Training : Around and Up and Up and Down

Intervals, again

I think I live in a Escher Like world where even if there are some downs there are definitely more ups than downs. This does appear to be contrary to my friend's experience where Tyneside's East End appears only to have scrap heaps.

Tonight's training run appeared to consist of semi-circular routes around the trading/industrial estate at the back of Hexham followed by a never ending flight of steps. It is the succession of short manic bursts of 'efforts' done at as high a speed as possible followed by very much shorter 'rest' (a euphemism for slightly less effort) periods that make up these 'intervals'. Bryan seems to think they are key to fitness at our age, all I know is I'm bloody knackered.

Training Resumed : Jelly All Round

There's Bears in them Woods

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There's nothing like getting a race bib number in the post and a sudden realisation that the start date is just a few weeks away to get the motivation going. For 'motivation' read PANIC.

After a few weeks of not feeling great and not enjoying the running I decided last night to get down to it and motivate myself. The receipt of the bib for the Tynedale Harrier's Jelly Road Race, start time 11:00am 6th Sept. that morning had something to do with it too. It's 10 Miles! Shit that's far longer than I've run ever at one time before and I'm starting to panic for sure. Tips on how to up the distance from where I'm reasonably comfortable, 10k, to the new goal of 10 Miles, would be helpful.

Statistics: Distance: 10.44 km Elevation gain: 217.1 m Elevation loss: -217.5 m. (As calculated by GPS Visualizer)

Downtime

Getting The Sunday Papers in

Hagg Bank Bridge

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Taking a 9 mile walk just to get the papers in seems a little excessive perhaps.

There's a good description of the Hagg Bank Bridge over on Cycle-Routes.org and yes it does look like The Tyne Bridge, that's because it was the predecessor of both the Tyne Bridge and the Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia.

Murder Miles

1 dead 6 more

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Yesterday evening's Murder Mile was, well murderous. A sort of handicapped, staggered start times, up hill run up a series of hairpin bends which never seemed to end, from The Dyvels Pub just out side Corbridge to the top of prospect hill. I didn't do as well as I had hoped but there again I'm always self critical. But it was as they say just for fun.
This was followed by a 6+ mile training run over to Dilston and back down along the riverside to the pub. A beautiful evening, sunshine views and everything, did not detract from the fact that this was very hard work. All the best runners from the club were there and it was all on the road, non stop. Normally Tuesday's running is off road, and the odd 30sec stop for gates or stiles makes all the difference. But a good evening was had by all, food and beer at the pub making it all the more enjoyable.

Training : Loopback

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Training : Wot no rest?

WHERE THE HELL ARE WE

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Rather than take a rest day after the weekend I decided to take the usual Tuesday run out with the guys from Hexham. The evening sunshine and a degree of boredom and no small addiction to this obsession got me up and runnin again.

It was the usual mixture of road and off road work, woodland tracks and fields, loads of up hill, just enough to stretch the strength and stamina. It feels good when it's this good.

The run was around 6.3 miles in just over the hour. The last dash down into Hexham through the evening shopping traffic providing a bit of light relief.

Parting gestures to Chris and ? for their Saturday run....The London Marathon.. best of luck guys!

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Training : The run out

The final run out before iROC

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Arrgh... ankle, tweaked, you know the rest. So no more work this week, just carb loading.

Training : The run up

The last Leg

Well the bike came out yesterday and got pushed around and about for 13 or so miles. Not bad considering I haven't been on one for years. No crashes or even a near miss.

As a vehicle for training it seems it uses slightly different muscles in the legs than running and I'm not sure that's a good thing or not. Comments from Triathalon friends please. It did get me some reasonable exercise though and was much easier on the ankle than running. Indeed that and the anti-inflammatories seem have been working and it's begining to feel much better. There's one bodily aspect that did NOT fair well, must get a new saddle.

So this week is last training before iROC and it's not looking too healthy with at least one long car journey, expected 8hrs, and one late night at Daughter's 18th Birthday party to contend with. Last run out with the Hexham group on Tuesday then a complete wind down before the Saturday.

