Previously on Lost

While watching the first part of series 4 of Lost there was a moment that reminded me of my first run. Will not give any plot away.

During the episode Hugo ran away, it reminded me of my first run along a road in France. When somebody said the gates were open to a house that two Doberman dogs were running down from. With that I was off down the road.

I was not as big as Hugo but heading in that direction and did not have hair that long.

Cross Country Run in the Wet

Last night I did a run at the running club in the light rain. However one of the footpaths about a mile in to the run was a stream all the way down the 200m section.

It was a few centimetres deep and muddy. About a third of the way I was trying to dodge the water and mud but this was impossible so I just went through the middle of it all. At least it cleared the mud of these shoes from the 20 mile cross country the other week, however they are still wet.

Then a few miles later there was a couple of cattle grids to go over or around. I decided to do it krypton factor style and cross over them in the wet.

Weekly Weigh-in

This week I have lost nearly 2lb (0.8 Kg) and down 0.5% body fat. This is due to increasing my training and not increasing my food intake.

Weekly Update

This week I only did 1 hour of training this week and this was all running.

In addition I did do 8/9 miles of walking which I have not included. The last few days of the week this was due to my car being in the garage.

I was also planning to do a 100 mile cycle ride but the weather conditions were too wet and cold for me.

Then today I was going to the sports centre for a swim and gym session. However when I got to the sports centre there was a queue outside and there was an alarm was going off, don't think it was the fire alarm as the fire station is just 200m away. I got the hint that I was not meant to do a training today.

Training for Sea Swim

This week I swam in a pool that had a wave machine and a slopped exit from the pool. This is so I can practice "sea" swim without having to go in either cold murky North Sea or in the English Channel. This was also using my programming knowledge of only changing one parameter at a time when testing.

Although due to the time of the swim I got one rep of the wave machine it was useful to for when to timing to breath in the wave motion and getting in and out of the water. The waves were hopefully a lot bigger than they will be in the Mediterranean sea.

Weekly Weigh-in

Over the last two weeks I have gained 2lb (0.9 Kg) with my % body fat increasing by 0.5%.

Although this is in the wrong direction I was expecting it to be worse than this due to the increase in food in ate and reduction in training time.

Tour de Suffolk

On Sunday I did a Tour de Suffolk. I cycled from Beccles to Ipswich following the National Cycle Network Route 1 (NCN1) as it meandered round the Suffolk countryside. I had not been to any of the places en route before. The closest I had got would have been on the train between Lowestoft and Ipswich.

On the cycle route there were even two vineyards, a castle and quite a few farms and animals (including farm parks). I did not have time to stop at any of these.

The weather was cloudy and cool with a slight breeze and about 14c, although it felt colder than that due to the wind while cycling. I was navigating myself using the signs en route and occasionally also had to use the map of the route that I had bought the previous week, I did not need to use my GPS phone to find out where I was but I had that as a backup.

What surprised me was the amount of hills/undulations there was. I was expecting it to be virtually all flat and the route profile looked like it was. However it was not with a total of over 8,000 ft for combined ascents and descents on the whole route according to my Garmin GPS watch.

When I got to the edge of Ipswich I had done 45 miles. I decided against cycling into the town due to time constraints and started to cycle back. I thought I would take a slightly different route on the way back navigating myself in between the main places I had to go to get back to my car which I had drove to Beccles. As there is no safe option avoiding main A roads and high bridges to there from Lowestoft.

Although I turned out to be only a few miles shorter and even hillier than expected. This was just to the west of the NCN1 route and still avoid main roads apart from a few 100m sections to cross a main road. Plus on the way back it was on to a head wind of about 10mph virtually all the way back.

The one thing I noticed that only one village had a shop (actually two shops) on the main road, although I did avoid the 2 other main towns on the route. So on the way back I was planning to stop at one of these local shops. However as I was cycling back I was working out I might get there just after 4pm which I thought that they may close then or even before this, so I stopped at a petrol station and got a can of drink, sports drink and chocolate covered flap jack. With the extra sports drink I had enough drink for the whole ride, although I did not drink as much as normal but felt ok. I did have 5 individual flapjacks while cycling at about every hour and one isotonic gel and I had one gel and flapjack left at the end.

I was glad I was wearing my full length skins for cycling, which as they are thin did keep the wind chill out but not too warm and my leg muscles felt ok. I could have done with another full length layer underneath as my arms were occasionally cold this was not helped by having on fingerless gloves. My core body was warm as I had two running tops (vest and t shirt) underneath my long sleeve cycling top.

I enjoyed this route and seen places of the Suffolk countryside I have not been too before which were quite scenic. I did a total of 86.5 miles in 6 hours 28 minutes. This was slower than normal but I needed a long ride and this had a few undulations and I had stopped a few times to eat something or look at the map for directions.

