Most of my blog posts since about December have been about
how much exercise I haven’t done, with a sub plot that I intend to get out and
do more the coming week, the plot twist being that I don’t do anything…. This
is another similar tale I’m afraid.
It is sometimes surprising how quickly you can lose your
fitness, I find myself in this surprisingly unfit place because I have been
pretty lazy since 2016 started. I’ve run around in my trainers a bit but nothing
exceptional. I have looked at my bike a couple of times, I’ve ordered some
sports gear (my triathlon wetsuit turned up about 20 minutes ago), and I have
booked myself onto a few events. Looking at that list of achievements I can
safely say that so far my exercise has been theoretical.
Saying that, this weekend saw me and my (postposed to 2017)
DW partner heading out to the canal in our K1’s for no reason other than to see
how wobbly her new wobble factor 6 boat really was, I took out my lime green
racing machine (wf 4) so we were at least as likely to fall in as each other.
Without wanting to spoil the plot… The canal is freezing cold. In my defence, I
was fiddling with the camera mount on my boat when I fell in. Fortunately I was
behind my partner so she didn’t film my rather stupid capsize. Here's the video she put together.
Today I am feeling it though. My kayaking muscles have been
out of action for only a couple of months and suddenly a short 6km kayak is
punishing me. I keep telling myself that it’s still early in the season and I
don’t need to really push myself yet but I think I am going to have to do
something now. On that note, I’m off for a run.
Bit of a nothing blog this week as I haven’t really been up
to much. Since the half marathon last weekend, I have managed one 5k parkrun.
That’s it. I have no real reasons for this lack of getting out there and throwing
my body onto a road other than I just can’t be arsed. This is not an attitude I
am particularly proud of, and I know it isn’t the most motivating thing you
will read all day, but there it is. I can’t be arsed.
What else?... My Tri suit turned up yesterday. It’s an Orca
Core something or other. I only chose it because I think that the white trim on
the sides makes it look a bit like a killer whale (I wonder if that’s the
looked Orca were going for when they designed it?...) Or at least it did in the
pictures, modelled as they are by a clearly very fit invisible man. On me I achieved
the rather disappointing rotund penguin look.
Oh. I know what else I haven’t written on here yet. This
year’s events. My diary is now full, I will be booking no more for 2016 so
please feast your eyes on this list.
13 March. Which is… err.. Agh. 3 weekends away. Larmer Tree
20 miler. I love taking part in the White Star Running events, and I ran the
half last year. This medal looks awesome (as they always do with White star).
10th April I have a Cross Sportive, it’s about
40k and will be my wife’s first Sportive which is why we went for a distance we
would both enjoy.
8th May I have a Wings for Life world run which
looks brilliant. You run as far as you can ahead of a chase car which sets off
a bit after the runners, my description doesn’t really explain what it’s all
about but I feel am already writing too much.
22nd May. The rotund penguin has its first outing
as I will take on my first Triathlon at the Eton Sprint tri. Currently I am not
looking forward to this and I don’t know why I signed up for it in the first
place.
25th June. Giant’s head Marathon. Another visit
to a White Star event this time the medal has a spinning willy. Make of that
what you will.
31st July I have the Ride London 100. I had
forgotten I had entered onto the ballot and was lucky enough to get a place
this year.
4th September I have the Shrewsbury Quadrathlon. This
is the event I intend to build my year of training toward and I am looking
forward to it at the moment.
1st October I have my biggest single distance in
a day at the Gower Ultra marathon which tips in at just under 80 kilometres. I
am peculiarly not daunted by this. I’m sure I will change my tune closer to the
date.
So there it is, the reason I am going to have to
change my “can’t be arsed” attitude and get my running clobber on again is approximately
500 kilometres of events and I want to look like a killer whale.
First race in my 2016 medal season took place this weekend
with the inaugural (I think. There is some debate here in the office) Worthing Half Marathon. I have done several events in the
winter and in my experience they are always cold, often wet, and sometimes
cancelled due to ice and snow. Every year I vow that I will only run in the sun
and every year I ignore my own rules and do winter events anyway. Up until Sunday
morning this one threatened to be another cold and unpleasant few hours outside but
instead we woke to a crisp (the good sort of crisp, as in cold if you're standing around but great if you're running) and sunny day.