Weather : Occluded Front

The North-South Divide

Early Saturday morning just off the Military road near Horsley I spotted this weather formation. Looking at the charts for today it's a clear example of an Occluded Front. If you pardon the pun. It stretched from the horizon in the South all across the sky to the opposite horizon in North. Blanket cloud in the East and almost nothing at all looking West.

Now not sure if that heading should be East-West, anyhoo it looked spectacular enough to get out of the car and take this photo.

No training again today as the ankle is still sore as hell. May take a trip to the gym later today, pushing pedals may just be OK. Really concerned for next weekend's trip to Eastgate.

The weather chart above has been supplied by the Met Office, courtesy of their Library Service. I have to say these guys are great, I asked them if I could have a historic chart at approx 1am, by 13:00 the next day they had sent me the full image of the chart that I asked for. Brilliant guys! Thank you.

Rugby Training : Mark My Words

Youth and rugby training 5 nights a week

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Mark a collegue from work and the other deranged person in the Off Exploring iROC team came and ran along with the Tuesday Night group I've been training with. Well I say along with, what I actually mean is 'ran far ahead of' as he was always way out front. It's youth of course, he's half the average age of the group, and the 5 nights rugby training for Ponteland Rugby Football Club that does it.

Unfortunately my GPS packed up halfway through the run so I had to guess at the actual route we took. It was all new territory as far as I was concerned anyway.

Performance this week, not great struggled most of the way around and damaged my left ankle again. I really will have to rest it over the next few days. Looks like boring cycle training for a while.

iROC is just over a week away now and while I'm not quite in a state of panic it is begining to come to the forefront of my mind. One thing I have learnt over the past few weeks is the state of one's mental fitness is just as important as the body. Any tips on how to stay focussed and positive would be helpful as would words of encouragement; like those from Bryan over at Tyne Dock Green.

Salmon Run on Tyne : Packing in the calories

Making Carbohydrate Loading a richer experience

Well it's about time this blog included something about my other passion, food and any way the Google map thing doesn't really work if the only exercise has been on a bloody treadmill because the weather's shite.

Salmon Linguine

• Enough Linguine for 4
• Salmon Steak - cooked 1 per person
• Cherry Tomatoes 10~12
• 1/2 Fennel
• Hand-full Rocket leaves - 2~3
• Red pepper - 1 medium
• Green Pepper - 1 medium
• Artichokes Grilled, the ones in olive oil - 4
• Sundried Tomatoes 2~3
• Birdseye Chilli 3~4 (8~10 if cooking at my strength)
• Fresh Mint - small hand-full

Put the pasta on to boil, a splosh of olive oil and a good pinch of salt in the water will stop it boiling over.

Flake the cooked fish and put it to one side. Finely chop all the veg, that is very finely this is only going to take 1 min to cook once the pasta is done. Do the same to the sun-dried tomatoes and the chillies. The cherry toms and the artichokes need only roughly chopping, the latter usually come in quarters anyhoo, just chop them in half. The mint is best shredded by hand into small pieces, this releases the aroma too.

Once the pasta is cooked, al-dente mind don't let it go soggy! drain and serve into warm bowls. Throw all the chopped ingredients into the hot pan with a little more olive oil if necessary. Warm through, this should only take a minute or so, then chuck in the fish and continue to warm that through for at most another min, try to keep the fish flakes intact, season with black pepper and maybe a little salt.

Now serve and eat!

Training : Running up hill

The training tonight was actually on the treadmill, just 3 miles and a high incline; 30 mins start to finish. Just a warm up really because Monday night is usually a night off.

Hexham: Runnin around and up and down

Early evening and off road

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Another great but hard training evening out with the crowd from Hexham. It's amazing what running in a group does for motivation and determination. After such a bad couple of days over the weekend this was sooo much better.

Training : Flat Out

Along the flat

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Wracked with pain and not just in my ankle. This was supposed to be a longer distance training run in an attempt to get the stamina built up for iROC. In the end it was painful and demoralising and my bloody ankle hurts still.