1 Week Left of Base Training

It's been a great week for swimming. Swam every lunch time. Must have been about 7k in total. Has to be the biggest weekly volume for me ever. I tried to swim every workday lunchtime last year in the training for the Half Ironman but come about October the pool gets used more and more for schools and diving clubs and it becomes more and more difficult to get a swim. I shouldn't complain though because I get to use the pool for free at lunchtimes. It's free for all staff, but this time of year there's never more than 1 or 2 others in there ... not counting the scuba diving classes who do gawd knows what at the bottom of the deep end. Still find it a bit freaky swimming over the top of them.

My problem last year was that if I couldn't get a swim at lunchtime I just didn't do that part of the training. This year I have to have a plan B and actually pay to go to the local pool :( It was all too easy last year to arrive at the 'free' pool, see it filled with hundreds of school kids jumping out of life rafts and turn round and go buy a big lunch. Not this year. I'm not going to break 6 hours with that approach.

I'm also going to need to get out on the bike more. Did my first ride of the week today (Saturday). Only did 45mins but it was a good workout. Not particularly fast but felt good. Tried to improve the efficiency of my peddling. Have read about trying to imagine scraping your foot back during the rotation rather than concentrating on forcing it down. Seemed to work and felt easier. Will work on it.

Running is my problem area at the moment. Friday was the end of the rest period of my 3 week recovery plan and I was itching to go for a proper run but resisted. Instead we went for a family walk along my normal run route. A pretty boring route in terms of scenery but we laughed most of the way ... mostly at me cos I was all dressed up in my running gear and they had 'normal' clothes on. Must have looked odd. I had my 'gear' on because I had the plan to jog (as slooooowly as I could) for a few times on the way home. We walked to the mile mark, turned round at the industrial site (believe me the route is not scenic) and then I jogged slowly on for about 100m and then jogged back to the family. Walked a bit with them and then did the jogging away and back a few more times. Felt really good. My mind wanted my body to go much faster and much further but I resisted the temptation. I even the resisted the invitation from my son to race me to the 'finish line'. My calf felt a bit stiff afterwards but nothing too bad. I iced it just in case and this morning it felt fine. Resting today and then going to do the same thing Sunday evening. Will continue next week and just increase the time I jog. Think I'll definitely walk the first mile all next week.

I need to re-focus on eating better. I have fallen back into bad ways and habits and have stopped losing weight. I'm about 9kg lighter than I was this time last year but I'm still carrying excess weight. I have no intention of carrying it around the course in January. My percentage fat is currently 21% but because I'm 6'2 it doesn't really show and if I tell people I want to loose weight they think I'm mad. I reckon my 'fighting weight' would be good at about 83kg which is about 5kg lighter. I'm hoping that if I actually do the training and cut back a bit (a lot) on the cakes, biscuits and chocolate the weight loss will take care of itself. I'm going to track my weight on this blog so that it encourages me to take it seriously. So ...

Current weight is 88.2kg and 21% fat (which is 194lbs or 13 stone 12) ... still don't know which to use. Bought up on stones/pounds in UK .... have been using kg since coming to New Zealand but mostly read American blogs that talk about pounds ... have the same dilemma with miles and k ... everyone talks about mile pace but distances in NZ are in K. Ah well there are more important things to worry about.

At least 5 hours 57 minutes (my finishing time in the 2008 Tauranga Half Ironman) is the same the world over :)

Sticking to the Plan

I'm resiting the urge to jog/run. Week 1 of my recovery plan finishes Thursday so I am promising myself a 'power' walk on Friday. Training in general has taken a backseat last few days. Wife has had me decorating. I HATE decorating!!! It's so tiring! Think ironman would be easier than a day's painting. No bike ride at the weekend :( It was really bad weather but I MUST stop making excuses all the time for not getting out there and riding.

Swam Monday lunchtime. 2.75K in just over 55mins. Lost track of the time and the lengths that I had done. I was just pressing the lap timer after each 250m (concentrating on a different part of the stroke each 250) and didn't realise I had broken my recently set distance record ... for a wetsuit swim :) Swam today but only had 20mins (damn meetings) so just swam up and down.