Core Blimey

The human body - a wonderful bit of kit, more effective, better adapted and generally more repairable than the most expensive and flashy carbon bike could ever hope to be.  Evolution has, over time, created a machine capable of so much as demonstrated in the amazing world of triathlon.

SO WHY THE BLOODY HELL IS MY BODY SO RUBBISH!!!????  I am going to write a strongly worded letter to someone about this - my Doctor, my MP or maybe even The Times ...  Damn it all to Hades, the British spirit is supposed to overcome this sort of trivia isn't it?

At this point you could be forgiven for wondering what has sparked this little tirade of mine?  Well, since you ask, I'll tell you.  I decided to have another bash at Tom's Core Strength class on Wednesday before running as this is a good way to stretch prior to running training and also, as the name on the tin states, helps to build core strength.  This is something that I know is SO important to our sport and, I also know, is something that I need to make a few improvements in.  I was just shocked to find out that I am so unbelievable weak and feeble in the core area that I am amazed that I can actually stand upright unaided.  I am not exagerating, it really was a pathetic site to behold.

To add insult to considerable injury my leg muscles, the whole bloody lot of them, led in revolt by my mutinous calf muscles (total bastards), have turned into granite.  This may sound impressive stuff - nice rock hard muscles, good definition, paints a nice picture of a well toned athlete ...  However, what it translates to in reality is my with legs so damn stiff I am finding it difficult to walk properly, let alone run.  I am trying to ride into work nice and easily, but even that is proving difficult.

So - to fix things.  Going swimming tonight as this should, I hope, free things up a bit.  I'm going to give the running a miss this weekend, substituting easy turbo work instead - again to try and free things up.  All of which is to be substituted with lots of stretching.  I have booked an appointment with Janine in a couple of weeks, but want to try and undo at least some of the damage so as not to end up with a repeat performance of my last visit where I was reduced to a whimpering wreck!  It is truly tragic isn't it?

Now, the suspicious minded amongst you will be thinking that I have been neglecting my stretching!  In a way I wish this were true, as then I would have a blindingly obvious answer to why this problem has raised it's considerably ugly head.  But ..., that is not the case.  I have been particularly careful about stretching, so am looking for another culprit.  And I think I know what it is .... dehydration (yes, that sneaky little bugger).

I am a shameless coffee addict, drinking gallons of the stuff at work all day.  It is the life blood that keeps me going at work and I have been consuming it at the detriment of drinking water!

So once again - as much I stamp, shout and throw my teddies firmly from the pram, I am left with the inevitable conclusion that my problems are down to my own stupidity.  Consistency in an ever changing world can be a comforting thing - but this degree of self-damaging consistency is just absolute proof that I am a dumb ass.

Sir's lesson for the day - "If in doubt, stretch it out".  Stop sniggering at the back or I'll be forced to hand out detentions.  Now, where's my cane ....?

The Long Good Saturday

There's a movie sequel somewhere in that title but my Saturday probably lacked audience appeal.

I'm well into marathon training at the moment and the long Saturday run has become a staple part of my weekends.  Went out with Tim and Tamsin on, what was originally planned as an easy 'longish' run, probably involving laps.  This was due to Tim shaking off the last of the lurgy and both myself and Tamsin not feeling 100%.

Well, as they say, all the best laid plans etc etc - we ended up running off towards Hastings, turned up Harley Shute, turned left down to Queensway and then 'enjoyed' the long long drag up to the top.  To be honest, I've never found Queensway difficult, just bloody boring, so it was good to have peeps to keep me company.  Our run took us into and out of the other side of Battle and off along to the Catsfield turn.  Into Catsfield, down and then up into Ninfield and back towards Bexhill.

All the time, we were concentrating on how we felt from a hydration and nutrition point and kept ourselves topped up.  The result of which saw us pass the traditional 17mile point without having to get past the dreaded wall.

I left Tim and Tamsin in Bexhill with Tamsin having just clocked up a new record distance of 20 miles.  Kudos to her, as that was a big psychological barrier well and truly broken.

