Catchup days 48-52

Days 48 - 51 were just crammed with work.  Getting everything ready to happen on site and trying to keep two clients happy at the same time.  I managed a lunchtime run to cover my 4 miler and that deteriorated into a run through sewage down by the canal side.

I didn't mind resting up for a few days through Friday and Saturday because, with the Nationals creeping in I didn't want to exert myself.  On the Saturday we had a day of shopping and drinking coffee.  General stuff that keeps us happy.

I bought a pair of tap shoes in the hope that they would get me up onto my toes and give me a little something non-triathlon to enjoy once a week.  Sadly, the classes slipped under the radar this time as they're on a Wednesday now and that was the day I wasn't at home.

I was happy to get the cyclo-cross nationals out of the way.

It's a day that marks the end of the year and the beginning of the tri season for me. It's one less thing to worry about, juggling cyclo-cross races with my triathlon training.

I'm looking forwards to the season ahead.

Day 47 - rare 30 minute bike ride to darkness and beyond

Oh, "radio mast".   There's an interesting sign I should investigate.  I left the hotel on my bike and put on full beam.
With in a few hundred metres it went out. Back to the car to get a lock so I could lock up outside the post office shop of course.

Closed.

I decided to check out the lane to the radio mast until my light went dead then descend back down a route already known. I could do laps of the village until my allotted 30 minutes was up.

On lower beam, the light kept on going and going until the track had passed the uninteresting radio station and gone back down the other side of the hill again. Perhaps it will last...

Back on tarmac I turned left, figuring that if I keep turning left... blip... no light. Now the times between blips off got shorter and shorter until finally I gave up turning it on.

I told myself, "I'll get to the top of this hill and I'll see Overstrand and the radio mast and the distant lights of Cromer.

At the top of the hill I saw the distant lights of the radio mast. Still, I continued on the theory of the perpetual left turn eventually making a circle.

I was riding very slow. Expecting every decipherable shadow to be a pothole. There was reflected light off Cromer bouncing from the cloud but it was lost in the deep hedgerows.

I struggled along, my confidence improving as the hedges thinned and a silver strip of tarmac was continually visible. I arrived at a village. Hard to tell which one. The pub was not familiar.  There was a turn, but Right to follow the main route or left with the program?

Without my light I didn't know if left was even a dead end.

Time to dig out Gloria. If I was to be fucked up by my light, I wasn't going to be alone or lost while being fuckedup.

Gloria is the only good thing about being old school and owning a Nokia phone - smart as it is - she is a mostly accurate, perfectly well spoken, high clarity satnav voice who has calmly got me out of sticky audax dilemmas and into meetings on time. She sits in my pocket, talks me to my destination clearly and the only problem this time was I was considerably off course.

A lot of chatting in my pocket was required and when she mentioned 2 km I knew she was right about me being off route.

A proper English thicket scared me senseless when I was plunged into complete darkness. It just felt like it would be bumpy. In desperation I gave lighty one more try and it had at least regenerated just enough to get me past the only potholes my wheel might have been genuinely drawn to... though I suspect if I drove the roads tomorrow I would conclude I was feckin' lucky.

Out of the trees I turned the light back off to let it regenerate again. I started to enjoy the night riding though I suspect my mood would have changed considerably had I hit a pothole.

Finally I saw the lights of Overstrand and I burned the last few electrons of energy on getting drivers to dip their headlights and the approach roads to the hotel. I know it was daft but in a new year culture of having no excuses I couldn't be drawn on the point where I should've declared it daft.

When I think of the number of cars I actually saw (1) was it so stupid? Or was it just natural?

I'm not in a hurry to try it again...and I'm saying that for TSK's benefit but if we love the things we do, isn't it healthy to enjoy them in their simplest forms?

Now I shall demonstrate the fine art of sleeping...in its simplest form.

Day 46 - A dark run

I love staying in Bury St Edmunds.  I stay at the Fordham St Genevive based Suffolk golf and country club and I swim 100 lengths of their 16m pool.

This time I ventured a run which went through the dodgiest areas of Bury St Edmunds and resulted in me running along some very dark lanes without any footpaths or a light.

