Birthday Boy

March 29th 1975, what a special day. March 29th 2009, still a special day, it was party time this year. Ellie instigated my special day a couple of weeks ago. She spent the last couple of weeks wrapping up her teddies and putting them in my Birthday bag. So in addition to some nice 'real' presents from Sarah and the girls, I had a couple of bags of cuddly toys to open, "she's so sweet". We played 'Pass the Parcel' , I won, and 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey', (rather exuberant spinning from Sarah meant I didn't win) I started the day with a 2 hour cycle on my race bike. It was my first outing on the road since the switch of front end and change to Sram. Rode like a dream, I am looking forward to riding it in anger next Sunday at the Circuit of the Dales. I spent the afternoon in the garden, playing and in Alan Titchmarsh style preparing my vegetable patch. All in all, a superb Birthday.

As I started March I had had just a couple of weeks of training after a significant break because my ear infection and subsequent problems, so I was determined to train consistently and push things on a bit. Have I achieved what I set out to do? YES, I think I can honestly say that I have trained really well in March. Having looked at the training data I am really pleased with the outcome.

Cycling: 860 miles, 47 hours, 25 riding days.

Running: 56 miles, 9 hours, 12 run days.

Weights/ Conditioning: 7 hours, 11 strength days.

Total: 63 hours.

This is my second largest month ever (Largest 66 hours, 950 miles on the bike last May during the '1000 mile month' challenge myself and Tom completed)

What is pleasing is the weekly consistency;

Week 1: 15 hours (200 miles bike)

Week 2: 12 hours (155 miles bike)

Week 3: 16 hours (240 miles bike)

Week 4: 15 1/2 hours (205 miles bike)

I have deliberately done a lot of cycling, two reasons. Firstly my Run performance at Lanzarote will be a determined by how I feel when I dismount the bike, I still aim to ride hard and feel good so am putting a great deal of emphasis on riding the bike. Secondly I cycle to work, its a 30 minute journey each way and allows me to build a good weekly milage without too much thought. Throughout March on numerous occasions I also set off earlier making the journey 1 hour. Cycling to work does allow me to build a solid week every week, but it also means if I want to run or lift weights I will do 3 training sessions per day, this is quite wearing (no wonder I crash out not long after 9pm most nights)

How am I feeling? To be honest I am tired. My legs are pretty heavy and I am battling to get rid of another head cold. However this is to be expected and it's nothing an easier week won't take care of. My training during March has probably bypassed some of the traditional training principles, but there are times during Ironman training when volume and pushing on is necessary, March was one such time. I now have 8 weeks before race day. During this time I will aim to maximise the quality, Ironman specific sessions, maximise my recovery time between sessions and minimise the miles that wont really add much training effect.

I have a huge congratulations to give to my brother Max. He has trained really well since setting his target of a couple of 1/2 marathons, and Windermere Marathon, and getting back into some bike shape. Yesterday he ran 1:25:52 at the Liverpool 1/2 Marathon, a new PB for him and a huge confidence boost as he builds towards Windermere on 17th May, well done Bro, keep it going.

This time next week I will have much more of an idea of where my cycling form lies. The Circuit of the Dales is a testing 50 mile TT, I am slightly apprehensive about it, but really looking forward to the race. Have a good week folks.

p.s. In a moment of boredom the other evening I worked out the following. Between now and 1st September when the next school year starts I have 55 working days and 77 holiday days, now that sounds spot on to me..........