Cycled to work

20 miles, largely downhill and flat. I'm more confident about being able to do 90 miles now - cycling on the flat is easy. It was so wet, even my clothes in my bag got wet (much to the amusement of my colleagues).

Swimming - need direction

No, not "direction" as in I keep bumping into people. "Direction" as in I'd like to improve but am not really sure how. I did another 45 lengths (-ish I can never keep count) today and it's definitely getting easier, but I think my technique is getting sloppier and I worry I'm reinforcing bad habits. After about 40 lengths, I checked my strokes per length and it was 23!. That's bad from my usual 19.

I also realise how dull the swimming aspect of my blog must be without me knowing what I should be doing. I'll make an effort to attend another total immersion class. That way at least I'll be able to tell the world what I'm doing wrong.

Hello bike training

Today was my first day of serious bike training. I've got a month until my 90-mile ride and I'm pretty worried about not being able to do it. It's not the speed that worries me, it's the endurance. Traditionally I'm rubbish at endurance events as I don't really train for them.

So, today I did the first of what I consider long rides - 30 miles. I know you serious bikey types will say "30 miles, you lightweight, that's an evening ride. You should be doing 60 miles and taking it steady." But this comes back to why I don't train for endurance events. I haven't really got the time. I can't justify prioritising most of a day to train slowly when I could be enjoying the day with my family.

Politics aside, here's how it went.
Distance: 30.45 miles
Ascent/descent: 4,400 feet (~1400 metres)
Time: 2 hours 15 minutes
Average speed: 13.5 mph
Average heart rate: 123

And the key question: could I do another two of those after this one? Answer: absolutely not, I was broken by the end. Solution: more training.

The one consolation is that the tour ride I'm training for will be nowhere near as hilly (only 2000 metres in the 90 miles), and it's the hills that kill me. Especially with my bike that has 42 teeth on the small cog at the front. For those non-bikey types, that means it's hard to pedal up hills because my lowest gear is still pretty high.

So, today's ride is a start. I hope to look back at this and be able to see how far I've come.

Sutton sheepdog trials

This is a tough race. Because it hasn't got too much height gain per mile, I keep making the mistake of thinking it will be easier than it is. In actual fact, it's pretty steep and there are lots of ups and downs, but it all starts after about a mile of flat at the start (and the end).

I normally aim to be top 10% of the field, but I wasn't too confident about today's race when I saw the calibre of some of the runners who turned up. It was hot and humid, which made it hard to run and ideal for twisting ankles down some of the rutted fields. We were comparing blisters at the end.

I managed to sneak up to 12th place with about 2 miles to go. But then inexplicably took the wrong track and then had to back-track out of a gorse thicket. While I was playing about, someone passed me and then extended his lead despite my indignation and attempts to catch up. I was then made to work very hard to stay ahead of the guy behind me on the flat mile to the finish, and just managed to stay ahead to finish 13th. I later found out there were 129 starters. Damn that person who pulled out at the last minute (but wasn't going to beat me). ;)

We stayed to witness some of the excellent sheepdog trials, drink beer (only one) and eat cake.

Gentle recovery run

I'm not sure if you're supposed to do recovery runs after a rest day, but it always seems to help after a race even if it is two days later. Anyway, it's Tegg's Nose Fell Race tomorrow, so I couldn't do a big session. Again, about 2 miles in about 25 minutes.

For those of you who were starting to think that my blog was all training and were disappointed about the lack of "random other stuff". Here's some bee news. After being told that honey bees (and wild bees) are on the decline in the UK, we had a swarm on a bush outside my work in Knutsford. The swarm was about the size of my thigh. They seemed quite happy and I couldn't think of any nearby hives, so we left them to it.

Swimming - starting to enjoy it

I went swimming yesterday and I'm reaching the stage where I can keep doing front crawl without having to stop as long as I go slowly enough. This almost makes it enjoyable. Previously it's always been a chore - a means to an end to improve my triathlon and aquathlon times.

Running is like this, after coming back from an injury the first few runs are no fun and I wonder why I ever used to enjoy it. Then after about three runs I start to enjoy it again. I'm hoping my swimming is going that way too. Perhaps I should be less focused on times and just build up a broad base of swimming stamina (and hopefully a robust technique) before working on my times. I'll try that for a few weeks and see what happens.

Cracken Edge - 6.3 miles, 1300 feet of ascent

As I said in yesterday's post, I was keen to beat previous yeas' times for this race. Conditions were quite muggy and the ground was very wet, so I wasn't hugely confident.

I got a fast start and was feeling good on the long climb. The middle section was all about hanging in there. After losing a few places (as always) on the descent, I managed to put in a strong finish in a time of... [drum roll] 49:09. So it's a new PB, which I'm very pleased with, and will increase the pressure on me in next year's race.

Results will probably appear on this site in the next few days: http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/~temples/hc/#races