End of Q3 Review

Well that was a bit of a rollercoaster 3 months. I am going to get to my conventional quarterly review but before that I am going to tack on a fairly major section for this quarter only as I fear that going straight into the numbers without context this time is just too confusing.

So within the last 3 months I have settled into (another) new job which is about 7 miles from my home and comes without a parking space. I have tried to use my commutes to train which means the numbers have changed slightly but the effects have been fairly major. I will cover them each in the following sections but basically it has meant; that I can’t get to Knockburn midweek for my summer open water swim sessions; that I get a lot of bike miles, but all in 7-mile stop-start chunks; and that I get more long runs, but almost no short runs. 

I also started this quarter off the back of a torn quadricep which took a good bit longer to heal than I had expected. That ate in to my running numbers for a while.

On the tech side, I got Pokemon Go and a fitbit, both of which encourage me to go out and walk around a lot. I am subsequently averaging almost 2,000 steps a day more than I was before, but I am doing them mostly at walking pace, and I am pausing (or even stopping) on my runs to catch and fight Pokemon. None of which is conducive to running faster.

I had my first proper holiday for about 5 years, (KLM have gotten really shit over those 5 years by the way). This meant trips back to Netherlands for the first time in at least a decade and Germany for the first time in 7 years and a fabulous week away.

Oh yeah, and I got married. That seems like it should just affect one day of my training blog, but I did actually get out for a run that morning. Instead it has been a major impact on my time, finances and particularly on my stress levels particularly during the last couple of months. 

So my targets for the year can be found here.

Here is the Q1 version of this review. 

Here is the Q2 version of this review.

The graphs again come in two versions. One showing the whole year, and a zoomed in version showing just Q3.

Swimming 

My new job is still stopping me from getting out to Knockburn and I haven't managed to replace that missing swim with a regular second swim yet. However, as winter nights close in I should hopefully get back in to my Q1 routine with a second swim either on a midweek evening or an early weekend.

In the first half of the year I swam twice inside my 750m race target, but both times in open water races. I don't really like to count them as the distances are not particularly accurate, and the wet suit helps too much. 

Since then I have not swum well at all and having finished my racing season in the pool I have missed all three of my target swim times [open water swims excepted]. Huntly was better than I expected but still over a minute too slow. Alford was my only 400m swim this year and while the choppy new pool gives me a few seconds of excuse it doesn't give me the whole 68 seconds that I missed my planned swim time by. 

I still have an open swim target to do 104 miles this year which is achievable if I get back into a regular pattern of 2 swims a week. 

Biking

Biking miles have continued to improve during Q3. This is almost exclusively commuting though and the 7-mile / 30-min chunks are almost worthless as training. They are keeping my basic fitness and getting me to work on time but not really helping me cycle any faster. I am going to keep them in but I really need to reintroduce some weekend rides for proper training.

I had two cycling race targets for this year. 10-mile under 26 minutes and finish a 25-mile TT. My 26:53 from Drumoak was still my fastest of the year. 

I did manage to get to the end of a 25-mile TT without getting lost though. The time was terrible, the performance was uninspiring, but it does give me a time on the board to chase next year. 

My overall bike miles target of 2,080 is well within range. 375 miles over the next 12 weeks is less than 32 miles / week and I can grind that out on the turbo if I don't get them from commuting or some weekend rides. 

Running

Running has tailed off since June as well. The quad tear from the end of June put a dent into the numbers as did a rest week and a mostly bike week in August. However, once my numbers got close to falling behind target I got back to at least ticking over at target levels every week. Hence the yellow line disappears behind the black target line for pretty much all of September. 

I had my race targets set for a 10k under 42 minutes, which I smashed, and then a second 10k under 42 minutes, or a 5k under 19:30, which I still need to get. I also had stretch targets to 'run my age' for 10k which I just missed at Elgin, and to run sub-40, which I have made.

I am also fairly well on target for my 750 miles a year, and now I can focus on getting my running back to where it was earlier in the year. Trying to find races might be the biggest difficulty in getting another fast time. 

Triathlon

I have taken part in an ETU qualifying race so I can definitely tick that target off the list. I am pretty pleased with how I raced there as well. I need to wait till next week before I can tick off my qualification spot for next years ETU Age-group Sprint Champs.

I won't get a chance to qualify for the ETU Standard Champs as the qualifying dates are all too close to the wedding. 

Other

I have a target to do 80 yoga sessions this year and I had done 60 by the end of Q2. Since then I have done only 3. This is almost certainly a direct correlation with my form. I need to get this back to at least weekly, and preferably much more regularly. 

And I have a target to do 80 weights and core sessions and I have done just 19. Those now need to go to basically 3 a week if I want to hit that target.