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

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

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

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.