Daz Does Tri

Have decided (or been forced rather) to go Garminless since yesterday. I have toyed with dropping the beep machine for many reasons. Anyone who trains with me will know that without fail my Garmin will always beep for a mile split after ANY other Garmin in the vacinity which pisses me off muchly. It wrecks my head on long tempo runs coming out a good 6 secs per mile slower than anyone around me. In fact some of my better races have been done without my watch telling me how I am doing. I think I became too much of a slave to the data. Yesterday I did a couple of stead 8 mile runs. They were about 7/mm pace, maybe a bit slower, maybe a bit faster. If they were faster then come race day I will feel better than I expect at a given pace. If they were slower then I will be more confident of performing than if I'd known I was running say 8/mm whne I thought it was 7/mm. Win - Win ! So tonight, I did a known 8.65 mile tempo route. 2.5 mile warm up from Goddy to the old BRJ ...

Last year Thorney 10k was one of my better runs - 36.30 for 11th place. Today I had a 1 min 40 sec course best and 58 sec PB in 34.50. It sounds wierd and arrogant to say I was dissapointed with the run but conditions were perfect and I just didn't feel smooth today. I worked hard for the whole race but I never felt like I could really pick the pace up much at any stage. Compare to Thursdays tempo run (5:37 pace last 5 miles after a 6:43 first mile) to today (5:40 pace last 5 miles after 5:25 first mile) it's not outstanding. So, the long self indulgent version... Got to the start an hour before kick off with the whole family in tow. With the clocks going forwards it was an early start for a non-morning person :) Good warm up, hit the start feeling light and good. Bang, were off. John Herbert goes like the clappers and is way in front before we even get to the pub. I settle in with Jack boy and Mike Chapman. Push on a little and Jack is running quick. Mike wa...

Earlier in the year I ran a 10 mile training PB, last night I almost ran a 10k pb in training! It's almost laughable that I have not run a 'race' pb (or OAPB anyhow) since October 2010s Amsterdam Marathon. I am getting close now - almost running my best pb - 5 mile down to 20 odd seconds. So a pb has to be on the cards this weekend! Session last night was 10k progressive on the Tap Room route. Last time I ran it with Paul & Ian. Last night it was Paul & DC. Splits on Feb 9th were - 7.14, 6.18, 5.54, 5.45, 5.39, 5.35 Splits last night were - 6.43, 5.53, 5.30, 5.38, 5.39, 5.37 35.53 for 10k, only 5 secs down on a pb and feeling strong too. Kept it steady after the 5.30 mile (Paul ran off and ran 1 min quicker over the last 5k!) Bares well for Sunday, it didn't feel 'racey' last night - certainly felt OK up until the last couple of minutes but that's a natural urge to get the run over with. 28.17 for last 5 miles also is pretty damn s...

Last week finished up with 66 miles - Mon - 10k easy Tue - 14 easy, HR bit high Wed - 10 slow, very tough Thu - 8 inc intervals (2 x mile, 2 x 3k) really good sesh Fri - Rest Sat - 20 Sun - 8 steady - HR better Felt really rough all week, rotton with illness but a cracking week hitting all the right notes. Blogged about the start of the week but finished up with 20 Saturday morning with Al & DC. Started 8 am and worked through a hilly, mainly off-road route cracking out 7/mm through the card pretty much. Sunday did a steady 8. Really great run - 6:50 pace feeling easy but rough from illness. Also had eaten far too much for mothers day lunch :) This week has followed the same path. Just full of illness but hopefully now through the worst of it. Tried a hard 10 today but once I got going, 6.2x pace was a slog - head wasn't in it and binned it off at about 8 and ran easy last 2 miles or so. Nothing to panic about but positive thing is even with illness I am...

Rest day today, legs were battered from last night and with 20 coming tomorrow it was well appreciated! Entered a couple of races tonight - Breckland 10k (7th May) & Eye 10k (13th May). Gives me 3 10k's now before I go on holiday, a fast 5 mile and a marathon! Time to work on that Runbritain ranking. Am up from 495 to 345 in the V35 category so targetting top 100! Not sure how tomorrow will go, have not felt 100% today but yesterdays session was real good so think things should be alright. Plan is to get healthy & kick on now with a big pb next weekend :)

After my HR test on Sunday, got out for 10k very easy on Monday with Andy at work along the canal & nature park route. Felt a bit tired again, this running lark is harder than I remember! Tuesday I did a solo 14 miler. HR was way too high for pace. Felt like a real plod at 7:30's and HR settling around 150 bpm. Time on feet felt no real issue but was bit gutted that I couldn't lift it any without pushing too hard. Wednesday I was looking forward to catching up with Mr Day for 10 easy miles along the guided bus way. Wow, first mile was about 7:40 and it was downhill from there! We both felt shite and it was really weird that it was so hard for such a slow pace. Maybe the Garmin is out :) Today, caught up with the group for a road session. Ian Turner, DC, Ed & Tim O'Connor were all there for 1 mile downhill, 2 x 3k then 1 mile up hill. Recovery was around 3 mins. Mile jog to warm up feeling ok and some good stretching. After the past couple of days was...

So, after last Sundays race, spent Monday hobbling about, Tuesday did an unsucessfull jog around the block, Wednesday hobbling about, Thursday 3 mile tester (which tightened the calf up), Friday 34 mile bike ride (ouch!), Saturday 40 mins circuits then today 5 miles HR test. 3hr 46mins of training so very low week even if I did want a cut back ! Resting HR before the run was 48 bpm so have not lost a lot of base fitness, however, once I started running the aches from yesterdays circuits kicked in! Scores on the doors were approx - 7.40/mm @ 140 bpm 6.50 @ 151 6.53 @ 156 6.36 @ 161 bpm So approx 20 secs / mile slower than it would have been last week but not so bad considering. Aim now is to run relaxed this week. If I feel good Thursday I'll get involved with reps or tempo but I am really just looking to run feeling easy again. Have thought a lot about training and planning and more importantly consistecy while I have been off and the main things that have come to ...