My new TYR Hurricane Wetsuit arrived today. It was still pretty tight. I’m 5’6″ and 72kg whereas the Small Medium size that I’ve got is supposed to fit someone 5’7″-6’0″ and 66-78kg. At least I could get into it though and once swimming it wasn’t too tight. It probably does restrict my breathing a tiny amount but hopefully I’m going to lose some weight!
I’ve just been for a little swim along the seafront. It’s going to take a little getting used to but it felt OK, it did really rub my neck though, so much so that I was bleeding as I left the water where it has rubbed the skin away and left me with a sore, raw patch on my neck. It was uncomfortable while I was out there especially when breathing to the left. I’ll wear a rash vest next time and hope that helps.
I took my Forerunner 305 with me but I don’t think wearing it on my wrist is the best option as I guess it tracks every movement of my arm making me seem to have traveled much further than I actually did. Either that or I’m quicker at swimming than I though as I managed 1.21 miles in 19 minutes. I think next time I’ll wear the watch on my ankle.
My triceps are a little sore though so it must have done some good for my swim fitness! Off to Circuit Training and a Swimfit class now.
I’m waiting to hear from Commencal and Madison about the warranty claim on my cracked Commencal Meta 5.5. Madison have said they will raise a warranty claim with Commencal but that was 10 days ago and I’ve yet to hear back. It doesn’t look as though I’m going to get it sorted in time for the Isle of Man End 2 End in a couple of weeks, so my lack of preparation continues.
I haven’t been out on the bike for a few weeks because of the cracks, but with the End 2 End looming I thought I’d better get my old Specialized Rockhopper hardtail up and running and at least make sure it works. I did manage to get out on it last night for a nice easy ride around Nant yr Arian.
I started in Penrhyncoch and rode up the Bont Goch climb at a nice easy pace despite the head winds. I met John at the Pendam Car Park at the base of the Hippity Hops and we set off for a fairly slow ride around the Summit Trail. John wasn’t feeling too good after one too many the night before so we took it easy most of the way.
I then had a nice ride down the hill back to Penrhyncoch afterwards. The hardtail felt OK, although it did take a bit of getting used to. I don’t think it necessarily climbs any easier and definitely doesn’t descend as well but I prefer cornering on it.
All in all it was almost 22 miles and I felt OK – The End 2 End is more than twice that distance though with more climbing!
I’ve always been a fairly good swimmer and enjoy swim sessions in the pool, but driving back and forth to Aberystwyth to get to the pool is a bit of a pain.
I’ve therefore ordered myself a wetsuit and cap so that I can do some open-water swim training here in Borth and Ynyslas. I’m hoping to be able to use my Garmin Forerunner whilst I swim so that I can see how far / fast I go and with water all around us there should be plenty of places to swim.
I don’t know how well it will compare with swimming in the pool when it comes to quality swim training as the external factors of wind, tides, waves and of course the cold will all affect my swims but it should be fun. When it is calm I’ll be able to swim along the beach off the seafront, but as I’d like to swim in flatter water where possible I’ll probably head to the estuary and swim there instead. There are also a few buoys in estuary that I should be able to swim between / around which will allow me to do intervals and reproducible sessions.
I might also try swimming in the River Leri as it will be nice and calm there, although the currents will add to the fun! There are plenty of lakes in the hills around here too that I’m sure I will have to swim at some point. It may not be the best time of year to start as it’s going to start getting cold, but what better way to start the day than a cold 5am swim in the sea.
It seems as though there is a quite an few people into outdoor swimming or wild swimming and plenty of websites with information on doing it and where you can swim.
Wild Swimming has lots of information. It is trying to sell you a book about Wild Swimming but the website has lots of freelay available information as well.
The Outdoor Swimming Society has a nice website with lots of information too, including maps of places to swim, events and tips.
Hopefully as well as having some fun and exploring some new places from a slightly wetter perspective than usual, it will help with my swim fitness as well. Once a week at swim fit just isn’t enough to keep my swimming as good as it should be.
Buying new toys is fun, but there’s just so much choice out there that it isn’t easy.
I’ve reached that stage in my life (call it a mid-life crisis if you want) where I want nice things if I’m buying something. I can’t afford new sports cars -or even a nice 2nd hand car at the moment – but I can afford a nice shiney new bike. I could get away with spending less money and get a run of the mill bike, it would still be an improvement on my current bike which is over 20 years old and has seen better days, but part of the pleasure of riding it will be the love of the machine itself.
I’ve therefore been looking to spend a considerable amount of money on a nice bike. I’m not going top of the range as the tops of the ranges for bikes these days are in the region of £7,000 to £10,000. Yes, we are talking push-bikes, not motorbikes.