Dangerous, over-exciting, wrong.  That's me.

I made my distance though, despite a few dazzling moments from oncoming vehicles and a lot of standing on grass verges whilst trucks roared past.

When I found my site the next day, I passed by on my way to pick up a forgotten toothbrush from the village stores.  The village where my site is based is beautiful and completely lovely running teritory.

Perhaps next time.

Day 45 - Back on the programme with an awesome bike ride

It started off with a sunny day.  By the time I reached Redmires Reservoirs I was plunging into thick cloud with that kind of lakeland feeling of watching the weather approach.

Onto the tops and I hoped I would pop out the other side.  I swung around the headland of Burbage then plunged down and down towards Hathersage, stopping to take a photo on the way.

On the basis of the view, I decided to head up Mam Nick and do more of a low ride around Edale.  I descended into Hathersage, where I saw Lynn and Darrell on the tandem and a pack of Sheffield Tri riders.  A lot of waving.

I felt hungry by the time I got through Hathersage so I bobbed into the Woodbine for lunch as I know I can lock the bike up and enjoyed quiche and scone with a very nice coffee.

I completely forgot about Edale when I left the caf so headed into Castelton and purposefully set about exploring a dead-end road I'd not used before... honest.  I was actually hoping to find a way onto the Mam Tor road but was disapointed by a gate so I took another photo.

I retraced my steps and settled for Winnats Pass.  Ass.

I tried to keep my calm, embarking on the climb, knowing that the last time I did this (I mean rode it all) I was on a tripple chain ring with a 1:1 ratio.

All was well up to the visitor centre, then I stood up for a bit and my hamstrings ached from working on my bike yesterday.  NOT good.

I sat down for a while as the gradient continued to steepen and tried to convince myself that if I'm sitting down there's still something left.

I got through the really steep bit by staring at a sheep as I hauled on the bars and hoped to high hopes that I wouldn't hear a popping sound in my hamstring.  Once the sheep moved out of view I stared at some bloke's wife walking down the road until the gradient eased and I could sit down again.

Thank you to whoever shouted, "go on Trep" as I fought to find my breath.

Once on the main roads I decided to head for the Derbyshire Dales instead of trawling back through Edale and facing that final kicker over to Mam Nick.  A kestrel sat ontop of a barn, its face turned away like a shy child so I couldn't recognise it as a bird until I was passing right by.  Beyond that, a house had a garden fence full of cats - 6 different ones - each with its own fence post to sit on.  I plunged into Perrydale & around Eldon Quarry, narrowly avoiding a man carrying a shotgun and wibbled my way over to Great Hucklow, Foolow and Eyam, taking the high valley-side road back into Grindleford and ride up past Froggat and the wedding venue to finish off the day.

Tempting as it was to go into Longshaw for another brew I deferred to going home in daylight as I didn't have a light.  Once I got to the city, though, I made my new way home, chosing the hilly rides over the hills of Sheffield instead of trawling through traffic on Eccleshall road.

82km & 1635m climbing.  I think that ticks a few boxes.

Days 42 - 44

Ugh.  Back to work.

It's all gone critical - timewise - and I'm not sure I can make it but I'm doing my best and I'm not sure that will be good enough for anyone.

I did manage an 800 m swim on Thurdsay.  An apparent token effort but I'd done a lot of swimming last week whilst the pool was in 50m mode permanently.

Friday was a day sitting in the car on my ass and talking and phoning and not a lot of excercise involved.

I got home, set about the task of using SAP to create a PO then went to bed at 11:30 pm after being grumpy at TSK.

He was very patient with me and left to go for a 200k this morning after bringing me a little kiss.

In the absence of motivation I have cleaned bikes and ordered some bits which is pretty constructive given the state they were in and what I'm going to do with them tomorrow & next week.

I'm going to be on the road but I intend to take ALL the toys with me.

Day 41 Addendum

Technically I should've biked yesterday & today should be a rest day - since I didn't feel like going out.

Spent the whole day being lazy making up for staying up late last night.

