July 2014

This month was just a good training month. no events planned and was just time for me to get my head down and train hard. I have managed to start a spinning class on a Thursday evening with Sleaford Tri Club, then after spinning there is also a run session. Really good brick session and one of the sessions I really enjoy going to. I'm starting to get some proper structure in my training now, thanks to the tri club. After talking to some of the members they have been sharing with me there training plans and it has been quite the eye opener. So I decided to get some sort of structure to my training. When training for three different sports you have to manage your time very wisely or you can end up over training in one sport and not enough in another. Monday and Wednesday has become a swim session (Wednesday being in a lake) Thursday is spinning and running, then the rest of the time is to get a decent run and a good bike ride in.


This was after a half marathon training run, it was so hot that day.

End of the month I went camping with my wife and one evening I decided to go for an hour run and have a go at fell running, we were camping just outside of Grassington and the campsite was near a nice hill. Loved the hill climb got a little bit lost but wasn't too bad.

I have Joined a Triathlon Club

So this year I said to myself that I would sign up to quite a few events to help me with getting fit and healthy. I need to have a goal and to keep me focussed on my training. So this month became a month full off events. It first kicked off on the 1st with the Woodhall Spa 10k run. A flat and fast course and if you were to get a PB then this would be the chance to get this. I knew exactly what pace I wanted to run at and I stuck to my plan. it paid off and I got my PB with a time of 44:30. I really enjoyed this run and it might be one I do in 2015 to go for another PB attempt.

Yes, that's me on my knees. Had a sprint finish with some random
This was the event I wanted to try and keep up with a friend but he was too quick for me, however he never got out of my site. This is the friend who I said I would beat in race at the start of the year.



I started my first swim session with Sleaford Triathlon Club and loved it, really great coaches and the other members were very friendly and helped me through the session. Looking forward to getting to know everyone better and to hopefully improve my swimming.

This is one crazy month. I have my first sprint triathlon in Spalding at the weekend and on the Friday before I decided to go for a 100 mile bike ride. Not sure why. I had a day off work and the weather was perfect.

Spalding Triathlon
Great event not too big and very well organised.
Swim 400m : 7:57
Bike 19.5km; 38:06
Run 5km: 19:18. I think the run was actually 4.5km though.

Really pleased with times and felt really good afterwards. I felt that good that the next day I went for a 48km bike ride.
         

Next up I took on the wolfrun. This is a 10km obstacle course. I ran this on my own but it would have been alot more fun running with other people as it was funny being stuck in waist deep mud and wondering how you were going to get out.

     

                                               

Training is going really well and the hours and distance is certainly increasing nicely.

Thinking about Triathlons

So May was a very interesting month. since January all I have really done is run. I think this is due to the fact that running burns off the most calories and its the one sport I really wanted to get in to and see how far I can push the boundaries. I now start thinking about triathlons again, I dipped my toe in to the sport back in 2010 where I did my first sprint triathlon in Lincoln. I really enjoyed the event but never really had the opportunity to do any other events as I was out cycling all the time and in May 2013 I cycled 600 miles to Paris and back raising money for Breast Cancer Campaign.


So back to the Month of May. My training has certainly ramped up now, probably due to the nice weather and trying to make the most of the daylight hours. I had started to go out on my bike a lot more and done some running after my bike ride to see how I felt. I have also been swimming a few times and also went to a lake in Lincoln to have a go at my first open water swimming. I wanted to hire a wetsuit from them and they didn't have any left so for my first attempt at swimming in a lake I'm there with my swim shorts and just getting on with it. I had gone down to Lincoln park run that morning and the weather was amazing, it was really warm and hardly any wind with not a cloud in the sky. after park run I headed down the road to the lake and enjoyed my first open water swim.


For some reason I thought I would give kick boxing ago. I thought that this would help more flexibility and my core strength. I signed up for a six week beginners course and really enjoyed it, by the end of the six week I decided that it wasn't going to be. I really enjoyed the training but I had my heart set on getting in to triathlons and decided that my focus was required more in the other 3 disciplines.

I was at by a friend if I would like to have ago at doing the RatRace dirty weekend a 20 mile obstacle race. I had no idea what to expect as I had never done anything like this before. The thought of running 20 miles was more than enough for me let alone throwing in 200 obstacles. Such a great event with such a great atmosphere from all the supporters and all the marshals. I managed to finish this event in 4:02hours.
http://www.ratracedirtyweekend.com/