Outlaw Journey Week 2

2 weeks in and habits (good ones!) are building.
"The Plan" suggests 2 sessions each of Strength and Conditioning / Swim, Bike & Run including a rest day. So how did I do?

Inevitably I guess, I only managed one swimming session, but hit all the others, giving me the following stats:
Swim: 500metres
Bike:108.8km
Run: 25.2km

But numbers only give half the story, so whats the narrative behind them?

Swimming was a sub-20 minute splash and dash at UEA.

Bike was good, a wind assisted extended commute, bagging Strava segments along the NDR including a KOM that lasted about 6hrs before a mate blitzed my time!
This week's long ride was grim, 2hrs 40mins in rain and sleet, with temps around freezing, and darkness closing in throughout.

Running was a midweek conversational paced run, followed by a to and from plus ParkRun at the weekend. (see pics below)

It was my 40th ParkRun, and saw me achieve my 3rd best time ever and needless to say the fastest of the year so far.

Looking ahead, this week I will be attempting to complete all 8 sessions, which will include representing Tri-Anglia at the 6th EACCL XC League 10k at UEA on Wednesday.

The long ride will be a challenge as the weekend looks pretty busy so may split the duration across 2 rides if it comes to it?

To the finish line

Great inspiring read, by Chrissie Wellington, multiple Ironman & world champion. 

The book contains a good mix of Q&A, advice, info, personal stories and plenty of banter.
Have read it cover to cover, but sure I will dip back into it again....

Outlaw Journey - Training Week 1

So a Half-Ironman Training Plan. - Sounds pretty innocuous doesn't it?

Dependant upon your psyche, the very notion of a plan will either tick all of your OCD-esque boxes or stir up that inner rebel in you as you can get by without it.

For me, having never done a half-ironman I knew I needed some guidance to follow that would help in my preparation, over and above simply swimming endless lengths, plus riding/running around the proverbial block for 6 months.

Triathlon is absolutely about 3 disciplines (clue is in the name), and so at its most simplest I do have to swim, bike and run to achieve the goal, but importantly I need to be able to do all 3, one after the other and so for me training is an opportunity to address the individual disciplines and also components of those disciplines to the point that I can string the 3 disciplines together come race day and finish (well).

The plan is a plan, not a gun to my head. It's a guide, that will ramp up over the weeks increasing endurance, developing technique and simulating competing conditions - there will be hard sessions and easier sessions, there is even rest timetabled as everyone needs to incorporate recovery for their bodies no matter your perception of your own fitness.
Importantly I am NOT a professional and I have a life which means, I have to cut myself some slack over the next 6 months that in the middle of a crazy schedule or when illness strikes etc I may have to rein in the regime?

The plan is split into 3 sections - Base, Build & Peak/Taper, each of 8 weeks duration.

The Base phase serves to set a structure and foundation for the remainder of the plan & favours 2 sessions each of Swim, Bike, Run as well as Strength/Conditioning.
The focus being predominantly on duration of activity, or intervals and form rather than purely mileage

So how did I do on week 1?:
Swim 0 metres
Bike 135.1km
Run 27.7km

Clearly I didn't get any swimming in, but did complete the remaining 6 sessions as prescribed, including an 'extra' bike & run combo. (And the rest day!)

A certain amount of procrastination (swimming being my least favourite/confident discipline) plus logistics contributed to the lack of swimming.
Both the running and biking were good and very manageable within my schedule, so focusing on the positives week 1 was 75% completed.
Will be having a word with myself for next week regarding the swimming!

Onwards and upwards into week 2...

Let's get this party restarted!

Hi, hello, long time no write etc?!

Having made the decision to participate in the Outlaw Holkham Half, and in the process submit myself to a 24 week training programme (regime), the only decent thing left to do was to blog about it surely?

Logging into this blog I discovered that it was nigh on 3 years since my last posting, so a slightly amended title and tagline (no longer just a man and his bike!) a renewed impetus and an aim to post the highs and lows of the next 6 months as I journey towards my aim of becoming an Outlaw, albeit at the half distance of 70.3 miles - 1.2m swim, 56m bike, 13.1m run but first some background...

I am a cyclist, a bike rider - I ride (road) bikes, that's what I do. But about 2.5 yrs ago I discovered that running was not as terrible as I thought, so much so that after a year of running around the block and procrastinating on my own I decided to do a ParkRun. - I found that I was decidedly reasonable at it.

Logic dictated that as I was 2/3s of the way there, I may as well join a Triathlon club and add a 3rd discipline to my quiver, and so in Oct 2016, I joined Tri-Anglia, caught the triathlon bug & the rest as they say is history.

