Jump ropes, Peloton rides and more focus on strength

I am looking out the office window and the weather remains grim - I enjoy a cold-spell, blue skies and frosty underfoot, but all we are getting is rain and wind! Simply the worst weather for wanting to get outside and exercise. 

So more recently my focus has been on trying to burn a few calories indoors. I have followed up on my interest in the benefits of jump rope, thanks to the guys at 'Jump Rope Dudes' (check out their YouTube channel). My initial effort was a classic 'cock-up' in that rather than complete the recommeded 5-10 mins per day, every other day, I went straight into a 30 mins set of the same exercise, trying to build my total up to 800 jumps. All cleverly recorded via my Garmin and new 'Jump Rope' widget/activity.

Anyway, you can guess it - a stupid rooky mistake that messed my hamstrings up and meant I could hardly walk for a few days after. 

I did persevere with the jump ropes and have enjoyed a couple of additional sessions, post injury, this time around at a more realistic time effort of 10 mins each - reaching 400+ jumps and max reps of 50+ - getting better! I plan to continue with the jump ropes aiming for 3x weekly sessions - hopefully increasing the time, total jumps, max reps, cadence, and eventually mixing up the footwork - I am currently only focusing on the simple boxer's jump using both feet.

In addition to the jump ropes I am also increasing my efforts on the Peloton bike (now that I have re-calibrated the bike) and time in the 'cave of pain': TRX and weights. Plus I have been more regular in my daily push-up habbit. 

None of this indoor work has helped much with the weight issue - still hovering around 86kg, however I do feel a bit stronger and have had less injury niggles. 

Let's hope the weather improves and I increase the bike and run (outside fun), however I continue to complement the triathlon training with some decent resistance training plus HIT.

It has been a while since my last confession

It has been a while since my last confession....

Since my half-marathon event back in October my training and diet has been a bit 'hit and miss' .

As always, fitness remains an important part of my life and I still seem to manage a broad range of activities and movement. However, there has been a lacking of structure and commitment, not totally unusual for this time of year but I feel I should be doing better.

My weight in particular has reversed and back to the levels I was uncomfortable with after my holiday in Vietnam (in April). So, my first priority is to get that back down into an acceptable range. I am a bit bored in telling the same story: 80kg to 82kg is the goal, 76-80kg is the stretched goal (maybe unrealistic) and 86kg is now where I find myself.

The good news is that I have recently found some focus on strength and spent more time in the 'cave of pain' with my TRX and weights.

I am also researching the benefits of jump rope (skipping) and will report back if that becomes part of the regime. Otherwise, I have also enjoyed a couple of cold-water sea dips, whether that does any good, or not.

Race report (delayed) - Bath half-marathon

Sorry... not posted my post race report for the Bath half-marathon on the 15th October...

Just back from a nice easy local 10km trail run in the mud - kept it really easy (6:15 min per km) but enjoyed being out. My training post the Bath half has been pretty light, to say the least, although not been such great weather.

Anyway, onto the race report...

As I have peviously highlighted I went into the race with my Achilles (left foot) and Plantar fasciitis (right foot) niggles but fortunately they didn't give me too much trouble.

It took a good 2-3 hours to get to the start line, a long drive, although with no hold ups, and then some fun and games getting parked and into the City centre with the thousands of other runners who like us had opted for 'Park and Ride'. I was quite surprised at the size of the field, apparently some 15,000 runners!

We found Amalie, grabbed a coffee and headed for the start line. Just to note when I first got up at 6ish I made sure I had a good helping of porridge. We were in Bath by 10am and supposed to be off at 10:40am, a nice respectable time.

It felt good to be on a crowded start line once again (been a while) - Amalie (her first ever running race) was so excited and that was lovely to see. I wanted her to have a good race. Initially she wanted me to run with her, and set a steady pace to get her over the line within 2 hours. Then the goal changed to sub 1:50 and then on race day we agreed on a slightly more ambitious 1:45 - now this was going to hurt a bit!

With previous PB's (1:35 ish - a good number of years ago!) I thought a sub 1:45 was possible but we were going to have to push it. The race gun started and we were off. There were a lot of people and it took 2km to settle down, at that time we were already averaging more than 5 mins per km so our pace needed to increase to achieve our target. Over the next 10km we ran consistent 4:40 to 4:45 mins per km.

I thought Amalie would tire but she was loving it - she rows for Bath University and her fitness / strength is good (better than mine). Anyway, helped by all the crowd support we kept on pushing the pace right through the second lap and then to the finish.

About 0.5km from the finish (a short climb) we saw Lucy and Oliver who gave Amalie and I the final support we needed to push for the finish line. Amalie was on a high and you could see she wanted to sprint the final distance - I let her go and have her glory - she deserved it. She got around 1:43 on the clock and came around 20th in her age group. I followed her in 30 secs later to come around 50th in my age group - good enough for me!

