The Plan Begins

So its been about 6 weeks or so since my last post, During the #Turbovember I only managed around a pitiful 16 sessions out of the 30 as colds/boredom kicked in and wrecked it, I did try and keep spinning once a week to keep the fitness.

So this week saw the start of an 8 month plan which should hopefully take me across the line running rather than crawling in July, hurting either way I`m sure.

I am following the Don Fink intermediate Ironman training plan starting at around 6 hours a week and peaking around 15 next year in the peak stage of the training. After 4 months without swimming I have certainly been thrown in at the deep end with the 2 weekly sessions starting at 2500meters a session with a mixture of drills and various sets. I have managed both this week but can see the only way to stay motivated and get them done is to go early mornings of which today was the first. 30 min 100RPM steady spinning followed by 80 minutes of swimming equally 2500 meters.

My running is continuing to improve and I am now up to 50 minutes on my long run improving by 5 minutes each week until I peak around 3 hours mid May time. There are lots of brick sessions within the plan teaching my body to get used to running after a ride which if you`ve never done it, is harder than it looks.

Me and Kay completed the Autumn challenge with a challenging 5 mile off road run with plenty of mud and hills, we finished in 54:36

The diet has been completely cleaned up and alcohol all but cut out now, I do plan a few over the xmas period but come January it will aim to cut it right back to improve my workouts the following day. I guess having a weekly rest day on a Monday means no drinking Friday or Saturday evenings as ill have work to do the following days.

My weight was 169lbs (12stone 1 lb) @ around 20% BF on the day I started my plan and I hope that I can get that down to around 155-158 14-15% BF by race day to give me less weight to carry on the run.

I will actually try and keep this updated now with updates on sessions and diet stuff.

If anyone fancies a health kick in the new year and wants someone to go running with or go to the gym with let me know! My current running pace is 9min miles but will happily slow down if others want to come running.