Monday - 90min ride (Hill Reps); 30min run; 20min core.
Tuesday - 45min Run (Hills); 15min core.
Wednesday - 30min run.
Thursday - OFF
Friday - 45min run (Threshold Reps); 1hr ride.
Saturday - 2hr ride (Rollers)
Sunday - 31/2hr run.
Bought an awesome piece of kit in the last week to make sure I keep up my personal pledge to do more outdoor cycling, the Assos HaBu5 jacket. It cost a small fortune but I got a tremendous amount (£100) off the list price so I don't feel too bad. Fantastic quality and it really does work. It was down to 3 degrees on Friday and I didn't feel the cold at all.
Sunday 4 December 2011
Friday 7 October 2011
Wednesday 5 October 2011
Wednesday
Bike to work 30 min.
Run 8x hill sprints 60mins
Bk toast
Lun sandwich
Din pineapple & cot cheese
Sn Kitkat, yoghurt
Neill
Run 8x hill sprints 60mins
Bk toast
Lun sandwich
Din pineapple & cot cheese
Sn Kitkat, yoghurt
Neill
Saturday 1 October 2011
The future
Feeling a little better after my shingles and Roth injury fiascos so time to focus on the present and future rather than dwell on the past. I will be focusing on my nutrition and running over the next 6 months with a few races to keep the mojo up and an ultra to finish it off. With the other sports for enjoyment. So I will be trying to restart my original hobbies in the summer - skydiving and climbing - again as they have taken a back seat to my lifestyle (aka triathlon) lately.
My little Jensen getting his first swim analysis session from Daddy. High elbows, well done son.
Neill
Sunday 31 July 2011
New 1500m WR - 14:34min
Just watched Sun Yang's WR 1500m swim in 14:34min, beating Hacket's 10 year old record. Awesome, I swear he had a 2-beat kick , that he was breathing straight off the wall without a dolphin kick and had a front quadrant stroke. He's been watching me in the pool again!!! Fantastic to watch. I'm sure I counted only 25ish strokes per 50m. He was gliding along until the last 50 where he absolutely let rip.
Sunday 24 July 2011
Shingles
Burning, itching, painful spots appeared on my face, hands and soles of my feet over the last week equals Shingles. (Image - obviously not me - showing a very mild version for breakfast viewing). So that explains my inexplicable exhaustion over the last few weeks and up and down training stats even during the taper for Roth particularly on the bike. With a CP30 of 360W and I was unable to hold 280W last week for more than 20mins simply did not compute. Although my running has been awesome. Go figure. Well I have bloody Shingles. Well that's IM Wales bloody cancelled as well then!!! Fuck, shit, bollocks.
Saturday 16 July 2011
DNF
I had a personal disaster in Roth.
Bizarre injury getting out of a lake on the Wednesday before the race. It looked someone had taken a double Stanley knife to the bottom of my foot and it hurt like hell - freshwater barnacles WTF!!! Needless to say I was in pain and limping like a gimp all the way up to race day. Lets put it this way I would have pulled out of the race if I'd been back in England.
To the race,
I was feeling good in myself and in top form fitness wise. Personal Bests in training for the swim and bike in the lead in and 6 months of injury free running 5 days a week for 6 months.
I set off in the Elite AGers wave and was going pretty well when after 400m bang hamstring cramp in my right leg (suspicously the dodgy leg!). Lost the draft and feathered the swim from there on in trying to prevent the cramping. Got out of the swim thinking oh well at least 60mins at worst - 68mins on the watch WTF!!! Now I know something is seriously wrong. Put it to the back of my mind as its a long day and I can bring it back with a fast bike.
Wrong - on to the bike and the hamstring wasn't the problem now. I immediately had a painful back spasm down my right side (the dodgy leg side! Mmmmmmmm). This was so painful I swear a tear formed - a very small one obviously but a tear all the same. I would have pulled to side of the road and bailed after 10miles but this was a AAA race after all so I took a large dose of HTFU and kept going. After 30miles I knew this had been a bad move but the bike course is a difficult one to drop out from as it has split transitions and its not obvious how to drop out unless you just want to sit there for hours plus I wanted to go up the Solar Berg at least once. The pain was so great that my HR was in the 160s (IM pace is 120bpm for me), my RPE was through the roof but my actual power was deep in zone 1 ie no effort at all normally. Again WFT!!! Now the hamstring and the back had gone I couldn't put any power down or get in to aero position at all. In fact even sitting up hurt as well. Only getting out of the saddle gave any relief. To cut a long story short. I finished the bike (5:50hrs terrible but at least I know what no effort and agony means timewise now) and managed to prevent myself from blubbing for both physical and psychological reasons.
