Daz Does Tri

Woke up feeling much clearer today. Still a little chesty, throat much better, head clearer it's 100% a run day but no idea how that will go yet. Weight 10st 6.8lbs so far from  ideal but the elastic hasn't broken yet. If I can run with no major problems and continue to improve then I reckon I'll be fine next week at some stage. Need to take my time returning to action here or at my age something will definitely fall off. Ran less than 5 miles in the past 7 days - ouch. I really, really need a following wind here. Main thing now is to try and keep gettiing healthier every day. The fitness should slowly return. If I look at Friday (last run) was a solid session. Rest Saturday after a tough session will help and then from Sunday I am missing runs then in reality I have missed 3 days so I should only be 6 days to return to that level. These things are never straight forward and I am not expecting plain sailing. Just keeping fingers crossed that it's a clear systems check t...

Slept well last night but up early - for me (5am)  ! Resting HR down to 41 so finally seem to have broken out of this bug. Now it seems the issue is going to be clearing the shit off my chest which means - lots of coughing agghhh. It's actually not too bad at the minute but it's 'productive'. Throat is slightly sore, ibro and decongestant seems to work best with lockets. Lemsip / strepsils don't really bring much to the party. Will delay return to running until tomorrow as planned. Today I'll stretch out and do some activation type S&C just to see what's going on with the muscles. Looking back, I'm guessing that I'll be coughing and not feeling amazing for I guess a week or so. Fingers crossed that's the case as it'll give me time to pull something out of the bag. Worst I have been ill for years, certainly over a period of time as it's close to 7 days. I don't really get ill much and when I do it's usually over quickly. This o...

Better night sleep but still really not at all well. Weigh in for first time since Friday - 10st 6 - so as to be expected the body will retain water and fat while I'm cattled. Resting HR 48 bpm - same as yesterday so 5 bpm over normal. Feels like maybe I am at the bottom now so fingers crossed things start to improve from here. It's actually been 5 full days since I felt rough and most likely 6 as Tuesdays session did feel unnaturally hard work. Almost ironic now looking back last week and being thankful of timing of illness that it was perfect. 95% sure that Battersea is a non starter now and Telford will just be a day trip.  12 weeks of focus for 2 races that now seems just totally written off. Even worse is that over the Christmas period there's no real back up alternatives to fall back on. Going to need some real DC positive moments to try and process this !!  Not sure I have felt this ill for a period of time for many years? It's not Covid (tested) and I've had...

So Daz Man, was it worth it?? Short answer is no. Yesterday took a turn for the worst, started feeling really ill - brutal sore throat, chesty and aching. Flu. It hit me HARD. Ended up in bed at 7pm. Didn't really get much sleep and woke up today feeling better once I was up but far from 100%. Previously wrote a blog about resting up when you feel ill at any stage and not risking it. I should have heeded my own advice. This one is for the search in future and the answer is just take the hit early, do not try and run through. Last Tuesday I really started to feel it (session was way too hard), Wednesday was bad but ran. Thursday rested. Friday feeling better and ran. Saturday fucked. Sunday fucked. So right now, there is no way I'll run today. Not considering tomorrow yet but whatever happens next weekend as an A race target is out the window. Plan B - there's always more plans - I'll look at once I'm healthy but right now plan A is to get myself healthy again. Not e...

Rest day yesterday, trying to break out of this illness. Today, decided to gamble on doing the session even though I am not 100% healthy. I feel about 80% during the day and if I wasn't racing next weekend I would take an extra day or two. Frustrating as I am in really good shape but I kind of need to start seeing improvement each day. Right now, I'm pretty much ticking along and not improving. Session was supposed to be 12 x 75/45 but I called a very low improvement on last week to compromise - 12 x 60/30 but taking the pace from 18.6 to 19.9. Felt really good during the session. Wore the MetaSpeeds and the power was pretty low. HR slightly up on last week but to be expected. Bit of a coughing fit after the session and post run feeling very lethargic. Still hoping that sleeping well tonight and resting well will give me 85% tomorrow. If I feel better at least I can get through next couple of days training and then rest Monday. All being well this does not head to my chest and ...

