Fitting in 3 sports

Thanks for reading last time if you have returned, if you are here for the first time welcome, feel free to comment, I want to hear your ideas.

I’ve got loads of ideas for blog posts and only so many hours in the day at the minute but I thought I’d talk today about my schedule for the up and coming Tri sprint.

Up until signing up for this Tri my schedule comprised of 3 runs a week, generally a Long distance run on a Sunday which was 10+ miles done at an average of 10 minute miles pace (still nowhere close to negative splits) , one short interval session, 4.5 miles 10 minutes warm up followed by 2 minutes of 90% effort followed by 3 minutes of recovery repeated 3 more times and then a cool down until I reach home and a medium distance 6-10 miles of a medium pace. I was also working my way through SL 5x5 lifting programme (I’ll let you google that if you are interested rather than me spelling it out.

However I know need to include cycling and swimming in that programme as well as continue to prepare for the arrival of my first child and get through the slog at work.

Last week I went for early rides each morning more than anything to acclimatise my bum to the hard saddle, Jesus it was agony that first day but now with some padded shorts and toughening up a bit it’s  getting better each day. The first day I managed 20 minutes and since then I’ve covered about 40 miles over 4 rides which I am pleased with. The gears are still a mystery to me; I am using trial and error nothing more and hoping that I eventually hit a gear that is a good combination for me.

I had already decided to change my run schedule last week, I’d been suffering with a little bit of a sore knee after ramping up the mileage in pursuit of a good 10k time and I was a little worried about it. I had an appointment to see the physio (who is also a triathlete) and she said there was nothing to worry about so I ran to the swimming baths (more on swimming in a second) on Thursday, its only two miles and I had my bag on my back, not really a suitable bag for running with. I’d got a run tracker on but no head phones so as I was running I didn’t know my progress, I felt like it was terrible. I couldn’t get my legs in a fluid run and the bag was bouncing around everywhere, I was shocked when I arrived at the pool and my time was 17 minutes for 2 miles, which is loads faster than my normal minute per mile time. On Sunday my legs felt really good and I was a bit disappointed that I hadn’t been braver and risked applying for the half marathon that was going on this weekend so I set out to run 13.1 miles of a half marathon. Disaster struck when 10 minutes in my phone died suddenly losing my music and run tracker, not to be stopped I soldiered on and eventually my phone came back to life but I didn’t bother to sort the run keeper out. I finished in 132 minutes and according to the mapping website I found last night I completed 13.2 miles so I was delighted with that.

So that takes us on to swimming, when I first applied for the Tri last week it was the cycling I was worried about, I didn’t know whether in 2 months I would be able to cover the course especially after the sore bum I had received in my first ride, now however it’s the swim that is scaring me the most. I can finish 400 m no problem, will it be fast enough though and can I find the time to get the training in that I really need. I’ve done a fair bit of triathlete reading and nearly everyone hates the swim the most. I think that must be because of the difficulty in training for it. You can’t just put on your running shoes or grab your bike and get out there you have to look at the timetable and plan it in and that’s where my difficulty is coming at the moment. I attended my local pool for a session last Thursday it was in a word chaos. Half the pool was taken up by kids pratting about, 37.5% was swimming lessons leaving 1 solitary lane for anyone who actually wanted to swim. I managed to do about 500m before I got angry with it all and got out. My time for 400m was about 11 minutes but that was will getting stuck behind people, having to wait for the ridiculously fast bloke behind me to overtake me and tying to sort out my cheap goggles. I know I can do better but by how much im not sure.

The problem is that there are more suitable session’s available at my two local pools but they are both on the nights that I lift weights. Something has to give and unfortunately it’s got to be the gym. I do feel like my running has improved since doing SL 5x5 but I also know that I’m currently going through what the internet describe as ‘noob gains’. I’m never going to track my macros and bulk so there will be a point that the gym does very little for me (according to my research anyway). What I am going to do is start some bodyweight fitness on the same day as my running to keep improving my strength in my legs and my core. I do however still have a week left at the gym and I begrudge wasting the money so I’ll go until the month runs out.

