Andy's Training Diary

Current programme: Winter base: build up swim distance to 2k, runs to 10k, do one long ride a week and introduce olympic weightlifting in a light, explosive way to get some plyometric power.

Best Times:
Half-marathon 2:12.
10k run 59:00
10 mile bike time trial 27:47.
400m swim 9:13
Best Lifts:
Squat 140kg (308lb)
Deadlift 170kg (374lb).
Triathlons:
May 2006: Wellington Novice (200m swim / 13k bike / 3k run). Popped my cherry and did it on a fixed-wheel bike to boot. Swim: 6:26; Bike: 34:52; Run 14:47. Total: 56:05.

June 2006: Burnham Tri - 1:32:56 - 15:00 swim; 42:30 bike; 35:26 run.

June 2006: Bude - My first OW event. Swim: 00:26:30, Bike: [/i] 00:38:47, Run: 00:31:21; Total: 01:36:38

September 2006: Cotswold - 40th in age group G (35-40) out of 53. Swim 09:12, Bike 38:32; Run 23:19; Overall 01:11:04

Training Diary

August 31, 2004 -

Chest, shoulders and triceps. Can't help feeling that something is missing from this but I can't pin down what it is, either. Damn. This was a pretty horrifying, "look how much form you've lost" kind of a session.

Warmup on the rower, 1km at 7.
Dips #16 assist x12, #14 x8, x6.
Hang clean & press, long bar, 20kg x6, x5, x5.
Smith bench press 30kg x10, 40kg x5, x5.
Crunch 3x20.

No gym since: I'd argue logistics but that'd be a fib, it's gumption. Anyway, two weeks of about 130-mile-a-week riding, each time with one trip in on the fixed. So, good cycling. Aiming to get into the gym again this coming week.

August 11, 2004 -

Back in black. A fun, short and terrifyingly sweaty session to open with. Back and biceps.

Warmup on the rower, #7, 1km.
Good Morning 40x10, 50x8, x8.
Wide Grip Chin, #18 assist x7, x5, x4.
Deadlift 80x5, 100x3, 110x2.
Cable Row #7x7, x7, x7 (symmetrical eh?).
EZ Preacher Curl 15x6, x5, x5.
Warmdown on the bike to the station.
CoC trainer gripper x4,

I'm going to call my cycling my leg training for the time being - I don't want to get too slow, and heavy squat work slows me down, I know that from past experience. So I'll do placeholder commuting, and a training day on the fixed once a week. Gym sessions are intended to be twice a week: back, biceps and grip one day; chest, shoulders, abs and triceps the other.

I've lost a lot of form since I was last doing this stuff, but that's to be expected. This first round of sessions is gonig to be quite light, medium-rep, to determine just where my current capacity levels are, and to avoid any newbie injuries. So far, so good!

August 09, 2004 -

Got the training blog back in working order again at last. What's been going on in the last few months?

Well, I've been getting monstrous miles in. The car exploded, forcing us to go way more bikey. I'm getting over a hundred miles in every week, reliably. Did the Dunwich Dynamo the other weekend, which was intense and fun. And I've got a fixed-wheel bike for training.

Weights-wise I've been doing nothing. With relatively huge mileages and no sensible transport for a post-squat corpse, I have had to drop that entire side - for now at least.

Average ride times are now around 57 minutes in, 1:15 back, and I have managed the ride back in less than an hour (15.5 miles, hilly, generally up) once. That ride is pretty much a mundane commodity now, unless I do it all week, in which case the fatigue begins to get silly. I'm riding in on toast and one water bottle, and back on one bottle and a munchy bar halfway to keep spirits (and blood sugar, but mostly spirits) high.

Current goals? I'm locked into this cycling lark for a while, so the goal is to keep at it, eat the miles, and not burn out. The fixie is especially hard on these hills; I'm riding him once a week at the moment. That hurts in all sorts of good ways - it trains power, cadence, stability, bike handling, and hits a whole bunch of extra muscles. So goals are to get smooth on the fixie, eat miles on utility riding, and for now, to mothball the weights.

Got to the end and not found the entry you're looking for? Check the archive for older stuff. This blog started on May 1st 2002, so don't expect to find anything before then.