A great day of racing - an amazing first race by Amalie (she is hooked now!) and a very respectable time for me.

Next one... I have booked the Brighton half-marathon but this time will be running with my Son, Alex.

Taper week

Do I even deserve a taper week?

Not really, the training remains a little on the light side - I have been cautious because I am still struggling (bored saying it!) with some minor foot/ankle injury - on my left side, tendonitis, and on the right - my heel (plantar fasciitis). Over the last few days I have been using a massage ball under my feet while I sit at my desk, which I hope is helping - who knows!

My last long(ish) run was on the 7th October, 8 days before the event - I managed 16km at a 5:08 min per km pace - not too bad, although it felt relatively hard and was also quite hot.

I should be OK on the day and hoping the chance of doing a big race with thousand of runners will motivate me, plus keeping up and setting a decent pace for Amalie.

Just 3 days now...

I will let you know how it goes. See you on the other side.

Post-conference run from hotel to Windsor Castle

Just pack from a 2-day industry conference in a beautiful hotel on the borders of Great Windsor Park. The workshops finished at 5:15pm and by 5:30pm I had my trainers on and was ready for a run through Windsor Park towards the castle.

There were hundreds of deer and some impressive stags on route. My pace was OK(ish) but I still had a few ankle/heel issues - not so good considering I have a half-marathon in just over a week's time.

Anyway, I love getting in a run when I have these occasional business trips and I am in a new area - to run through a deer park and up to Windsor Castle was pretty epic. The hotel gym, pool, steam room etc. wasn't too shabby either!

Post Bewl and thinking ahead to Bath

This morning I managed a steady 6.5km run (local loop) at sub 5min per km pace - my first run effort since the Bewl SwimRun event. I was pleased that the body, legs and ankles felt OK and my pace was decent.

I was a little more wary of my heart rate - it did hit 157 today but the average over the 6.5km was 140. Looking at similar runs (same route and pace) my stats are about the same. On the 7km run section of the SwimRun my HR averaged 151. That all makes sense and doesn't concern me. Just need to get a bit more training running in a wetsuit.

So over the coming weeks my focus will switch to the Bath half-marathon on the 15th October - not long. I need to get in 1-2 longer runs (without injuring myself) and some sprint intervals plus tempo runs.

I will post my race strategy in a future blog but currently looking at an average pace of 5mins per km to hit around the 1:45 time. In theory, this should be a relatively comfortable half-marathon race pace for me (not PB territory), although I might be kidding myself a bit! Need to get the final training in so that it is more of an enjoyable experience. Another 1-2 kilos reduction would also help - just under 83kg today.

Race report - 21K solo SwimRun @ Bewl Water

Well I did it... My first SwimRun event and first proper race for many years.

I was a little nervous but enjoyed the overall experience. Nice venue and well organised.

A little disappointed with the overall result - 3:16 finish and middle of the field effort, although I was probably unrealistic in my goals - the winner only just got in within 2:40, so tougher than I expected.

The good news was my swimming (normally my weaker discipline), which was quite decent. On many of the swims I was overtaking other swimmers, sometimes the athletes that had previously passed me on the run sections. My arms didn't feel too bad from using the paddles the entire route and the pull-buoy worked well.

The bad news were the runs (normally my stronger discipline), which were really quite poor. The first 1-2 shorter distances were OK but the longer 7K and 4K sections were pretty awful - I found myself walking on some sections and not just up the hills. I simply struggled running in the wetsuit and couldn't get my heart rate down (constantly in the 150-160 range). My legs were OK, as were my ankles (although a little stiff today) but I just didn't to have the energy. I don't think it was anything to do with going to hard at the start or nutrition but more about lack of training running in the wetsuit and the compression effect.

So what did I learn and what would I do differently - I would like to have another crack. Well, number one is to train more running in my wetsuit. I think I should also cut off the arms on the wetsuit to release a little of the upper-body compression and provide more air. Losing weight would have helped - less compression, better wetsuit fit and easier to run. Maybe better pacing strategy, subject to the course and longer run sections. Possibly the swims took more of my energy than I thought.

Anyway I am certainly glad I gave it a go, although it is getting harder to wing these races - I am no longer Ironman fit (and haven't been for a long time!). Note to self... you cannot wing races anymore so there is a greater need for quality and consistent training.

So I am going to give myself a couple of recovery days then will be back on it. My next race is the Bath half-marathon. I need to get in a couple of longer runs, hopefully no ankle issues, and would ideally like to be 1-2kg lighter to make my life easier.

Will keep you updated.