Archive for April, 2007
April 28, 2007 at 3:26 pm · Filed under Diet, Event, Running
Cutting to the chase, I have to announce that my pb streak has come to an end.
I’m blaming the muesli.
I’ve just started keeping a food log on my trainingpeaks account which means I have to weigh everything before I put it on my plate. I tipped the recommended 50g of muesli into my bowl and decided the portion sizes must have been determined for kids (skinny ones at that) so I took it up to 75g. Then a stray raisin tipped over the edge taking it 78g so of course I had to continue to round the number off. Let me say, running on 100g of muesli is tough going!
5km in 34:30
Popularity: 15% [?]
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Tags: BPTT
April 25, 2007 at 11:59 pm · Filed under Cycling, Off road
My time at Broadmoor is rapidly running to an end and I need to exploit this fantastic area before it’s out of my life, forever. With this in mind, Jason drove out today and met me at the Look Out for a blast around Swinley Forest on the mountain bikes.
This is part of our route in the dedicated mtb zone. The fact that the area was labelled Expert Zone should have been all the indication I needed to steer well clear! But did I?
Nope, I skidded and screamed and generally bounced my way down tracks completely out of my league. I actually recall Jae tempting me over a particularly unappealing section known as the “drop off” – thank god for disc brakes. On another descent I remember trying to work out what the trade in value for my swanky mountain bike would be in a swanky road bike shop, then I clonked my head into a low hanging tree and reminded myself to “Pay Attention!”.
I’ve started a new training program that I’ll probably talk about later, but todays session was designed to be fairly tough going, a hills routine maximising my heart rate in zones 4 & 5. I think all my zone 5 entries were fear induced all the photos show a terrified grimace on my face.
Check out that heart rate profile, isn’t mountain biking crazy – a true interval sport. In contrast my running charts are so much steadier, showing a gradual increase from near exhaustion to the death zone.
The elevation is obviously a bit more extreme than my usual running route as well but then it isn’t called mountain biking for nothing.
Swinley Forest is a fantastic spot for mountain biking, it has stunt areas, technical downhill, fast berms and plenty of singletrack and can almost be considered local to London (providing you have a car).
Popularity: 24% [?]
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Tags: Broadmoor, Swinley Forest
April 22, 2007 at 7:25 pm · Filed under Event, Running
1. Don’t even think about it!
2. Don’t consider it
3. Wipe it clean from your mind
4. Ok, if you’re going to do it, choose a nice light costume so you don’t feel like you’re running in a sauna.
Seriously, I am knackered and all I was doing was taking photos, my god it was hot. I’m absolutely frazzled, just imagine what it was like to run 26.2 miles. I am definately not going to make any impulsive entries until I can be sure to finish in under 5 hours. If you’re too slow you get swept up with the street cleaners that seem to trundle along way faster than my 5k sprint pace.
I have a selection of photo’s from the fetchies spot at mile 22 on flickr, as usual I took way too many photos so it may take a while for me to upload them all.
Popularity: 9% [?]
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April 21, 2007 at 10:19 pm · Filed under Event, Running
The popularity of the Bushy Park Time Trial is on the rise. With almost 400 runners each Saturday you’d think there’d be at least one or two as slow as me. Not a chance – how did all those new runners get to be so fast?!
Hardly anyone to chase at all this week, I had an early daliance with a run/walker. We passed pleasantries to and fro about 6 times, after that I think she decided to stay behind me and take the conversational pressure off. Despite the limited competition I managed another pb. My 5km time has improved by more than 2 mins in the time I’ve been attending the time trial, which makes me think that the magic 30 minute target may be achieved one day.
Met with Jae straight after the run again for another shattering morning on the mountain bikes. These bike-run-bike brick sessions absoultely exhaust me, I was supposed to be fitting in a swim this afternoon but I really didn’t have the energy to float. Went for a jug of Pimms instead.
I’m handing out jelly beans at the London marathon tomorrow, I’ll be at mile 22 so there will be plenty of opportunity for me to have scoffed them all before the runners arrive exhausted and in desperate need of a sugar rush – please accept my apology in advance. I’m hoping that the experience will put me off the idea of ever entering a marathon, that way I can save myself the relentless, arduous, gruelling experience that is marathon training.
Good luck to all the runners tomorrow, hope its not too much of a scorcher (although that would make my day quite pleasurable).
Popularity: 10% [?]
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Tags: BPTT
April 18, 2007 at 10:29 pm · Filed under Equipment, Gadgets, Running
My super little heart broken garmin has been returned. In fact the nice people at garmin have given me a brand new forerunner 305 as the original clearly had a terminal cardiac issue. Good warranty service, yay for Garmin!
