Moray 10k

To start with here is the statistical bit, along with a comparison to last year. 

	2017			2016
Splits	Time	Cumulative		Time	Cumulative
1	03:45.5	03:45.5		03:52.7	03:52.7
2	03:57.3	07:42.8		04:02.4	07:55.1
3	04:01.8	11:44.6		04:01.6	11:56.7
4	04:16.8	16:01.4		04:19.4	16:16.1
5	04:03.7	20:05.1		03:57.0	20:13.1
6	04:04.0	24:09.1		04:00.2	24:13.3
7	04:02.7	28:11.8		03:58.9	28:12.2
8	04:02.7	32:14.5		03:57.5	32:09.7
9	03:51.5	36:06.0		03:49.9	35:59.6
10	03:48.9	39:54.9		03:49.0	39:48.6
11	00:04.8	39:59.7		00:00.8	39:49.4

And that pretty much tells the story. I started a bit too fast, but within a few hundred meters I knew it was too fast and I backed off. That still took me through the first kilometer 7 seconds faster than last year. Having eased off to a more sustainable pace for the next couple of km I was 12 seconds ahead of last year as I reached the bottom of the climb. And I was 16 seconds up by the top of the climb. We then turned into a headwind that I hadn't expected but it was basically a light breeze and actually helped with the temperature. 

At this point I finally noticed some other people around me as two of my team-mates closed up behind me, including the leading lady and a guy who I have been beating (just) all cross-country season who is training for a marathon. We then settled in to possibly the least collaborative group I have ever raced with. I feel that I should take more than a fair share of the blame for this. I was already working too close to my limit and I have done no group running for years so I was finding it difficult to judge distances and was playing it safe by giving plenty of room rather than work in the small group. I was also getting distracted by the watch and putting in surges every time that I realised the pace was slipping. 

Through the 5k mark I was still ahead of last year but I knew from how comfortably the other pair had caught me that I wasn't holding my early pace. We then leapfrogged and surged and zig-zagged our way to the downhill at 8km and finally the three of us broke apart as the I put my downhill skills to use and stretched away. That lasted down the hill but once we turned the final corner they both cruised past me again and started to pull away. At the 9km mark they were a few seconds ahead but I knew I still had something for the finish. I kicked with about 800m to go and managed to claw my way past the first lady and was closing the gap to the guy when we reached the last little rise to the finish line. 

My legs objected to the tiny incline and I felt I was almost grinding to a halt within sight of the line. My watch buzzed for a gps 10k and I glanced at the watch to see 39:54 and I still had yards to go. I forced my legs across the line through what felt like treacle and heard the glorious sound of the timekeeper saying 58 as they recorded my official time. 

I am pleased to have broken 40 minutes again. Officially 'run my age' for the first time. Slightly disappointed to have not run a PB as I am in great shape and I do think it was in me on a slightly less windy day to find those missing 12 seconds. After Bratislava I may search for another fast course and see if I can take a slice off that time. 

Training Review - Week 12 - March 20 to 26

Monday was a basic set of commutes into seeming headwinds in both directions. Tired legs from racing on Sunday but still fairly decent rides. In the evening the swim set was much more suited to me than normal and I flew through it. 

Tuesday I took an easy run in to work, but after a couple of speed sessions last week and my race pace on Sunday I suddenly feel much more comfortable at just half a gear higher than the pace I have been cruising in to work at recently. That meant I clocked my fastest commute run, just under 55 minutes.

In the evening, I finally managed to get organised to do extra sessions early in the week as I try to clear a proper taper into this weekends race. I did my core session and some rollering.

Wednesday my holiday was interrupted by a trip to a business breakfast presentation. After I got back I managed to get back on schedule with my planned reps in the park. Then at lunchtime I went to the pool for a set of 200m reps. I am now up to the point where I can finish my set of 5x200m reps with 60 secs recovery at an average of 3:20. That would get me out of a 1km race in 16:40 if I could stitch them together. 

Thursday I took a recovery paced jog to work. Although I still accidentally ducked under an hour despite setting up my garmin to give me a slow target and tried to back off the pace several times. In the evening I spent a chunk of time on the roller trying to work out some of the worst tight spots. 