So this week’s plan looks like this

Monday

Am – cycling 1 hour, Pm – Gym Sl 5x5

Tuesday

Am – cycling 1 hour, Pm – run (may attend the local running club for the first time, haven’t yet decided)

Wednesday

Am – Cycling 1 hour, Pm – gym SL 5x5

Thursday

Am – cycling 1 hour, Pm – run to swimming, swim 1000 m

Friday

Am – cycling 1 hour, Pm – SL 5x5

Saturday

Cycling long ride 1.20 minutes

Sunday

Long run – 14 miles

I know there’s no rest days in there so I’m hoping that because I’ve got a mixture of activities in there I can live without the rest days for now. Next week things will change a bit. I’m getting my own bike rather than using my cousins husbands very expensive bike so I’m going to start to put some bricks in there which will give me at least one rest day.

An introduction

Thought I'd start a blog in conjunction with my training diary. Maybe no one will read it, maybe one person will and they'll see that average bloke is doing it why can't I? More than anything it’s a place to write down my ideas and thoughts and if I get some feedback all the better.

So who am I?

I'm an almost 30 year old (August) who within a couple of days of my birthday is going to become a dad for the first time. I’ve been overweight since I was about 12. At primary school I was very skinny, I was enthusiastic about sport even if I did lack natural talent and coordination but as I moved to secondary school the weight piled on. If I think about it it’s for a number of reasons. Firstly the school canteen wasn’t just your meal and a pudding but you could have something before school, at break and at dinner and more than likely calling at the shop on the way home as well. I had no concept of portion control and although I knew what I was eating wasn’t healthy I kept doing it. I also went to a school out of my catchment area so my friends didn’t live close enough to call for so I wasn’t going out in the evenings most nights and I was driven to school whereas before I had always walked. Finally I had a pretty bad accident in late Junior School almost losing my right leg at the knee and when I was fully recovered the teams and classes I attended after school had all filled up or replaced me with someone better so I was fast becoming a couch potato. These are all excuses I know and not good ones, in essence I was lazy with poor self-control.

Throughout school I gained weight. I had spurts of activity, most of the time they were unsustainable swimming every day or going to the gym and not actually achieving anything because I wasn’t following a programme. At uni I lived with a swimmer and used to sneak in his sessions and do some laps but I was still lazy, I enjoyed the swimming but it was a 10 minute walk to the swimming baths and most nights I didn’t go, I have also always been very embarrassed about my moobs.

And it was on that road that I ended up staying, on January the second I had to attend a speed awareness course (only speed I got anywhere), I was late getting up and left the house without a drink or any breakfast, I attended my course and then called in Tesco to get something to eat. I passed the weight machine and was curious, 50p later I saw a number that shocked me 16 st. I thought I was 15, maybe a little more after an indulgent Christmas and New Year but that would soon come off wouldn’t it? I was worried, a few days before I’d found out I was going to be a dad, if at 29 I weighed 16 stone how much would I weigh when my child needed to learn to ride a bike, wanted to start playing football, wanted me to still do things with him/her? I had visions of myself taking a chair to football because standing for 60 minutes was too much for me. Things had to change.

I’d toyed with the idea of starting Couch to 5 K (C25K) before, friends who had no running experience said it was brilliant. I’ve also got a degree in biochemistry, I knew that losing weight was just a case of thermodynamics, put less in than you are using and the energy will have to come from storage. I didn’t count calories I just made more sensible decisions, portion sizes were cut down, biscuits, cake and chocolates were scrapped at work and I lost 6 lbs. But I still hadn’t braved C25K.

The next Monday I took the plunge, I waited until dark, wrapped myself up warmly and attempted the first week of C25k, 5 minutes walking, 1 minute run with 2 minutes rest 8 times and 5 more minutes’ walk. I thought I was going to die with those 1 minute walks. How could I be that unfit? I stuck with it however; I kept losing weight which helped with the running I kept running further which made the weight loss quicker. I was losing a stone a month on average, getting lots of compliments and feeling great. Suddenly I liked buying clothes, I was enjoying exercise more and more and I joined a gym and started lifting. One thing I couldn’t enjoy was cardio in the gym what strange person would do this Id much rather brave the British weather getting soaking than that mind-numbing boredom.

I set myself a target of a 10k run at the end of May but I surpassed that target in training long before. As of now my longest training run has been 12 miles in 120 minutes. In the 10k my time was 56 minutes, I realise I’m not going to break any speed records but from where I was in January I was delighted. On race day my weight was 11 stone 11 lbs. I've gone from 224 to 164 lbs. in 5 months. What was my next challenge going to be and had the idea of a triathlon. Spur of a moment I signed up for one and this blog is going to be about training for that and then future targets of half and full marathon and an Olympic triathlon next year.