Dear iPad,

Where has a month gone? Despite ever good intention to create a record of my (so called) “triathlon journey” it seems that a whole month has passed since I have put finger to glass. More worryingly my adventure up Alpe D’Huez is starting to feel much more close and with twelve weeks to go too close for comfort. So what’s been happening?

Well on the training front all pretty good… Surprisingly! I am now into the second (of two) Build phases which basically mean longer sessions and more intensity. As the name implies building my fitness and endurance. And looking at the main numbers I use on TrainingPeaks indeed I am getting fitter and more resilient.

The main learning so far this year, as far as training goes, has been that creating a marked difference between an easy session and a hard session is important. Rather than always falling into the grey one of being neither one or the other. The temptation last year was that unless I was breathing through my arse and sweating like a shower then I wasn’t making any progress… Turns out, as with many things, thats complete bollocks.

So the new (self created) training plan tries to have one hard session in each discipline and then every other session is a Base session. Add to this that for each discipline I also add in one particularly ‘long’ session and that is basically my training structure.

Does it work? Well I believe that I am making progress and if you believe that to be the case then it probably is working. Will it be enough? I have no idea… But once I start racing (probably at Heaver Castle) I will soon find out.

In fact tomorrow (Bank Holiday Monday) I am running the MK Half. The plan is to run it as a ‘hard’ session in that I would like to go sub 2hrs. That would be 20mins quicker than Bedford half last year and a good yard stick. We shall see… But most important is to not pick up an injury. Should be a good day out with a big finish in the stadium and a few of my friends from WTri and Redway Runners also there.

I’m sure I will make some new friends.

Last year a 10k race in MK early in the year led to a sciatica problem that took bloody months and a lot of ouchy pain to get sorted. Most annoying was that I missed Blenheim Palace. Hopefully this year I will get to race at that very scenic location. So this year no heroics…

Talking of friends, a few of the Wootton gang have just returned from the Mallorca 312. This is a truly mental bike race as the name implies on the island of Mallorca with a race distance of 312km. Add to that a stupid amount of climbing. And for good measure make the race early in the year so that people have to train through the crappiest Winter weather and you start to get an idea of the size of the challenge.

I am easily persuaded these days to have a go at all sorts of strange things. But even i was not in the slightest tempted! From the first mention I was crystal clear in my mind that I was not doing it! But I have nothing but the highest respect for what they achieved… It was truly awesome. The very eloquent Richard M. has written up their adventure on his blog The Big Bike Ride and a bloody good story he tells too. Worth a read.

But before any of that I have a four hour bike ride to get finished today… So I will sign off with every intention of trying to write more frequently and… who knows… perhaps broaden the topics a little 😉