20 days till Tokyo but …
Posted on February 10, 2019 Leave a Comment
In 3 weeks this time probably I already finished the Tokyo marathon.
Tokyo is 9 hours ahead of England. So when I’ll start the race on Sunday morning around 9.30am most of the UK will be still asleep or just going to sleep.
It’s now less than 2 weeks till we are flying out , but I’m just not excited. I just want this whole thing to be over.
Probably it doesn’t help that this week didn’t go as I planned.
One of our dog got ill on Monday and ended up at the vets. Bless his heart his penis is swollen and got some kind of infection. A week later he still poorly, and constantly drinking/weeing. So he may have some issues with his liver. We are going back to the vets tomorrow.
Training summary w/c 28th January
Posted on February 5, 2019 Leave a Comment
28. January – 3rd February 2019
Another week gone, I really can’t believe how fast these days going.
Week 7 of Ironman Bolton training.
Week 14 of Tokyo / Boston / London marathon training.
Monday:
Monday’s are still rest days. I really can’t get myself into thinking to do any kind of workout. Eventually would be good to do some yoga or strength training, but after 6 days worth of training I really just feel that I need to sit down, take a breath and enjoy doing nothing.
Tuesday:
Went to swimming straight after work. This time the pool was quieter, and people seemed to used the correct lanes. There were still some annoying ones, who decided just to chit-chat at the end, without swimming a single lap.
I still really don’t know how to break up my long swims. So ended up simply swimming 25x100m sets. I do feel good about my swim pace. I wanted to make sure all of them were around the 2:20 mark, so there was no point for me to shoot out and swim a few 2:10s when I know I won’t be able to do that 25 times. But compared my time to an earlier session back in December I clearly got faster 🙂
Tuesday evening means tri club run session. I had a feeling that it will get cancelled, because the weather wasn’t the nicest. But coach said as long as someone turns up he’s happy to do the session .The Facebook poll said 3 of us will be there, but at the end 5 of us turned up. Not too bad. Luckily it wasn’t too cold, just a bit wet.
The session was held at Crabtree, which only could mean one thing. Hill reps. Oooh dear God, how much do I hate those? A lot.
So the plan was to run half a lap, around half a mile till we get to the other end of the forest, and to the top of the hill. Then do some hill reps for 15-20mins.
I’ve ended up running the whole thing with G. He’s still injured, so he’s coaching us. He said my pace is perfect for him, it wouldn’t put too much strain on his knees. Well good to be slow then haha.
So back to those hill reps, it wasn’t just the little ones I’ve done a few weeks ago. Nope. Started it from further down, and run further up. Passed a bench, into the woods. It was probably twice as long as the ones I’ve done before. Did I already say I hate hills?
I think we ended up running about 6 times roughly. When we were doing the 5th, he said that’s the last one. But then got to the top and he said he changed his mind and off we go and do another one.
The last 2 sets were the hardest, I’ve been told not to stop, no matter how much it hurts, try to push it through, and for the last one I had to try do attempt a faster pace. I think I was probably racing with a snail. Because it definitely wasn’t a quick run. But got up to the top.
It’s so much harder when you are running with someone. I’m really bad at hills, or faster paced runs. So usually when I feel tired I just stop and walk a bit or a lot. But when your coach is running next to you , you do have to try your hardest to keep going, and I’ve done that. It did hurt, but at the end of the day this is how I get better. Need to push through, no matter how much I don’t like it.
After the hills we ran back to the cars, nice and easy jog. Haha easy for them. It was still faster than my usual pace. Then the guys decided to run home, and G. and I ran one more mile long lap, as a cool down. Running a mile doesn’t sound that bad, but after those hills, it wasn’t easy.
At the end we clocked in 6.3km in just over 49mins. But this included loads of down-hill walking. Ohh and to my surprise with my sloth pace I managed to grab a 1st place on a Strava Segment.
All time Women – 1st, All time – 10th, This year ( women ) – 1st, This year – 4th.
It’s either being a new segment, or people in January are not too active. I still can’t believe how did I manage to get the 1st place Women spot, with my pace?
Wednesday:
One of my favourite day , I love doing my brick sessions. It does feel like I’m getting better with them. It was only a really short session, but my legs did work hard and they didn’t wobble.
Thursday:
Last day of January, I can’t believe how fast this month gone by.
I wasn’t really planning to have a long run session, but had to keep my legs moving, and get some mileage in. Even if it wasn’t a long session.
Bang on 8k, and much faster than my marathon pace. At the end I even managed to get a new VO2 max. Finally I’m up to 42. I was standing on 41 for ages.
Let’s see my January stats:
Swim : 15.81km 🏊🏼♀️
Bike : 290.36km🚴🏼♀️
Run : 142.94 km 🏃🏽♀️
Roll on February 🙂
“Winter miles 🔜 summer smiles “
I don’t think it’s too bad. First month I ever run longer than 130km+. Cycling is going up really well, and my slow swimming is getting better session by session.
Friday:
Another day on the bike. We’ve snowed in so I really didnt’ want to risk going to the pool or do another run session. Wouldn’t be good ending up with a broken arm or leg before Tokyo. Here’s a photo from the morning, I took it whilst I was at work 🙂 Did I say I LOVE snow 🙂
45 mins cycling around Watopia, with a little elevation. Plan said keep it in Z2, so I wasn’t allowed to push it any harder or do more hills. At the end of the session I was in Z2 for 93%. Not too bad 🙂
Saturday:
No training today. Went up to London to attend the yearly Meet the Experts session organised by London Marathon. A great and informative event. I do believe it’s totally worth it if you are running London the first time 🙂
Sunday:
Long run session today. The roads were still ridiculously icy and snowy. There was literally no chance for me to run outdoors. I had to run 14 miles and this close to my marathon I really didn’t want to miss it. After thinking about it a lot, I decided to go to the gym, and run on a treadmill. I absolutely hate those machines, the only thing I hate more are prawns and hill reps. How the hell can I run 14 miles on the boring treadmill? They gym has 1 tv , and it showing the news constantly. So nothing exciting at all. I don’t have a foot pod, so can’t run virtually on Zwift. So 14 boring and long miles here I come.
At the end I decided to do intervals. 60secs runs and 30secs walk break. Sometimes shorter, sometimes longer. The people kept changing next to me, but I tried to stay motivated and keep going on and on and on.
At the end I did manage to run 14 miles, but it felt like this was my 14 longest miles in my life.
Have to say I was surprised with my time, in a positive way.