Friday I took a slightly extended commute ride to work, and had some gear issues in the last mile leading to a dropped chain and some crunching but I refitted the chain and it didn't seem like anything too serious. That turned out to be something of a missed assessment as less than 200m in to my commute home I sheared the rear derailleur and snapped a handful of spokes as I pulled the broken section right in to the rear wheel. A quick check on Saturday morning suggests the wheel is not as bad as I feared but potentially I have buckled the entire frame.

Saturday I had a proper rest day with some easy yoga and rollering in the morning before driving through to Elgin to visit my parents. 

Sunday was Moray Roadrunners 10k which will get a post to itself ( I know I still haven't delivered on a similar promise about Aboyne duathlon from last weekend). 

Overall the numbers for this week don't look great. Missing my weekend swim was far from ideal, missing weights and core sessions and losing a bike commute (whilst annoying in itself looks like it might get expensive). But overall I am happy with another solid week. A good race on Sunday from a two-day taper. 



Target totals - Swim 3.0 miles. Bike 30.0 miles. Run 18.0 miles. 2 short core, 1 short light weights and 3 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.

Monday - Commute ride to office 7.1 miles in 32 mins.
Commute ride from office 7.0 miles in 34 mins.
Swim with TPT 2,250m in 54 mins. 

Tuesday - Commute run 6.9 miles in 55 mins.
Core session.
Rollering session

Wednesday - Park reps 4.3 miles in 39 mins.
Swim at bucksburn 1,600m in 36 mins. 
Rollering session.

Thursday - Commute run 6.9 miles in 59 mins.
Rollering session.

Friday - Commute ride to office 9.5 miles in 41 mins.

Saturday - Yoga 15 mins.
Stretching and rollering session.

Sunday - Yoga 18 mins.
Moray 10k - 39:58


Actuals - Swim 2.4 miles (3,850 m). Bike 23.6 miles. Run 24.8 miles. 1 short core, 0 short light weights and 4 stretching / rollering session. 33 mins of yoga. 

Cumulative (Cumulative target) [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 39.2 (35.0) [40.3], 
B 424.5 (350.0) [420.0], 
R 270.4 (221.0) [249.7].

Training Plan - Week 13 - March 27 to April 2

Knockburn duathlon is on Sunday but I am planning to skip it in favour of training. The races the last two weeks showed what sort of shape I am in and I don't benefit from taking the TT bike around a relatively hilly course or running a pair of 5k cross country races. 

I have slightly reshuffled my week to fit in around the rest of life. I might be slightly short on the bike again but will see how it goes. I also need to do some work on my commuter bike to check if I have done any serious frame damage or whether I can just replace the derailleur. 

I have also booked in for a massage on Saturday as I need to work more on my recovery from sessions as much as the sessions themselves. 


Target totals - Swim 3.0 miles. Bike 30.0 miles. Run 18.0 miles. 
2 short core, 2 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga. 

Training Plan - Week 12 - March 20 to 16

This Sunday is Moray 10k. We are going to combine this with visiting my parents for the weekend which makes for a rest day on Saturday. I would like to go under 40 minutes again having run my first sub-40 on this course last year. Sunday at Aboyne gave me a bit of a test of running at that pace and it is going to be a challenge to go under 40 again. I was fine for about 4km but from there I was losing almost 15 secs/km. 

I will be short on swimming again this week as I lose my Saturday session. I also have my last carried over holiday to use this week but it is on Wednesday so I will use it to do a fast run session during the day.

I also really need to front load the week with the other sessions in order to give myself a proper taper in to racing.

I have left the target numbers as they are despite knowing that I am not going to get my third swim in this week and I am likely to come up short of bike numbers as well unless I squeeze in a cool down ride after my race. 


Target totals - Swim 3.0 miles. Bike 30.0 miles. Run 18.0 miles. 
1 short core, 1 short light weights and 2 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga. 