So I’m now having to sneak through Broadmoor security with two heart rate monitors, a strange foot pad thingy and a gps unit. Great fun trying to explain why I need such weird gadgetry every morning. I’m a little embarassed to be seen out on the trails with a running computer on each wrist but its the only way to get a fair comparison between the two.
Fantastic evening again, what a joy to be out running.
I had a slight variation on the route this evening. I was trying for a slow pace (which I achieved admirably as usual) with the intention of keeping the heart rate low. Given the heart bursting quality of the hills in this area though, I struggled with this feature of my training.
The little clover leaf shape in the route was Caesar’s Camp, an ironage hilltop fort in the middle of the forest. How cool is that? I was running along a foot wide track on the edge of the camp with a superb view over the woods. Just a complete joy!
Popularity: 28% [?]
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Tags: Broadmoor, Forerunner, Garmin, GPS, Swinley Forest
April 14, 2007 at 10:35 pm · Filed under Cycling, Event, Off road, Running
Another successful run today and a whole new pb! I don’t know where they are all coming from but it certainly helps when I’ve got someone to chase or even better when I have someone hot on my heels – I run and squeal like a girl when I get chased.
I was battling it out with one of those pesky run/walkers. I think it was her first time at the Bushy Park Time Trial so she was foxed by the deceptive finish straight. She overtook me at the bend going at a fair old pelt but I nodded sagely to myself – not a chance she’d be able to complete without another walking episode. Sure enough, the finishing km took the better of her and she slowed right up, I sauntered past her and with about 500 m to go I felt I could start my final sprint.
If you check out the heart rate curve above you can see the point at which my pace and heart rate soared in the middle of the final lap. You can also see that I maintained it only for about 150 m before realising that even as a seasoned BPTT’er I also had been foiled by the dreaded k. My pace dropped right back down to my usual shuffle and the pesky run/walker grabbed her chance. She passed me easily but seemed to have lost some of her earlier sprint prowess, my killer instinct snapped and I delved deep for a previously unknown speed and took her on the line.
Now for my time, the watch records an amazing time of 34:04 for the 5km route which matches the time called out by the timer on the finish line BUT the darn official time is recorded as 34:21. It’s still a pb but just not quite as good a pb. It looks like the positions were muddled a bit at the back as my time was swiped by the person two positions ahead. Never mind, it just means I should have room for another pb soon.
**UPDATE** the great guys at BPTT have just contacted to let me know of the position error so my official time is being bumped back up to 34:04 Yay!!!
Kieran has posted his heart rate plot for todays BPTT, also recorded on the RS800SD, he’s taken the time to explain all the features displayed on the polar protrainer chart. It’s interesting to see how my back of the pack performance compares to his 20 min performance. One thing we have in common is a max HR which far exceeds our age predicted max and which also exceed that recorded in maximal testing environments – just shows how gruelling this event can be! As expected Kieran runs with a cadence slightly faster than mine and a stride length at least 50% greater than mine. Mmmmm….. now what is one supposed to do with all this amazing info?
Straight after the run I met up with Jason for another blast around Richmond Park on the mountain bikes. I’m sitting at home now absolutely shot to bits. Jae is considerably faster than me at the best of times but he was out on his swanky new bike with waver thin tyres (waver thin by mtb standards) and it nearly killed me trying to keep up with him. It was fun skidding around the dust and trying to avoid trees that kept jumping out in front of me.
There are some pretty monstrous hills in RP and I kind of expect to be overtaken by runners as I bob up them in my granny gear but today there was some superman trail runner on the track and he actually overtook me on the up hills and down hills! He was flippin amazing in a totally irritating fashion.
Here’s a snap of Jae and myself in the park, if you look carefully you can probably see superman passing us again on his second lap. 
Popularity: 26% [?]
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Tags: BPTT, polar, RS800SD
April 13, 2007 at 10:19 pm · Filed under Running
Two weeks of working within a high security setting is starting to take its toll – talk about claustrophobic!
I wasn’t sure if I could face another run this evening but after I made it through the fourth airlock to freedom, I just wanted to break free.
I didn’t want to tie myself to the usual Broadmoor Hospital perimeter run so my intention was to find 4 or 5 km of interest in the surrounding woods. I made a couple of duff choices, trogging up hills that ended in impenetrable hedges, and prime singletrack littered with hurdles
and other hardcore obstacles.
I backtracked a bit and found myself on a wonderfully undulating path that was heading to a place called “Look Out”. This sounded temptingly scenic and I was just loving the roller coaster route so I just sucked up each km.