14 miles – 2:45:26 – with a pace of 7:20mins/km.
5secs/km faster than my target marathon pace, well if I decided to target a sub 5:15 finish time, or even if worst case I only can achieve a 7:50mins/km pace that would still take me into a sub 5:30 finish in Tokyo. These are still massive improvements from my 5:58 finish at Chicago in October (8:30mins/km pace).
Sunday evening I also went to do my tri club swim session. We had M. back as a coach, he was back from his holiday, so sessions went back to normal. At first it was only a few of us there and I had a whole lane for myself, but others did turn up a bit late so we were almost up to the normal amount of swimmers 🙂
2️⃣. Open water start drills and sprints
3️⃣. 4x 100m CSS-5
4️⃣. 100m easy swim
5️⃣. 3x 100m CSS-5
6️⃣. 100m cool down
Summary:
This week wasn’t as busy as the last few. My running takes a lot out of me, and like this week I wasn’t able to get in my long bike session. But as soon as I’m down to taper with my marathons I can definitely can get my cycling hours up. It’s just so hard to run 10-15miles then squeeze in another 2-3hours long bike as well.
I have one more long run next week, up to 20 mileish, But then after I’ll be able to do all my long bike sessions as well.
So I’ve finished the week with :
- Duration: 7:23 hours
- Swim: 3600m
- Bike: 37.9km
- Run: 38km
Love,
Training summary w/c 21st January
Posted on January 30, 2019 Leave a Comment
21 – 27th January 2019.
Wow I can’t believe how fast these days are passing. Probably it helps that I’m way to excited about the Tokyo trip.
Week 6 of Ironman Bolton training
Week 13 of Tokyo/ Boston/ London marathon training.
Monday:
As always it was a rest day. I’m starting to like these days.
Tuesday:
Started my week with my long swim. Because I can’t make the early morning tri club swim I really need to make sure that I get my long distance swim in. I didn’t really have a plan , but at the end I’ve ended up doing 22x100m with 10secs rest. Slowly building up my distance. I think I finally feel really comfortable in the water. Since October my swim improved a lot, and I love the sessions. Of course there’s still a lot to improve and I don’t think I ever going to be as good as the others, but I do try my best.
Tuesday evening means, tri club run session. I did look forward to this session, because even though I’m not showing it, and I’m nowhere near the others when we run but these sessions making me faster. Without these sessions I don’t think my long distance speed would have improved. I remember last year when I was training to Chicago I just wanted to get the distances in , it didn’t really matter how long did it take. I never in my life done any kind of speed training before, so I do believe these help a lot.
So back to this session. Well it wasn’t my day at all. It was cold, but I shouldn’t really blame the cold. Back at home we have -15 or even -20 Celsius in the winter, so tonight’s -2 was really nothing. But it’s always easier to blame to something, and not to yourself.
The plan was to do laps, on the grass part of the track. Supposed to be in the same pace as the previous session. I not once hit that pace, 6:06mins/km. I was so annoyed with myself, I know I can run, I know I can do that pace if I really want to do it. But no matter how much I’ve tried I didn’t get anywhere close to it. I’ve finished the session with 6:35. Which is still much faster than my normal pace, 7:30, but I was still annoyed that I couldn’t even to a lap.
After a bit of thinking, I realised that my legs still haven’t recovered from Sunday’s 22 miler. I really can’t expect them to function like nothing happened 2 days ago. It did settle my mind a bit.
Wednesday:
Brick session, one of my favourite session of the week . Can’t really explain it why, but I starting to love running straight after cycling. My legs always feel like jelly, but after that initial wobble I start to run and it’s a great feeling. Still only short sessions, but need to build it up slowly. So it was a 45mins cycle session, on the turbo then off I went for my 30mins run 🙂
I’m still really new to Zwift, so exploring all this new routes are exciting. It turns out they have a whole session in New York. I loved my time in New York, but how the hell I forgot how hilly Central Park is? I thought I’ll have a nice and easy spin session, but those bastard hills…. Never mind, got over them and my legs definitely worked hard. After the cycle I thought I’ll keep continue the New York feeling, so put on my marathon top and off I went for my 30mins run. Back to my nice and easy 7:30mins/km pace. I can’t even explain how much I love this. It’s easy, and comfortable. Hmmm… maybe that’s why I didn’t really improve a lot for Chicago ? I just kept doing my comfortable runs, not once I went faster or went out of my comfort zone. Hmmm…
Thursday:
It was supposed to be a swim session. Well it did start as a swim session, but ended after 7mins. I rarely get pissed off, or annoyed at others. I have my poker face on at work, and answer every question with my nice customer service voice and face.
But this time I really got pissed off. We have a temporary pool at Andover, 4x 25m length lanes. No issues with that. There are 2 different swim sessions , ‘ lane swimming’ and ‘ just swim’ . So as common sense dictates, lane swimming is to do laps up and down, and the ‘ just swim’ is where there are no lanes and just a fun session.
I’m really not a fast swimmer, but after a few laps I had to leave. Other’s really didn’t respect the pool rules. Stopping half way through and starting to swim back where they started, floating on the water, and even jumping in and out. Lifeguard was total useless as well. A lady and I went to ask him to sort this out, otherwise what’s the point of LANE swimming, but he just ignored us. So we left.
Friday:
1hr cycling session, in Z7 and trying to achieve a 100+ cadence. I managed to tick off 2 out of that 3.
1 hour in Z2 , totally doable. But my average cadence was 72. Bruhhhh. Few times managed to get over the 100 mark, but it takes so much concentration , it’s incredible. I really need to figure out this cycling. Maybe its harder to achieve this on a turbo? I mean even when I’m in the lowest easiest gear I can pedal, there’s no issues with that. But it feels like I’ll fly off from the bike. I think I’ll need to go to the gym and see if I can manage 100+ on their stationer bike, or even better if they have a watt bike. Or should I just got to a spin class? Ahhhrrrrrrr..
Saturday:
I was so keen to wake up at 5am and do my long run. But after going to bed like 8.30pm on Friday when my alarm went off at 5am I just turned it off and turned on my other side at went back to sleep. At the end I managed to sleep just over 11hrs. By the time it’s the weekend I’m so so tired that I can’t even explain. Having 4.5-5hr sleeps during the week and waking up at 4am to go to work is so hard.
So I chose comfort instead of my long run.
But instead of that I did my long cycle session.