Training Review - Week 11 - March 13 to 19

The improving weather meant Monday commutes were a bit quicker and the lighter evening commute gave me a chance to test sunglasses with my new TT helmet. They are not a great combination so I need to consider tinting my existing visor or getting a tinted one. 

I went to swimming but was having problems with my depression and the session had too many sets that I can't do with my pinned shoulder. I did a bit of paddling up and down trying to stay out of the way but after 1km I quit. 

Tuesday my depression was no better but I didn't want to waste a holiday. I faffed for most of the morning but eventually dragged myself out to the park before lunch to do some reps. They were shocking and I I felt terrible. I quit, after 4 of my planned 8 were all slower than my jog to work pace, and walked home. 

At lunchtime I was in two minds about going to swim. After Monday night's horrible swim and my run disaster I seriously considered scrapping the swim but then having taken the day off work I felt guilty about wasting it on just a shit run session. I dragged myself to the pool to just do a steady 30 minute swim. That went much better than expected and I went through 1,500m in 26:26 (PB for a pool 1,500m) and 1,700m in the 30 minutes. 

Wednesday I was back at work but some really quiet traffic and green lights made for a pair of fast commutes. Then I went to the pool which was a bit busier than normal. It turns out that a bit busier means slow as fuck breast strokers moving in to the fast lane and paddling up and down at 2min / 50m keeping their hair dry, is considered acceptable by the lifeguards as there were two of them and only one of me. There was no way I could work around them and after 15 minutes of getting pissed off at them and not even managing to get in 50m of breast stroke without them getting in the way I had to give up. 

That not only fucked up that session but also ruins the rest of my week. I would need to run 9 miles and swim 2 on my Thursday holiday. The only way to do those sort of numbers would be to do two huge distance but slow sessions rather than my planned faster sessions.

Thursday I started my holiday with half an hour on the foam roller and stretching. I went out to do some running reps in the morning. I found a new hill to do some short reps on and continued round a loop of Dyce to get me to 6 miles.

At lunchtime I went to bucksburn for a set of 3 x 1km swim reps at 1,500m pace. That makes 5 swim days in a row, 10 in the last 13 days. 

Friday I rode in to work at what felt like a steady pace but turned our to be my third fastest time. Some of that was down to good luck at lights but some was just that I am just riding faster at the minute. In the afternoon I snuck in a run round Duthie park before going to see Beauty and the Beast in the evening. I was planning to do something close to my 10k race pace but just didn't have that in my legs after Thursday reps and the ride in the morning. I did manage to get to 7min/mile pace for a chunk in the middle and 7:26 average. At least heading in the right direction.

Saturday I had a proper rest day. A lie in, some easy yoga and a bit of stretching and a trip to town for a haircut. It is not a huge taper into Sunday's race but it is at least a bit of a recovery from the rest of the week. 

Sunday I did some yoga in the morning before going to Aboyne Duathlon, which will get a post to itself. Then in the evening I did core and stretching sessions in the evening just to finish off my week. 

Considering the two terrible swim sessions this has been a great week. First real speed running sessions done. First race done, came 3rd overall and 1st Vet. Caught up to my swim stretch target. Swam a pool 1500m PB by accident.




Target totals - Swim 3.0 miles. Bike 30.0 miles. Run 18.0 miles. 2 short core, 1 short light weights and 3 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.

Monday - Commute ride to office 7.1 miles in 31 mins.
Commute ride from office 7.0 miles in 35 mins.
Swim with TPT 1,000m in 36 mins. 

Tuesday - Park reps 3.5 miles in 31 mins. 
Swim at bucksburn 1,700m in 30 mins. 
Rollering session.

Wednesday - Commute ride to office 7.1 miles in 28 mins.
Commute ride from office 7.0 miles in 34 mins.
Swim with at bucksburn 300m in 12 mins. 

Thursday - Stretching and rollering session. 
River reps 5.9 miles in 70 mins.
Swim at bucksburn 3,200m in 65 mins.
Core session.
Weights session. 

Friday - Commute ride to office 7.1 miles in 30 mins.
Duthie Park run 4.1 miles in 33mins.

Saturday - Yoga 28 mins.
Stretching and rollering session.

