Out with a bang!

And back with a sniff!

January is in the bank, I have to say I am very pleased with how it all went with the exception of right at the end where I have caught a stinker of a cold from my one of my mobile germ warfare factories (aka kids), I thought I had shrugged it off but it hit me like a ton of bricks today! Off work and everything!

But let’s focus on the good stuff. I have created a nice little routine over the last two weeks which is:

• Monday – morning swim, evening bike
• Tuesday – morning bike, evening run
• Wednesday –  morning swim, evening bike
• Thursday – Morning bike, evening run
• Friday – morning swim
• Saturday – morning swim
• Sunday – Long ride and brick run

Yeah there are no days off but the back to back swims allow for recovery, especially as I improve in the pool, but I like having the 4 pool sessions as my swimming endurance is slowly building up and the shorter sets allow me to focus more on my form. That being said it’s not going to be sustainable to train 7 days a week when the distances get longer so some tradeoffs are going to have to be made. I managed my first brick run this weekend and while not a massive run; 5 miles off a 50 mile ride I was pleased that I could finish it in 40 minutes and that was with my first mile at 9:40 pace!

I also had my first race of the year which was very the 13.1 Los Angeles (report here) it was never going to be fast and I was pleased that I could go out and run a HM with very little training for it. Another success was that I tried my wetsuit for the first time, it was a a very quick dip in the local pool late on Sunday but I felt it was necessary to make sure that I could swim in it, finding out on race day that I couldn’t would have been really bad! It might be a tad too short; the curse of being tall and slim, typically as things get longer (taller) they get wider! The last big thing was settling on a saddle; an ISM Adamo Break Away for my TT bike, putting some mileage on it and riding on both the flats and through the hills if my road bike was anything to go by it’s going to take 1500 –2000 miles to get comfortable on it so I have a fair way to go!

Last Sunday’s ride; 25 mile flatish, 25 mile hilly

So let’s look at the numbers:

• 530 total miles (15 less than December which was my biggest mileage month for 2011)
• 50.01 time, so about 12 hours a week (around a 90 minutes per week gain over November)
• 57:58 miles running in 8:07 (December 9/1:19) Longest run 13.1/1:53
• 453 miles cycling in 27:49 (December 524/33:07) Longest ride 55/3:40 on Slice
• 25,525 yards swam in 12:35 (December 21,278/10:39) Longest Swim (x2) 1800yds 53:00 (Jan 7) 47:00 (Jan 30)
• Starting weight 171.2lb ending 172.4lb

I am pleased about having such big back to back months. What I am really pleased about is my swimming, just this last week it has felt like it has clicked a bit more, my form feels like it is improving. I am building a more than a nod rapport with the folks I see at the gym (5am starts will do that) and they have commented that I am looking better in the water. I am still very focused on my form as having that correct will set me up for the next stages which are endurance and speed although I am seeing an improvement in my speed already (see the times above). I am still adding yardage each week to the distance I swim unsupported i.e. no pool buoy and it is getting easier as it gets longer.

So this week is a step back week, a good job with this cold. February’s focus is adding in more core work (i.e. doing some) and then I will have three more build weeks and a taper week to race day.

One last thing is that, hopefully I have been a bit of better blogger (try saying that three times fast!) both in posting and commenting, I shuffled up my blog roll and cut some, it was crazy long and a lot of them when I dug into them had died, so I am keeping it fairly short and manageable, as always I really appreciate you for stopping by, leaving a few words and not pointing and laughing too much!