Giant TCR Advanced SL
I have seen a few deals around, the first was a Giant TCR Advanced SL3 reduced from £3500 to £2125. I thought about it for a little too long though and it has now gone out of stock in my size. Probably a good thing as I wasn’t really wanted to spend more than £2,000 and it had a integrated seat-post that I wasn’t sure about as it means that once you’ve cut it you only have 1″ of adjustment. I was confident enough of getting my positioning right before riding it properly so was a little wary of that.
For those in the know, I’m looking for a bike with a decent full-carbon frame, Ultegra groupset and a decent set of wheels such as Mavic Kysrium Elites.
The Giant Range, also contains the TCR Advanced 2 which fits this description and has a traditional seat-post, so that’s what I have my eyes on at the moment. I’ve seen them reduced from £2700 to £1999 which is just about the right price point too. I’m just going to have to see if I can get one locally at that price and if they still have any in stock.
There are a few others on my radar. A couple of places are selling the Raleigh Avanti Carbon Team for £2125. Raleigh are making a bit of a comeback and this bike has recieved rave reviews. With a full Dura-Ace groupset it’s quite a bargain at that price, in fact it was still quite a deal at the RRP of £3500, but I’m not too sure about the availability again.
Ribble Nero RC
Ribble also have some good prices, but I’ve heard that their frames flex quite a bit. I’m not sure how true this is as I’ve also heard good reports about them and for the spec something like the Ribble Nero RC can be got at an amazing price. Using their bike-builder I can spec it just the way I want it for less than £1,800, or as a special edition bike I could get it with lesser wheels for £1350, an and £375 will get me some nicer wheels too, so for £1700 I could have a suitably specced bike and a spare set of wheels. Sounds promising doesn’t it, I just need to have more of a think about the frame which after all is the most important part. I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with it but Ribble don’t quite have the kudos that certain manufacturers and big brand names have.
Decisions, decisions! Morgan just told me to get the fastest one, although to be honest, when I give him a cycling magazine and ask him to pick bikes he does have very good taste! I doubt that any of them will make me any faster, it’s my legs that do that, but it will make the pain of trying to get faster more enjoyable.
I haven’t been on my bike much lately. The frame on my Commencal Meta 5.5 is cracked so I can’t ride that and I’ve yet to buy a new road bike. Also, it’s been pretty windy so I’ve been out windsurfing and haven’t had much time. I have been on the Turbo Trainer a few times but only easy recovery rides after hard days windsurfing.
Yesterday though I decded to have some quality rather than quantity time on the turbo trainer. Time for a quick half an hour session with some 1 min intervals. As usual this is a 10 minute warm up followed by 7 reps of 1 minute hard and 1 minute recovery. Last time I did these I did the first 3 reps at 410 Watts and the next 4 at 420 Watts so yesterday I increased that and started at 420 Watts. I was doing fine at that intensity so did the seventh at 430 Watts I’m obviously improving somehow.
- 10 minute warm up – ramp from 120 Watts to 200 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 1 min @ 430 Watts : 1 min @120 Watts
- 6 minutes @ 220 Watts
- 5 minutes Cool Down
Turbo Training may not be the most exciting thing to do and you don’t get to paint red lines all over Google Earth as you do in the real world, but having a set workout to do and pushing yourself makes it a little more interesting – and you get to draw red lines with your heart rate traces instead.
Heart Rate Cadence and Speed trace
We’re not having a proper holiday this year, instead we’re having several long weekends and staying at home enjoying our local surroundings more than we usually would.
Yesterday was one of these days off so I had a bit of a lie in (for me) and didn’t get up until 7.30am. One of the nice things about stay at home holidays is that I can still do a little bit of work each day as well. This means that I can stay on top of e-mails and a few other bits and pieces and not have that horrible post-holiday backlog to come back to that I always dread.
After a couple of hours work I did some computer research into which new bike to buy and then pottered around the house for a bit before jumping on the turbo trainer for my first workout of the day. It was nothing too difficult, just a 25 mile fairly easy session. This was followed by a light lunch with Anna and Morgan before I headed across to the beach with my windsurf kit for a nice windsurf session exploring the high seas between Borth and Aberdovey. I covered over 26 miles in and hour and a half so I was now up to over 50 miles of activity for the day and 2 hours 45 of exercise.
It had however only just begun because as soon as I was off the water, packed up and showered, it was time to head into Aberystwyth for an hour of circuit training followed by an hour of swim training. All of that may sound like a little too much for some people – I had a tweet from someone yesterday that said:
“Morning Al. Do you ever think about sitting down, & having a nice rest ? Wears me out just reading your tweets !”
For me it was a perfect, action packed day with a total of 5 hours of exercise, and what’s more as there was little time for eating I may even have lost some weight in the process.
It doesn’t look as though the lack of exercise and far too much food during my few days away recently have done too much damage.