This was really the most enjoyable run in ages, it was slow and hilly but what a cool place to run. It looks like absolutely prime mountain biking territory as well so I may have to shove the Stumpmeister (thanks for the name Celeste) into the boot of the car next week.
After I reached the top of this track I came across this sign post – check out my options!
I might have started heading towards “Look Out” but it ceased to be the most interesting option when I realised I’d just conquered “Devil’s Highway” and I could choose between “Ladies Mile” and “Pudding Hill”. I opted for the ladies route and did in fact come across two of the species before turning round and hoping I could find my way back to the secure zone.
Total for the evening was a pleasurable 7.7 km in and around Swinley Woods. This week has already broken all my records for running and I still have BPTT tomorrow and a possible jaunt on Sunday.
Popularity: 13% [?]
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Tags: BPTT, Broadmoor, Swinley Forest
April 8, 2007 at 5:21 pm · Filed under Swimming, Triathlon
Sundays now seem to be the day for upside down triathlons. This morning I nipped out for a short run around Chswick and Barnes Bridge to check out the aftermath of the boat race.
Gorgeous morning, the river seemed to be teeming with kayaks for a change.
After a longish transition involving the production of potato and gherkin salad and relaxation in a luxurious bath I headed out with the Stumpjumper only to return to the house a few minutes later to collect the forgotten helmet. I see a disqualification heading my way if I don’t sort out this mental block before Stratford. Bounced around Richmond Park for a bit before arriving at Hampton pool.
I am beginning to think that swimming is never going to be my thing. I haven’t really read any more of the total immersion book so I quickly flicked to chapter 8 (the drills section) while I was in the bath this morning, that just scared me so then I started flicking through in search of breathing tips. I saw a few references to yogic breathing which I know about but have never really tried under water. Book closed – non the wiser.
Started off in the pool “pushing the buoy”, then remembered to breath. Started the next length focusing on breathing. Breathing every third 3rd arm flap seems manageable but while I’m in this routine I seem to forget about pushing the chest down. Revert to pushing chest down then immediately stop breathing again. Bob up to the top gasping for oxygen after about 12 arm flaps. Finaly fall back into the ever so slow, vertical, head shaking, bilateral breathing technique that I started with before I wasted cash on umpteen books and special vacuum sealing goggles.
Got out of pool, devoured delicious potato salad and started smiling again.
Popularity: 37% [?]
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Tags: stumpjumper, Swimming, Triathlon
April 7, 2007 at 1:26 pm · Filed under Event, Running
Don’t know what happened this morning but I slept through the alarm and only made it to Bushy Park by the skin of my teeth. Actually I do know what happened – I was playing around with new gadget, putting myself through my paces by trying out one of the fitness tests. I love these polar fitness tests, you just lay down under the duvet and relax and then it spits out the result at the end – no huffing and puffing and definately no sweating. It’s clearly a pile of pants though as my result came out as “elite”, perhaps because I am an expert relaxer and just fell swiftly to sleep.
Gorgeous spring day today, but not quite as warm as it looked, I went out in shorts and t-shirt and was shivering by the time I got into Richmond Park, perfect attire for the run though.
I had a little bother with the polar gadget at the start of the run. I pressed start and heard about a thousand little beeps all around me but some yards in I noticed that mine must have been the only watch that hadn’t been triggered. I don’t think I have had a successful race with this watch so far, I either mess up with the start or the stop.
I was paced throughout my run by a youngster (Isabella) on her first time out. She was really super speedy but I think she took pity on me and kept me company til the end, or almost as she had a terrific sprint finish. I on the other hand, had nothing left in my legs as I’d been struggling to keep up with her and chat.
My watch recorded a good time but then they have a tendency to do that when you start them half way round the course but the official results have just come in and I managed another PB! Yay! Thanks Bella, hope you’re available for pacing again soon.
So the new 5km time is 34:30 – and we stopped to tie up a shoelace. Now I’m bragging.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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Tags: BPTT, polar, t-shirt
April 6, 2007 at 2:13 pm · Filed under Rambling
Well I’ve resisted announcing it for a few days but I’m afraid the magazine article is now out. One good thing about it is that I reckon I am completely unrecognisable in it. My dad managed to find the relevant page in the magazine and then flicked past it as he didn’t think it was me.
The article is a bit non-descript, it doesn’t exactly say anything. I was under the impression it was aiming to motivate people to get out and exercise but I can’t say that it did anything for me. Mind you I’m just pee’d off because the fitness instructor claimed I had no upper body strength and said I ought to take up rock climbing AND they didn’t put a link to my blog! The only reason I agreed to put myself through this humiliation is because I thought it would be fun to see if that sort exposure would drive any traffic here.
The pictures are quite nice though:
Popularity: 11% [?]
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