Time I got home I had run 21.3 miles, all on an average h/r of 130.  This made me a VERY happy boy as this is the longest I've run since the Beachy Head Marathon and is also the lowest consistent h/r.  I ended the run feeling very strong, covering the last mile and  a bit in under 8 minutes.  I felt more than able to carry on and, this is the really good bit, felt absolutely fine the following day, albeit a bit weary.

Swim session on Sunday felt good and I have been riding to work since and still feel really strong.  I can't stress enough how beneficial I've found this base h/r conditioning.  It takes a lot of getting used to the fact that you have to run a lot slower than you normally would, but stick with it and it pays mega dividends.

Now ..., all I need to do is to be able to carry this sort of strength over to my biking which has really slipped since last year.  Am I concerned?  To be honest, yes I am a bit.  I know that there is plenty of time still, but you can't keep saying that or there soon won't be.  But this something that I will really focus on after the marathon.  Until then, plenty of riding to work and get in some turbo time.  I'll also chuck in as many long rides as I can too.

Until next we meet - keep up the good wossnames and remember, if anyone at work asks you what exactly it is that you do there is a stock answer that NEVER fails - "Stuff Sir, and damn well!"  This will always elicit the reply of "Oh good ...., carry on that man".

Enjoy

Sort of a weekend

I will openly admit, and without shame or fear of retribution, that I skipped the Friday night swim session in favour of a curry and a couple of large Cobras.  Do I care? Not a jot ...

So with a crashing feeling of guilt I got up Saturday, met Tamsin at the gym and then went and ran just over 16 miles with her as part of our marathon training.  The wind blew mercilessly all the way back from Hastings, but I put that down to plain old Karma as I had sinned so badly the night before.  Goes to prove that you just can't hide from a vindictive Universe!

The run went well, although I spent all of the Hastings part completely lost.  Thankfully, Tamsin had a good idea of where we were or I would still be out there somewhere ....., much like my mind normally is.

Went to my parents for dinner and got the usual 'you need feeding up treatment'  which is pretty bloody marvellous actually.  Came away stuffed and thought that I wouldn't be able to get out of bed for swimming.

Thankfully, when the morning rolled around, I was more than up for it and had another good swim set.  Confidence is a tricky bugger to grow but myself and Dean seem to be getting there with my swimming.  Slowly slowly catchy monkey ..., or should that be dolphin?

Then spent the next 6 hours locked away at home writing a statistics technical report for work ... yes, my life is just that interesting.  Give me some numbers and a good statistical theory and I could bore diamonds back into being coal.  Ask me about hypothesis testing, p-values and the null and alternative hypothesis and see for yourself ...

Sorted out my jammed rear disc brake on my mountain bike today - removed the whole bloody lot.  Fantastic solution this as I can now ride my bike to work again.  One small, and hopefully insignificant, drawback is that I now only have a front brake!  Let us hope Jack Frost and his evil band of cold weather bastards are not coming back, or I will end up enjoying the front skid fandango.

Not sure what this week will bring as I do not feel 100% for some unknown reason.  Feels like a cold type bug is lurking again.  I shall keep my head below the parapets and skirt around this malady. 

Until further on goodly folk ...

Tough week

The title of today's entry - Tough week - gives the distinct impression that I've been hard at it.  Banging out the lengths in the pool, cranking out the miles on the turbo and pounding the pavements, but ...

Work life came storming in at something bordering light speed this week.  Important visitors from our global HQ have monopolised my time big stylee.  I ended up wound like an overly tightened spring, which is why I ended up coming to running club on Wednesday.  I decided to give Tom's new core and stretch class a bash - resulting in the conclusion that I obviously need to do WAY more.  Mind you, the stretching definitely helped me in running club straight after which resulted in me completely abandoning my low rate base running.  In short I needed to cane the arse off of the pavements and really blow out the stress - 'cos it ain't healthy to let that shite float around inside you!  So a big thanks to Emma Faulkner and Marc Speed for keeping me honest on the run and for making sure that I upped the ante on each rep.

