Its starting to pay off .....

Observational snippets for the few weeks.

Runners in London don't say hi !
Cyclists in London are nuts.
Belkin customer support is pain free
In a year I have used my bread maker 3 times - Kelly said I would and I ignored her
Getting up in winter is hard !
Running gets harder the more you do it
Swimming gets harder the less you do it.
I don't suit a tatty grey beard
I don't suit long hair - get it cut !
Hawaiian coffee is ace !

To the present......

Life's a bit up and down at the moment, with the wedding coming up, having the chance to do overtime can't be missed but most of what I do needs to be done at the weekend, so the family time and training volume can suffer. Its a "Catch 22" but one I can't complain about, with uncertainty in the market for peoples jobs, to have that choice means I have to be positive on both counts. I suppose the key to keeping all the candles burning is plenty of rest and eat well, a couple of new targets for the rest of the year.

As for the training, over the last 4 weeks consistency has been the key, I have consistently not been in the pool :-) but the other 2 disciplines have shown signs of life !

Swimming

It's a hard slog trying to get to the pool but I should just HTFU and get on with it, no excuse, time management is the key, late nights and not getting up in the mornings is a cycle I can't break at the moment but its on my shitlist to sort out for next month, my swim coach is on the case and this week I have already swum twice, woohoo !!! My aim, 4 times a week, training plan has been adjusted already. Finding a 50m pool with a tri swim session on a Monday night is a real bonus.

Running

I am happiest about my running, this time of year my weakest historically as I come out of the 'fat' period over Xmas. I have managed 4 runs a week consistently over the last 4 weeks. With two competitions running on the web, 'Jantastic' and the RW transatlantic challenge to motivate me and lack of pool time I have kept the work up, in 4 weeks I have clocked up 116 miles, so nearly 30 a week.
Yesterday, the work paid off. I PB'd at Helsby with a 1.27.30. Previous best was at Helsby 2006 in 1.27.41. I also negative split with a 43.58/43.32. All in all very happy with the running. It was also great to see the Warrington lads out with Phil from D&M Cycles pulling out some good early season results.

Cycling

To the bike - as you can see from the new sponsor logo, I am now officially sponsored by Computrainer for 2011, very pleased. Got an email from Simon Ward this week bigging up the new year to all of the sponsored athletes and hoping for great results etc and I was in very esteemed company, Leanda Cave, Philip Graves, Yvette Grice and Rachel Joyce to name drop a few lol! Don't quite fit into their league at all but as I have been reminded, a sponsored athlete is a sponsored athlete.

So, lets explain the Computrainer goals, 'schimples', using a baseline test called a CP20, improve your average wattage output for this test by 10% over a 5 month period, or 2% every 4 weeks.

The CP20 (20mins all out) is used to work out your Functional Threshold Power (FTP) which is the maximum average watts you can hold for an hour. By doing a CP20 you can work out a percentage of FTP without knackering yourself up for a few days. Just use 95% of the CP20 watts, so CP20 * 0.95 = FTP. Have I lost you yet ?

The first test I did was on the 19th December, results were.
Watts - 293w HR ave - 163 RPM ave - 92

I redid the test on Saturday just gone and after 4 weeks the results are.
Watts - 304w HR ave - 158 RPM ave - 86

I have got to be happy with a 3.75% improvement and the heart rate has dropped as well by 5 beats. Definitely going in the right direction. With the December result as my baseline I am basically aiming at 322watts by May 21st. Watch this space.

To be able to jump on the CPT for 3 hours steady or a 1 hour interval session has made all the difference to early season winter training. Its a great tool and over the moon to be using it this year.

Next step is to send a decent picture for Simon to use in the marketing for 2011, god that will be tough, finding a decent picture mmmm, not easy.

Future

Short term goals over the next 4 weeks, the main targets are CPT improvement, maintain 4 runs a week and get in the damn pool ! All while working and putting family first, just as well I love this triathlon lark !

I am also going to plan out the next 6-8 months of racing, Helsby has given me the bug back and I like the feeling, might not like the recovery but that's what happens when you average a race at 167bpm but finish on 181bpm, trying not to throw up - even pacing Mr Rose next time !!!!

Rosey.