Daz Does Tri

The definition of madness is doing the same thing again and again and expecting different results! The dust has settled on the first half of the season. It finished earlier than I had hoped and if I am honest, I really shot my bolt before the proper races started. I missed all of the great opportunities BUT and I do have a big one (!) there's part 2 to follow. So I have moaned already about what went wrong. The biggest plus out of everything is that I am going into a break with no injuries which is a huge plus for me. No enforced break, it's a chosen one and those have been few and far between in the past 13 years (it's been that long - crikey) I 100% know the formula that gets me into sub 17 shape (ish) and I peppered that for about 10 weeks. The bigger picture though is something completely different and that means I really have to change things up. I am effectively completely starting from scratch and re building myself. It's actually easy for me to forget how well I...

OK, so time to admit defeat. This season has been a very drawn out plateau. 17 min bingo if you will !! I quickly got reasonably fit and basically just did not move. My motivation pushed me to train harder, lifting intensity and all I effectively did was offset my increased fitness by increasing fatigue and just not getting quicker. The eventual outcome was obviously and always going to be a burnout both mentally and physically.  Times started dropping as my body just couldn't respond and recover from the intensity. Still fit, still in good shape, just cannot move forwards. Season over. It's not all doom and gloom, this is a learning curve even at 47 years young and I know exactly where I have made mistakes. I've kind of proven I can crack well under 17 mins off a short base period and a block of 30 miles per week. I enjoy it, but to push on I need to look at what I am doing and not sit in that grey zone. After last weekend it was clear I just needed to rest and take the pr...

Legs are absolutely savaged after track at the weekend. Not had calfs like this for many years. Monday - rest. Really bad shape. Cold bath, Normatecs doing everything I can to shake them out. Tuesday - no session. No chance. Risked a run and it worked. Steady was fine - ish. Calfs were fine but legs incredibly tired and unresponsive. Taking lots of protein to get some life into them. Actually confident that if they recover I'll be in good shape to push on. The danger here is I just get sucked into recovery and no progress for too long. This is the real issue with getting old - the commitment is there but what use is that without an able body. Ran steady, 7.1 miles at 6.43/mm mainly progressive to 6 but faded on the hills coming home. Better than I deserved but I really need these legs to come back to me by Thursday.  Not got serious strains, just really sore on the verge of becoming an issue. Fingers crossed I can get back to regular training otherwise moving beyond 17 mins flat is...

Right, so I have some good data now on where I am at. The bad ... I'm getting over flu still, I'm not at 100% yet (probs 95%)  I'm lacking speed endurance, mile speed basically. I'm fading last 200m of an 800m from being on pace and last 1100m of a 1500m. I need to have that 72 second pace nailed to the board and be relaxed. Just tying up waay too much in the closing stages Lack of confidence. The good ... I'm literally one good sleep away from feeling pinging plus I have a rest day Monday. I have a great base and 5.3x pace feels comfortable enough over 5k I seem to have pretty solid flat speed. 65 opening lap of an 800m is fine and I wasn't under too much pressure. Felt like a 59 high, 60 low would be possible for a flat 400m. Reading this I can see exactly whats needed. Firstly - strengths - keep building on what I am doing. Slightly longer, slightly faster, slightly more. That's pretty obvious. No major changes to my stronger and longer workouts. Secondly...

So friends over last night. The tail end of binge season and I got of fairly lightly i.e I wasn't absolutely smashed. Fun evening though, can't beat a good session on thee gin !!  Rest day today (Monday) and I feel much healthier than last couple of days. Not 100% by any means but much closer than I was !!  I'd say 97% now, Friday feels like a false start as I felt amazing but pretty shocking by Saturday. Plan this week is to kick my body back into feeling strong. I feel very well rested and if I can get on top of the aforementioned issues I will be in pretty good shape. I know I am not going to be in oapb shape just yet but the plan is to get back to basics this week, hopefully race well next Wednesday and push on from there. So this is the kick towards my summer holiday break now and I have around 7 weeks to get everything I need to tick off. Again, first up is to feel strong again. This is the rough plan for the week as it stands .... Mon - rest - like a champion. Tue -...

2022 for me is a season of two halves. I have just had my first break of the first half so back on it now with a solid push up to my big summer break. Trip to Barcelona to watch the grand prix was awesome. Ended up on a big 4 day booze streak with very little sleep. Today is a reset as I try and detox my body back into life and start back training to get back into shape. I have a massive block of races coming up through June so I really need to start moving. No point training hard in April and being stagnant through the best racing months. Session today to reboot is 12 x 75/45 on the treddy. I'll drop back to 19.3 to give the legs a chance and see where they are at. It's going to be a tough session but once it's in the can I think the body will readjust to training mode. First big race is Watford over 3000m next Wednesday and a chance to get a decent time in the bag. Some hefty targets in mind coming up and plenty of opportunity to race myself fit. At my age I need to box c...

Cool pic from last weekend, shame I ran so bad ! ! Can't believe I didn't mention you last week bud ??!! Get a Park Run seasons best this week and I'll give you another one next week ;) To be fair, DC is probably the only person who ever asks me how I am doing. For some reason, I think everyone else always assumes I'm 100% buzzing all the time. Finished last week with some kind of bug in my system. Completely wiped out Sunday. Rest Monday and fingers crossed ready to roll on Tuesday. I really need a boost now going into proper races. I know I am fit, I just can't seem to get out of the rut. If you can call low 17s a rut then I guess it's not a bad spot! Planning to do some strength run work to address the stamina element over the next few weeks. I have a solid block of races happening planning to do Watford 3000m, County 5000m and then Southern League 3000m. Between those there's a good chance I should run in to some form! Focus right now is on recovery from...