So, I woke up thursday morning with very lumpy legs - conclusion ..., speedy running hurts me but long slow super mileage just makes me smile.  Surprisingly, after the long Sunday cycling bonk, I got up feeling tired but with absolutely no tightness in the legs, weird or what?

Hoping to get in a nice long run tomorrow and a swim session on Sunday, but that will be all for this weekend as I have ended up with a load of work to bring home ... BOOOOO.  Ah well, it's not all the time and it does go with the territory, so I'll just have to man up and get it done.  This is, after all, half the battle with Iron distance training - you have to balance the training with your home life and with work commitments, some of which blur together.  Almost glad the weather is forecast for being so bad this weekend - means I won't feel like I'm missing out too much. Bloody selfish attitude that - I can't help thinking!

So, until my next musings, your wise, grumpy old life guide and friend asks that y'all take care and remember, every single day, to pick up a piece of fruit and laugh at it, and never EVER turn your back on a bowl of cornflakes .... vicious buggers them.

Swimming, skiing, bike acrobatics and bonking with your mates ...

Once again dear reader I have started with a most informative header that you will instantly translate into the title of the next Carry On film!  And once again you are somewhat shy of the mark, you little rascals.  Keep this up and you'll be reporting to Sir's study after lessons ...

It has been an interesting weekend of training and the title of today's blog deserves a bit of explaining - sorry Sid and Babs, I'm sort of gonna have to write you out of this now.

Kicked off the weekend's fun and games with a swim session on Friday - no fixed set and not coached, just solid lengths for an hour working on technique.  I think the theory is that I bore my mind into submission so that it has to accept that I can actually swim quite well and therefore leaves my body to get on with doing so.

Saturday morning I met up with Tamsin and Jamie at the gym for an 8:00am start and then ran to Rock-a-Nore at Hastings and back - all at a steady marathon pace.  I then ran past the Polegrove and back through the town to home - door to door distance 14.3 miles.  Nice bit of work, all at a steady 141 average heart rate - nice.

Sunday morning 7:30am, 1 hour of coached swimming with Dean.  Lots of focus on technique and adding a bit of distance.  It felt good and Dean's parting comment was - 'nice set today, well done'.  Definitely gave me a lift and bags of confidence.

Quick change, even quicker breakfast then it was off to meet at Simon's for the Sunday long ride.  This week's stars were, Simon, Sarah, Jon, Jamie and your man here.  We headed west, away from the wind and into the warmth of the sun, not planning for the longest of rides, just something nice and solid.  At East Dean Jon had to leave us and headed for home.  The rest of us continued west, and eventually, after much winding through a whole variety of lanes, found ourselves climbing the slopes of Firle Beacon.

This is where the problems began.  The sun had not cleared all of the ice on the road going up the beacon and we all experienced wheel spin while climbing out of the saddle.  Opted for a seated climb - not easy on that gradient - only to continue to slip.  Got to the top (eventually in my case) and noted that we had so far covered 60km.  At this point I was becoming VERY hungry - a warning sign that I just didn't take enough notice of.  I munched my last pieces of bar and then we set off down the beacon extremely cautiously.  Unfortunately for Simon it was not cautious enough and his front wheel wiped out bringing him down heavily on his left knee and elbow and skiing (on his side) unceromoniously down the beacon.  We stopped, dusted him off and all opted to walk down to the sunny and much safer ice-free corner half way down the becon, after which we rode the remainder.

At 65km I was feeling very odd and suddenly tired so opted to use my emergency caffeine gel - which quickly picked me up again.  Soon, we were approaching Hailsham and at a junction there was a bit of confusion causing Jamie to hesitate and Sarah to ride into the back of him. This caused both of them to wipe out - thankfully into the kerb and not into the road.  Unfortunately Sarah did a slow motion forward roll, got her arm caught in Jamie's wheel and then his saddle crashed down straight into her head!!!  This was not nice and could have so easily been so much worse than it was.  Luckily after a minute or two they were both ok to push on.

