Training Review - Week 48 - Nov 21 to 27

Monday's commutes were both in sub-zero temperatures. The road bike handled the frosted over roads much better than I expected. My full length bib tights didn't fare so well and I was freezing when I arrived.

In the evening I went so swimming and managed nearly three quarters of the session before my first bout of cramp kicked in. From there it was a bit patchy to the end of the session but I did manage to get through all of it.

Tuesday I stuck with my plan to run to work. Once again I am in need of a rest day and it was a struggle to keep moving. I managed to shuffle all the way to the office though. The plan to alternate between running and biking seems like a smart idea on the face of it, but that leaves me doing each run commute the day after two-way bike commutes and a swim. 

In the evening I did a bit of stretching and rollering to try and undo some of the worst aches and tightness. 

Wednesday was a bit of a mixed bag. In the morning I took the road bike to work, got about 70 yards from my house, slipped on some ice and ended up in a heap on the floor. After a couple of minutes I was up and checked myself out. A few aches but nothing serious so I walked it through the path until I got back to a road and carried on. In hindsight that was ambitious. I have skinned my left elbow and knuckles and gave my left knee a whack on the top tube which had me limping for the rest of the day. More importantly I must have landed on my wedding ring as I have bent it out of shape.

In the evening I rode home again, slowly with lots of twitchy nerves every time the road surface looked wet or icy. That did help ease my knee off a little bit. And I arrived home to an email from British Triathlon confirming my selection to go to Bratislava for next year's ETU Aquathlon age-group champs. I would still prefer to go to Dusseldorf for the Sprint Triathlon Champs and I don't think doing both is an option so if a place comes available I might consider a switch. In the meantime it is a bit of a change of plan as I focus on swimming and running.  

Thursday I decided to risk that the lovely purple bruise on my knee was nothing more serious and ran in to work. While it was a bit painful and annoying it didn't seem to make much difference to my running. I was a couple of minutes slower, but that could just as easily have been from the traffic lights I was caught at. In the evening I started on my training plan for 2017 and then did some stretching. While the bruise isn't directly affecting me the swelling and pain to pressure did prevent me from getting on the roller, and as the bruising is already settling my right knee flexibility is suffering a little from the swelling. 

Friday I took the mountain bike to work but forgot my garmin so I had to use my phone to track it. As usual that resulted in a slightly longer distance measurement. Then in the evening was the works xmas party. That in itself was great fun but it did cost me a big chunk of my weekend. Saturday morning was completely lost to my hangover. By lunchtime I was just about able to stand up without vomiting and my planned run to collect the car had to be cut in half and slowed down and the swim to follow it was never going to happen. 

I did manage to floor out a bit more of the garage in the afternoon so that I can move the treadmill and the turbo trainer out there for winter and clear some space in the house. 

Sunday I dropped my plan to mountain bike and instead tried to recover the other half of Saturdays run and the missing swim in the morning. The jog to the pool was s struggle as the bruising on my right leg has now settled in and swollen both my knee and ankle. The swim was good though. Apparently there is a bit more slow traffic at the Sunday morning session but they were all keen to break up their sessions and move out of my way whenever I caught them. 

In the evening I did a bit of yoga and stretching.

Through 700 miles running for the year takes me to my third highest run total ever. I had always planned for this year to include less running than last year and 2011 was my marathon training year. So I am pretty happy to this point. My target is only another 50 miles to the end of the year and I should easily pass that before Christmas Day and then I have a week of Dexter after that.

Having drafted my 2017 plan I am going to start on it early. And that means more swimming from now until the end of the year to try and get into a habit that I can carry into 2017.




Target totals - Swim 1.9 miles. Bike 36.4 miles. Run 13.9 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.

Monday - Commute to office 7.1 miles in 36 mins.
Commute from office 7.0 miles in 39 mins.
Swim with TPT 2,100 m in 54 mins. 

Tuesday - Commute run 7.0 miles in 65 mins.
Stretching and rollering.

Wednesday - Commute to office 7.0 miles in 39 mins.
Commute from office 7.0 miles in 42 mins.

Thursday - Commute run 6.9 miles in 64 mins.
Stretching session.

Friday - Commute to office mtb 7.2 miles in 39 mins.
Commute from office mtb 7.2 miles in 42 mins.
Works Xmas dinner.

Saturday - Run to collect car 3.0 miles in 34 mins.

Sunday - Run to bucksburn 2.6 miles in 27 mins.
Swim at bucksburn 1,650m in 35 mins.
Yoga session 10 mins.

Actuals - Swim 2.4 miles (3,800 m). Bike 42.5 miles. Run 19.5 miles. 0 short core, 0 short light weights and 2 stretching / rollering session. 10 mins of yoga. 

Cumulative (Cumulative target) [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 90.1  (94.9)  [109.2],
B 2,178.2  (1,906.5)  [2,383.1],
R 702.4  (683.5)  [772.3].