Longest time on the bike / turbo ever. I cycled for 2 whole hours. OMG. It was tiring and I really had to push myself to just keep going. Drank 2 full bottles of drink, had loads of seeds and nuts, and also kept eating my glucose tablets. Weirdest thing you can crave on a bike 😀 But the mixture of sweet and salted kept me going.
Another ride, another day on Zwift. The plan said stay in Z2. So I knew I can’t really pick a really hilly route otherwise my heart rate will be way over Z2. So stayed with Watopia, but by the time the 2hrs were over I’ve gained 255m (840 feet) of elevation. I knew I need to do hills, even virtually because Bolton will be hilly.
Sunday:
Well my long run was missed again. I did wake up, but then just sat on the sofa. So missed out on 14 miles. Never mind. Sometimes we need to have an easier week. Roll on next week.
But did go swimming in the evening. Tri club swim session was on. Not too sure why but we didn’t have the normal coach, I did miss last week’s session, so probably he said it then that he wont be this week. So we had to follow our run coach instructions. He’s a speedy swimmer as well, so he knew what he was talking about.
After a few laps (10) of warm up, we’ve done more sighting practice. It is really important in open water. You really don’t want to get lost or swim more than you supposed to.
Then we were broken up into different groups , roughly the same pace. The instruction was to swim behind each other, as close as we can, practice sighting and try to keep up the other persons pace. Well I ended up with this guy, I feel so embarrassed but I still have no idea what’s his name is. It turns out his pace usually is 1.50mins/100m, then I said to him that my pace is usually 2.20 if I really push myself. I did feel sorry for him, because he had to go much slower than his pace.
At first he was swimming in the front and I tried to keep up with him. He did say he’ll go slower than he usually do. Thanks 🙂 Then we kept swapping who’s the leader. So the 1st 100metre turned out to be 1:57, then the 2nd was 2.00, 3rd 1.59, 4th 2.01 and the last one was 2.05. Okey, I’m totally socked, surprised , wow. I really had no clue that I can swim this fast. I know I won’t be able to keep up this pace for a long time, but it did feel good to see that I do can swim faster. But it does show’s that you can do whatever you set your mind to, and just need to push yourself, even when you think you can’t.
Then we had a really fun exercise. Swim a lap with your eyes closed, because when you are swimming in open water you can’t see much. And he’s totally right. When I had my first open water session on the 1st of January ( will write a post about that after I had my second one in February) I was totally shocked that I couldn’t see nothing in the Thames. At home I swam in Lake Balaton and in the sea by Croatia as well. But those were nice and clean. When I first put my head into the water in the Temze I had no clue where am I going, and even though I was swimming it felt like I’m not moving. So I do agree with him that it’s really important to practice this.
Summary :
Much shorter week than the previous, but I missed out on a 14miler run and also lost an hour swim. But all in I’m happy with it. I still managed to workout just over 7hrs, and that’s great. Roll on next week, I can’t wait to see what am I capable.
Love,
Training summary w/c 14. January
Posted on January 22, 2019 Leave a Comment
14 – 20 January 2019.
This was my week 5 of Ironman training and Week 12 of Tokyo / Boston marathon training.
I can’t believe how fast the weeks going by.
Monday:
Rest day, favourite day of the week. Done nothing at all this day. Got my recommended 10 000 steps in by 10am at work , then spent the rest of the day with housework, and getting my week worth of workout clothes ready.
Tuesday:
First workout of the week. Let’s go swimming. The plan was to swim about an hour, roughly 2k. Well it did not happen. 10 mins into my swim I developed a massive headache. No idea why. I drunk enough water all day, so literally have no clue. But other than that the session was okay.
Tuesday evening means tri run club. I still had a headache when we started this session, but it went away after a few laps. We spent our time on the track. I do like running on the track. It’s a great way to measure how much a person improves.
The session consisted of the below:
2 laps: warm up
2 laps: 300m slower pace run, 100m faster paced, repeat
2 laps: 200m slow, 200m fast, repeat
2 laps: 100m slow, 100m fast, repeat
After this we had to run another 2 laps in our faster pace, but only just as fast what we can keep up for our main set, 3k. I did try to run this in my faster pace, it was a 6:10mins/km. After speaking with G. I said to him there’s literally no way that I can run this fast for 3k. I mean the fastest I ever run was 6:57, but usually I’m closer to average a 7:30mins/km. By this time everyone was way into their 3k run, and I was still standing there trying to decide what pace to run. At the end we agreed that I run in a fast pace and see how long am I able to keep that up. If it’s not a full 3k no worries, it will be a good starting point. It turns out 3k is 7.5 laps on the track. I don’t think I ever circled as much in my life before.
After every lap I kept checking my watch and just to see if I can keep that pace up. Well it turned out am better than I thought. By the time I got to my 5th lap everyone else is finished. But I just kept going at tried to concentrate on myself.
When my watch buzzed at the 3k mark I was so happy that it was over.
These are the results:
1km – 6:20mins
2km – 6:16mins
3km – 5:54mins
OMFG. It looks like I really can push myself if I want it. You know you had a great run club session when you end up with not 1 but 3 PBs 🙌🏻
My last 5k PB was 34:34 so this new one is way better. Soon I can target a sub 30 time. I never once thought that I might be capable doing that.
Wednesday:
Wednesday mean’s Brick session. After last night’s run club I had so much muscle ache that I really thought I won’t be able to cycle. It was only a short 30mins cycle followed by a 30mins run session. But by the time I finished my cycling my legs did warm up and had a great paced run session. The transition time between the 2 still took me over 5mins, but I think I’m getting better with the Quick change part.
I’ve spent Wednesday evening up in London.
I was lucky to attend a really informative and inspirational panel discussion. It was organised by @livcyclinguk & @giantbicycles.
4 inspirational ladies with 4 different IM journeys.
Ruth – @rastle50 – not just a simple AG winner she has won her AG in Kona and was the 3rd armature overall.
Mara – @mara.thefitlondoner – her first triathlon was an Ironman.
Alice – @aliceclarefitness – Liv ambassador and also IM finisher.
Eddie , or you can call her #irongran. She’s a multi IM finisher and she’s 75. Wow.
I’ve learnt so much from them and great to hear how others started their journeys.
Also good to hear that I’m not crazy because I’ve signed up for Bolton without doing the shorter distances first.
As long as I trust my plan and have set my mind to it I’ll be totally okay 🙂
Thank you ladies so much 🙌🏻
Thursday:
Swim got cancelled, due to going out for dinner. But managed to get a faster paced run in, straight after work. It felt so good to run around Basingstoke. When we lived there I loved running through Eastrop park and then through Lychpit and back to town, or just down to Popley to see my sister.
