Running for Joy (plus cycling, swimming and hiking)

[purple_mog]

So I'm hoping to use this training log as a handy place to dump my exercise and eating information, and get some useful comments too! And yes I know I don't do that much compared to most of the folks on here but I'm trying

Goals:

increase overall fitness and tone up/lose some bodyfat
complete my first sprint triathlon on August 23rd
complete a 10K race in mid-October
compete in as many Cani-X events as possible with my collies
work on fitness for hill-climbing (tricky as I live in a very flat area!)
complete the 3 Yorkshire Peaks in under 12hrs either end of summer this year or spring 2010

I'm definitely endurance rather than speed, and have no particular sports background though I've been walking/swimming/cycling most of my life off and on.

Restricted in exercise hours by work and time with my dogs so don't have much opportunity to get to the gym, or time to do much strength work

Dietary restrictions: I try to keep the amount of wheat in my diet fairly low as it upsets my tummy in large amounts.


So, consider this an intro post and I'll be back with some real posts shortly...

[thestoatyone]

Hey PM, good start and some tasty goals, sometimes saying them out loud is half the battle!

[Konstantin]

Good to see a log in progress.

Have you done much Cani-X? I wanted to do one with my partner, he was unofficially the fastest dog in my town (and is still damn fast!) but now he's too old to run more than a mile.

[purple_mog]

Have you done much Cani-X? I wanted to do one with my partner, he was unofficially the fastest dog in my town (and is still damn fast!) but now he's too old to run more than a mile.

Hello *waves* I've done a couple of Cani-X events (and a Cani-teering which was great fun) but hoping to do more. A lot of the events are quite far away and since one of my dogs is scared of kids it can be tricky finding suitable campsites! I run with both my collies, though the other one is deaf and tends to run in the wrong direction

[purple_mog]

I have about three weeks of paper based log which I'm going to transfer into here - so there may be quite a few posts coming up!

Nutrition Notes:

Based on a routine day I've calculated that I take in around 1,800 calories give or take. Including a typical day's workout added to my resting metabolic rate I usually expend around 2,000-2,300 calories.

I'm aiming for a calorie deficit of 300-500 max based on "The Female Triathlete" book, it suggests 300 is about ideal if you want to keep up training intensity.

3 weeks ago my body fat was about 4 and 3/4 lb, this morning it was just over 4lb so pretty darn pleased about that. I don't want to get too hung up on the weight issue and hope that it will settle naturally!

[purple_mog]

Week beginning 15th June
Mon - rest day

Tues
Walk/run/walk 0.5mile/1 mile/0.5mile 10min/miles
Bike to work & home 4.5mile/4.5mile 22min/20min

Wed
Swim 100m warmup/400m trial time for entry 9min

Thurs
Bike to work & home 4.5mile/4.5mile av 13mph/av14mph

Fri
Walk/Run/Walk 0.5mile/1mile/0.5mile
*felt pretty hard work and kept slowing down BUT did drive over 6 hours on Thurs night and not a full sleep?

Sat
Ben Vrackie 11miles hill walking including some steep climbs, surprised myself by how good I was feeling!

Sun
5 mile walk, short running bursts on the downhills. Feeling stiff but really good.

[purple_mog]

Week beginning 22nd June

Mon - rest day (driving home - 6hrs)

Tues
Bike to & from work 4.5mile/4.5mile Av 11mph
Fell off and collided with steel bollard ouch!

Wed
Swim 100m w/up / 100m arms / 100m legs / 200m blocks / 50m c/down
+
bike to work 4mile Av 10mph (taking it easy!)
Bike home 4.5mile

Thurs
Bike to & from work 4.5mile/4.5mile Av 12mph/Av 13mph

Fri
walk/run/walk 0.5mile/1mile/0.5mile 12min/mile
Feeling tired and sore so didn't run any further.

Sat
1hrs dog walking

Sun
York Race for Life 5k
1.5mile walk over / 5k race / 1.5mile walk home
Race time = 31min 47sec
Felt good for first 1.5 mile, then hard pounding headache and digestive problems, yuck!

[purple_mog]

oops - forgot to mention that the race time was 4min faster than I managed last year!

And on almost every day I also walk with my dogs for around an hour but I don't try and count that as my exercise

[purple_mog]

Week beginning 29th June

Mon
Recovery day! Easy bike to and from work 26min/24min

Tues
Bike to work 23min/av 10mph
+
Run 10mins / 0.86miles

Bike home 22min / Av12mph

First attempt at a 'brick' workout and though legs did feel very odd at first but got better and easier!

Wed
Swim 35mins
100m w'up/100m legs/100m arms/400m intervals/100m c'down

(had thought about biking to work in the afternoon but decided against it)

Thurs
Active recovery day - easy bike to and from work av 11mph

Fri
Walk/Run/Walk 0.5m/1.5m/0.5m run took 17mins @ 11min/mile

Sat
Bike 27 miles / 2hrs including one short stop
Longest bike ride I've done in about 4 years but it felt really good, even on the tiny wee hills.

Sun
run planned - will update soon


Thoughts from this week so far - I need to get more sleep! Very aware that by the end of the week I'm running a bit low on energy, all these 6am starts to walk the dogs that does it!!

[purple_mog]

Soooo the Sunday run went pretty well I think. Ran just over 2 miles in 23mins, averaging 11min/mile plus a couple of stops to retrieve my dogs from the river

Still pondering on whether to increase speed (and drop distance) or work on increasing distance (not thinking about speed)...... Tentative plan is to use my shorter mid-week run for speed and weekend run for distance.

Monday - rest day and much needed


Tuesday am
Swim
100m w'up/100marms/100m legs
4 x 100m sets, increasing speed, 20sec rest, repeat
100m c'down

**felt soooo good to swim from a rest day, felt it was easier to work on my technique too**

[emm7]

Well done for the 5K, that's great!
Sounds like your training is going really well

[purple_mog]

Tuesday pm

bike into work - erm, can't admit how long it took because I ended up having to change an inner tube half way there!

Bike home was via a different route so closer to 5miles but faster than usual route???


Wednesday

Brick: Bike 5.5miles/Run 1mile felt waaaay better than last week and my pace was quicker and easier. Could have run longer but needed to get into work

pm: bike home 4.5miles

[xrodolfox]

Good work! Keep up the work on the swim technique! It'll show!

[purple_mog]

Thursday am Swim

Feeling tired today so decided to focus on technique and short intervals. Been reading stuff about making sure elbow is high and hip flicks - WOW made such a difference to my speed through the water for relatively little effort. I remain baffled by the big muscly blokes that literally batter their way up and down the pool slapping the water on every stroke though

100m easy w/up
100m arms
100m legs
50m butterfly legs

4 lots of 50m (negative split 25m)

50m legs
50m arms
50m normal

[Mr. Cleetus]

any chance you have access to a masters group or something similar to swim with? It can be an excellent way to improve and is good for one's motivation. They generally take all abilities too.

One thing to consider with the endurance vs. faster running is that since you have 6ish weeks until your race, you could try another couple of weeks of increasing your distance to the race distance and then make your shorter run a tempo run for the last 4 weeks. The most important thing is you want to be able to complete the distance comfortably. However, in the end, if you wanna try some faster running, just do it! This all comes down to fun anyway, eh? Do you have any options of anybody to run with who could help push you along at a quicker pace?