Daz Does Tri

Yesterdays run was 10 miles @ 167 bpm. Near as damn 10 miles tempo effort. Pace was shit but it was a workout. End of story, move on. This afternoon got my regulation 10k run with Andy around the wildlife park. He's getting fitter - 8:17/mm - we were knocking these out at 9:30-10/mm at the start of the year ! 4.8 miles tonight, kids everywhere in Cambourne couldn't be arsed with the last extra bit choping and changing everywhere. 6:58/mm for the run feeling pretty easy. Feeling good sitting here typing this - no niggles or aches & feeling OK. Been run down last week or so but it seems my pre-base work is done. I can run forever at 7/mm but sub 6:30 pace is too hard. Sure sign that it's time to move on a level. Have started getting my steady run at around 7/mm - same for my long runs. Just need to push a little harder on them to keep it here for 16 miles and need to hold back to 7/mm on the shorter runs and see HR improvement. Easy runs anything from 8+/...

Monday am) 6 pm) 5 Tuesday 2 mile tempo, long wu / cd Wednesday am) 10 easy pm) 5 Thursday Rest Friday 16 steady Saturday 8 Sunday 12 Thats the plan. All works if I can get through it. Long way to go...

After Sunday / Mondays stomach issues managed to get out for a tester 5 on Tuesday. 7:34/mm feeling okish. Farted about 1000 times on the run and by then end of it stomach was pretty much sorted. Wednesday felt alright and had a go at a decent 12. Managed 6:50/mm for the run feeling pretty damn good. Surprising turaround but started feeling a little fluey. Thursday had people over till Saturday so did 5 gentle miles with James @ 7:47/mm HR very low and feeling great. Few too many beers and fruit pastels consumed that night!! Friday 8 easy miles @ 6:53/mm HR almost best all year feeling like a jog. Best I have felt running this year and really positive about the weekend. Saturday rest up although still a little fluey and tired all day. Slept like a champ with the extr hour in bed. Woke up this morning ready to race. Picked Ian up, got to the start line feeling good. Can say a million things about this race. 64:17 was way short of both expectations and wishes. Not ...

Real bad stomach cramps since Thursday night, have no idea what it is - the missus thinks it's IBS but feels like trapped wind or a pulled muscle in my gut or something. Feels like a stabbing pain in my stomach when it's bad but does come and go. No chance of running today, gutted as I wanted to make up for yesterday. Tomorrow will have to properly address the diet, absolutely nothing interesting to eat and just water. Got a date with Ian down the track for 4 miles tempo (race pace for Sunday !) If I can't run tomorrow I will probably knock Sunday on the head which will piss me off no end. Have bought all sorts of medication - gaviscon, some shit for trapped wind, dyralite etc. etc. Annoyed that it's always something. Oh well, fingers crossed will be back at it tomorrow.

Last week I blogged about the ups and downs of getting fit. 2 steps forward and one step back I think is the phrase I used! After a good long run last Friday and great steady runs Sat & Sun, Monday & Tuesday this week were tiring. Just the miles catching up with me. Wednesday was a planned rest day and I felt great. Thursday I had planned to do my long run but life got in the way and it became a booze and junk fuelled rest day. First back to back rest days for some time! Thursday night I barely slept with stomach cramps. Friday was a busy day with family stuff on and I eventually got out for a steady 8 that went really well. Saturday again an easy 7 over the trails with 2 miles at hard effort. Really went well here with 2 miles at 6:08 and 6:20. The 6:08 was on road and really comfortable. The 6:20 was harder as it was on the trails but felt good to put my foot down a bit! What was nice was this trail run is quite slow going and usually an 8/mm effort and today...

