Another early Monday morning. not quite as early as last weeks entry. I got to bed early enough last night to be up in time to do over an hours run before swimming but I felt so tired I initially knocked the run on the head and then the swim as well. So instead, it’s 6.22am, I’m wide awake, feel refreshed and am writing this.

Last night I felt the most exhausted I’ve felt in ages. I could hardly pluck up the energy to get a second helping of food or even to go to bed. I’d managed a hard weekends training off the back of a solid week.

To give an idea here are my week to date totals as of last night:

swim – 24.7km

bike – 491 miles

run – 86 miles

hours – 50.8 hours

Here’s the detail of the week:

Monday

Did a 10 mile run to swimming and then a 3.8km  session. Following breakfast I went to the pool and did a straight 8km time trial followed by 600m pull drill. The rest of the day was rest.

Tuesday

Too tired to get up and run first thing. So had a sleep in and managed to get out on the fixed by 7.50am. Did a tough 105 miles on the fixed. Managed to forget my spanners to remove my tyres so had a nervy ride to Ongar and then Chelmsford looking to buy a spanner and praying not to get a puncture. An unknown distance from Chelmsford I realised I had a slow puncture so ended up cycling as hard as I could to get there quickly. I entered Chelmsford on a completely flat front tyre but luckily the first shop I found was a bike shop !

    It was a windy day so I ended up spending the first 4 hours into the wind before having a fantastic ride back with the wind. Super quick turnaround got me to the pool for a 4.8k session. In the evening whilst Jo Turbo’d I got out and did my run. I managed 12.5 miles struggling at a very slow pace – it was a massive mental battle to just get round it but well worth the effort as I’m sure it increases my mental strength for the Ironman marathon.

Wednesday

First thing joined Jo on her paced run. I was concerned about this based on how slow I’d  been the night before but shouldn’t have been. I was able to kick out a decent pace very comfortably. At work I missed my lunchtime run due to work stuff, I felt it was a good thing getting the rest. In the evening it was the usual run to and from the club swim session. Am starting to swim well knocking out some 1.18 100m – still a ways to go though.

Thursday

Now it starts getting good. I was wide awake bright and early so got up and was out on the bike (fixed) by 4.20am. It’s a good sign when I’m on my  12th lap of Regents Park when Jo arrives. Not only that but I’d been really pushing it along. Once we had all met up (Jo, Gabriel and Luis) we started the session – we took it in turns to go as hard as we could from the SE corner of the lap to the NE corner. We managed 2 laps like this each. It was awesome fun. On my laps I did everything I could to drop the guys but wasn’t able to. When others were doing their laps I got on their wheel and shouted encouragement whenever they eased off. I thoroughly enjoyed my breakie afterwards having done 61 miles ! Managed a along steady run at lunchtime. I was in bed reading my book by 6.45pm and asleep by 7.15pm !

Friday

Again up bright and early and went and lapped Regents Park – not as fast as yesterday. Was out the same length of time but only got 58 miles done. Another long steady run at lunchtime. Then a 3k swim set after work before running to and from Janes for my dinner

Saturday

Managed to get up early and run 14 miles first thing. I was running really well and thoroughly enjoyed it. Had some breakie then got out on the fixed. I headed into the wind and it was a tough old ride. Ended up doing 115 miles in 7h45 and I felt exhausted. Luckily Jo was cooking up tea for us – it was delicious.

Sunday

Well chuffed I managed to get out for a run. Had to be quick as Jo and I were planning on starting our ride at 6.30am and I’d need breakfast after the run. I was belting along and managed 8.5 miles in 63 minutes. Breakfast and change in 25 minutes and we were on the road on time.

    Jo had said this would probably be an easy ride as she’d done a hard run on Saturday so her legs would probably be tired. Well… they weren’t and combined with her being on her new TT machine meant we went at a fair old pace. Managed best part of 5 hours riding before  we stopped in Great Dunmow. Then we covered the next 20 miles to Epping in 61 minutes – we were flying along and it was awesome fun. The usual Costa Coffee in Epping before Jo headed home and I headed back in the wind. I was going well but about 2 hours from home I started to feel it and it became pretty hard work. In the end I managed 152 miles in 9h48.

Hopefully that explains why I felt so knackered last night !