Friday:
Finally decided to give Zwift a go. Turned out they do a 7 day free trial or upto 25km cycling. I was really lazy and only set it up on my phone. Just to see if I like it or not. It’s not bad at all. That 20mins literally just flew by. I loved the facts that I am virtually chasing others. Seen a few cyclist with the Hungarian flag and I always tried to keep up with them, even if it was for a short period of time.
Saturday :
Was supposed to do my Long run today, but swapped it around and done my Long cycle instead.
After last night’s good Swift session I decided that I do need this, so signed up for it. Also it turns out that it does work with my iMac. Better and bigger screen 🙂
The plan was to cycle at least an hour and half , then see how I manage that. It turns out I’m better than I thought. I did have the fan on but had to stop and open the windows as well because I really started to feel too hot. Drank 2.5 bottles of water, I think it’s a lot but really not too sure. Ate a handful of seeds and nuts and just kept pedalling. I’m not gonna lie the time went fast, but it was also hard. Have to be honest I can’t remember when was the last time I cycled this long, well I’ve done it outdoors a few times, but it was my longest ever session on the turbo.
Do you think that map looks like a rhino? I can’t stop thinking about that. Pleased with the distance I covered. It’s not the funniest and most exciting to cycle on the turbo but I do believe these boring winter sessions will be in great use in the spring/summer.
Sunday:
I had my first running race of the year. Covered over 22 miles, and you can read my full race report HERE.
Because of this long run I decided to skip tonight’s swim session. I don’t think I could have swim a single lap, my kicks would not work , and have a feeling I would have drowned.
Summary of the week:
By the end of the week I worked out just over 9hrs.
This included :
1 swim session (missed out on 2 :/ )
3 cycling session
4 running session
Next I’ll need to make sure I’ll get my missing 2 swim sessions in as well. I shouldn’t have any issues with that. I’m back only 14miles with my long run, so won’t be as tired and will be able to do the missing sessions, and also don’t have any dinner planned with family, so I should be all okey 🙂 I also getting better with the ammount of training I have to do. I’m sore most of the days, but a good bath with Epsom salt works really well, and after every session I keep rolling my legs, so they won’t get as sore.
Somedays I still struggle with motivation just to get out of the door. But as soon as I’m out I’m totally okey with the training session ahead.
Love,
First race of 2019
Posted on January 21, 2019 1 Comment
Well this was kind of an accidental race. I bet you wondering how is it possible?
Let me start at the beginning. Last year when I was training for the Berlin – Chicago marathon, I’ve run an awesome 18 miler training run. Few weeks after that I was supposed to run my 20 miler. Back then I was doing all my tranining runs by myself. When I got to mile 19 I was 3 mins behind the time I’ve set myself to run it. That was all, lost it mentally and sat on the curb for 10 mins crying my eyes out and then walked home 3 miles! Crazy.
So a few weeks ago when I had my 16miler run I decided when I have my next longer run in January I’ll book a race in.
I won’t race it, I just want to run with people. Not even to talk with them, but just to be around others. 20 mile is a bloody long way to do all alone.
After a bit of googling I came across a company called Saturn Running. they had a 6.5hour timed event on the 20th of January.
It was only in Thatcham, which is 25mins drive from my house so I thought that will be a great race, also it cost less than £30.
The only issue I had is, that the laps were 4.37miles long, My training plan said “18miles” , if I’d run 4 laps that’s not enough, but if I run 5 laps thats way too much.
At the beginning I thought I’ll get to 4 and see how I feel about the 5th one.
I wrapped up warm, because the weather forecast said it will be between 0 and -2 celsius.
The venue was Greenham common, nice and almost flat route. But mostly trail run, gravel, grass and loads of mud. Did I mention a gigantic hill?
We had to run 2 different laps, the Blue one first and then off the Pink one. 3 laps were a half marathon roughly.
After my 16 miler a few weeks ago when I managed to keep up a 7:41mins/km pace, my plan was to do the same. Or try to be as close to it as possible. My main aim for Tokyo is to get as close to a 5:30:00 finish time as I can, so for this I’ll need to run in a 7:50mins/km pace. In october in Chicago I just broke the 6hr mark with a time of 5:58:24 and my pace was 8:30mins/km.
So far my training went really well, and I was really hopeful to run that pace. Even if it’s slower I still have 41 days till race day so can improve.
The first lap just flew by, probably because I never ran here before so it was all really exciting. After the first few km I realised that I’m going way too fast, 7:05, 7:01, 7:04kms. I knew if I keep going like this I’ll burn out in the next few miles. Then just before the 5k mark I came across a pretty big hill. It wasn’t just the hill, it was the mud as well. But managed to get over it, but clearly can see in my km splits that I was struggling, this turned out to be a 7:52mins/km. But kept plodding along.
When reached the end of the first lap I collected my wristband, which indicated how many laps I’ve run.
The aid station was different. No disposable cups, everything reusable, you can either leave your flask there or buy a reusable – collapsible cup for £3. I decided to buy one pre race. At least I’m sorted for the future events. Also the aid table had the weirdest selection of items, Coke, Pepsi, IrnBru, water, squash, cheese, crisps, Haribo, pretzels and cakes. Yumm yumm yumm.
The second lap was on the Pink route, luckily this one had no hills and somehow it felt this one was much easier. Because it was a multilap event no matter where you were you had people coming by. I loved that fact that everyone kept motivating the others 🙂
The second and 3rd lap really flew by. When I got to the start of the 4th lap my Garmin still said that my average pace was 7:22mins/km. Turns out I got a new Half marathon PB at the end.
I mean I literally had no clue what was going on. I did not feel tired, and I was still going strong. Maybe drinking Coke does help? I thought I’ll puke because of the bubbles in it, but I had no stomach ache at all.
During the race I kept checking my time compared to the time I was aiming for. All the way round I was 11-13mins ahead of it. When I reached the end of the 4th lap ( 28km 3:27:46. ) I’ve decided to go to the 5th one. Yes, I’ll be way over the planned 32km but I can’t do a short course. Also it’s better to do more than less.
To my surprise when I reached 20 mile I was still under 4hours! Wow. 3.5 months ago in Chicago I ran 20 mile in 4hrs 35mins.
I ran 20 miles in 3hrs 57mins 30secs. Me! First time ever, since I started running 3years ago. I can easily do 5minles under 60mins, and if I push myself I can do 10mile under 2hrs, but this time I’ve done my fastest 20 miles ever and I wasn’t even feeling tired!
