Training | Rightzone Triathlon

Archive for Training

100 Consecutive days of running

// April 10th, 2010 // No Comments » // Training

At some point I’ll post up exactly what run training I’ve done. But hey, I’ve gone through a major milestone. 100 consecutive days of running and an average per day run time of 55 mins! That’s only 25 mins per day more than the target (which was 30 mins per day). After the marathon we’ll slip back into just (sorry) 30 mins per day. As somebody pointed out that leaves only 265 days of running to complete the goal. Now that’s a proper running streak. None of this running 1 mile per day American stuff that is supposed to count as a running streak. I’ve got to say it’s a lot harder than I imagined. There have been a few occasions now where I’ve been tired, it’s been late and I’ve simply not wanted to go out. The challenge of the streak and the pressure of publically declaring it keeps me going though. I did convince myself the other night at 10pm at night that I was ill and needed a break. Then I put my kit on, stepped out the door and felt fine once I’d been running for a few minutes. The mind is a strange tool that sometimes seems a little disconnected from the body.

I’ve detailed some stats below. It’s pretty much got every step logged in it. I’ve been using the Garmin 310XT religiously and it’s a fantastic piece of kit / tech. Feel naked when I’m not wearing it.

Date	Count	Distance	Time	Av Spd	Avg HR	Mx Dist
Summary	119	748.16	92:59:38	8.1	140	21.63
04/05/2010	8	50.67	05:48:37	9.0	153	16.09
03/29/2010	8	59.96	07:50:17	7.7	132	21.63
03/22/2010	9	73.42	08:48:37	8.3	142	17.66
03/15/2010	8	46.46	05:22:25	8.6	147	13.54
03/08/2010	9	59.39	07:32:29	7.9	138	10.93
03/01/2010	9	63.46	07:44:10	8.3	143	16.98
02/22/2010	9	70.72	08:33:27	8.3	139	20.00
02/15/2010	7	44.95	05:20:42	8.5	142	19.19
02/08/2010	7	60.01	07:39:34	7.8	140	16.00
02/01/2010	8	54.67	06:41:15	8.2	138	15.65
01/25/2010	10	46.11	06:01:34	7.7	137	9.21
01/18/2010	8	39.20	05:07:24	7.6	138	11.94
01/11/2010	9	35.53	05:02:13	7.1	133	10.05
01/04/2010	7	31.44	03:56:46	7.9	148	7.40
12/28/2009	3	12.20	01:30:00	8.1	–	4.20

Training Watches – The Garmin 310XT

// January 2nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Articles, Training

So I've comitted to running 30 mins every day for 365 days. How on earth am I going to stay motivated for that? I've bought the Garmin 310XT of course! I've always loved the bits of tech that have been developed for athletes to monitor their progress. Having used the Garmin 305 in the 2008 marathon I've been waiting for a watch that is waterproof (i.e. can be used for swimming) and the Garmin 405 was a little disappointing in that it did everything that I wanted, except it wasn't waterproof. The 310XT is a Heart Rate monitor, measures speed / distance AND it's waterproof. I paid £160 for a 2nd hand version on Ebay.

So for around £70 I spent my paper money on a Polar Edge which was pretty basic in that all it measured was a heartrate and I think it had a self lit screen! The Edge lasted for years and I was still using it in 2001 for the London Marathon.

When I got into triathlon more seriously in 2002 I realised that I wanted something a little more sophisticated. So I purchased a Polar S710. Apart from it falling apart in the last few years this watch was excellent. I loved downloading all the exercise files into the Polar software and pouring over the data, which even included a gradient profile.

I was bugged by the fact that the S710 didn't do distance and round about that time Timex brought out a groundbreaking watch called the Timex 50 Speed & Distance (there was a Timex 100 which allowed you to take 100 time splits). The main feature was that it measured speed and distance using GPS. The downside was that the GPS signal was picked up by a rather bulky receiver that strapped onto your arm. Never really did like the watch and probably didn't really justify the spend on it. It was pretty unrealiable in town or under trees but I did use it to pace my marathon PB!