The lethargy just got worse as the rain came, the wind picked up and the sofa became more and more comfortable.  The light fell.

Finally I persuaded myself to go out for the prescribed 30 minute ride.  It can't be that hard... I mean not even as hard as going for a half hour run but it's really difficult to imagine a 30 minute bike ride.  I went.

Of course after 12 minutes I was having a great time.  I didn't care that it was raining.  I didn't care where I was going but I kept going up and west as long as I could and then thought about going home when I couldn't be bothered any more.

Eventually I turned down a byway and by nothing more than the beam of my bike light and luck, rode up some slippery flagstones alongside a ford and a brick wall before heading back into the city.

Met up with TSK for a beer and dinner.

Crackin' start to the new year.

2012 Review

Ended the year with a game

Phew!

That year is finally over.  Not that it was  distasteful year but it seemed to drag on a bit towards the end.

First of All - Day 38 - 40 or 40 days of ironman training prep

A fast km in the pool left me happy that I am swimming as fast as I was this time last year.  

This time of year is all about offsetting so I declared that the combo of my 21km MTB day in the Peak on Christmas Day and my impending cyclo-cross on sunday subtotalled the equivalent effort of a 40km bimble on peak roads plus a 30 minute easy ride with sprints.  I also declared that the 5 hours slog in the pissing rain with my parents more than made up for a 6 mile run.  I certainly deserve it!

That only left me with a 30 minute run to do on Christmas week so I set out to attack the run again.  I was a bit more careful with steep hills this time and managed to clock 28 minutes 59 seconds.  That did me.  I felt good this time though - not bad.

Day 39 was aforementioned 'cross race which more than made up its element of bike training as well as a sizeable portion of running training both up those cobbles and in the muddy puddles (lakes) of Todmorden park.

Day 40 was the official start to week -5 of my 20 week plan so the swim made it through on the Monday since it's closed today (1st Jan & day 41).  The pool was heaving but I held my own despite bony old lady doing breast stroke in the fast lane kicking me in the knee, elbow and ribs - way to go!  1600m in 34:27 - not bad considering the 'cross race yesterday which only really effected my effort level as I had to breath consistently every three strokes instead of 3 / 4 / 5.  I didn't have my watch with me so I'm hoping I did more lengths.  It always feels like I'm over-counting when I'm in but afterwards it often pans out that I'm not at all, I'm under-counting.

So Day 41 is the time to set Ironman training aside for a moment and look back on the year that was:

Part II - December Review

Swim: 6.3km 2.8kph.  Compares to last month:  7.4 km 2.5 kph. Compares to 2010: 4.85 km 2.6 kph
Bike: 420.9 km 17.9 kmph, 4852 m. Compares to last month: 305.04 km, 16.6 kph, 3833m el. Compares to 2010: 134.2 miles, 20.3 mph, 1142 m el.
Run: 25.8 miles, 5.4 mph, 923m el.  Compares to last month: 25.78 miles, 5.2 mph, 824m el. Compares to 2010: 45.36 miles, 7.9 mph, 1008m el.

Percentages complete: 66%
Week -9: 63%
Week -8: 71%
Week -7: 33%
Week -6: 95%

Time in zone: 4hrs 17min

Part III - 2012 Review

Swim: 30.72 km, 2.4 kph  A summer lost but a speed increase.

Bike: 4370 km, 15.4 kph, 57,900 m el. Further but also slower as I carry more about

Run: 346.38 km, 8 kph, 8608 m el. Again with the wedding excuses.

Which compares with 2011

Swim: 54.78 km, 2.3 kph

Bike: 3386.49 km, 19 kph, 40,547m el.

Run: 520.39km, 6.9 kph, 10,865 m el.  That'll be the Truncing.

And... since I've never done this before, 2010

Swim: 35.19 km, 2.2 kph

Bike: 3357.73 km, 16 kph, 37,752 m el.

Run: 440.03 km, 7.6 kph, 6,627 m el.

So using 2011 as a benchmark for the rest of the year as 2012 is nothing in-particular to aspire to unless you're planning a half-ironman and a wedding.