Sun 26th Feb - Bike

65 miles on the Jif club run, out for well over 4 hours - partly due to Barry taking a lifetime to fix a puncture!

Freezing cold this morning, thanks to Pinky for lending me a gillet, bright sunshine after lunch, lovely.

Changed the oil on the car and motorbike later on and took the forks off the moto - one seal is leaking.
Car MOT tomorrow morning - should be fine, fingers crossed.

Sat 25th - Bike, Run

60/65 mile tri bike ride, cold winds. About 4 hrs in the saddle.

Picked up Heather's dog Charlie and took him for a 40min run down the sand dunes at Merthyr Mawr, ace. Some pesky kids took a few shots at me with an air pistol - but missed by miles, twats. Kids today eh?

Spent the evening in with Charlie watching Desperate Houswives - thought it would be rude to leave him seems as I was only looking after him for one night.

Here's a pic of the fella...

Fri 24th - Bike

2hrs bike, mostly in the dark / fading light. It's light till quite late now :-)
That's twice this winter i've been out with lights, shocking.

Thu 23rd - Swim

Tri swim, erm, 2300m or so i guess.

Wed 22nd - Swim

Masters swim.

500WU
main set 2 x 8 x 100m
something else followed by swim down

approx 2500m

Tue 21st - Swim

Tri swim tonight, the first time we have the whole pool and an earlier time of 8 till 9pm, pretty good turnout and strange to be in a different part of the pool.

200 Easy 3/4 Catch Up
6 x 50 on 60 sec Building last one sprint

2 x 4 x 200 on 3:45
target 1st 3:15, 2nd 3:10, 3rd 3:05, 4th 3:00
1 min between sets

16 x 25 on 30

2 x ( 50 swim 50 backstroke kick )

2700m

Mon 20th - Run

A 30min lap of Roath Park lake to warmup with Pete, then indoors at UWIC for 8x600m

2:02 recovery of 2:46
2:02 2:27
1:58 2:31
2:01 2:27
2:03 2:36
1:56 2:38
1:59 2:31
1:55 warm down

Sun 19th - Bike

4hrs, around 60 miles or so. Coast road, Wentwood, Usk, Caerleon and back to Cardiff.
Not many out today - was a bit cold and wet first thing but brightened up :-)

Sat 18th - Bike

About 40 miles in 2hrs or so, fastish where possible. Both coast roads and back.

Fri 17th - Run

80 min run with Pete up the Taff Trail and back along the canal. Very spring like today :-)

Thu 16th - Swim TT

Swim time trial tonight, damn!

Managed a 6:26 which is the same time I posted a few months ago, 50m splits more consistent this time though plus i'm training more at the moment, so quite pleased.

Wed 15th - Swansea Swim

Technique, approx 2.5km
No flippers or one flipper used as left toe has been irritated by the weekly hour flipper session.

Tue - Speed Dating

Popped down the bay with Pete for Speed Dating, everyone I had spoken too said it would be a good night and it was!

Nervous as hell before hand mind you.

Mon 13th - Run

After waking up on the couch (I'd been asleep all afternoon) got down to Roath Park Lake just in time for 10 x hill reps. Lovely, used the first one as a warmup.

Mon 13th - Swim

Early morning swim with G (got up a bit late - didn't know where I was this morning)

200WU
3x50 on 60secs
2x15x50 on 60secs (first 2 finger drag, 3rd sprint)
200WD

2050m

GB!!!

Yay, just got an email confirmation that I'll be representing Great Britain as an Age Grouper at the European Triathlon Championships, to be held in Autun, France 24/25 June.

Well chuffed :-)

Sun 12th - Swim

Popped to Caerphilly pool but with no trunks, doh! (Always forget something if take a bag other than my 'swim bag')

So, swam in my boxers instead :-) (luckily I wasn't commando)

100WU
400m paddles in 6:28, 60sec rest
400m FC in 6:48, 60sec rest
400m pull in 6:25, 60sec rest
400m paddles 6:32, 60sec rest
400m FC 6:52, 60sec rest
400m paddles/FC in 6:41
25m WD

2525m, 45mins

Wheel Bearing

My car has been sounding hurrendous lately, I thought the nearside rear wheel bearing had gone again (it failed after 30,000 miles) but it was actually the offside - lots of play in it, kinda scary!

I have the replacement bearing, the bearing holder is off and will get it pressed out and the new bearing pressed in tomorrow.

Sun 12th - Bike

Out on the JIF club run this morning, Matt Beckett leading another fast paced epic - I took some SiS Nocte before bed last night - it's an expensive night time recovery drink. Seemed to do the trick - my legs did ok today despite yesterdays battering!