Running often feel like two steps forward and one step back. After Friday, Saturday & Sundays really good paced runs Monday & Tuesday have been a real struggle. Got the miles in by doing two easy double days. Monday was 6.2 @ 8:28/mm and 4.8 @ 7:50/mm. The second run felt awful in the wind because my Garmin was showing 8:30 pace for most of the run and came up well short on the distance compared to usual. Good reason to bin the Garmin occasionally as it dictates how you feel. Today did an easy 8.4 with Andy at work on a new route at a decent clip for him - 8:21/mm. Legs felt really bad on this run. Felt tired and struggled and calves really ached. After stretching and rolling them hard the other night they don't seem to have been right since #morehardthangood !! Decided to have tomorrow as my rest day and move the long run to Thursday as I stil want to run long the day after a rest. So got out tonight for a plod in full tracksuit. 3.5 mile route than I have b...

5 miles steady yesterday @ 6:47/mm. First sub 7 run for a while. Pace was consistent throughout and felt pretty comfortable. This week I have finally started to feel a bit better running. The strength and recovery is starting to happen and the 8:20 pace from a week or so ago is becoming more like 7:40 pace which is moving bang into the area I need it to. Backed yesterdays run up with a shade over 10 @ 6:39/mm this morning. Ran with DC so it was always going to be quick. Felt pretty good today to be fair, the distance is finally starting to feel pretty standard and time wise and hour is not feeling like a mountain to run over ! Pace was- 6:52 (including aquiring satellites so bit quicker in reality) 6:43 6:37 6:29 6:30 6:38 6:30 6:33 6:45 6:43 6:50 pace for the extra bits This pace is perfect for me right now for my harder steady runs and is going to pay dividends long term. DC was on an easy paced long run today so it fit perfect with him. Good to have someon...

Long run today, Fridays (unlike Thursdays) are daddys day! Get up, kids fed, cleaned and watered and into nursery. Then the day is mine until 3.30pm (Jacob has 2 pals over for a play day tonight so it will be fun and games)! Got back from dropping the two little ones at nursery and breakfast and chill out before getting out for my run. Run was planned as 16 and stuck to it today which is surprising early days into training. The plan was to stick around 7:30 pace and see what happens. 7:34/mm (143bpm) 6:44 - 147 7:01 - 150 7:12 - 153 7:08 - 152 7:21 - 154 (heavy trail directly into wind) 7:20 - 155 same, stopped at the hub for no. 2's! 7:08 - 147 7:15 - 148 7:20 - 150 7:25 - 151 7:16 - 153 Off the trails but into wind 7:07 - 158 windy here 7:10 - 162 bloody wind making this hard work 6:58 - 161 out of wind at last 7:34 - 148 ease down 7:11/mm @ 151bpm for 1085 beats per mile. Best return for long run this year and that wind was worth plenty out there. G...

Rest day yesterday, well earned after getting some decent miles and solid runs in the past few days. So, early up with Sawyer jumping in bed with us. Wake up, shower, make kids breakfast & make sure boys get themseles dressed, brushed teeth & hair then take Jacob to school and on to work. In total takes about 1.15 to get into work and do the school run via Bourn. Get into work and straight into Advertising meeting. Our new designer is arranging some marketing for us including TV adverts, radio & other media stuff. Big discussion on how to expand the brand and how much we should spend. Nearly 2 hours for that. Not many decisions but some good starting points for Michal to get on with. Bacon baguette been sitting on my desk for about an hour and a half when I get out so scoff that and half way through it straight into cancellations meeting. Our account management team are working on stopping dealers cancelling our subscription service. Discuss current plans and h...

Running today was 2 x reocvery runs. 7 this morning around the trails at a leisurly 7:44/mm. Pleased with this as it really feels like the tide is turning. Felt good today, tired but strong - exactly how marathon training should be. The VO2 max is climbing and I know after today that I am only 3/4 weeks away from being able to handle decent training paces and start turning in respectable race performances. 3.5 easy tonight, very very easy just to loosen the legs. iPod and a jog, not everyones cup of tea but I really enjoy these runs to clear my mind before settling down for the night with the missus. And 4 well earned beers tonight ;) Originally I had planned to lift the miles from ~60 to ~75 after Peterborough but I seem to have found a nice routine for the week now and with no marathon in the immediate future just keeping the miles where they are and working on pace for the foreseeable seems the best plan. My training week is shaping up nicely as follows Monday - am) 6...