There was no way I could of run a step without causing a serious injury.
However, the race has caused quite a lot of reflection both good and bad and I really don't know if I want to do IM Wales now. Do I need/want a coach anymore etc.
One thing I do know is that I love training and I do love all 3 sports (well maybe not swimming that much at the moment). I saw a good quote the other day and I will leave with that...
“Commitment is doing what you said you were going to do, long after the mood you said it in has left you."
Neilly G
Bizarre injury getting out of a lake on the Wednesday before the race. It looked someone had taken a double Stanley knife to the bottom of my foot and it hurt like hell - freshwater barnacles WTF!!! Needless to say I was in pain and limping like a gimp all the way up to race day. Lets put it this way I would have pulled out of the race if I'd been back in England.
To the race,
I was feeling good in myself and in top form fitness wise. Personal Bests in training for the swim and bike in the lead in and 6 months of injury free running 5 days a week for 6 months.
I set off in the Elite AGers wave and was going pretty well when after 400m bang hamstring cramp in my right leg (suspicously the dodgy leg!). Lost the draft and feathered the swim from there on in trying to prevent the cramping. Got out of the swim thinking oh well at least 60mins at worst - 68mins on the watch WTF!!! Now I know something is seriously wrong. Put it to the back of my mind as its a long day and I can bring it back with a fast bike.
Wrong - on to the bike and the hamstring wasn't the problem now. I immediately had a painful back spasm down my right side (the dodgy leg side! Mmmmmmmm). This was so painful I swear a tear formed - a very small one obviously but a tear all the same. I would have pulled to side of the road and bailed after 10miles but this was a AAA race after all so I took a large dose of HTFU and kept going. After 30miles I knew this had been a bad move but the bike course is a difficult one to drop out from as it has split transitions and its not obvious how to drop out unless you just want to sit there for hours plus I wanted to go up the Solar Berg at least once. The pain was so great that my HR was in the 160s (IM pace is 120bpm for me), my RPE was through the roof but my actual power was deep in zone 1 ie no effort at all normally. Again WFT!!! Now the hamstring and the back had gone I couldn't put any power down or get in to aero position at all. In fact even sitting up hurt as well. Only getting out of the saddle gave any relief. To cut a long story short. I finished the bike (5:50hrs terrible but at least I know what no effort and agony means timewise now) and managed to prevent myself from blubbing for both physical and psychological reasons.
There was no way I could of run a step without causing a serious injury.
However, the race has caused quite a lot of reflection both good and bad and I really don't know if I want to do IM Wales now. Do I need/want a coach anymore etc.
One thing I do know is that I love training and I do love all 3 sports (well maybe not swimming that much at the moment). I saw a good quote the other day and I will leave with that...
“Commitment is doing what you said you were going to do, long after the mood you said it in has left you."
Neilly G
Monday 4 July 2011
Roth
Well Roth is almost here. The bike is working well - anyone who has tried getting Di2, Q-Rings and an 11-28 cassette to work will know what I've been going through. Bags close to packed and the trip to Germany starts tonight.
Last week's trg:
Swim (x2) - 1.25hrs
Bike (x4) - 12hrs
Run (x6) - 7hrs
With a 4hr long bike; 2.75hr Run and 3k OWS in there. Taper time started on Sunday. Feeling human again at last.
Swimming and biking have been going very well and I have had 6 months of uninjured running and a few 50mile weeks in there. So this turbo diesel is running quite smoothly. However, I am around 87Kg (no excuses here from me) so anyone out there wanting to send out the good vibes for me please pray for sub 30 degree C temps as that's the only thing that could hold me back, mechanicals notwithstanding. Hopefully, I will back blogging next week with a decent time plastered all over the post.
Gettin' it done.
Neilly G
Monday 27 June 2011
Phew What a Scorcher - England's Long Weekend of Summer
Not been feeling great the last few days. Not ill but just not 100%. Woke up on Sunday and knew I definitely couldn't face a 156mile bike ride and went back to bed. Did a 4hr Turbo later on in the day when it had cooled a little as it was 32 degrees C in the Turbo dungeon.
