Harrison and Hindley smash their P.B's on Reading Half

A stepping stone in the right direction in the quest to become an iron man, Harrison and myself clocked P.B’s in the recent Reading half marathon, this is an annual event for Harrison and for myself this race was run in the build up to get me prepared to run a marathon, the target for us both was to sub 1:30, however this looked bleak after Harrison suffered with stomach ache and I wasn’t feeling the best from a hard swim session on the Wednesday. Beside this we approach the race with a lot of spirit and enthusiasm, the energy drawn from the amazing crowd supported our race, whilst the beat of the drums running under the bridge gave us the drive to push on, beside the demoralising last mile, running into the Madejski Stadium was awesome. The picture above is of two wanna be elite athletes outside the elite tent with 2009 European cross country champion Hayley Higham.

Mr. S. Harrison position 346 Time: 1:25:31
Mr. P. Hindley position 302 Time: 1:24:39

Busy days ahead- Focus!!!

When things get tough, it doesn't just have to be the training. Life can throw some unexpected curve balls and it's down to us to deal with these. That's why we train. A good friend of mine uses this poem by Rudyard Kipling to help keep his focus. Not my usual approach to training, but in the current climate, more than appropriate. Have a read and let me know if you think its an appropriate training aid.

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:
If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
' Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

podgy knee

The training seemed to be going sign well, pretty strong swim by the team this morning but during my run tonight I've developed a
very podgy knee.... Ice and beer should hopefully fix it for tomorrow's early session! Its far to early to be missing training....

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Week 1 training program - Yikes!

5 days into training proper.... realisation of how much this is going to hurt is sinking in!

We're working off a 30 week periodised program laid down by triathlon legend Don Fink (from the publication 'Be Tri Fit'). Week 0ne is as below. We're 5 days in and in bits already!

Week 1

Mon: Rest
Tues: Swim #33 (1hr) and Run HR Zone 2 (30mins)
Weds: Bike HR Zone 2 (30mins) QUICK CHANGE Run HR Zone 2 (15mins)
Thurs: Run HR Zone (30mins)
Fri: Swim #34 (1hr) and Bike HR Zone 1 100RPM + (30mins)
Sat: Bike HR zone 2 (1hr)
Sun: Run HR zone 1 (45mins)

Swim #33 = 300Wu, 8x50DR,12X100@20SEC, 8X50DR, 200CD
Swim #34 = 300Wu, 8x50DR, 4X125 rest 20secs, 4X 175 rest 30SEC, 4X125 @20, 8X50DR, 200CD
In total the week is supposed to involve 6hrs training although given the swims have taken longer than expected it'll more than likely end up at 7hrs. By July we're programmed to be doing upwards of 14hrs per week!

Who's idea was this.......?!

The last ride - Paul's new socks!

Last Sunday saw me going on the last cycle ride before the training begins proper, and it certainly looks like I need the training; 44 miles seemed a bit of a struggle but we did included 3 serious hills, one of which is on the Ironman course.

My general feeling is that I'm ahead of where I need to be in terms of general fitness but I am still concerned about the swimming. The training looks brutal!

Thanks to the lads for keeping me company on a cold Sunday morning. (L-R) Nick, Paul, Sean, Mark

The route... http://connect.garmin.com/activity/69234569

Bike fitting

Instead of a few beers with the lads on Friday night after work it was over to Evans Cycles in Reading for a bike fitting.

We had an idea of the bike that we could afford and it was just a case of getting the right frame size. Or so we thought...

The shop manger put us on to his top man, Adam, who explained every difference between a triathlon bike and a regular road bike, which left me in no doubt that the correct machine, perfectly fitted to each of us, would be essential for us to be able to be fresh enough for the run.

My last week...

The 30 week count down begins next Monday, and so I'm going to be starting my specific training plan. Each individual session is tailored to build on the last, and each week is built on the previous one and so on, in three 10 week cycles, Base, Build and Peak.

My current levels of fitness are about right but I am yet to attempt a properly structured swim session. That'll be tomorrow morning then! This is the only bit that concerns me at present, fitting in 3 swims a week, but I'll manage. I have to.

Oh, and after consulting my training plan, it looks like Monday is a rest day. RESULT!

Early morning training sessions

As my official training programme starts in about 10 days time, I thought I'd start to get myself conditioned to the schedule. During the week it mostly consists of 45 minute run, cycle or swim sessions, with no more than 3 days between a particular discipline, followed up with a long run and cycle at the weekend.

As far as the swimming is concerned, I am only concentrating on technique at the moment, with my fitness coming from the other activities. The run and cycling sessions are all determined by time as opposed to distance, with strict heart rate zones being crucial to ensure that I'm working for optimal gains for the time and effort expended.

Why work harder than necessary and stress your body, which will effect your future training and competition performance? http://goo.gl/2XNvV

Why train for longer than is necessary and waste valuable time?

Careful planning and preparation is the key to success in all walks of life. Train smarter not harder.

The Ironboys

First 'promo' shot!

(L-R) Alex, Stewart, Neil, Phil

All in need of some warm weather training by the looks of things!!

Don't forget to breathe!

With all these technical points for swimming.....swimming around in my head I'm finding I've lost a lot of focus on my breathing during my strokes - this means I can do about 50m before I'm wrecked! I made a decision today to move from breathing every 4 strokes to every 2. Neil, Phil and Harrison all seem to favour this way and so did pretty much everyone else who was training early doors this morning. So I took the plunge. Hayley recommended it as it suits open water swimming better (choppy waters, need to sight etc). Be interesting to hear anyone thoughts on breathing patterns etc.

Gonna give this workout a try on Fri morning.

Warm up:
200m easy swimming

Set 1:
2 x 100m Front Crawl - 20 seconds rest - concentrate on long strokes
4 x 50m Front Crawl - 15 second rest - concentrate on leg kick from hips
2 x 100m Front Crawl - 20 seconds rest - try and put all together

All distance to be at 50% max intensity -

set 2:
1 x 100m swim - try to breath every 4 strokes
20 seconds rest
4 x 50m swim get faster each 50m - last 50m should be arounf 70% effort - 10 seconds rest between each 50m
20 seconds rest
1 x 100m swim - try to breath every 4 strokes

swim down - 200m super easy and relaxed Total distance: 1400m

50 Mile Thames Trot Ultra Marathon

50 Mile Thames Trot Ultra Marathon

I have recently embarked on the biggest challenge of my running life, in preparation for the endurance slog that the Iron Man will bring. The event took place on the banks and towpaths of England's largest river as well as footpaths and bridleways covering 50 miles; this is known as an Ultra distance course, the event organisers are called Go Beyond Ultra, which says it all! The run started at Oxford and followed the River Thames, by the first few miles I was questioning why I had packed so much, and the extra weight of my rucksack certainly increased the difficulty of the event. However the scenery was great and inspiration was gained within the first half from seeing a vast amount of rowers training hard on the water. During the second half of the race we decided to make a tactical change in our approach to the check points, which resulted in spending less time taken at check points and walking while we fuelled up. Entering Reading, motivation was increased as a thought that Mr. Harrison once said to me kept going through my head “every step taken is a step closer to home”. Shortly after we were joined by a fellow Iron Man Mr. Ballard, who offered inspirational words and encouragement, the sound track to Karate Kid helped enormously. The final stages were somewhat challenging as we made our way down to Henley in the dark, Knowing that we had finished was a great feeling and hearing the joy of happiness from my wife was special.
A big thanks goes out to my Ultra-Marathon buddy Gary Clarke, who made the event very enjoyable! I look forward to running the Great Welsh Marathon with you in April.