With the damp conditions, we all looked like we'd been mountain biking. Had to give the bike a good clean afterwards.

In$urance Payout

Woohoo! My claim from a bike accident last July has just been settled in full - cheque arrived this morning. Just when we were due to go to court as well, I'm having a good week :-)

Sat 11th - Hilly 65

Headed up to deepest, darkest (and coldest!) Tredegar with G and Rhodders - home of G-man's family for a hilly ride.

Turned into a lovely sunny day, stopped for a bacon sandwich at Abergavenny bus station and then, 'heartbreak hill' from Govillon to Blaenavon - I was zig zagging towards the top in 39-25. A long, uncomfortably steep and f*cking cold climb with the bonus of reaching the equally cold Blaenavon at the top!

G and Rhodders died on the climb, bless them. It wasn't too far back to Tredegar then.
4hr 15 ~= 65 hilly miles.

Off to my coach's for dinner in a mo, just time to take the blueberry & banana muffins out of the oven...

Fri 10th - Streaming

Hmmm, after fixing Ian's computer - I've never seen so much dust inside a machine, my nose has been streaming. So, skipped tonights run, I'll squeeze that in on Sunday. Nose cleared up for the ride Saturday :-)

Thu 9th - Night Run

Lovely crips, clear night, headed down the Taff Trail with Dominic, then climbed up over Rockwood for stunning views of the valleys.

Good moon aided visibility but cast a few awkward shadows too. 60 mins steady run. Just one trip!

Dual

Dual monitors setup today :-) And also dual PC's - one Windows XP (boo!) and one Suse Linux (yay!)

Most impressed with suse linux - even my digital camera works.

Having issues with a fresh install of XP - doesn't want to recognise my memory stick, usb hubs or external usb disk :-(

Maybe i'll just move to linux full stop?

Wed 8th - Swansea Swim

Another technique session tonight, seem to be swimming much more efficiently these days.
Sam got booted out of the technique lane tonight - his is fine - jaysus, he's not swam for a year, turns up three times and all is perfect? Makes me sick! Good on him.

Tom was flying along too - 100's in about 1:25

~= 2500m

Tue 7th - Tri Swim

Top lane again tonight at Fairwater, another beasting. Despite doing 100's in 1:35-1:40 i'm still at the back with a fair gap to the person in front!

300WU
10x100m on 2min
other stuff - i forget what!

~= 2500m

Racing '06

Oops, looks like I'm a little slow off the mark - I really wanted to do Windsor Triathlon this year (voted best triathlon 2005) and Salford as it's an ITU (pro) supporting race - both are full already, doh!

London seems to have no Sub 2hrs30 category and the price has gone up to £71 - how much?
I might do Milton Keynes instead - 1000 people there last year and a really good event.

Off to bed...

Mon 6th - UWIC Track

Tough track session tonight - pyramid 4x200m, 3x400m, 2x600m and back down. 5200m in all, yikes, that's the most speedwork we've done so far.

200's: ?, 36:01, 34:68, 33:32 (~= 1/1:15 recovery)
400's: 1:12:31, 1:13:50, 1:15:52 (~= 2min recovery)
600's: 2:02:60, 2:04:04
400's: 1:18:22, 1:19:40, 1:17:31
200's: 35:40, 35:36, 35:66, 29:63

There was some complaints about my final 200m (quite pleased with that!) - maybe i should have run the 400's faster!

What no posts?

It's been another hectic week, lots of frustration courtesy of computer hardware, but we're almost there now. Big smiles courtesy of Suse Linux 10 though, wow, how easy was that to setup ssh, apache, mysql, samba and java? Sweet as :-)

(Eventually) got my WinXP box upgraded to 2x300GB Sata hard disks with raid seems as the 40GB was failing and bit torrent seems to be taking up an awful lot of space downloading Lost and 24, yay!

It was an easy week training wise, thankfully.

Mon - UWIC Track - 30mins warmup lap of roath lake first with pete b then 1 mile time trial - legs were dead after the bike sessions of the weekend but managed the same time again - 5:39 albeit with a slower first and faster second half.

Tue - Tri swim, went in the fast lane and it was a good workout, was 3rd in the lane during the 200's then slipped to last as i faded! approx 2500m inc. 10x200m on 4min

Wed - Swansea 50m technique swim, sam was there again - that's two swims in two years for him now - ace! 2500m

Thu - 45min steady/easy run with dominic

Fri - Rest

Sat - 50miles on the bike, over the Bwlch a new way for me, shorter and sharper than the Port Talbot approach. Pete B and Huw along. Cold but dry.

Sun - Rest, more PC action and the pub, god bless.