Weekly Update

This week I did over 7 hours of training. This was lower than expected due to recovering from falling of my bike the previous weekend and then going back home for a funeral. Although this weekend I did get two training sessions with a long cycle ride being almost all of this time. Below is a breakdown of the training amounts.

90% Cycling
10% Running

No Weekly Weigh-in

I forgot to do my weekly weigh in last week due to travelling back home. It would likely have been an increase due to food intake not changing while my exercise decreased.

Fell Off Bike

Today while out on a 30 mile cycle ride with just 5 miles from home I dodged one pot hole and ended up going into another one on the edge of the road. Then I fell off the road down a ditch full of nettles and brambles!!!

A cyclist coming the other way helped me up. Apart from the nettles tingles although it did shake me up a bit. After making sure the bike was roadworthy and I was ok I took the 5 miles home easy. Only of one the tri bar arm rests is out of position. After cleaning up went to the nearest pharmacy to get some cream for the nettles stings.


That's the first time I have fell of my racing bike and hopefully the last.

Weekly Update

This week I did 9 hours of training, with the following brake down. There was no swimming this week as I was recovering from the Long Run and another race plus a lot more cycling.

90% Cycling
10% Running

Hilly Cycle Ride

This afternoon I did a hilly 46 mile (76 km) cycle ride 3 1/4 hours, it was 26c but felt nice and cool in countryside lanes.

I however did not know the entire route so was more than a bit surprised by more than the planned hills. The last 15 miles on the way back I did not know the countryside that well so I decided to take the main A road back which had yet a few more hills. This should not be a problem from now on as my new phone which has GPS with maps, got delivered this morning.

I had enough drink but not enough food for the day had a to stop at a kebab van for just a can of regular coke. I made it back from then on, although I got red traffic lights all the way through the town.

Weekly Weigh-in

This week I have lost 2lb (0.9 Kg) with % body fat remaining the same.

I was surprised about this due to the amount of food I ate this week but did do a long run and started to cycle more.

Basingstoke Run4Fun 5km

This evening I took part in the Run4Fun 5km in Basingstoke.

It is a charity fun run 5km (2.91 miles on my GPS) around a sports complex mostly on grass apart from about 400m on the athletics track.

Strangely when I got out my car and there were two people walking towards me with Ipswich tops on (black away kit, 3rd choice) and I am over 200 miles away from Ipswich.

I did a bit over 1 mile warm up and down before the event, plus did my own stretches while they were going through a 10 minute+ warmup session.

I went off a pace I felt comfortable with while others sprinted off most stopped within 200m.

The first mile was 8:03 and the second was 8:05, the last mile pace would have been 6:55. I was picking up the pace within the last half mile and when I got on the track for the last 300m I picked it up even further. On my GPS I peaked at 16.4 mph (26.4 kmph) while running!!!

I finished it in 22:28 which I was pleased with after doing no speedwork over the last few months and a few days ago doing 22m XC.

It is one of the better goody bags around, as it sponsored by a local hair care company. So you got Tresemme shampoo, conditioner and sprey gel, a hat in a bag (water proof hat the expands from about the size of bottom of a mug but less then 1 cm high until it springs open), plus a bottle of water and a medal.

Oxon 20

This event was a LDWA (Long Distance Walking Association) event which had two options of either 20 or 40 mile routes, I decided to do the 20 mile option. This was an off road event which you were required to follow navigation instructions to 4 checkpoints that were around the course. I joined a couple of runners who were also doing the 20 mile option. As a backup I had the route map on my GPS device, although this was the 40 mile route which was the same apart from an extra loop that the longer event did.

At each of the checkpoint you got your event card stamped and there was also food and drink which included homemade cakes.

There was quite of lot muddy sections including uphill sections. Also there was a few million of bluebells in bloom. We passed a number of walkers who had started a few hours earlier than the runners. It was harder than a normal running race as you had to also go over sty’s and varies gates so your pace changed quite often which was harder on your leg muscles.

The last few miles you ran along the River Thames and went past where the Henley regatta will be taking place. The marquees were being setup and there already was a number boats moored there for it.

At the end there was more food and drink available, although by this point the sun had got out and it was fairly warm 25c so I was more interested in getting some drinks.

On my GPS I made it just over 22 miles XC which I was pleased in getting this long run in 4 hours 27 minutes.

Weekly Update

The last week I did 8 hours of training, below is a brakedown of this. This included a long run which will be my longest until the Ironman.

80% running
10% swimming
10% gym

There was no cycling due to the weather conditions and then at the bank holiday weekend my legs had not recovered from the long run on Saturday.

Although this week I have already been out on a bike ride after work and saw one of my tri club going the other way, just had enough time to say hi as we were going 20mph (30 kmph) in opposite directions.

Weekly Weigh-in

This week I have gained 3 Lb (1.4 Kg) with my % body fat remaining the same.

This is despite running a half marathon at the weekend, however I have done not much training since then. At the same time my food intake remained high including some higher fat content takeaway.

Must try harder.