Usually I hit that “wall” around the 30k mark, but this time nothing. Literally I felt just as fresh as 4hrs earlier before the race. Hmmm maybe I should drink more Pepsi during the races? I’ve looked into it and Tokyo hands out TOMATOES and bred !! Who the heck eats tomatoes during a marathon?
The running route was really lovely, seen so many horses.
3rd time I was able to run up that massive hill. I think the adrenalin was pushing me to keep going and going. After that I only had about 2 more kms to go and the finish line was in sight.
Crossed the finish line in an awesome time of : 4:24:23 and I ran just over 22 miles.
I really don’t know how to summarise this race.
PERFECT
I did not hit the wall, I kept going, I kept an awesome pace up for 22 miles.
If someone back in October tell me that my pace will improve from 8:30 to 7:24 I would have laughed at their face. My pace? HAHA. It took me 18 months to go from a 6:57:31 marathon time to 5:58:24.
We are only 3.5 months after Chicago and my pace is already significantly faster. At this moment I do believe I do have a sub 5:30 marathon in me. Race day is only 41 days away so I’ll need to make sure I don’t over train or get injured but if I keep going to this direction I shouldn’t have any issues smashing that time in Tokyo.
It does look like that those hard and sometimes horrible run sessions with the tri club does wonders. I’m still dead last every single time, but I am improving. I’m improving so much and I still hardly believe it. I ran 22 miles yesterday and I did not feel tired, I hardly had any muscle ache and if I’d been more crazy I could have done another lap and just casually ran a marathon. Me. Casually. A. Marathon.
Love,
Training summary w/c 7th January
Posted on January 14, 2019 Leave a Comment
I realised that all my Facebook posts are about my training posts. I love sharing my ups and downs but I bet it gets annoying after a while.
So instead of sharing daily , I’ll write a post about how my week of training went on Mondays. Monday’s are my rest days so will have plenty of time write it up.
But if you want to see my daily posts then go and follow me on Instagram , I’ll keep sharing my posts there daily 🙂 www.instagram.com/gabiruns
7- 13. January 2019
This was my Week 11 of Tokyo marathon training and Week 4 of Ironman training.
I think I’m getting better with incorporating the 2 training plans and also figure out how and when to do the exercises so I won’t get as tired.
Monday
Rest day. Best day of the week. According to my plan I could do some strength training or some yoga. But at the moment I just feel like doing nothing. Recovery is important.
Tuesday
I went to swim after work. Because I star work at 6am I never will be able to make the morning tri club swim sessions. So I’ve gone swimming after work. The plan said “1hr swim” so I decided to do an endurance one. I know well that I need to practice and improve a lot so I keep pushing myself.
So at the end I’ve done 4x 500m with 30 secs rest between sets just under 50mins.
In the evening I went to the first tri run session of the year. I can’t believe the last one was 3 weeks ago. Tonight’s session was a run-strength training one. Few laps around the track and different kind of strength exercises with a resistance band ( planks and leg raises mainly ). Ohh geez how unfit am I ? My core was sore like 3 says after this session. But it means I do have abs , just under a layer of fat haha.
Wednesday
Wednesday = Brick session. I need to practice this a lot. My legs still feel like jellies after the cycling but my runs seems to be much faster.
Can’t really explain how but after a few mins running I am able to keep up a great running pace and my legs don’t feel tired.
I’m still only doing 30 mins cycling and 30 mins running but this is only week 4. Plenty of time to build up.
Thursday
Swim session number 2 of the week. Pool was a bit busier than normal but I manage to get my swim done. It wasn’t the planned 2000metre but I’m happy with the shorter distance.
Later on the evening I’ve manage to do my 5mile run according to my marathon training plan. It was a bit chilly when I started but nothing majorly cold. It feels like I’m getting better with my runs. Remember when I started the Chicago – Berlin training in last May I averaged a 9:03mins/km. By the time it was October I ran the race with a 8:30mins/km.
Friday
Another cycling session. Still only 30mins but I really don’t mind that. It feels like that cycling is my weakest part so need to keep pushing it. Still only indoors on the turbo , it’s way too cold to go outside and I’m worried about the slippery roads.
Saturday
I can’t even tell how much I love Saturday. Saturday means long run day. I love getting my long runs in. I’m not fast but I always getting them done. I have so much time to think about myself , my training and some totally random thoughts. Mainly keep asking myself ” Why am I doing this ? ” , and ” Why not just staying in the comfy bed ? ?”.
Today I only had to do 12 miles. Who the hell ever says ” only”.
I was supposed to leave the house around 6am but decided to have a lay in. Sleep is important.
Not too sure what happened or if it’s relating to my swimming and cycling but I didn’t feel tired at all. Ran my fastest 12 mile ever and also got a new 10k PB.
I have a feeling that I’ll need to rethink my Tokyo marathon plans. I smashed my 2 long runs in the row so maybe I’ll be faster than I’m planning to be in Tokyo. I keep getting my training done and hopefully Tokyo will be another PB course.
Sunday
Long ride Sunday. I’m still on the turbo because I feel so cold outside. Also still haven’t made my mind up about Zwift. Does it worth it ? Does it motivate you to go faster ? Virtually chasing others ?
I’ve spend the last 4 weeks of cycling watching The Greatest Showman back to back. I’m still loving it.
The plan was to cycle an hour , slowly building up my distance and keeping a constant pace.
Sunday evenings are about the tri club swims. On Sunday’s we do Technique sessions.
Tonight we concentrated mainly on how to sight out of the water. Well it’s harder than I thought. But with practise it won’t be that bad. You really don’t want to get lost when you swimming in a lake.
Our main set was the below :
2 laps of full speed swim
5 laps of CSS pace swim
Repeat 4 times
My CSS is supposed to be 2:30mins/100m but I did swim faster tonight. Maybe because we only had to repeat it 4 times and I didn’t feel too tired or because all this work makes me a bit faster. Who knows ? According to Garmin the 4 sets turned out to be : 2:22 , 2:14 , 2:20 , 2:21. So not a massive difference from the 2:30.
Sleep
It’s really important to get enough sleep in otherwise the body won’t recover. For me it’s really hard to get the recommended 8 hours in. Specially because I have to wake up at 4.20am Monday to Friday just to go to work. Then I have a late afternoon/evening training session and sometimes won’t get to bed till 10-11pm. Definitely not enough sleep.
