Just a quick note to say that on Saturday I managed to do the 5,000m Swimathon challenge at Hampton Open Air Pool.
When I initially signed up, I wanted to go under 1:15 but in the end I managed a 1:15:37 which I am pretty pleased with actually - especially as I had some time off from swimming a couple of weeks ago.
The time pretty much equates to doing more than three Olympic distance swims in about 22:xx which I am pleased with, especially as this was without the use of any wetsuit or any drafting possibilities.
Hopefully this means that the sub 21 minute swim for this season is on anyway.
Monday, March 26, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Lanzarote - Serpentine Training Camp
Well, I suppose it is about time for an update, things have been pretty quiet from a racing perspective though so that is the main reason for the lack of posting.
However, I recently went out to Lanzarote with my running club to stay for a week at LaSanta. For those of you who don't know, LaSanta is like a holiday destination for sporty types...this means that you get all sporting facilities you could ever hope for, but very little in the way of luxury. This all came as a bit of a shock to me when I got to my room...no TV, radio, nothing...and one of us (me) was on the sofa! Still, I was not here to sit beside the pool and get a good tan, albeit, I did get a tan but I think I only managed about 3 hours of actual sunbathing.
We had the whole week mapped out for us in the form of a schedule from which we could pick and choose the things that we wanted to do. I had decided that I was going to try and swim twice a day as I really needed to work on that I also hoped to do a fair amount of running while I was there. For the entire week before I jetted off though, I was not even sure if I was going to be able to train. I had pulled a muscle in my chest whilst swimming and had got some shin splint action from doing a stupid bike/run session that just a tad on the long side and my legs were not used to it. Hence before I left I was trying everything to get the injuries fixed, cue massive sessions in the steam room, but more importantly, and quite strangely, one of the thinds that really helped was having acupuncture with Kylie with Complete Health for the affected areas. After the first swim session there, I knew that I should be okay for the rest of the week as long as I kept it in check and did not push too hard at times on the swimming.
In the end, the whole week flew by in no time at all. It took me a day to get into a routine and I pretty much stuck to it for the whole week. This involved getting up at 6:30, going to the amazing 50m open air pool (a wonderful thing for us brits used to being holed up in anything from 18m to a maximum of 33m). Swim training with the sun shining is an amazing thing and brought back fond memories of swimming as a kid in South Africa.
After the morning swim, it was time to hit the bike for a ride of various distances from about 50k to doing most of the Ironman ride with a friend. The riding out in Lanzarote is pretty harsh, on the first day we were there, the wind was so strong that it was actually hard to control your bike during cross winds. We even met a group at one point who told us that their freind had been blown of the road on his first day there and broken his collar bone. Thankfully, the wind died down over the course of the week though and the rides got a bit easier. Well, I say easier, but no ride in Lanzarote is "easy". The whole place is a volcanic island so if you're looking for hills, Lanza is the place - an easy ride there is a hard ride back in the UK I think.
Once the bike was done, it was time to hit the pool again for another session for an hour or so. In the end I think that this meant that on most days I was doing about 6-7 hours of training and then on some days (Ironman ride day) I did about 9 hours in total. I didn't end up doing much running at all in the end, it just didn't seem like the right place for it...the riding and swimming is so much better than what you get here that it seemed better to spend time doing those.
I am using the 9 hours of training on the Ironman ride day as my excuse for my performance in the mini-tri on the last day of the camp as well. It is perhaps not the best race preperation that smoeone can do but it was nice to actually do some racing after all the time off...even if my legs were not feeling as good as they should.
In this one I am on the far side in the lead...the pool was as long as my lead lasted...out the water first only to be totally put to shame by one of the fastest time triallist in the UK on the bike.
En route the bike for the 8k's of climbing to the turn point.
Me (4th place) with John (Serpie) 2nd place and Andy (red top) 3rd place, Terry and Heath.
..and helping out in the open water swim session.
The open water swim session is quite a funny event actually. Basically, about 60 of us do the ride from LaSanta to the tourist beach which is further up the coast.
I am sure that it all comes as quite a shock to all these happy campers when all of a sudden 60 peolpe rock up in lycra and then proceed to change into rubber in the baking sun...they must think it is some kind of fetish party gone wrong.
