Daz Does Tri

"Slowly, slowly catchee monkey"  - the Gaffer '96 Feels like an eternity since I felt like I could plan out a training block but maybe, just maybe we are here. 3 weeks now very slowly building back to some light sessions and tempos. I've penned out a small block to try and get some fitness and motivation back but I am not going to lie, it's been a bloody tough journey. New Treadmill arrived a couple of weeks ago after the old one got worn out. The new one is a really good piece of kit and touch wood paces feel incredibly close to real world paces. I'll do 75% of my work on there as I build fitness I reckon. Aim from here is to slowly build and chip away at paces and mileage without going  too mad and peaking too soon or changing things radically when they don't work. I'm back on the old plan that got me 5k fit and if I can get relaxed at pace again it should pay off. Right now I can run 5 miles at around 6 flat pace without dying so I'm on the danc...

Physio today. Pretty much 10 days off with this niggle and it does honestly feel past the worst now. Conclusion was a bone to kneecap rubbing scenario and avoid low squats, lunges etc. until healed. Can do boss !! Start running again. So, jogged yesterday in Adidas Prime X on grass at about 3 mph. Not fun - possibly the slowest those shoes have ever been off the production line but positive for me in there was no issue afterwards. Today, after fizz, I extended to run a lake loop. I will remain Garminless for the foreseeable - I can't face getting involved in all that for a while. Run was good, pace felt pretty decent but tried to keep it under control. In fairness a week and a bit off shouldn't be total devastation of the conditioning but it was noticably down. Have scrubbed everything off the race calendar which relieves the pressure. I have zero to aim for but getting fit again. Feels much more relaxed and can start to daydream about running quick times agin. Treadmill sold ...

After last weekend's race I have only managed one run all week - coke club on Wednesday - which was a fairly painful shuffle. Since then I have isolated the knee which now seems to be the main problem. Ice and heat treatment is making it better (as is no running) and it does feel like it's getting better every day. I have physio booked in for Friday which will probably be clear to run by then !! It's been frustrating but just one of those things. It turned out far worse than I originally thought. The knee still feels swollen but I can now walk upstairs with zero pain. Not checked out squatting yet and i have had the odd strange twinge but I'll continue with the rehab. More worrying is the total lack of mojo. Can't even be bothered to check Strava or race results (did watch the AAA's tho) and I'm not really missing it. It'll probably come back when I start running clear again but for now I'm pretty much OK with being benched. Race wise - everything is...

Sometimes you're so far from the target it seems all but impossible. I train and live OK as an athlete and on the whole I get a pretty solid return from my investment. But not today, today was one of those days you could easily walk on. 800m was first up. 2.10 was the absolute A target - this was a big stretch. 2.12 - 2.14 was the sweet spot. 2.15 would be disappointing. Anything slower inconceivable. I must admit was I wasn't 100% feeling it. My sciatic issue was a little strange but not stopping me running. In the non scoring race and from the gun it was an 'oh shit' race. Off the back from the start (Geoff behind me but he waived the white flag at 600m). I passed the bell a long way back thinking shit, if this isn't 62-63 I am bang on trouble. 67 / 68. Ouch !! Dug in, really not in the game. Tried to reel in the back markers but had zero gas today. It was like I was missing a gear, i just couldn't relax at pace. It was 100% effort for 90% speed. Crossed the l...

Today was the start of a new target for me. I really needed to freshen things up and going from marathons to 5k to steeplechase I just haven't found something I can really get my teeth into. If I am honest, I really wanted to chase but the last one just went horrible. To be fair, I will try again this year and I think I'll have to perfect the foot on and see how that goes.  So I settled on something I toyed with for a year or so in my head. Focus on 800m. Last year I ran 2.13 off 5k training and this year I think I can go sub 2.10 with some focus. That puts me borderline competitive as a V45 (low 2 mins would be national level). So after consulting super coach Ashy I ran an old session - 3 x 200, 200, 400 off 200 slow jog and 5 min set rest. The idea is to run these really hard but controlled. Actually I was only supposed to do 2 sets BUT the main command was to warm the legs up so an extra set in Vaporfly before I went into spikes. Times were - 31,33,67 31,32,65 31,32,67 Then ...

Last 3 weeks now I have managed a nice bit of consistency in my training. The main thing has been nailling two sessions per week - some 400s (ish) oin Tuesdays and 5k tempo on Saturday. I've mixed and matched the sessions with track, road and treadmill BUT in an ideal world I'll keep as much to track as possible. Treadmill wise I have narrowed down the difference between track and the mill for the 5k session. My last 3 weeks I have had -  5k treadmill - 5.06/mm - 155 bpm - 323w  5k track - 5:38/mm - 170 bpm - 345w 5k treadmill - 5:33/mm - 160 bpm - 337w  The last session v first one was Zwift v Garmin. On the last one my time was 15.23 v 15.48 BUT I kept going until the Garmin hit 5k so the 5.33 pace was pretty accurate based on power whereas the first one was far too easy (155 bpm !!) My 400m reps (ish) the target is to hit 5k pace, 3k pace and 1500m pace switching weeks. Again, treadmill pace is far too slow so I will hit these at around 21 kmph when I repeat on treadmi...

There's no two ways, yesterday was very disappointing. I had hoped to go much quicker. But looking back now, the realisation is that actually it wasn't a bad run. I didn't do anything wrong, I just wasn't strong enough. When I ran 3k chase in 2011 (twice) I ran around 11 mins flat both times. It was shitty BUT looking back I had run 16.49 for 5k around that and was doing decent mileage. Those times all back up what I did over 2k. The simple fact is that it's not running that's the issue, it's strength.  I hurdled well and I was clean over the water. Those 23 obstacles just took too much out of my legs! Avge pace per km was 3.34 - so roughly 5 miles / 10k pace on a good day. I had expected it to be 5k pace like it used to be (well, 3k chase was 5k pace) - which was 3.23 (off of Thursday). So my options are - make my 10k pace my current 5k pace (not impossible) OR make my legs stronger so that steeplechase pace becomes closer to 5k pace than 10k pace. Both opt...