Woke up yesterday morning with the dreaded sore throat and feeling pretty rough. Managed to get out for 8 yesterday evening and actually felt pretty good with a really low HR BUT today woke up with that lingering feeling so just carded a zero for the day. Frustrating, but illness at this time of the year is going to happen. In terms of next weekend, it really could not have happened at a better time. Banked Tuesday session which was the last hard work out and it's pretty easy to move things around to accommodate an extra rest day.  Feel ok - ish today, not great but happy to bank the extra rest. Will rest up, eat well, drink well and sleep well tonight and hopefully be back on it tomorrow feeling better. Plan now is to do the speedwork session tomorrow, run a steady 8 Saturday and long easy on Sunday. If I can get those in the book I'll start to navigate next weeks taper as it happens !! Looking back over my blogs and fetch I've had loads of periods like this over the years...

Tough, tough session today, a step up from the last sessions in target pace. Truth be told this session I'd only use when I have a race coming up. Decided on Stories Field as the venue just to get some realistic testing in. Still think Battersea Park is worth a few secs / mile.  This session is the last big session in the lead up to Battersea so hopefully it pays off with some improved fitness !! Warmed up, from the car park on the usual Parkrun warm up loop. 2k at 7.09/mm and feeling really good. HR was 137 bpm for that which is really strong and a positive sign that conditioning is getting much better. Few drills, felt a big bleugh about the 24 odd minutes coming up. First rep. 2km at 10k pace. Started and got the power locked in early. Felt good but last 400m or so was a little draggy. Decent wind for the 2nd half which was a shitter. 2k in 6.53 (5:31/mm) 159 bpm avge 165 max 313w. 90 sec recovery. Second rep. 1 mile @ 5k pace. Started strong, had wind behind first 200m then got...

Another solid week in the bag and an improvement on last week. One more big week to go and then taper time for the next block of racing. Feeling pretty excited about racing now, I know I am in good shape and I'm really starting to feel that fitness come back on every run. Mon - S&C Tue - am) treadmill session - 8.00 @ hm 7.30 @ 10k 7.00 @ 5k 7.30 @ 10k pm) 3 shakeout Wed - am) easy 3.8 miles pm) 8 miles easy  Thu - treadmill session - 12 x 60 on 30 off from 18.5 - 19.7 plus S&C Fri - 14.1 long trail run Sat - 10k recovery Sun - 8 miles progressive ladders 6.39/mm avge 8 hrs training time, 56.2 miles, 502 TSS Decent week with some good quality and feeling much, much stronger throughout than last week. Need to do volume reps outside next week but did hit my power targets fine this week. Speed work went really well, first really fast session for a long time and worked through it with no issues. Legs need to adapt to moving faster and I have 2 more goes at that. Decent long run...

Training stats from last week - 50.7 miles, 2 s&c sessions, 2 sessions (1 fail), 1 race, 441 TSS & 1 lesson learned So the obvious - 16.59 for Parkrun. Little rusty, better than expected, power low, hr fairly low. Absolute minimum standard to build where I need to from. Have to admit that I was very nervous on what to expect after the week I'd had but discovering the lack of carbs in my diet really made a big differnce. Fingers crossed addressing this now going forwards into the next critical 2 weeks will really pay off. Weight was 10 st 3 lbs this morning so we are now getting to the stage where it's consistent at this level. I reckon as long as I can start lifting pace in training it'll be fine. Plan for this week is to repeat the volume session on Tuesday (although it may need to be on treadmill) and hopefully see some stronger work on the km efforts. Last weeks benchmarking showed 323w to be 5k power. Few watts in the bank and HR could certainly go 2-3 bpm highe...