I did a turbo trainer session the other day and my performance was OK. I even checked the tyre pressure before the session to make sure things were consistent and managed to do a 3:2 minute interval session with a power output of 350 Watts for the hard efforts. I also did a few 1 minute intervals afterwards as well.
Here’s the actual workout:
Warm up: 10 minute ramp from 120 Watts to 200 Watts
Main set: 7 x 3: 2 minute intervals
- 3 mins @ 340 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 3 mins @ 350 Watts, 2 mins @ 120 Watts
- 5 mins @ 210 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts, 1 min @ 120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts, 1 min @ 120 Watts
- 1 min @ 420 Watts, 1 min @ 120 Watts
- 5 mins @ 220 Watts
Cool Down: 2 mins @ 150 Watts, 3 mins @ 120 Watts
Here’s the trace from my heart rate, cadnce and speed sensors, including the time when I dropped the chain after the third 3 minute interval.
Heart Rate, Speed and Cadence Trace
I’d been doing well with my weight loss and training before we had a few days away.
I hadn’t really been dieting but I had been eating a little less and had been doing more exercise, so over the course of about a month I’d lost almost a stone. I then went away for a few days, did very little exercise and of course enjoyed myself eating and drinking and not being too healthy.
I had planned to windsurf and mountain bike whilst away but I developed a cold on the first day so didn’t really have the energy. Instead I reversed all the good work and sat around doing very little other than eating!
Big breakfasts, tea and cakes, huge carvery lunches, several BBQ’s and lots of sweets. I did manage one little mountain bike ride around Nibley in South Gloucestershire, but by then the lack of activity and the excesses had taken their toll and I was feeling pretty slow.
Back home and onto the scales and I’d put on over half a stone in less than a week. Time for some healthy eating and some exercise. Hopefully if I put that much on in less than a week I can lose it in less than a week too.
On the positive side, at least my cold coincided with my days away otherwise it could have led to two weeks off rather than one and you have to have a rest now and then.
I haven’t been running much lately. I did a bit just before competing in a Triathlon back in May, but very little since. However, I can’t swim at the moment thanks to injured ribs, so last night rather than drive into Aberystwyth just for a circuit training session I decided to go for a run instead.
I did a course I;ve done a few times before. From home, I ran south along the beach (if its high tide I go along the golf course instead) and then up over the pebbles just before getting into Borth, across the golf course and level crossing and then along the track past the Bird hide. At the Leri I turn left and run north along the grassy embankment besides the River Leri then across the railway bridge, back to the boat yard, down the track besides the boatyard and out onto the sands of the estuary. I then run along the side of the dunes to the road and back home along the road past Searivers Caravan Park.
It’s a 4.8 mile run, although last night I overshot a little on the beach and it was 4.9 miles. Despite running a slightly longer distance, I actually beat my previous best time by almost 2 minutes! So that’s it, the best way for me to improve my running is to not do any! It may have something to do with the fact that I was listening to a ‘podrunner’ music mix on my iPod rather than a podcast. Podrunner are free exercise music mixes by DJ Steve Boyett for runners offering nonstop, fixed-tempo music for training. Last night ‘mix’ was called “Ballistic” and was at 149bpm. It certainly seemed to take my mind off the pain and keep me going.
Although, to be honest, looking back through the past times I’ve ran that course I’ve been getting faster and faset anyway:
- 20th March – 40:47
- 15th April – 39:14
- 26th April – 38:54
- 7th May – 37:30
- 3rd August – 35:34
I’m quite pleased with last nights time, not bad for an old man who doesn’t really run! My calves are pretty sore this morning though and walking around the house isn’t as easy as it usually is!
It was one of those days today where I spend much of it wandering backwards and forwards to the beach waiting for the wind to pick up. It was forecast to swing to the SW and maybe pick up a little later in the day, but then that forecast changed and it didn’t look so good.
By 4pm there still wasn’t any sign of wind – well, not enough for windsurfing anyway – so I decided to jump on the Turbo Trainer and do an hours ‘recovery’ session to burn off some calories and make me feel as though I’d done something.
The turbo trainer session went well but as I got off I realised that the wind had finally picked up. I checked the weather station and sure enough it was now 20-25 knots with the odd 30 knot gust and looking good.
It didn’t take me long to decide that it was time to go windsurfing so I loaded up my wheel-barrow and headed across to the beach. I rigged my 5.6m sail and Naish Hybrid Freewave 86 board and got out there. My ribs were still hurting from my crash a couple of weeks ago so I took it easy, but still managed quite a few nice jumps and some decent wave rides.
After blasting around in the normal spot and playing in the waves for about an hour I decided to finish the session off with a nice blast out to the buoy on the Dovey Bar and back.
It may have been a long wait for the wind today but it was worth it when it came!