Sunday - Yoga session 24 mins.
Aboyne Duathlon Run 1 - 2.7 miles in 17 mins.
Aboyne Duathlon Bike - 9.5 miles in 29 mins.
Aboyne Duathlon Run 2 - 2.7 miles in 18 mins.
Warm-up / Cool down - 1.2 miles in 12 mins.
Core session.
Stretching session.


Actuals - Swim 3.9 miles (6,200 m). Bike 44.8 miles. Run 20.1 miles. 2 short core, 1 short light weights and 3 stretching / rollering session. 52 mins of yoga. 

Cumulative (Cumulative target) [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 36.8 (32.0) [36.8], 
B 410.4 (320.0) [384.0], 
R 245.6 (203.0) [229.4].

Training Plan - Week 11 - Mar 13 to 19

I have entered Aboyne Duathlon on Sunday. Due to my lack of any serious cycling this year I have entered the short version. The single 15k lap on the bike will still be my longest ride of the year and trying to race 30k felt overly ambitious. 

Tuesday and Thursday I have holidays. My plan for those is to swim and do running reps. That means a binge of swim miles this week. Having swum on Sunday this means 5 consecutive swim days. 

Having cleared most of my backlog last week the target numbers are more normal this week. 

Target totals - Swim 3.0 miles. Bike 30.0 miles. Run 18.0 miles. 
2 short core, 1 short light weights and 3 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga. 

Training Review - Week 10 - March 6 to 12

Monday the weather and the daylight tempted me to take the road bike and to actually put a bit of effort in. That made little difference on the ride in as the traffic made the commute about the same as normal. On the way home though I managed a much cleaner ride and despite a little addition at the end still got home in a quick time. 

Swimming was much better than expected. I thought that a third consecutive day of swimming on top of a tough week and recovering from a cold I thought I would struggle. Instead I put in an easy 7min 400m in the middle of a set and finished off with a 100m in 1:33 and 50m in a PB of 39.3.

Tuesday I started my run feeling empty and the first couple of miles were pretty average but from there I settled in to it and by the end I was cruising along at sub 8-min pace and feeling comfortable. 

Wednesday I took a pair of easy rides, even managing to get overtaken by an ironman on the way to work in the morning. In the evening I went to bucksburn with no session plan. I swam 100m but it felt too slow to be the first of a 100m set so I carried on. At 200m I still felt like it was too slow to be the first rep in a 200m set. So I went to 400m, and accidentally smashed last years race time. Then after 60 secs rest I did another 400m in under last years time. And then after another 60 secs rest I did a third rep, again in under race time. 3 reps in 6:40, 6:59 and 6:50 with only a minute of rest. For a fourth swim session in 5 days that is a ridiculous set of numbers. 

Thursday my run to work felt like a slog as my legs were still feeling Tuesday's run but the clock didn't reflect that. My underlying fitness level is now at the point where even a bad run is still just outside 8 min/mile pace. I still need to build some speed on top of that though. 

Friday I had another day off work. I started the morning with a trip to the park to do some running reps. I can at least tick the box that I have started to some speed work on the running front, but it wasn't much and it wasn't fast. Next week I have my first race of the season but I also have two more holiday days to do some more speed work. 

Saturday I went to the park for another reps session. I tried to do a set of 1km reps at 10k pace and managed 3, but only by taking 90 second recoveries between them. I have some opportunities over the next couple of weeks to do some speed work before going to Elgin to race the Moray 10k and I am going to have to make the most of them. In the afternoon I missed my chance to catch up on some smaller session as I went to watch the England Scotland rugby at the pub. Would have been less painful to do all the sessions. 

Sunday I went for an early swim planning to do a set of fast 100m reps but once my back stiffened and the pace slowed I decided to call it a short day. Closed half the gap to my stretch target and logged my biggest swim week of the year.

Before lunch I did the rest of my yoga for the week and took the TT bike round the block. Not at any sort of speed, mainly just to remind myself of the balance difference between it and my road bike and to check for any faults. None during the ride but the wet roads meant that it got filthy and needed a thorough clean and check over afterwards. The brake pads will need to be changed at some point this year, but they will be fine for a couple of months yet. I also took the di2 battery off and switched it for the spare and tidied up the ends of the bar tape.   