So the test yesterday was to see if eating adequate carbs increased performance short term (24 hours !!). Oh yes, it most definately did lol So Stories Field, have to admit feeling pretty nervous beforehand. Had no idea what would happen as training this week around 5.30 pace has felt almost unsustainably hard work. Warmed up and immediately feel better than I have all week. Start is, as usual, mental at Stories. Settle in early, get past that heavy breathing stage where your lungs feel like they will explode and settle into a group. Check HR at about 1200m and it's at 167 which is really good for that stage. Have not got auto lap on (oops) so manually hit where I'm confident first mile is and it's 5.19. HR at 169 bpm so happy days. Push on to front of group and break with Ryan W. Settle into a solid effort and HR is at 170 which is slightly low. At half way still feel good and HR has settled 170 - 171 which is still better than expected. Hit 2 miles turn point and lap - 5....

So, weight is bang on where it needs to be. 10 st 2 lbs and stable. I'd always assumed less weight to contribute to speed but in the last couple of weeks that just hasn't happened. In reality I think that some things are just more complicated. So analysing my nutrients it does seem that I am consistently way below carb target. Protein and fat I tend to be close enough to goal but carbs are way below (as is fibre). So the plan from now is to be more focussed on nutrients and make sure I get the right amount. In fact looking at my food diary I haven't been close since I started dieting, in fact the only days I have been over 267g (my no run daily target) are - Oct 16,  Oct 22 (was close previous day),  Nov 4,  Nov 6 Nov 4 was day before Mansfield where I actually ran OK (ish) and Nov 6 was day after where I ate out twice. Oct 16th was a tired day BUT next day I actually ran well. Oct 22nd was a really good run day and 23rd was also strong - this was 2 close days of daily ta...

10 day streak and I am done! The plan was to keep building fatigue and build fitness for another week or so but I am battered today. Session earlier did not go to plan! To be fair, the session on Tuesday was also pretty tired but I'm hoping good recovery now and the legs will start to take on the extra fitness I have built up over the last few weeks. This week I have decided to do sessions outside - as I wanted to benhmark HR / Power and new weight against pace. Tuesday - session was 3 x 2km, 2 x 1km at HM, 10k, 5k & 3k off 2 min jogs. It was windy on the busway and did not feel like a nice day at all! Reps were 6.05/mm, 5.51/mm, 5.31/mm, 5.47/mm, 5.40/mm. Decided last 2 to do at 10km as was pretty fucked! Today plan was 5 mins at 10k effort followed by 8 x 400m off 2 mins. That did not work out at all. Warmed up really comfortably and into 3.30 and then 2 mins (needed a toilet stop lol) at 5.56 and 5.31 pace (effort seemed the same). Managed 4 x 400m before I pulled the plug a...

Bleugh, I am shite at XC. No getting around it. That was a king size struggle, even at lower weight I just done skip across the mud. This is the 3rd time I have done this race and each year I have got progressively lower down the field (99, 109 and 130th Saturday). In fairness the first leg is skewed towards the faster runners and it's a bit elbows and fists on the first lap in the woods. Good fun though and always nice to bank a race effort. HR was pretty much 5k PB high so if I can rev like that on a fast course I will hope it will be quick. This week the plan is to start building (53 miles and 500 TSS last week) and first up on Tuesday is a benchmarking session. I'll run 2k - 2k - 2k - 2 x 1k at power bands of HM (300w) 10k (315w) 5k (330w) and 3k (350w). Power should be slightly slower than those paces but I am not sure what's happening with weight loss so worst case it's a very solid 5m volume session and I should expect to be running 6mm - 5.45mm - 5.30mm - 5.15mm...

OK, so it's been a while. Amazingly (for me) weight loss has been a huge success. Down to 10st 1.6lbs yesterday - sub 64kg and lowest weight in many, many years. I'm actually bang on target weight now so don't really need to continue pressing this. It sounds crazy me saying this but it has been so much easier than I expected - in fact I have only really cut out junk (and not all of it) and laid off booze a bit (I've been on the piss 3/4 times) and still eaten out 5-6 times and been on holiday.  Run wise, struggling for real consistent improvement. Just need to keep grinding BUT I do think I need to apply some real world testing to sessions to get a grip on what the correct power / pace / hr will be. Mansfield tomorrow morning for the National XC relays. First race in a few weeks and will be good to run harder than I have for a while. It's a great event but you can take very little from it in terms of form. I've beaten guys that are miles better than me and been ...