There was a great turn out, the event was brilliantly organised,
and was billed as a fast, flat, closed road half marathon. I had an idea that I might get my PB which has stood unbeaten for nearly 7 years, despite the fact
that I have done next to no running since December.
I needed to find the 1 hour 50 pacers, but joining the start
line late I ended up back behind the guys with the 2 hour 20 flags. Not a
problem. I was feeling racy and this was billed as a fast course so I could
catch them up. After the first kilometre which was the usual crowded affair I was
able to settle into my cruising pace of about 5min kms (which is also my 5km
parkrun pace… that got me wondering if I had set off too quickly). I slipped
past each of the pacing groups ahead of me until by about the 8 mile mark I had the 1hour 50 pacers in sight. I continued to cruise at my 5min pace
and slowly reeled in my PB targets ahead. I started to think I must take parkrun a
bit slowly if I could keep that pace up all day but with 2kms to go it all
started to go wrong. I bonked. Suddenly my legs felt empty, the pain from a few
sores and blisters suddenly materialised and I felt hot and faint. I walked briefly
but the bobbing flags of the 1hour 50 pacers, my Personal Best, was getting
away from me. I got myself running again but it was a head down and grind it
out sort of shuffle rather than a skipping along with a grin on my face sort of
run. I crossed the line quite a long way behind the men with the flags but I
didn’t care and had to take on some energy and electrolytes because I was
feeling pretty sick.
 |
| Worthing half medal |
I did get my PB by over two minutes though. 01:51:05 chip
time. And do feel really pleased with the result. I hadn’t taken into account that I had started a couple of minutes behind
the pacers I had spent the whole race trying to catch up so my chip time was a few minutes quicker than the gun time.
It was a great event, every bit as fast and flat as the
organisers had promised and I might have to go back next year to go for an even
faster time. Next time I will make sure to protect some areas which chaffed, use
my hydration pack, and take on an energy gel or two to stave off the dreaded
bonk.
The medal is pretty great too.
I find winter training really hard. Miserable weather and a
warm house tend to stymie any chance of me putting on my trainers (and/or other
specialist clothing for my sport of choice). Even this surprisingly mild winter
we’ve had has been enough to keep me indoors. If it wasn’t for Parkrun I don’t
think I would have done any exercise in 2016. I have run a rather paltry 30kms
so far this year, an average of 6kms a week. In five days’ time I will be doing
my first half marathon of the year and I think I will classify my prepared
state as ‘under’. This isn’t the first time I have tapered all the way up to an
event, and I have got away with being underprepared most of the time by being relatively
fit, and relatively young. But I’m not as young as I think I am and last year I
had a terrible time with an injury to my right MCL so I had intended to be a
good athlete from now on, with a training schedule and everything, alas it wasn’t
to be and here I am completing just the tapering part of the plan again.
In other news I’m off to the London Triathlon show on Saturday
to learn more about multidiscipline events, possibly get some kit, and I’m hoping I might find a quadrathlon
stand or two as well.
This blog was set up to follow my progress to get ready for
the 2016 DW race. That idea has stalled entirely because I didn’t feel ready. Boat
issues toward the end of last year meant I didn’t start training in a boat that
I felt would be suitable until the weather had distinctly cooled, and while the
boat I now own is excellent, it does still throw me into the drink every now
and then and I would much rather be doing that when the water has warmed up
slightly. The DW is very much firmly on, but the new goal is a 2017 challenge.
This blog isn’t going anywhere though. A while ago I was
taken with the idea of a quadrathlon and I have signed up for one in September
and I have currently 6 other events booked into my diary, the next being a half
marathon in two weeks’ time.
So I am rebranding. Same boring weekly waffles, but this
time I will be chuntering on about running, cycling, swimming as well as
kayaking (or lack thereof).