Today was my last long run before Roth. This was meant to be at race pace but again I felt not quite right. A pace that is usually below 130bpm had me at 165bpm! It was hot and humid again but come on. I didn't feel ill but that wasn't a great sign so I back right off and just jogged the 30k in 2:45. I feel fine now but I'm actually glad this has kicked in now as I can back right off now until the race. It would have been awful to do all this training and then feel mysteriously run down in 10 days time when it actually counts.
Gettin' it done.
Neilly G
Friday 24 June 2011
Ridley Noah (Good News)
Had a great bike ride today followed by an ez brick run.
IM pace WU for an hour and then 2x 30mins @ 85% of CP. On the 1st rep my hr was so low that I thought I have to go for it on the next one as I haven't done a bike test in a while. (Don't tell my coach!) To cut a long story short I now have new best ever bike stats and at last a greater than 4W/Kg power to weight ratio. It may not seem like much to some of you bike ninjas out there but I'm a big guy for a triathlete and it now means I can back off the intensity at Roth and still produce a decent bike split.
Gettin' it done.
Neilly G
Sunday 19 June 2011
Flatout at work
A good week in Spain training followed by a difficult training week at home.
My final week;s training in Spain was good with my first sub 23min (1500m) swim and 2 very successful sessions where the heat and lack of hydration opportunities made them pretty hardcore. One was a 2.5hr trail run in the mountains and the other was a 5.5hr ride where I averaged 280W in the middle 4hrs. Ouch, ouch, ouch! Both done at altitude (well 1500-ish metres for a wimp like me). This made for 19hrs training during the week in total. Nothing earth shattering but I don't need a training camp at this stage that takes 3 weeks to recover from. All in all good stuff.
This week has been a bit a struggle and the lack of consistency has be hard to swallow as while I can't hit any of the high volumes regularly that are taken as the ideal, I have tried to make up for it by religiously hitting my key sessions. This week, however, I had to deliver a course single-handed at short notice and prepare a big presentation which meant little sleep and 3 days of zero training hours. One way of getting a recovery week in I guess (in hours anyway) but I did manage to do a 2hr run and a 4hr hardcore turbo session.
Looking forward to a couple of good weeks training and the Taper leading to Roth. Should be a fun race as I'm in the elite AG wave. Ha, ha. Oh well my swim and bike will probably stand the test. Before that though there is a flat 156mile sportive to attend to aptly named 'Flatout in the Fens' near Peterborough. I will be putting my bike strategy to the test there. The hardest part will be getting the 350+ calories in every hour so I don't bonk over that length of time.
Gettin' it done.
Neilly G
Sunday 5 June 2011
Holiday (Weekly Round Up)
Having a lovely holiday in Spain (see hotel picture) and managing to train as well.
Weekly round up:
Trips to Malaga (Picasso Museum), Mijas, Granada (The Alhambra), Ronda (World's oldest bull ring), Marbella, Nerja (some of the best beaches I've ever seen), Riofrio (for the fresh trout) & Antequerra (more churches than anywhere else in Spain).
Swimming (5x) 4hrs included a coached video swim.
Bike (5x) 8hrs
Run (2x) 1.5hr - recovering from last week's killer half mary.
Included in this was a local triathlon where I came second. Notable performances included a 23:08 where I went 2:40 for the first 200m and 400m in under 5:50 keeping up with the local star triathlete. I paid for it in the middle so could have done a high 22 (oh well); a bike sans aero giszmos where I smashed everyone. Less said about the run but it was incredibly hot.
Gettin' it done.
Neilly G
Permission has been granted and I will be doing a couple of big sessions so next week will probably be in the region of 20hrs.
Weekly round up:
Trips to Malaga (Picasso Museum), Mijas, Granada (The Alhambra), Ronda (World's oldest bull ring), Marbella, Nerja (some of the best beaches I've ever seen), Riofrio (for the fresh trout) & Antequerra (more churches than anywhere else in Spain).
Swimming (5x) 4hrs included a coached video swim.
Bike (5x) 8hrs
Run (2x) 1.5hr - recovering from last week's killer half mary.
Included in this was a local triathlon where I came second. Notable performances included a 23:08 where I went 2:40 for the first 200m and 400m in under 5:50 keeping up with the local star triathlete. I paid for it in the middle so could have done a high 22 (oh well); a bike sans aero giszmos where I smashed everyone. Less said about the run but it was incredibly hot.
Gettin' it done.
Neilly G
Permission has been granted and I will be doing a couple of big sessions so next week will probably be in the region of 20hrs.
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