Hitting the road early

Although I prefer the routine of being at work, I then have to work out how to get all my training sessions in, creating a routine that still allows time for family life. I. Have just started the plan to get me to a 55 mile trail race in March whilst still training for an ironman distance triathlon.

The weather is pretty rough too, which doesn't help. So I have downloaded TrainerRoad to make the best of my turbo sessions.

I was up at 5 am to turbo, I ended up faffing about again, the app seemed to have reset and I had to put some details back in. I finally set off on an interval session which was almost impossible. After 8 mins I checked my watts and it had set them at 200 instead of 145. I didn't have time to restart the session, so I picked a 30 min interval session which now that my watts were right was tough but achievable. 

My hip flexor was improving, so after the turbo I went out into the pouring rain for a mile brick run, got home, ate breakfast, showered and walked the dog, all before heading for work.

After work and after tea it was Pilates. I enjoy this class, I finished feeling relaxed but knowing that the amount of glute work we did will give me a sore butt tomorrow.

So that's the first 7 days of the year done, here are my totals, not bad to say I've not been on full form this week.

Which bird

I have formatted my training plan for the majority of 2016, In order to achieve the goals I set for the year I have created a plan based on 3 bike sessions 2 X short and intense  X long,  2 swim sessions drills and intervals (3 after the Hardmoors 55, the third being a long/OW swim) and 4/5 runs, 3/4 sped/hill/interval sessions and 1 or 2 long runs to build up my miles ahead of the 55.

Today I did an hour on the turbo including a 20 min threshold test to measure my power on the bike. The result was approx 145 watts, I would like to build my power over the next few weeks so that I will be ready to bike to and from work on the lighter morning/nights. 

Later when I went for a run down the lane I saw a bird of prey, similar, if not the same bird as I saw whilst walking the dog. Last night I tried to get a pic to help identify it, it flew off before I could get close enough for a good pic. See if you can spot it.

This morning it was further down the lane and was gone before I could get my phone out. I think it's a sparrow hawk, as last year a similar bird flew past my head and took out a black bird, but it could be a kestral. I looked at pics on the net and they're not much help until I can get a better look at it.

The top one is a kestral the bottom a sparrow hawk, they're very similar. Here is my best pic so far

Not much help eh!

Also as I ran I was catching up a walker, he reached the gate before me, he didn't pass through, he tapped the gate post and turned to walk back up the lane. I giggled because that's what I do, and so I did, I tapped the post and ran home, carrying my phone and scanning the trees and hedgerows for the elusive raptor. When I got home I realised that I had not turned the satellite back on on my Garmin, but I run the route often and know the distance.

So today, day 2 of Janathon I walked cycled and ran

#Janathon day 17, not gonna let it slip away now

This week my training plan was to do Parkrun to create a benchmark of where my running is at, then again every 6 weeks, do it again to measure progress. The weather had different plans. As forcast last night it rained loads on frozen ground and this morning that froze. The parkrun organisers made the decision to cancel for safety reasons. I thought they would. The dog walk this morning was a bit tricky in places.

http://www.parkrun.org.uk/fountainsabbey/  is great, it's 5km like all the others, but it is in the grounds of a World Heritage site. http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/fountains-abbey/ The 2 lap course takes you around the Abbey twice and the beautiful water gardens. Afterwards lots of runners meet at the visitor centre for coffee.  So it is a shame that the weather caused it to be cancelled today. I think I might do it next week. (Weather permitting)

I still had a timed 5 km to do, so this afternoon I set off for Studley Royal, with the intention of running to the church as a warm up, then running home as the timed 5 km.  I set off and everything was going to plan, well for the first mile anyway, as I headed off road onto the public footpath every step was hard, sticky, slippy mud and puddles made going forwards difficult. I stated to formulates new plan, run up to the church as the original plan, then run down the drive to the cattle grid, then back to the church and back down to the cattle grid, that should be about 5 km. 

as I was running up to the church the first time, the cars coming towards me had their lights on and I realised how much the light was fading. The deer were by the road and cars were stopping to look, I had to run around the cars. I got to the gate by the church and waited for my heartrate to drop a bit before running as hard as I could the mile down to the cattle grid before turning and heading back up the deer started crossing and I worried they d stampede but the split whilst I ran past and I heard the rest of them crossing behind me, multiple hooves pattering on the tarmac. 

I pushed hard to the gate before running hard back down, the deer were now all across the road, it was getting dark and I was racing the light. I reached the cattle grid and my watch hadn't buzzed to mark 5 km so I turned and ran 100 m or so up the drive and back, it didn't buzz so I thought it wasn't working and set off over the cattle grids towards home, then it buzzed. I then walked a bit, it was properly dark now, I was glad I had a fantastic head torch, in a drawer at home, but because there was little or no light pollution my night vision was quite good. I set off down the muddy footpath through the fields and was surprised that I was still managing to run at a reasonable pace except where it was really slippery, it was sleeting now, but I was soon back at the road and heading for town and the lights. 

Running in the dark off road works as good training for Equinox24 in September.

I'm really happy to have run my 5km in under 30 minutes, it's the best that I have run since my back went in November. 

17 runs, streaked.