But over the weekend I try to rest as much as I can.
As you can see from the charts below :
Summary
I know I have a massive disadvantage , I never trained this much before , I don’t have years of experience. But I know I can run the marathon, I know my swimming is not that bad and will be able to do the swim part but I’m way too worried about the bike cut offs. So need to push myself hard with that. That’s the main reason I decided to go with the Intermediate plan not with the Just finish.
This week’s statistic :
Duration : 8hrs 36mins
Swim: 5005m
Bike: 61.7km
Run: 31.3km
My training load will slowly increase to 15+ hrs /week by the time I get to the Peak phase of the plan , which will be the last 10 weeks of the plan.
Love ,
You can. End of story.
Posted on December 21, 2018 Leave a Comment
Wow what a year.
I didn’t manage to achieve all my goals this year , but it’s life. Stuff happens , they knock you down but you get up , learn from it , move on and get stronger.
Started the year out strong , was planning to run a race every month just to keep myself motivated.
Well it only lasted 1 month. After race nr1 I developed a weird kind of pain in my foot and hardly manage to walk. I rested , rested and rested more. But it didn’t get better. So went to see some specialist. Turned out I have/had Plantar fasciitis.
Weird sounding thing. Got special insoles , been told to stretch 3 times a day and buy a shoe 0.5 size bigger.
Because at this point I already missies out almost 6 weeks of training I decided that the best thing to do is defer my Bolton spot for 2019. I really didn’t see the point even trying the race. Missing out that many weeks from an IM training is bad. Didn’t want to risk an injury or to get a DNF because of my lack of training.
In May I’ve started my Berlin to Chicago marathon training. This time I had a proper marathon training plan. All thanks to Coach Denise from across the pond. Ran 4 times a week , cross trained twice and rested once.
To my surprise I was able to follow the plan. I think I’ve done about 90% of the training.
The plan was to break that magic 6hr mark , finally.
London 2017 – 6:57
New York 207 – 6:32
So my plan was to shave off a massive 32 mins. Hard work , dedication and it seemed achievable.
In the summer I had a total meltdown at my 20 miler run. When I got to mile 19 I was 3!! minutes behind my own goal. It got me so upset that I’ve given up the run and walked home 2 miles. What an idiot ?!
Few hours later I’ve got the below from Denise :
x
Okey , I can do this. It was only a training run and not the end of the world.
Then it was September and I was off to Berlin. Decided to go with the trains. 9 hours later got there but it was so cheap. All thanks to work perks.
I was so looking forward to this race.
First time meeting with fellow Team Paws member and I literally just love race weekends.
It turned out I wasn’t mentally strong for Berlin. What a surprise… So my sub 6 finish time still only was a dream.
But have to say that I beat my NY time by 10 mins so got a new PB.
Berlin 2018 – 6:22
At the end of September I’ve joined a tri club. All thanks to Becky, who invited me.
Me , who never ever done anything like this before. I was standing at the side of the pool and looking totally out of my depth. But I knew if I want to get around Bolton I need this. I need something structured and a little competition never hurts. Everyone looked so professional. And there was me who tried not to drown half way across the pool.
Then a few days later it was time to fly to Chicago. OMG I can’t even describe how excited I was. I was in daily contact with fellow Team Paws member and I just couldn’t wait to meet with them.
Chicago. What a race. Everyone I spoke with hated the rain on race day. I loved it. I started out slow , but had a constant pace. I didn’t hit the wall. I had fun around and loved every minute of it. From the first mile I believed in myself and I knew that I capable to run a sub6.
Chicago 2018 – 5:58
I still can’t believe it. I mean I did put the hard work in but now I reached my goal it’s still just wow. 3 weeks after Berlin I ran 24 mins faster. I really didn’t believe that this could ever happen.
4 marathons – just over 12 months – 59 mins faster .
A few more years and I’ll be a sub 3 runner haha.
I have some running goals for 2019. Would be good to break sub 30 in 5k, currently I can manage 34mins. A sub 60 10k would be great as well. Marathon goals ? Well I have something in mind for Tokyo ( March 2019) and Boston ( April 2019) but it’s a secret. I always ending up putting way to much pressure on me anyway , so I keep that secret till I get there. It’s only 70+ days till Tokyo anyways so not long now.
Not much happened in the last 3 months of the year.
I kept up with my tri club swims and runs. I’m getting better with swimming , with the initial not being able to front-crawl half a lap I’m slowly getting better. Currently comfortably can manage a fair few laps in a 2:30 pace. It doesn’t look like but I love swimming. I thought I’ll be really bad at it , but it turns out I’m just a bit bad.
Tri club runs are getting better as well. We mostly do speed and agility work and it does work. Last week I managed to run 5 mile with sub 7mins/kms. It never happened before. I’m still really worried about being slow but trying not to show it. Luckily everyone is incredibly friendly and helpful and that helps a lot.
What’s the plan for 2019 ?
Not even sure where to start.
It really doesn’t help the fact when you win a marathon place ( London ) and get a free entry for a 10k ( Vitality London 10k ).
//16. January – How to become and Iron-Women – London //
//2. February – Meet the experts – London //
3. March – Tokyo marathon
15. April – Boston marathon
28. April – London marathon
10-12. May – Ironman training weekend , Bolton
27. May – Vitality London 10k
14. July – Ironman Bolton
13-15. September – Run Disney Paris
So my plan is to give my best. At the moment I’m concentrating on Tokyo and Boston. Meanwhile I also manage to get in my cycling and swimming sessions so I’m getting ready for Bolton as well. I know I can get around the marathons but would be good to get another 2 PBs and improve my marathon time.
If both races go well and I manage to finish , even if I need to crawl I’ll be a 6 Star finisher in Boston. 2nd ever Hungarian Women , no pressure at all.
What’s my plan for Bolton ? I really just want to get around within all cut offs. Sub 16:59:59 here I come.
On a personal note I hope that by this time next year I’ll be a trainee train driver. I’ve passed my assessments , now just waiting for the 2 interviews then off to driving school 🙂
Love ,
Gabi
Training?… When? What for? Why?
Posted on December 8, 2018 Leave a Comment
I really have no clue what to write about my training sessions. Loads of people keep asking me about it. But I just don’t know what to say. few months ago I tried to write-up weekly training summaries but I just don’t have the time for that.
When? Could say I started my training in May, when I had my 1st session to get ready for the Berlin marathon. After completing Chicago in October I’ve decided to take 3 weeks of and done hardly anything.