Tempo 7 tonight. Same as last week - 10 easy, 15 at marathon effort, minute to tie shoes then 15 mins at half marathon effort followed by 10 min cool down. The warm up felt tired at 8:20 pace although Garmin was playing silly buggers showing nearly 10/mm for most part ! Got into the 15 mins at marathon effort keeping HR to around 158 and feeling really comfortable at around 6:36 pace for the main part. The last 3/4 mins it dropped down to 6:43 pace overall average but that seems a big slow down? Good news was that I felt great on this HR. The half marathon effort semmed to start really slow for extra heart rate - around 6:40 pace at 162 bpm off the bat. That dropped steadily down to 6:30/mm pace for the overall average. DOMS a bit sore but nicely controlled although HR was 2bpm higher than last week but to be expected 2 days after a half marathon. 10 mins cool down and feeling pretty tired at the end. Looking forward to Thursdays rest day - only got an easy run tomorrow t...

10k this morning nice and easy around the canal path with Andy at work. 8:24/mm - Andy is getting quicker! We started off this year knocking out anything between 9:25 - 10/mm !! 4.8 miles this evening @ 8:09/mm - felt very tired and heavy legged after yesterday with some DOMS - purely from lack of pace recently. So 11 tired miles for the day. Great miles, especially after yesterdays race but the legs are a concern. Want to do some tempo tomorrow so hope they are nice and fresh by the evening. Big session this week is the long run. I will rest Thursday for it and hope it comes together for 16+ at a decent clip. Feeling positive about start to the season, I am in the gutter looking up at the stars !! Need a race in 3 weeks now as I am not able to do next Frostbite :/

Million % have been down with something from middle of last week onwards. That kinda cheers me up because after last weekends Frostbite run the old deamons about training were kicking in this week and although 54 miles in 5 days is decent it's not the 70+ I was looking for and the pace has been a struggle. Saturday evening after running around with the kids all day (football training & a party) I was shattered and in bed by 9pm hoping to shake off whatever is in my system. So this morning, woke up feeling fantastic. Legs felt great and for the first time in a long time they appreciated the day off running that I had given them. Picked Stevie B up from Somersham and had agreed to drive the 1.25 train for him at 6.2x pace for the run. We talked tactics about what to expect and how to manage the race. Got to the car park a bit late and tried to find Kye, DC & Ed but my morning guts were up to their old tricks so was off to John Lewis looking for a poo !! Dumped kit ...

After getting in from work yesterday, settled down on the sofa for a doze and woke up an hour and a half later feeling rough as a baders arse. Sore thorat and incredibly tired. Wound up in bed by half 8 for first early night for a while. This morning woke up feeling not great but slightly better. Looks like I had been coming down with something for a while. After dropping the little ones into nursery, decided on a change of plan from yesterday so got out for 10 miles @ 145 bpm. HR was well under control and felt ok running to be fair. The conditions, the slow trail I was on and the illness probably accounted for an extra 5 bpm so 8:09/mm wasn't that bad. Jogged a further 3.5 tonight to top it up in a hoodie to sweat it out a bit. Legs feel pretty good and don't feel THAT bad so fingers crossed things are still ticking over. Barring disaster should be 5 weeks over 50 mpw - best since the start of the year. Hopefully if I start feeling better next week should start g...

Today the plan was 20. Get it out of the way nice and early, not go mad just nice and steady and get the first proper long one in the bag. After getting in to work at 10, I was planning to get out of the door by 10.30 but with one thing or another (and another and another .... ) it's just wasn't happening and my window closed. Started to feel a bit tired today, I know the miles are having an effect on me and it's a 2 step forward 1 step back process. Also mentally it's tough to have miles looming over you when you are not performing yet. So, considering my options - I don't really want to run a 20 on Friday with Sundays half and I don't really want to have a 5 day week at this stage. My body feels a bit tired so I will ease it up a bit and go 5 tonight, 12 tomorrow morning, 4 in the evening, rest Saturday and then Sunday do a longer warm up into the race (at Marathon-ish effort) and then a long warm down to make it 18 or so. Would put me on 65+ of I hit...