In the evening I did weights, core and stretching sessions to round out the week. My core session I upgraded to a tougher session that also included a 60 second plank at the end of it. I am overdue for that change anyway and a handful of minutes on the tribars in the morning reminded me that the shoulder and core positions on the TT bike are not properly replicated by my other training and need to be worked more specifically. 

This week was complete within itself but I didn't manage to make up for the carried core and stretching sessions from last week so they roll over again in to next week. 


Target totals - Swim 3.0 miles. Bike 30.0 miles. Run 18.0 miles. 2 short core, 1 short light weights and 3 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga.

Monday - Commute ride to office 7.1 miles in 31 mins.
Commute ride from office 7.2 miles in 32 mins.
Swim with TPT 2,100m in 54 mins. 

Tuesday - Commute run to office 6.9miles in 56 mins.

Wednesday - Commute ride to office 7.1 miles in 33 mins.
Commute ride from office 7.1 miles in 38 mins.
Swim at bucksburn 1,600m in 36 mins. 

Thursday - Commute run to office 6.9miles in 60 mins.
Stretching and rollering session.

Friday - Reps run 3.6 miles in 31 mins.
Yoga session 16 mins.
Swim at bucksburn 2,200m in 45 mins. 

Saturday - Reps run 3.8 miles in 32 mins. 

Sunday - Swim at bucksburn 750m in 16mins.
Yoga session 15 mins.
TT bike check 3.2 miles in 13 mins.
Weights session.
Core session.
Stretching session. 


Actuals - Swim 4.1 miles (6,450 m). Bike 31.7 miles. Run 21.2 miles. 1 short core, 1 light weights and 2 stretching / rollering session. 31 mins of yoga. 

Cumulative (Cumulative target) [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 32.9 (29.0) [33.4], 

B 365.6 (290.0) [348.0], 
R 225.5 (185.0) [209.1].

Training Plan - Week 10 - March 6 to 12

I have a holiday again on Friday so that will give me a chance to make up some of the losses from the bug I had last week. Hopefully it will also give me a chance to get out on the TT bike before I try and race it next weekend. 

Some carry over sessions from last week mean slightly strange target numbers this week. 

Target totals - Swim 3.0 miles. Bike 30.0 miles. Run 18.0 miles. 
2 short core, 1 short light weights and 3 short stretching sessions. 30 mins of yoga. 

Training Review - Week 9 - Feb 27 to Mar 5

Monday was a total write off to the bug. Tuesday I dragged myself in to work only to be sent straight home again.

Wednesday I finally managed to get back to a semblance of normality and rode to work and back without too much coughing. I thought trying to add a swim session on the back of my first day was probably a bit much but I did do a short yoga session. 

Thursday I was back on the run in to work and despite feeling pretty terrible it was actually a decent run in. Then in a gap before going to Logan in the evening I squeezed in a second run at a better pace without any real trouble.

Fridays commutes were cold and sensible and I managed some stretching and yoga in the evening. Still sniffling and coughing a bit.

Saturday I went for an early swim, planning a long steady day purely to collect miles and cover some of my losses from earlier in the week. Instead I started wheezing at 50m and had a full-on death rattle on every inhale by 100m. After stopping for a bit of a cough to clear out my lungs I tried again to the same result and then just revised my session to 100m reps on 2:30 starts. After 17 of those I decided just to take the target losses this week and I can make them up later.

After breakfast I caught up the missing weights session from last week. In the evening I did last weeks core session and some yoga. 

Sunday I got up in time to run to the pool. Since Zombies Run were celebrating I did a 5k zombie race on the way to the pool. I had again planned a long steady swim but was still struggling to breathe. I converted that to a set of 200m reps and after 5 of those realised that I was simply out of gas and still needed to run home and recover to swim tomorrow. I took an easier 5k route home at a more relaxed pace. 

In the afternoon I went out for 20 minutes on the mountain bike to chase some pokemon and just to make sure there was at least one number this week over target. An evening pair of weights and yoga sessions ticked off a couple more targets for the week. 