Started my current training schedule at the end of October.
What do I train for? Probably would be easier to say what I’m not training for. At the moment my main focus is Tokyo, I’ve started an 18 week-long plan back in October. Tokyo is only 85 days away.
I have so much stuff going on that it’s crazy.
My original plan was:
- Tokyo, 3rd March
- Boston, 15th April
- Bolton, 14th July
Than I happen to won a place for the London Marathon, which is on the 28th of April. 10 days after Boston. Yayyy. Not like I need some rest , nope hah.
Also after all the training London will be a fun run, just to get around with my special costume and to break a Guinness World Record. Just for fun, hey 🙂
So what do I do at the moment?
I run 4 times a week, this includes 1 tri club run session ( Tuesday ) , 2 short faster paced run ( Wednesday, Thursday ) and 1 long slow run on Saturdays or Sundays.
I swim 2 times a week, Sundays are my guaranteed tri club swim session and at the moment I try to get to the pool on either Tuesday or friday. Just for a 30-45mins long swim. Just to build up my distance.
Cycling? At the moment its once a week, on the turbo for about 45mins. Depends on which TV series is on. Nice and easy , just to get my bum used to the saddle haha.
What’s going to happen from the 17th of December?
It’s gonna be hectic. Why? Because that’s when my Ironman training plan ( Be iron fit – Intermediate plan ) kicks in. Training for 3 marathons are already crazy enough, but I had to top it up with an IM. Yeah I don’t really suggest that to anyone.
That will be a 30 week long training plan, 10 weeks base – 10 weeks build – 10 weeks peak training.
This is where things gets a bit or totally complicated.
By the time I start this plan I’ll be starting week 8 of my marathon training plan. So my short runs are already going to be up to 5-6-7miles/ session plus the saturday long run , 13+ miles. So how to fit all this into my IM training? That’s a great question. No clue.
In the first 10 weeks of IM training I supposed to run 4 times a week, okay that’s good, at the moment I’m running 4times. No issues. But I only supposed to do 30-60mins runs. That’s clearly wont happen. I can just managed 5 miles in 60 mins, I’ll need to get up to 20 miles with my Tokyo training , which is Week 8 of my IM Base training. So I’ll be way over my run times, but will see how I get on with it.
I already know that I’m going to miss out on Week 1 and then half of Week 7-8 build training , because we are in Tokyo and then off to Boston. Probably I miss out a day or two after London, but I will be back on track after that.
Should be no issues with swimming, I will only need to add 1 more session into my calendar, I’ll stick with my sunday tri swim, then do a session on Tuesday and another one on thursday/friday. See how I feel about it. Then from the spring one of these sessions will turn into OWS. According to Google there’s one in Eastleigh and another good place in Reading.
Cycling? This will be on the turbo till at least spring time. I already feel way too cold just do my long runs, so I stick with staying in the warm with the bike.
I already booked myself into a training weekend up in Bolton. This is from the 11th – 13th of May. So just a bit after London, but I should be more than okay for it. Would be good to see/feel the pond, and get around some of the bike course as well. Hopefully this will make me less nervous about the big day.
I know it does sound way too complicated, and it really is. But I have a diary, and excel spreadsheet with all my sessions. So I know day by day what am I doing. None can say I’m not prepared.
What’s my plan after the 15th of July? Well it totally depends how I get on with IM on the 14th July.
Swim
Bike
Run
Why? Because I’m: crazy, nuts, slightly weird? I simply just don’t like sitting on my bum and do nothing. I want to have goals, when I have the golas I make my step-by-step guide to make the plan happen and reach my goals. I want to do these things when I can do them , I’m healthy enough and we have funds to do them. I want to be an Abbot 6 star finisher, and be the 6th Hungarian overall and 2nd Hungarian women who’s done it. I want to be a GWR holder, and hopefully if everything goes well and as planned I would love to be an IM finisher in 2019.
That’s all for now, time to enjoy my last few not too busy days.
Love,
Tokyo Marathon – Friendship run registration
Posted on December 8, 2018 Leave a Comment
Since I missed out on the 5k run before the New York marathon, I’ve decided that I’m going to be as prepared as I can to be able to register for the other pre marathon Saturday races.
The Friendship run in Tokyo is only a 3.5k long fun run. So it’s not the usual 5k we’ve run in Chicago or the 5k Parkrun I’ve run in London before. But because we only plan to go to Tokyo once we have to do this , haha.
So the registration portal opened on the 7th of December 2018, 10am ( Tokyo time) which turned to be 1am UK time. Way too early to wake up, but I really didn’t want to miss out.
According to the email confirmation I was the 4th one who registered. Nice , easy and incredibly quick appliaction process.
Website to register: https://www.marathon.tokyo/en/events/friendshiprun/
Distance: 3.5km fun run
Filed size: 2000
Entry fee: JPY 3000 ( £21 / $27 / €24 / 7500Ft )
Date and time: Saturday, March 2, 2019
Venue: Symbol Promenade Park
Unfortunately there’s no finishers medal , but we are going to get an awesome looking Towel. Have to say I never got a finishing towel before, but looking forward to it. Also this will be a good preparation for the marathon, because at the finish of the marathon we are also getting a towel, but this will be a proper sized towel.
By the sounds of it Japanese people love towels. I’m so excited to get to know more about their culture when we are there.
77 days and we are flying, I can’t believe 🙂
Love,
I bit the bullet ….
Posted on December 1, 2018 Leave a Comment
Back in September a friend of mine posted something on Facebook. It was an invitation for a Free month training with a triathlon club. Becky is totally awesome, she’s done the best of the best, the hardest race, an Ironman. She forwarded my details to the owner of the club , Dave.
Well that’s how I started my triathlon training experience. I never been part of any kind of triathlon club, to be honest not even a running club. But I bit the bullet , it’s time to get better and faster.
Back in Hungary I was part of the local handball club, and used to play pro handball. But that was totally different, we trained as a team, and also I was the goalkeeper. Nice and lazy position haha.
So after speaking with Dave, I’ve decided to try it out for a month. I have nothing to lose, it’s for free and fingers crossed I will like it.
To be honest I knew I need to up my game to be able to complete Bolton in 2019. I had a training plan, and I knew that I’ll be able to do most of the training by myself, but having coached sessions are totally different.
The first session was a few days before we flew to Chicago, but I thought I’ll need to get over my nervousness and complete at least one session before we fly.