Bit of a Tempo session tonight. Plan is 10 mins warm up into 15 mins @ 158 bpm, rest for a minute, 15 mins @ 162 bpm and then 10 mins cool down. The 158bpm section represents roughly what marathon pace should be when I have plenty of long runs in the bank (allowing drift to avge 162-165 bpm for the marathon). The 162bpm section should represent half marathon pace (closer to 170bpm for the race overall). The hard sections came out at 6:44/mm for 155bpm avge (was low to start and ended up topping to 159bpm) and 6:21/mm for 161bpm. Really pleased with these and Sundays half marathon I will go off at 6:20 pace and see what happens. Ideally it will feel good and I'll be able to push on but at the moment things are not looking ideal so I will just see how we go. Beats Per Mile is an interesting stat I try to keep an eye on. It's a good guage for how your training is progressing and a good comparison between sessions. I know if it's sub 1100BPM for a standard run ...

11.5 miles today. First up 10k with Andy around the nature reserve and along the river this afternoon. Glorious day for a run, legs bit heavy at first but settled in nicely. Felt pretty good afterwards. Just over 5 this evening, felt alright to be fair. HR was great for pace on an easy run - especially after last few days and 1067 beats per mile is lowest for a long time. Whatever went wrong on Sunday seems OK today. Probably just running lots of slow miles is making me stronger but the pace just isn't there yet. Month is shaping up nicely. 27 miles in 3 days so far. Big ish week and then rest Saturday for an MP session at Peterborough on Sunday. Will try and throw some MP work into tomorrows run to shake the legs out. Ideally will get a very easy 10 in on Wednesday and a long run in on Thursday again.

233 miles 7.44/mm 25 days run 5 rest days 5 double days 54 MPW avge 2nd highest month this year (actually in 13 months). Feels good to have decent miles in the bank and look to push on. General and long run pace @ 7.30/mm both.

Frostbite Friendly League St Neots. Scores on the doors - 33rd position in 30:50 (6:10/mm). Preped really well for this race. Got to the start line nicely warm and feeling good. Race starts and it feels quick as I'm not in race mode yet. Plan is to get to 2 miles around 6/mm and push on. First mile marker in 5:40 (5:48 on the garmin) and mile 2 in 6:08 for a shade under 6's - perfect. Time to push on and feeling good but things start feeling hard work pretty darn quick. Work hard through the mile and into the forest mile slowly passes in around 6:20. 4th mile I am really struggling and getting passed like I'm standing still. 6:52 on the Garmin for the mile - hard to believe as the last miel is 0.12 short but either way it's not quick. 5th mile at 6:18 pace, rally to stop dropping any further down the field. Finish up almost exactly same position and time as 2 years ago when I was over the moon. Interestingly after that race the next one for me was Hinc...

First race of the new season tomorrow - Frostbite Friendly league in Priory Park, St Neots. Interesting to see where I am, have strung together 4 good weeks of training. All base work, nothing much pace wise but I am used to starting these seasons coming into fitness. Love these races, give you a great chance to guage yourself against the local runners and to be fair lots of people tend to retain fitness and finish in similar positions so it's a good chance to see if you are improving. Feel in pretty decent nick for this stage of things. I guess somewhere around 30 mins will be respectable if I judge my pace right. But not really seeing this as a flat out race, kind of a stepping stone to next weekend when I hope for something a bit better. Ran 233 miles in September, think I am a big month away from getting into what I would call decent shape and I really need a seriously big week at some stage. Last 18 months or so I have strung 4 good weeks together and then struggled...