So I chased a bit through the weekend to limit the losses but between last weekend and this week it looks like the cold cost me somewhere in the region of 13 run miles, 35 bike miles, 2 swim miles and a handful of smaller sessions. That means a lot of red numbers below and the first time I have dropped behind any of my stretch targets. That has to be read with caution though, I am still over 10% ahead of my actual target and so far ahead of previous years at swimming and running that it isn't worth comparing. 


Target totals - Swim 3.0 miles. Bike 30.0 miles. Run 18.0 miles. 2 short core, 2 short light weights and 3 short stretching sessions. 50 mins of yoga.

Monday - Sick day.

Tuesday - Sick day.

Wednesday - Commute ride mtb 7.0 miles in 38 mins.
Commute ride mtb 7.0 miles in 41 mins. 
Yoga for hips 6 mins.

Thursday - Commute run 6.9 miles in 62 mins.
Duthie park run 3.1 miles in 25 mins. 
Stretching session.

Friday - Commute ride mtb 7.1 miles in 33 mins.
Commute ride mtb 7.0 miles in 39 mins. 
Stretching and rollering session.
Yoga session 18 mins.

Saturday - Swim at bucksburn 1,700m in 43 mins.
Weights session.
Core session.
Yoga session 20 mins.

Sunday - Run to bucksburn 3.1 miles in 25 mins.
Swim at bucksburn 1,200m in 30 mins.
Run from bucksburn 3.3 miles in 30 mins.
Mtb loop of Dyce 2.8 miles in 20 mins.
Weights session.
Yoga session 7 minutes.


Actuals - Swim 1.8 miles (2,900 m). Bike 30.9 miles. Run 16.1 miles. 1 short core, 2 short light weights and 2 stretching / rollering session. 50 mins of yoga. 

Cumulative (Cumulative target) [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 28.8 (26.0) [29.9], 
B 333.9 (260.0) [312.0], 
R 204.0 (167.0) [188.7].

Monthly Review - February

I should be at 24 swim miles,240 bike miles and 156 run miles. Or if I am pushing on towards the stretch targets 27.6, 288 and 176.3.

I should also have logged at least 8 each of weights, core and stretching sessions and 4 hours of yoga. 

--------------------------------------------------------------

Swimming has been another huge month. Building on my 13.8 miles from January I put in another 13.2 in February despite missing my last session of the month with a bug. 27 miles to date is more than 10% over my target and just misses my stretch target due to the aforementioned missed swim session. My previous longest year to Feb is 15.1 miles. 

The bike continues to be way above plan as well. I was meant to be doing less on the bike in Q1 as I focus on Bratislava, but 303 miles puts me 26% over my target and 5% over my stretch target. That is almost perfect according to plan as it means my February distance (136 miles) is above target (120) but not as high as my stretch target (144). That could have been 30-40 miles longer if I hadn't been carrying the bug in to this last weekend as I would either have gone to Inverurie Duathlon or gone out for a solo ride, plus a commute to work on Monday 27th.

Running I continue to post much bigger numbers than I need and continually fail to do faster session because of that. 187.9 miles at the end of Feb puts me more than 30 miles ahead of my target and 11 ahead of my stretch target. But still no fast sessions and that really has to change. 7 mile jog commutes are keeping me fit but not actually helping me run any faster. Jogging to the pool and back on Saturday's is little more than a warm-up. 

I was right on course with 7 weights and 7 core sessions and the remaining pair set for the weekend. Those will carry over in to this week but so has the bug so trying to double up is unlikely this week and they are probably going to carry over again.  I need to be careful not to get into the habit of previous years of letting them escape from the programme.

I am at just over 10 hours of yoga. That is good for year-to-date but is only 60 minutes in Feb against a plan of 120.

So basically I am still killing most of the targets, yoga needs to be more consistent and faster run sessions need to be included, but despite losing the best part of a week I am still way ahead of my mileage plans and I could afford to trade start trading off sessions for rest and recovery days or distance for speed sessions without endangering the totals.