So that was me, standing at the side of a pool on this sunday evening. Surrounded with lean and sporty looking guys and girls. Whilst me, with my chubby legs and a cheap swimming dress from Sports Direct. I was totally the odd one out.
The last time I swam front crawl was back in Highschool, 10-15 years ago. Since then I just kept using breaststroke. The few practice sessions I had been all with breaststroke. I was able to do a 3:30 mins/100-metre with it. I knew I need to get a bit faster, but thought I can do the Iron distance swim.
So at the first proper tri session, I went to the “slow” lane. I was just hoping that I wouldn’t drown. I tried to keep my cool and follow all the instructions. I felt so overwhelmed, but in the other hand it felt good to be part of a group. So in this first session I was able to swim about 10-metres without stopping, all the water got in my nose and mouth, had to stop and stand up half way though the pool. I definitely didn’t look like a swimmer, I even started to question myself that maybe I should just stick to my breaststroke haha.
So after surviving this swim session I was really pleased with myself. But had to say I had so much muscle ace on the monday that it was totally unbelievable.
I didn’t really want to do the run session on the Tuesday evening, because we were going to Chicago on the Wednesday. I had no idea what kind of training we will do, but most importantly I didn’t want to get injured.
So I was back into my nervousness and stood by the side of the running track. I knew that I’m not speedy, but I did run 3 marathons by this time so I thought I can’t be that bad.
This session started with a bit of a warm up, then we were divided into small groups by pace, and spent the rest of the session running around the rack. have to say I loved this.
Then I was off to Chicago, so missed out 1.5 weeks of training.
After recovering from Chicago I was back at the running track.
After the free trial month I’ve decided to stick with the club, because I love the variety of the trainings and I always work much harder in these sessions. So it’s definitely worth it.
Swim:
The swim sessions are on Sunday evenings.
To my surprise I’m picking up the swimming really well. Every session I learn something new. I can easily swim a few laps now without feeling getting drowned. Also the different kind of drills helping me to improve my swim posture and get more efficient. The sessions are still really hard, and I’m still in the ” Slow ” lane, but I feel much more confident.
You can see my improvement below:
1st August, my fastest ever Breaststroke swim.
4th of November, Tri Club Swim. All front crawl.
So as you can see above, doing all these coached swim session my swimming totally changed. From a slow breaststroke swimmer I slowly becoming a better and faster front crawl swimmer. In my own sessions (Tuesdays and Fridays ) I try to swim as far as I can without stopping.
Run:
Well the running sessions are totally different. I know that I’m a slow runner, and close to be like a sloth but I never met with so many speedy people in my life. I came last in a fair few running races, but it never bothered me. Because I got my medal at the end, finished before cut off, and manly because I don’t know those people.
Well these coached running sessions are much harder than I thought. I really thought this will be much easier than my swimming. But how wrong was I ?
Because it’s winter now, we do loads of agility training & XC running. So it’s in the dark, on uneven ground. Not on the nice and smooth running track.
We’ve done a few agility sessions with the agility ladder, I love those session. I’ve done so many of those when handball was off-season and we were getting ready for the next season. I love the different kind of jumps, hops, high knees, one leg jumps ect. Even though I have a reconstructed ACL I don’t have an issues jumping in the uneven surface.
We also done a fair few hill rep sessions. I think I’m okay with that. Running up and down a hill in a pyramid session. Run 1 min, 2 mins , 3 mins, 3 mins, 2 mins, 1 min. It is tiring but I’m okay with it.
We’ve done a few circuit running sessions as well. Run for 1-2 mins, then 1 mins push ups / lunges/ squats/planks etc. I think I’m okay with these as well. I won’t lie it is tiring but I’m capable to keep up the pace.
The hardest sessions are the out – and – back runs, or the lap running. The problem with the out-and-back runs are that even though I’m really trying my hardest I’m still at the “out” part when everyone else is on the “back” part. I know well I’m not fast at all, c’mon my marathon PB is 5:58, and my 5k is 34 mins, and I usually average a 7:30-7:45 mins/km, but in my marathon is up at 8:30 mins/km.
According to my Garmin in the last few session I was averaging much faster than these.
Even with this speed I’m always dead last. It’s so disheartening. I do try my best, and try to keep up the pace, but I’m always finishing last.
In the last session it got so bad that I was hardly able to breathe. Not because I was tired, but because I felt embarrassed and also do disappointed and upset with myself that it made me unable to breathe.
I even stopped and said I had enough and decided to just go home and never go back. because I didn’t just want to disappear I went to speak with the coach. He said if I do want to go home he wont stop me, but suggest I shouldn’t . I should just keep going, because even though I’m not fast I’m faster than the people who don’t even try. Also believes if I keep continue I’ll be better.
So I went and do 2 more laps. By the end of the session I ran 4.9km, it was a XC run with a massive steady hill, full with mu all the way around and in pitch black. I’ve checked others on Strava and one guy done over 15km. I wasn’t surprised that I was at the last spot on Strava.
Since this session I asked for others what to do about this feeling. So now I have planned breathing exercises and also bought book. Hopefully these 2 things will help me to get better. As I said earlier I love all the other kind of running sessions, but not the last type.
But I know I need to keep up with it, and I need to suck it up and get over it. It won’t be easy and won’t be a fast process but hopefully slowly I’ll be better.
Bike:
Have to be honest, I’m not planning to do any of the coached bike sessions. They are on the Wednesday evenings and its turbo training. I really can’t afford to drive to town another time, and also luckily I have a turbo trainer at home so I can do my cycling sessions any time I’d like.
Conclusion:
It’s incredibly hard, but it does work. In 2 months I got much better with my swimming, I never imagined this much improvement. Running is SUCKS , but I’ll get over it and keep going. No matter how much I dreading it. I do LOVE the variety of the sessions and there’s an awesome bunch of people there. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. Someone usually stays with me when I’m plodding at the back. They could easily speed off, but they not. Coaches are also great, all of them has a different training method , but it’s all useful and works.
So I’ll keep going at least July, when it’s time to tackle Bolton. Then I’ll see if I ever want to do any more triathlon. Have to be honest I only wanted to run 1 marathon and now I’m training for the 5th one. I’ve run 4 in 2 years. So who knows if I ever do another IM or not haha.
The Club:
The club called Savage Tri Club, this is their website: https://www.savagesports.co.uk/
They offer sessions in Basingstoke and Southampton. The monthly fee is totally reasonable, it’s only £29/month for Basingstoke and only £26/month for Southampton.
I do highly recommend them 🙂
Love,