In the end, it was a good week and fun was had by all. I was not overly pleased with the training that I had done, I should have had more rest and perfomed some shorter harder things but this was my first time so the main emphasis was just on having a good time. Only got about a month in the office now and then it is off to Portugal for some training there at my Dad's place - will need to get the tan topped up by then anyway..the weather here is rubbish at the moment. Coming back from the sun to cycle to work in arctic conditions is pretty damn hard.
However, I recently went out to Lanzarote with my running club to stay for a week at LaSanta. For those of you who don't know, LaSanta is like a holiday destination for sporty types...this means that you get all sporting facilities you could ever hope for, but very little in the way of luxury. This all came as a bit of a shock to me when I got to my room...no TV, radio, nothing...and one of us (me) was on the sofa! Still, I was not here to sit beside the pool and get a good tan, albeit, I did get a tan but I think I only managed about 3 hours of actual sunbathing.
We had the whole week mapped out for us in the form of a schedule from which we could pick and choose the things that we wanted to do. I had decided that I was going to try and swim twice a day as I really needed to work on that I also hoped to do a fair amount of running while I was there. For the entire week before I jetted off though, I was not even sure if I was going to be able to train. I had pulled a muscle in my chest whilst swimming and had got some shin splint action from doing a stupid bike/run session that just a tad on the long side and my legs were not used to it. Hence before I left I was trying everything to get the injuries fixed, cue massive sessions in the steam room, but more importantly, and quite strangely, one of the thinds that really helped was having acupuncture with Kylie with Complete Health for the affected areas. After the first swim session there, I knew that I should be okay for the rest of the week as long as I kept it in check and did not push too hard at times on the swimming.
In the end, the whole week flew by in no time at all. It took me a day to get into a routine and I pretty much stuck to it for the whole week. This involved getting up at 6:30, going to the amazing 50m open air pool (a wonderful thing for us brits used to being holed up in anything from 18m to a maximum of 33m). Swim training with the sun shining is an amazing thing and brought back fond memories of swimming as a kid in South Africa.
After the morning swim, it was time to hit the bike for a ride of various distances from about 50k to doing most of the Ironman ride with a friend. The riding out in Lanzarote is pretty harsh, on the first day we were there, the wind was so strong that it was actually hard to control your bike during cross winds. We even met a group at one point who told us that their freind had been blown of the road on his first day there and broken his collar bone. Thankfully, the wind died down over the course of the week though and the rides got a bit easier. Well, I say easier, but no ride in Lanzarote is "easy". The whole place is a volcanic island so if you're looking for hills, Lanza is the place - an easy ride there is a hard ride back in the UK I think.
Once the bike was done, it was time to hit the pool again for another session for an hour or so. In the end I think that this meant that on most days I was doing about 6-7 hours of training and then on some days (Ironman ride day) I did about 9 hours in total. I didn't end up doing much running at all in the end, it just didn't seem like the right place for it...the riding and swimming is so much better than what you get here that it seemed better to spend time doing those.
I am using the 9 hours of training on the Ironman ride day as my excuse for my performance in the mini-tri on the last day of the camp as well. It is perhaps not the best race preperation that smoeone can do but it was nice to actually do some racing after all the time off...even if my legs were not feeling as good as they should.
In this one I am on the far side in the lead...the pool was as long as my lead lasted...out the water first only to be totally put to shame by one of the fastest time triallist in the UK on the bike.
En route the bike for the 8k's of climbing to the turn point.
Me (4th place) with John (Serpie) 2nd place and Andy (red top) 3rd place, Terry and Heath.
..and helping out in the open water swim session.
The open water swim session is quite a funny event actually. Basically, about 60 of us do the ride from LaSanta to the tourist beach which is further up the coast.
I am sure that it all comes as quite a shock to all these happy campers when all of a sudden 60 peolpe rock up in lycra and then proceed to change into rubber in the baking sun...they must think it is some kind of fetish party gone wrong.
In the end, it was a good week and fun was had by all. I was not overly pleased with the training that I had done, I should have had more rest and perfomed some shorter harder things but this was my first time so the main emphasis was just on having a good time. Only got about a month in the office now and then it is off to Portugal for some training there at my Dad's place - will need to get the tan topped up by then anyway..the weather here is rubbish at the moment. Coming back from the sun to cycle to work in arctic conditions is pretty damn hard.
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