So, the weekend passed with no 'real' training but we did go out for a walk each day; last week saw the most exercise I think I have ever done in seven consecutive days.
We also decided that, to start the week, we would try our first run. Sites recommend that when you start running you alternate between running and walking each minute. Hubby thought it would be more realistic for us to alternate running and walking between each lampost! However, hubby announced that he would be attending a meeting this evening so I would be going solo in the training.
I donned leggings and a large top, to cover the lumpy bumpy bits, I don't want to offend too many people on my travels, and off I set. The route was our power walking one and as it starts off downhill I managed to run all the way, a walk and then a run uphill, a walk and then as I started on the downhill run I passed the local running club coming up the way.
All in all I did better than I thought I would and managed to run further than I thought I could. Things I do need to try and get under control when I exercise are stopping my nose from running, trying to get my breath back a little quicker and stopping my throat from getting sore.
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
Saturday, 6 September 2014
Did anyone else find that hard work?
Took me a few reads to get my head around the stats and now I wished I hadn't because I'm not sure I can ever be as quick as the slowest!
Since I last posted we have completed two cycle rides - one on the road, 7 miles and a few uphills and one on a cycle path around a loch, 12 miles of undulating but constant cycling terrain. I'm measuring everything in miles in the hope that when it comes nearer the time the kilometres will seem a doddle.
I think spring chicken is paying far too much attention to what ladies wear in a triathlon. He seemed very keen on the New Zealand lady in the Ladies Elite Triathlon that he was watching the other day. After removing her wet suit she seemed only to be wearing the smallest of lycra bikinis in which she completed the cycle and run. If I don't have at least two layers of padding for cycling my 'cycling bum bones' complain painfully.
Since I last posted we have completed two cycle rides - one on the road, 7 miles and a few uphills and one on a cycle path around a loch, 12 miles of undulating but constant cycling terrain. I'm measuring everything in miles in the hope that when it comes nearer the time the kilometres will seem a doddle.
I think spring chicken is paying far too much attention to what ladies wear in a triathlon. He seemed very keen on the New Zealand lady in the Ladies Elite Triathlon that he was watching the other day. After removing her wet suit she seemed only to be wearing the smallest of lycra bikinis in which she completed the cycle and run. If I don't have at least two layers of padding for cycling my 'cycling bum bones' complain painfully.
Friday, 5 September 2014
Craggy Island Video 2014
Thanks to BIV productions who had a quad copter taking the film. Looks great!!
Also, we noticed that we are in the audience!
Stats
Hi, hubby here, I'll post in italics so you can tell us apart.
I've located the finishing times list for the 2014 Craggy Island Triathlon which should give us some idea regarding how fit we need to get. Luckily the timings are split into the various disciplines so we can try to attack each event individually.
So lets start with the basics. The winner crossed the line in 1 hour 27 minutes and last place finished in 3 hours and 1 minute. There were a only six starters who didn't finish, with four of them not completing the swim. These were the ones we watched from the mainland pier and who appeared to us to suffer from cramp in the water. I guess we'll need to work out how to avoid this, as we don't want our first attempt to fall at the very first hurdle.
Breaking the times down a little the swim took between 10 minutes and 25 minutes. As the swim is 550m this means the fastest people were swimming at about 30s per swimming pool length (our local pool is 25m) and the slowest at 70s per length. I guess we want to aim somewhere at the slower end (duhhh), but I realise that although the course is only 550 m the swimmers probably swim a lot more than this - especially the slower ones. I also realise that swimming in a wet suit in the cold sea is not anything like swimming in a nice cosy pool. So I reckon we should aim for 1000m at 45 seconds per length, which gives a nice round half hour. Zhang Lin of China can do 800m in 7 1/2 minutes so surely we can manage 1000 in 30?
