For years, when I first started triathlons, I trained alone or, at most, only very occasionally with others.
As the months and years went by, however, I was joined increasingly more often by friends. There would be the odd swim with my mate Martin, then Simon joined us, then so did Alex, Chris and Bob. Then we started running and cycling together until eventually I trained more with them than I did alone.
We all had our own particular strengths (Simon is a strong swimmer, Bob excels at running) and bounced these strengths off of each other. Along with all that came vast improvements in my speed and, ultimately, my race times plummeted. I found that having someone to judge yourself against was a vital part of a serious training plan.
Judging myself against others with more ability than myself is exactly what I have done in my sessions this week.
First off was the usual club swim on Monday evening. I am probably one of the slower swimmers in my lane and I always start off at the back, but I am happy playing catch-up because it does help me push that bit harder.
Then later in the week there was a semi-fast road bike session, followed by a timed 8K run, with Sarah from my tri club. Now, Sarah is a strong athlete, make no mistake. We were evenly matched on the bike, but where Sarah really excels is on the run. I had planned to do the 8K in 32 minutes but in all honesty I set off too quickly and within minutes Sarah was ahead of me having hardly broken into a sweat. 37 minutes after the start I finally slumped past the 8K mark, thoroughly exhausted and, to be honest, rather disappointed that I was a whole 5 minutes off the target time although I put this down to the 2 hour bike which had preceded the run.
The week ended on a high note at Afan on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Again, I placed myself into the A group for the various bike sessions and whilst I was always playing catch up I did feel that I got a fabulous workout, and my bike strength has benefitted enormously. Ahead of me were usually Rob, Robin and Tony, and behind was often Jim (only because his bike was usually upside down having track-side repairs done to it, otherwise he was towards the front of the group). The nerd in the picture up top, looking like a character from Lord of the Rings, is yours truly after my final ride of the weekend. The bad hair day was from the air vents of my bike helmet - thanks Mitten for taking such a flattering photo!
As a result of all this, and 17 hours of training later, I feel that I have had one of the best training weeks so far this year. Thanks to all my training partners for pushing me along!
Here's precisely what I did:-
Monday – swim - club swim, to include intervals and drills, 50 press-ups and 42 sit-ups
As the months and years went by, however, I was joined increasingly more often by friends. There would be the odd swim with my mate Martin, then Simon joined us, then so did Alex, Chris and Bob. Then we started running and cycling together until eventually I trained more with them than I did alone.
We all had our own particular strengths (Simon is a strong swimmer, Bob excels at running) and bounced these strengths off of each other. Along with all that came vast improvements in my speed and, ultimately, my race times plummeted. I found that having someone to judge yourself against was a vital part of a serious training plan.
Judging myself against others with more ability than myself is exactly what I have done in my sessions this week.
First off was the usual club swim on Monday evening. I am probably one of the slower swimmers in my lane and I always start off at the back, but I am happy playing catch-up because it does help me push that bit harder.
Then later in the week there was a semi-fast road bike session, followed by a timed 8K run, with Sarah from my tri club. Now, Sarah is a strong athlete, make no mistake. We were evenly matched on the bike, but where Sarah really excels is on the run. I had planned to do the 8K in 32 minutes but in all honesty I set off too quickly and within minutes Sarah was ahead of me having hardly broken into a sweat. 37 minutes after the start I finally slumped past the 8K mark, thoroughly exhausted and, to be honest, rather disappointed that I was a whole 5 minutes off the target time although I put this down to the 2 hour bike which had preceded the run.
The week ended on a high note at Afan on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Again, I placed myself into the A group for the various bike sessions and whilst I was always playing catch up I did feel that I got a fabulous workout, and my bike strength has benefitted enormously. Ahead of me were usually Rob, Robin and Tony, and behind was often Jim (only because his bike was usually upside down having track-side repairs done to it, otherwise he was towards the front of the group). The nerd in the picture up top, looking like a character from Lord of the Rings, is yours truly after my final ride of the weekend. The bad hair day was from the air vents of my bike helmet - thanks Mitten for taking such a flattering photo!
As a result of all this, and 17 hours of training later, I feel that I have had one of the best training weeks so far this year. Thanks to all my training partners for pushing me along!
Here's precisely what I did:-
Monday – swim - club swim, to include intervals and drills, 50 press-ups and 42 sit-ups
Tuesday – run/bike/run - fast brick session at Brickhill Woods
Wednesday – bike - gym spin (fixed wheel), run - treadmill - easy 15 minutes at zero gradient
Thursday – bike - semi-fast road bike with Sarah, run - fast 8K in 37 minutes
Friday - bike - MTB at Afan
Saturday – bike - MTB at Afan
Sunday - bike - MTB at Afan
This week's *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK* is Mike Trees' London Marathon blog. As regular readers will know, I am following Mike's sub-40 minute 10K training plan, and his blog provides a very interesting, sometimes amusing, insight into his training for this year's London Marathon. Take a read if you have a few minutes.
This coming week I am planning a hard interval bike session with Dan from the tri club. Dan is a relative newcomer to the sport, but is a natural athlete and a great training partner. Last season we competed in the final Thames Turbo race together but I was DQ’d and Dan didn’t finish due to illness. This year we have planned a few races together, starting with the pool-based Duston triathlon on 19 April. We have a small wager on who wins, which is always a big motivater!
Another friend from the tri club is Stuart. Stuart comes from a biking background and he and I travelled down to Afan together at the weekend. After hours of fantastic mountain biking, Stuart managed to get himself lost up one of the hills and ended up on the other side! 30 extra miles later, a big fall off the bike and a broken chain, and he turned up – still smiling! Top biking Stuart and roll on next time!
As far as this week's Monday evening swim is concerned then that is a big fat no, no. Instead, I am sitting here writing this blog whilst resting my aching limbs from Afan. 11 hours of hard hilly cycling over three days is no mean feat for someone who is training for sprint triathlons, so that’s a big fat pat on the back for me!
Cheers.
C
This week's *WEBSITE OF THE WEEK* is Mike Trees' London Marathon blog. As regular readers will know, I am following Mike's sub-40 minute 10K training plan, and his blog provides a very interesting, sometimes amusing, insight into his training for this year's London Marathon. Take a read if you have a few minutes.
This coming week I am planning a hard interval bike session with Dan from the tri club. Dan is a relative newcomer to the sport, but is a natural athlete and a great training partner. Last season we competed in the final Thames Turbo race together but I was DQ’d and Dan didn’t finish due to illness. This year we have planned a few races together, starting with the pool-based Duston triathlon on 19 April. We have a small wager on who wins, which is always a big motivater!
Another friend from the tri club is Stuart. Stuart comes from a biking background and he and I travelled down to Afan together at the weekend. After hours of fantastic mountain biking, Stuart managed to get himself lost up one of the hills and ended up on the other side! 30 extra miles later, a big fall off the bike and a broken chain, and he turned up – still smiling! Top biking Stuart and roll on next time!
As far as this week's Monday evening swim is concerned then that is a big fat no, no. Instead, I am sitting here writing this blog whilst resting my aching limbs from Afan. 11 hours of hard hilly cycling over three days is no mean feat for someone who is training for sprint triathlons, so that’s a big fat pat on the back for me!
Cheers.
C
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1 comment:
well done mate. good work.
J.
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