At 70km into the ride it went all wrong for me - big stylee - yes, for the first time ever I BONKED, properly BONKED.  I could put no power down, I could not hold onto anyone's wheel, my body started to go numb and very cold.  I couldn't focus or concentrate and started to see stars, my head was spinning so much.  I held desparately onto Simon's wheel - he is such a fantasticly supportive team mate and we eventually made it to the garage along the marsh where Jamie had gone ahead to buy sweet hot chocolate - gawd bless 'em all.  That along with a Mars Bar helped, but I still found that last bit of the ride the rest of the way home the toughest ride that I've ever done.  Total distance 102km - the last 32km running bonked.  This is not an experience that I ever want to experience again.

I learned a lot from yesterday about nutrition and hydration and I will be looking a lot closer into this over the coming weeks.  As they say, "every day is a school day".

Onwards now - I must away to lunch as I haven't stopped feeling hungry since I got in yesterday ...

Weekly news

It's been a relatively quiet week following a couple of weeks of fairly intensive running mileage.  Following last Saturday's trek across the Downs (see last blog entry), my left knee has really started to niggle.  I ran to work on Monday and it hurt way more than it had any right to - it's only 5 miles for goodness sake.

Fast forward to Wednesday evening - an appointment with Janine for sports massage and damage analysis.  With a feeling of dread I let Janine set about finding what I'd done to myself ...

Thankfully, it looks like my problems are down to tight quads, hamstrings and anchilles and are not directly due to my patellar tendon - that is just where the problem is manifesting itself.   HUGE relief, as I have let paranoia completely take over my mind.

"You have, of course, been stretching adequately, in order to compensate for all this extra mileage?" asked Janine in a matter of fact way while working on my calf muscles.

"Absolutely" I replied, "all the time - never a moment passes etc etc" I lied.

"Oh that's ok then, so this doesn't hurt or anything then?" as she pushed, what I think was her thumb, but felt more like a crow-bar into my calf muscle.

Manfully I buried my head into the massage table, or was that the medieval rack that I seemed to have transported to?  I could take this pain, I could fool this crow-bar wielding torturer, I am an Iron Man in the making ...  This ploy worked for all of about 4 seconds, after which the highly pathetic sobs and yelps that appeared to be coming from me, yes me damn it, showed the terrible truth.  I was in bloody agony, my muscles were as solid as concrete.

After the year I had in 2009 when I was forced to take nearly 6 months out and go through months of accupuncture and laser therapy for my patellar tendon, you would have thought that a sensible, vaguely intelligent person, would have learnt ...

Hmm, case in point there I think!  Back to running in to work today and the couple of days rest coupled with the torture session seems to have done the trick.  That and the whole ton of stretching I 'enjoyed' last night of course.  So, off to swimming tonight and I will be looking to work on technique again but will also be using my HR monitor to guage the effort.

Hopefully a nice long run tomorrow and then we'll see how Sunday goes.  Onwards and upwards ...

Quality running, cracking birds and the cold shoulder ....

Go on, read the title and then let your mucky minds get carried away with you.  Al has gone away for the weekend and got carried away with himself ...

Well, you're well shy of the mark.  Got up and got out early Saturday morning with a mate - his poor wife and mine dropping us in the middle of nowhere on the South Downs.  We ran a solid 14.5 hilly, windy, freezing and rough terrain miles across the Downs in an enjoyable 2:15.

So, what of the cracking birds and the cold shoulder?  That would be the numerous hawks that were flying around us hunting pheasants.  And the cold shoulder - that came courtesy of the snow storm that blew up out of nowhere after the first 10 minutes of running!  Just like to point out that the cold shoulder was joined by the bloody freezing everything else.

Definitely proved itself a good run set in gnarly conditions.  Recovered really well, with no aches and no trouble from the left knee and it's good friend the patella tendon.  Legs and lungs are now feeling really strong with all the base conditioning runs and the exposure to generally crap conditions.  Ran in to work this morning at the same effort level (I think) that I have been doing, but seemed to cover the distance nearly 5 mins quicker - NICE.

Looking forward to the Sussex Marathon - especially with another couple of months training to go.  Will start to build in a fair bit more cycling too, just to keep life interesting.

Onwards and upwards ...