The biking is, according to the Durty events website, about 14kms. But it's 14kms of up and down, a lot of up and down in fact. The times for this part range from 31 mins to 1hr 12 mins. That means the fastest bikers averaged around 27km/hr. Really!! No way!!. Right how fast were the slowest going....11.66 km/hr - ok that's a touch more realistic, but still way faster than we currently cycle, and we usually cycle on the flat. Our training will have to include hills.
The run is a on hill course (of course, it's a hilly island but did they have to go to the top of the highest peak?) It is around 8km in length with about 220m of ascent (according to walkjogrun) Now that's not really very much climbing - we already climb an occasional Munro which should be anything up to 1000m of ascent. But in fairness we don't normally swim and bike our way to the bottom of the hill.
The fastest runners completed in 38 mins and the slowest in an hour and half. I guess these slowest guys were the ones we watched trudging up the steepest slopes looking a bit like penguins with chronic stomach cramps.
So in summary, we are going to have to swim further than we have ever swum before but just to make it harder we are going to have to swim in cold sea water with a cumbersome wet suit on. Then we are going to have to mountain bike faster than we have ever biked before, and then we have to run (something neither of us is comfortable with) further than ever before... up a massive flipping hill. Just to come a dispiriting equal last. Wow this sounds like fun :-)
I've located the finishing times list for the 2014 Craggy Island Triathlon which should give us some idea regarding how fit we need to get. Luckily the timings are split into the various disciplines so we can try to attack each event individually.
So lets start with the basics. The winner crossed the line in 1 hour 27 minutes and last place finished in 3 hours and 1 minute. There were a only six starters who didn't finish, with four of them not completing the swim. These were the ones we watched from the mainland pier and who appeared to us to suffer from cramp in the water. I guess we'll need to work out how to avoid this, as we don't want our first attempt to fall at the very first hurdle.
Breaking the times down a little the swim took between 10 minutes and 25 minutes. As the swim is 550m this means the fastest people were swimming at about 30s per swimming pool length (our local pool is 25m) and the slowest at 70s per length. I guess we want to aim somewhere at the slower end (duhhh), but I realise that although the course is only 550 m the swimmers probably swim a lot more than this - especially the slower ones. I also realise that swimming in a wet suit in the cold sea is not anything like swimming in a nice cosy pool. So I reckon we should aim for 1000m at 45 seconds per length, which gives a nice round half hour. Zhang Lin of China can do 800m in 7 1/2 minutes so surely we can manage 1000 in 30?
The biking is, according to the Durty events website, about 14kms. But it's 14kms of up and down, a lot of up and down in fact. The times for this part range from 31 mins to 1hr 12 mins. That means the fastest bikers averaged around 27km/hr. Really!! No way!!. Right how fast were the slowest going....11.66 km/hr - ok that's a touch more realistic, but still way faster than we currently cycle, and we usually cycle on the flat. Our training will have to include hills.
The run is a on hill course (of course, it's a hilly island but did they have to go to the top of the highest peak?) It is around 8km in length with about 220m of ascent (according to walkjogrun) Now that's not really very much climbing - we already climb an occasional Munro which should be anything up to 1000m of ascent. But in fairness we don't normally swim and bike our way to the bottom of the hill.
The fastest runners completed in 38 mins and the slowest in an hour and half. I guess these slowest guys were the ones we watched trudging up the steepest slopes looking a bit like penguins with chronic stomach cramps.
So in summary, we are going to have to swim further than we have ever swum before but just to make it harder we are going to have to swim in cold sea water with a cumbersome wet suit on. Then we are going to have to mountain bike faster than we have ever biked before, and then we have to run (something neither of us is comfortable with) further than ever before... up a massive flipping hill. Just to come a dispiriting equal last. Wow this sounds like fun :-)
Wednesday, 3 September 2014
A new PB!
Well day two of consecutive exercise and whilst it was the same as yesterday imagine how elated I was to have knocked 13 seconds off the time.
We have decided that whilst we still have fairly light evenings we are going to concentrate on walking and cycling. Once the darker nights come then we can maybe try running (I am not a natural runner) and swimming.
