into wind really slowed to

Last couple of weeks have been interesting. Last Sunday ran 15 miles @ 6.20/mm feeling great. Hips ached afterwards so X-Trained a couple of days then ran 8 @ 7.10 pace feeling so-so. Thursday did 6 x mile in 5.18, 5.21, 5.22, 5.22, 5.25 & 5.36 (uphill). Absolutely cracking session. Friday hip went fubar on an easy 7.5 and had to walk home. X Train Sat & Sun then rest Monday and physio (weak hip flexors, tight glute). So that's the round up. I prey that my running is one long boring progress from a 31 min Frostbite to a sub 2.30 marathon but alas it seems the rollercoaster that is my return to athletics will continue!! The physio - Eric @ Bodybalance at the HIPAC in Hatfield is an amazing guy. Not only does he have some great stories of people, places & events he's worked on but he nails what's wrong with you. He quickly identified my Hip adductors problem was my flexors in fact and the tightness from the glutes that was a hangover from St Neots wa

Supposed to do 6 miles with Stevie B on Friday. Long story short he made it an 8 miler and by 7.5 I was walking in agony. Bloody weak adductors again! It's not his fault, regularly I would have been happy to make it a bit longer but the last mile and a half was what broke the camels back. Offic party Friday night, planned rest day Saturday (leg not feeling too bad but dull ache) and Sunday spent doing 2 turbo sessions. Leg now feels OKish. Have physio appt tomorrow morning were I should find out whats happening Sunday. If all goes well, I hope I can run reasonably comfortable Tuesday, then hard on Wednesday and Thursday. BUT, and like mine it's a big but I will have to wait on results from physio tomorrrow. If things are not great I will keep rocking the cross training, it would be criminal to waste fitness after what I've done recently. So right now I am a bit lost. Have swimming kit tomorrow so not planning to run. Thursday last week I killed a session and t