2 super sprint triathlons at Gt Yarmouth and Stradbroke, plus various 10k handicaps and Run Norwich 10k done, as well as 39 ParkRuns, and some other personal challenges, including a successful Marcothon (running at least 5k every day in December) saw me arrive at the end of 2017.

The Outlaw Half is on 1st July and so I downloaded a training plan and after a week of acclimatising to the new year began week 1 of 24 but that's another posting for another day!

That's progress

Almost 3 months in to the year and some kind of form is emerging.
Weight has finally dipped back below 12stone at 11St 13 (75.75kg) so that's good! Apart from THE RIDE as referred to in my last post, motivation to ride has been aided by the Velobici Spring Cycling Classics challenge and has led to the most km's covered in a week for me this year, just north of 300k, which neatly makes it 2,300k for the year.
Weather is looking wet, windy and wild for the forthcoming week but the clocks go forward so more daylight must mean more riding, mustn't it?!
In other news, loving the classics and other cobbled races so far this year - thought Geraint Thomas was unlucky based on the effort he put in at Milan San Remo, but then got a week deserved win at E3 Harelbeke. Roll on Ghent- Wevelgem on Sunday.

LELOW (Midsummer Madness #2)

It's on!
After a years hiatus 'Midsummer Madness' -  an epic / stupid* (delete as appropriate) bike ride is to occur to coincide with the longest day of the year.
Embarking from Lands End in the West, and finishing in Lowestoft in the East, over 4 days, a group of 4 of us will cycle somewhere around 465 miles raising money for Oak Grove Community Church, in their 80th year as a community based church serving their local environs.
A curry together was all it took to clinch the deal, so myself, Simon, Dan & Joe form the riding team and a driver to carry kit and other essentials is still to be sourced.
A fundraising page will follow, as will more details as logistics sort themselves out.
Hmmm better get in training then!

Another year older...

45!
Its only a number, stuck in no mans land between 40 & 50. But nevertheless for the next year when asked I will have a new answer for How old are you? (Kinda think I will have entered the next bracket for those pesky surveys too!)

Obviously cycling featured in the gifts I recieved to celebrate my birthday - new cycling shoes and a base layer plus I bought some cleats with some spending money and also got some spare still to spend

Anyway, didn't quite make 300 miles for Jan but I feel vindicated in a combination of mitigating factors - cold temps, ice, dark and on occasion stayed in bed!

Weight is down to 12st 5 which is encouraging but still some way to go. To that end I am currently a week in to a 30 day Abs Challenge - what fat I can't lose I will convert to muscle!

Fixie was cleaned and lubricated yesterday, plus some rudimentary adjustments to the back wheel mean that:
a) brakes won't rub
b) chain won't slip
c) bike will be faster
[NB:- c) not necessarily true?!]

Aiming for more miles this month - on the basis I have even cycled home once in daylight this week, Spring must be on its way... Mustn't it?

Sit Rep 1

Upgrades: New pedals across the fleet!
Mileage: 180miles
Weight: 12St 7lbs (3lbs loss)

The only way is up surely?

Must Do Better

Interesting when I look at the last post and realise that it was over a year ago... Oops!
2014 then - it was a busy year: a building project, a wedding, overseeing ongoing changes in my role as Senior Leader of Oak Grove Community Church and a medical procedure that wound my year up a month early.

Consequently I am weighing in at 12st 10lbs and feeling unfit.
Weight loss target - at least the odd 10lbs.
Cycling target - many more kms/miles after a disappointing show last year, specifically a side to side attempt & the Dunwich Dynamo.

More soon...

Will I post more this year - I hope so
Will anyone read what I post - no idea

New Year, New Bike

Happy New Year!

I think my first resolution must be to post more on this blog - did not realise that nothing had been written for quite so long!

It's 2014 and sounds like a great excuse to get a new bike, which Santa duly responded favourably with the same notion, so I am now the proud owner of an On-One Pompino (generally as pictured below, although mine has drop handlebars)

I have wanted a fixie for ages - no extra gears, derailleurs, chainwheels, cables etc to worry about makes for a brilliant winter ride - simple as?

Stating the obvious, being fixed if the pedals move so does the back wheel and vice versa so cornering and starting / stopping needed a bit of an adjustment, but 4 rides in and around 100km covered its working quite well.

I have still retained the other 2 bikes and so am hoping that I can maintain at least one bike all year round to ride! :-)

Traditional to set some goals / targets at this time of year so here goes:

• At least 3 century rides this year
• 10,000miles to be covered 
• At least one "stupid" cycling challenge
• Watch at least one of the TDF stages in the UK 
• Have fun doing it all

More soon....