Now going to start looking at the fashions for triathletes - I have a funny feeling there may be quite a few websites that can guide me!
We have decided that whilst we still have fairly light evenings we are going to concentrate on walking and cycling. Once the darker nights come then we can maybe try running (I am not a natural runner) and swimming.
Now going to start looking at the fashions for triathletes - I have a funny feeling there may be quite a few websites that can guide me!
Tuesday, 2 September 2014
I must have been really bad in a previous life!
Bit of a shock to the system being woken by the alarm at 0545 this morning. Isn't it amazing how quickly you can get used to laying-in!
Do you ever wonder why you take holidays or is it just me. I do lots of additional hours in the week prior to going on holiday to try and cover all possibilities so my colleagues will hopefully have very little to pick-up on. Then, when you go back, you have hundreds of e-mails which all need a response and as soon as colleagues know you are back they are queuing at your door. There is only so many times you can repeat just how bad the Scottish weather can be.
Anyway, you probably guessed it - today was not a rest day. We walked very quickly, not sure it could quite be called a power walk, but we covered the 1.6 miles in 23 minutes - google said it should take 31 minutes; not bad going.
Do you ever wonder why you take holidays or is it just me. I do lots of additional hours in the week prior to going on holiday to try and cover all possibilities so my colleagues will hopefully have very little to pick-up on. Then, when you go back, you have hundreds of e-mails which all need a response and as soon as colleagues know you are back they are queuing at your door. There is only so many times you can repeat just how bad the Scottish weather can be.
Anyway, you probably guessed it - today was not a rest day. We walked very quickly, not sure it could quite be called a power walk, but we covered the 1.6 miles in 23 minutes - google said it should take 31 minutes; not bad going.
Monday, 1 September 2014
Chariots of Fire downloaded on the i-pod - now what?
Pour a glass of wine! I guess the first thing we need to know is when applications for the event open up, so, I've signed up to the mailing list at Durty and they will send me information and the required notification.
Next, how does one train to be a triathlete? Pull up a chair and surf the web - "how to train for a triathlon". I'm guessing I'm not the first person to ask this question as there are about 2,420,000 results. Fortunately, just a couple of results down gives me the Beginners' Triathlon Training Schedule which proclaims to take me from a beginner to triathlete in just 8 weeks. It appears then that just under a year is going to be plenty of time!
However, I feel that I'm not quite at the beginner stage yet so hubby has suggested that we take the training schedule and re-write it to fit in with our work schedules and so that we get the best value from our sessions in the swimming pool. This is a shame as Week 1, Monday and Tuesday were both rest days - I thought this was an excellent way to start training!
We will be self-training so a spreadsheet has been set-up to show the date, discipline, duration of exercise and route. Hopefully, when the routes are repeated we should see an improvement in the time - this is the theory anyway.
Back to work tomorrow, I wonder if hubby will allow Monday to be a rest day. Watch this space ....
Next, how does one train to be a triathlete? Pull up a chair and surf the web - "how to train for a triathlon". I'm guessing I'm not the first person to ask this question as there are about 2,420,000 results. Fortunately, just a couple of results down gives me the Beginners' Triathlon Training Schedule which proclaims to take me from a beginner to triathlete in just 8 weeks. It appears then that just under a year is going to be plenty of time!
However, I feel that I'm not quite at the beginner stage yet so hubby has suggested that we take the training schedule and re-write it to fit in with our work schedules and so that we get the best value from our sessions in the swimming pool. This is a shame as Week 1, Monday and Tuesday were both rest days - I thought this was an excellent way to start training!
We will be self-training so a spreadsheet has been set-up to show the date, discipline, duration of exercise and route. Hopefully, when the routes are repeated we should see an improvement in the time - this is the theory anyway.
Back to work tomorrow, I wonder if hubby will allow Monday to be a rest day. Watch this space ....
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