Daz Does Tri

After running with DC on Wednesday evening, I had an easy run with Ian D on Thursday morning.  Really struggled over the trails and calf was not the happiest.  Managed just over 7 miles at 7.31 pace so not a terrible run but bad enough for me to feel guilty at dragging Ian all the way across from Ely! Friday woke up feeling really tired so decided to do an easy hour on the bike.  Aim to just spin the legs and not tackle too many climbs and just keep the legs spinning.  Nice route Through Elsworth, back towards A14, Knapworth then Bourn and towards Gransdens before turning back through Caxton and home.  17 miles @ 16.89 mph feeling pretty easy - expecting that to be my go-to pace for now. Saturday was rest day.  Had last weekend off with the party and recovery from that so not been a big patch of work but upped my running volume.  Took the boys to the Judo at Excel for the Olympics.  I did Judo as a kid and was amazing watching a live Olympic e...

Todays easy run with DC turned into a progressive tempo for DP !! Had the day off work as Ange had her medical and bummed around all day.  Ready for the run at 6pm - DC was coming here on his way home.  Also have Ian D coming to mine tomorrow so a double home run for me ! Pretty much looked at bike porn all day.  Cannondale Slice tri-bike is favourite with a Di2 gearset so far but a Cervello P3 framset with Ultegra looks nice.  I have fuck all idea what all that means, I just look at whatever bike is - a) Jazziest looking b) got funky sheels, and c) been reduced most Kind of like the wine menu in a restaurant where you ignore all the words and look at the price !!  Light + aero = free speed and I will be needing plenty of that !! Also read some ironman blogs and reviews of Switzerland.  I am in for a good ride by the looks of things.  I need to be 5 hours something on that ride so 18.5 mph and above on the bike which is what I am riding f...

Picked my bike up from Massif Cycles today after getting it serviced.  £45 for a good clean up and sorting my grinding gears out - cheap at half the price!  Decided to do a ride as test run went well yesterday and I didn't want to jinx anything.  Also doing a steady 7 with DC tomorrow night. Gave Wenny a shout and hit the usual 21 mile route for some hilly work.  Started easy enough, just trying to keep cadence high and after a slow couple of miles started to work through the gears. Came down the big hill at 32 mph and into Hilton at 22 on the good road.  Nice to feel pretty good just getting the ride done.  Struggled as usual from Fenstanton to old A428 - that's a tough 5 or 6 miles for me and speed drops to 1/17 mph on that part and the long slow hills take most out of me. Into Bourn really quick and slightly slower than normal on the bumpy road to Caxton.  Serious wind in face from Caxton to Cambourne and only done that in around 21 mph when 2...

As the blog title and the post title suggest - I have entered an Ironman - Zurich on 28th July 2013. Andy, Bob and myself are all in but there's doubt on Mark who may have to work that weekend. So having never done a triathlon of any kind I am going straight in at the deep end :) Training wise it's giving me a real perk up about things - new challenges and all that.  I guess it doesn't change things massively as London 2013 is still my big aim on the horizon.  Most of my training will remain run based and trying to be as strong as possible on two feet. I'll do some swimming once a week up until taper time, just working on technique and distance in the pool but I had planned to do some x-training anyhow. I really want to be strong on the swim and nail that 2.4 in about an hour or so to get on the bike as quick as possible. My bike is weak which I know but I have lots of people to ride with and especially Ian T who is really strong.  My aims for that right now...

Did my first swim for a LONG time on Wednesday.  Headed to Parkside pool in Cambridge where the boys have their lessons and knocked out an easy mile.  No warm ups / down / pool buoys etc... just in -> swim -> out ! Took a while to get into it and get my head around it but after half way found it went pretty quick.  Was loads of traffic though and was forever overtaking girls doing breast stroke.  I thought in the medium lane I would be far too slow but there was only one guy overtaking me and he was doing 3/4 lengths and having a rest. Haven't swam since November 29th which is far too long and need to keep my eye in the pool.  Worked out maybe 35 mins of swimming which is OK considering it was more like a fartlek with all the overtaking, slowing down and farting about.  Much prefer it at Manor of Groves where I can just go up and down for 81 lengths with the pool to myself! Out for Anges birthday yesterday on my 'rest' day which involved lots an...

Decided to join the boys at the track tonight, only to do a 5 mile plod but always good to catch up with the lads.  New young kid Fraiser and Alex have joined the group since I've been on a tartan sabbatical and look like good talents.  Will be good to train with them soon (hopefully).  DC was there and first time I've seen Ed in yonks so nice to catch up.  He's in same boat as me - comeback kid and hopefully we'll be back on the 3 x 3k route soon enough. The boys knocked out easy 600's in about 1.50's which is flying right now and I set off for a plod around St Ives.  Started with a 7.01 mile (wow) and calf was a bit grumbly.  Stopped to stretch just before 2 miles (7.24) and then came back in 7.40's for around 37.30 for about 5 miles. Not bad, HR too high (getting to 162 bpm on the inclines) but to be expected off only cycling and good to be able to work at Marathon HR easy enough. Good stretch afterwards, ice and rolling when I got home and a warm ...

As I sat on the sofa this afternoon with my left calf wrapped up in frozen sweetcorn and a towel, I eyed up the foam roller that would agonisingly flatten out my torn calf muscle in 10 mins thinking 'why do I do this to myself' ??? I am an ex-runner, I could have been a contender blah blah.  But now I am a fat 35 minute 10k club runner dreaming of one last shot.  I wouldn't mind if like Stuart Stokes I was going to the Olympics and running 29 min 10ks - I used to beat him ;-) I train lunchtimes at work, book family holidays around racing and training plans.  I miss kids parties and days out are shortened just to get a run in.  All for what ?? Today's run was a hilly 8 miles around Bourn.  The route was flooded and overgrown but I plodded out a half decent pace for this stage of fitness up until 5 miles when the calf started to pull tight.  I nursed myself home where I flaked out on the sofa (after taking a post exercise concoction of protein pills) an...