Well the saying is "its a marathon not a sprint" and this week has turned into an impromptu recovery/easy week, albeit I have still managed nearly 7 hours of training. With two West Ham games, two leaving parties, snow storm and my Mum's birthday it has made it difficult to schedule in some training sessions; but my legs definitely feel refreshed after four tough consecutive weeks to kick start 2012.
A few of my triathlete mates think that I am either Don Fink's lover or love child as all last year I kept on spouting on about his book (Be Ironfit) and training strategies. If you ignore the Americanisms about living the dream it is an excellent aide memoir to any training, not just the ironman. He encourages capping weekly increases at 10% and having a easy week every four weeks. He also keeps quality of training high by measuring time and heart rate. I will stop banging the Fink drum as I will create a new wave of people that might also question my intentions, and no am not getting a referral bonus either...
The week (30th Jan - 5th Feb) started out in a reasonably low key fashion; quick 600 metre swim followed by a core strength session. This was designed to help the body recover after a hard training weekend the previous week. Tuesday ramped up a bit with a slow-ish 10.5 mile run into a work and lunchtime 1000 metre swim as I knew that I had my first challenge of the week to my training willpower; a visit to Scandinavia to watch West Ham away at Ipswich.
Now I wasn't expecting it to be warm but the brass monkeys crying at Portmand Road was a bit of a shock to the system; albeit slightly upstaged by both the result and the seating arrangements. Starting with the game, West Ham actually played better than the 5-1 drubbing might suggest. Between the two penalty areas we were the better team but in both areas it was diabolical. We missed a few gilt edged changes and the less said about our defending the better.
I was very appreciative of my best mate at work giving me use of his spare season ticket for free but he wasn't quite as open about the seating arrangements as he was with his wallet. He seemed to omit the fact that I would be using his father-in-laws seat and that he is classified as disabled. I am sure you have guessed but yes our seats were in the Ipswich disabled enclosure. Still, I ignored the stewards inquisitive glances as to what was wrong with yours truly, as I was thankful for the fact that the free match outweighed the daylight robbery of the £72 return train ticket. It also enabled me to get a front row view of the game, players tunnel and the slightly bewildering spectacle of a disabled West Ham fan getting arrested at half time by three coppers for throwing coins at Michael Chopra. All in all I saw it all.
Wednesday was my big training day and I planned the sessions in the evening as I knew I would get back from Suffolk late especially as the train company generously brought on a replacement bus service around 10:30... In the evening I completed my first brick session (back to back cross training) of the year. I used the location of my gym to home to incorporate a swim before my weekly spin class and a run home afterwards. The two and a half hours of quality training confirmed that I am already in Ironman shape with the legs remaining strong at the end of long runs. What I didn't expect was that this would be my final training session of the week.
Thursday was already a rest day as I knew I had my boss' leaving meal at the excellent Lahore Restaurant in Algate but Friday's blow out was a shock. I felt quite rough on Friday morning and cancelled my run in. I then spent longer out on Friday's leaving drinks and it resulted in my Saturday swim being cancelled too. Still, this meant I could catch up with one of my oldest friends from Uni and also provided the surprise bonus of bumping into my childhood sweetheart in Reflex.
Saturday's monster hangover wore off at midday meaning that I was reasonably with it by the time I was presented with the sight of about 2,000 riot police at the West Ham Millwall game. Now I know that the main thing was that the game passed without incident but I still don't know whether it really warranted the heavy handed approach by the police, who looked more sinister than even the most thuggish Millwall fan. It was great that West Ham won to remain top but as I went to the game with my Mum it was also a tremendous start to her birthday. Slight doubts about the winning goal as Faubert took out their goalie in the run up Reid's shot but I don't care a jot!!!
The remainder of Saturday was spent round my Sister's house having a Chinese take away to celebrate my Mum's birthday and preparing for my Sister's first half marathon race when the snow set it. The race was cancelled due to the snow and my Sister was really disappointed with the interruption to her London Marathon training. We are now going to meet up for a slow 15 miler next Saturday to keep up the momentum to her first marathon completion and her dissappointment was outwieghed by my 23 month old nephew playing in the snow on his sledge. Big softy I know :-)...
Sunday was slightly salvaged by a strength training session at home before we sat down to watch the yearly event that threatens matrimonial harmony in the Deane household; The Six Nations. A few weeks to go to the big event of the Wales vs England game but things are starting to hot up with both Wales and England getting of to good starts on the road.
Tonight I am using the snow to postpone my Monday morning run and stay up late to watch the Super Bowl. It will also mean that I will have to spend the remainder of my week in my training kit.
Next week is the final week of the build stage as I will be starting my speed stage on February 13th with only 9 weeks to the Paris Marathon. I am hoping that the speed training will make my target 3:30 more realistic. Additionally, I will be completing planning for my Wine and Cheese fundraiser in June as well as getting cracking organising my five-a-side football fundraiser in March/April.
Monthly stats for January:
Running: 110 miles
Swimming: 20k
Cycling: 50 miles
Weight lost 5 pounds
Money spent/wasted* on training kit, travel and accommodation: £1,050
* depends on whether you are me or my wife...
TTFN...
No comments:
Post a Comment