30 mins every day for 365 days

// January 2nd, 2010 // No Comments » // Training

I'm back with a challenge that will hopefully kick start some exercise in 2010. The last year has probably been one of the most sendentary for me. Most of my spare time was spent learning to play golf (I took this up in late 2008). I managed to get my handicap down to 15 but completely let the fitness stuff go (apart from an outing at the National Relays in Nottingham in August).

Many of the athletes I've coached have used the 30 runs lasting 30 mins over 30 days to get back into running. I thought I'd take it a step further an extend this out to a whole year. The challenge is simply to run for 30 mins every day for 365 consecutive days. Naturally the runs can be longer but the key is to run for 30 mins. The good news is I've completed 2 out of the 365 and it's going well! My main area of concern will be staying injury free so I'll be stretching well after every session. Illness is probably the other main enemy to the challenge and I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed for that.

I've got a place in the London Marathon in April and was toying with the idea of deferring it to 2011. However it might be nice, actually maybe nice isn't the right word, to actually run round in under 3 hours without putting too much into the training. Running sub 2.45 will take 70 to 80 miles a week of training but surely it's possible to run under 3 hours with around 40 miles of training.

2 weeks to go. More tests today

// April 1st, 2007 // No Comments » // Training

I'm still struggling mentally to get most of these sessions done. Why was it so much easier when it was:

a) January

b) cold, dark and wet

c) 18 weeks till the big day!!

I managed to get everything done today that I wanted too. Granted I didn't run straight off the bike and granted I didn't run the full 2 hours. The data was good and I'm full of confidence now.

1) 3800m swimming at Hampton pool in the wetsuit. 54m55s

2) 1hrs 30 mins on bike including 15 mins warmup and cooldown. Main set was 1 hour @ an average of 140. Average power was a whopping 271 watts. I went through 30 mins and the average was 276. These a big figures.

3) 1hr45min run with 3 laps of Bushy Park 5k thrown in for good measure. Spent 1hr25 @ 140 hr. Laps of Bushy Park were as follows. Lap 1 – 21.13, Lap 2 – 21.23, Lap 3 – 20.45. That's 6.48s per mile. Nice! Bye

Training Log – 26th-1st April – 2 weeks to go

// April 1st, 2007 // No Comments » // Training

End of the first proper taper week and I did miss a few sessions this week. Mostly 1 hour bike recovery sessions.

Click here for the full break down.

100 miles, 20.2mph average and 126 average HR!!

// March 25th, 2007 // No Comments » // Training

I love stats! I love them so much that I trundled round exactly the same route as last Sunday. Last Sunday I covered 100 miles in 5hrs5 mins for an average speed of 19.6mph. The average HR last week was 135.

Today wasn't as windy as last Sunday and I was certainly feeling tired from yesterdays run. Due to the clocks going back and also lacking in motivation I actually set off at 1.30pm!! I seem to get the sessions done but some of them have been a real struggle. Maybe the result of a 6 month build. How on earth I managed 12 months last time I'll never know. Sundays in the Barr household have far more appeal than slogging it out on my lonesome on the road. I'm really looking forward to a few lazy days with the most activity being helping Lauren down at the play park. Todays ride started slowly with a favourable tail wind out to Windsor. I opted to use the ride out as a warmup but was holding a pretty reasonable pace with the wind behind. I then did a race pace (holding 140hr) lap which only took 1hr6mins30s and the average speed was 22.2mph. Pretty impressive stuff. The only change this week was the aero helmet and the slightly reduced winds. The wind direction was certainly the best for the Windsor race course. Somehow it seemed to be more helpful than last week. I decided that it was best to reduce the effort level for the rest of the ride but still managed to roll through the 2nd lap with an average speed over 21mph. Did a 3rd lap but without drift road and returned home with an average speed of 20.2mph and 100 miles covered. Very very pleased with this as my heart rate average was only 126 (9 less than last week). It's possible that after a long run my heart beat low and actually I was not at true race pace for that first lap. who cares really. The data is encouraging. I'm really confident I can hold a 21mph average at Arizona now.

Call me a camel, but I only drank 2 full bottles of fluid (carried 1 water, 1 SIS and 1 ribena), ate one Powerbar and one peanut butter sarnie. Felt fine but will be drinking and eating a lot more in Arizona. There's a marathon to run there. The only thing I ran after this ride was a bath ;o)