Training Log Archive: Jon X

Met up with my brother and went for an enjoyable jaunt along the national cycleway through Cannon Park, along the river and back along the canal. Plus the obligatory less fun sections through central Birmingham at the very beginning and end. Another bright clear sunny freezing cold day - ace.

Followed up with lunch in the fantastic German Market they have in Birmingham for Christmas - a nice glass of gluhwein after lunch was perfect!

Absolutely glorious day in Derbyshire, crisp and cold with clear blue skies all day.

So I sat in BOF office from 9am until gone 5pm. At least I am off running for the moment anyway.

Had the day off, went to the physio for an hour or so. Thought about going biking but persuaded myself it was probably a bit icy on the roads....

Headed south in the evening ready for a joyous day in BOF office on Saturday.

Not quite the stretching or "the" morning run, but did struggle out of bed for one last jog to wake myself up a bit. Can't really claim this was fun.

Failed to spin out the apartment-clearing process for long enough and so was able to get to circuits for one final session before departure. A sorry collection of people were there to cause the watching Toni amusement. Definitely funny if not fun.

Then pool bar lunch followed by lengthy airport queuing behind green-to-the-gills Glaswegian "ladies". Could have done without the bit where it overflowed past the gills though.....

Mini-triathlon with Andy M doing the swim and me doing the bike then run. Did 30:02 last year but much more windy this year and people were in general around 2 mins slower - happy with the time even if I STILL haven't cracked that pesky 30min barrier!

Andy did a good swim and I was one of the first few off on the bike (5th) - one of the Team Button entourage was long gone and the man himself was 90secs ahead of me.

Really windy conditions which made the biking a lot tougher than in the duathlon - they did help on the ascent though plus I felt stronger on the bike than Monday. Started off hard and got a place early, could see the others ahead and pushed hard but they were going well. Got caught just before the roundabout at the turn point, but pushed very hard into the wind on the descent and home, got a gap again and a 25sec lead back on him ready for the run.......

.....so after pushing hard on the bike set off on the run with pretty wobbly legs. Got into it a bit but got caught by the same guy again at the turnpoint - he was talking to me which was a bit of a giveaway that he had more to give, and sure enough he cruised away on the run back. Was a bit disappointed not to give him more of a race but did find out afterwards that he was in the top 100 finishers at Ironman UK triathlon in Sherborne this Sept so maybe not really a surprise to be beaten by him!

Well put in my place by Mr Button too - beat me by nearly a minute on the bike and well over a minute on the run - plus he had of course done the swim too. It is almost like he is a full time professional athlete (Honda news yet to break then.....) who is 15 years younger than me!

Hired a car after breakfast and spent the rest of the day touring the island, fitted in quite a bit (Mirador del Rio, Cuevas do los Verdes, Jardin del Cactus, Cesar Manrique Foundation, drive back through Timanfaya).

Then posse diploma harvesting session, meal, and banterous final evening.....

Not too many takers this morning.....

....which was good as it allowed me to take the morning run nice and easy...

Was going to go out road biking. But hadn't booked a bike and had to wait until 10am to see if there were any left. Waited until 10am. There were not.

So Ross (shouldn't stretch calf) and Jon (shouldn't stretch achilles or turn ankle) decided that tennis was the ideal activity for us...luckily we both survived with no increase to injury levels, with Rosco serving his way to a 6-3 victory...

Back with the yoga man. He had brought the cold wind with him again. But he worked his relaxing magic again too. Which was nice. And relaxing.

The 2009 CLS sprint race. Well planned by Toni and avoiding the worst map inaccuracies. Well won by Tisvilde Tim in just over 8 mins, with Jase and Andy both just under 9mins. Didn't run that hard and had trouble spotting the "flag" at a couple of them, plus made one small mistake. Having said that then not quite sure I could have got down to 8 minutes, to be honest.

Got some massage from skyhigh on my ankle (plus a telling off for not doing so before), then managed the stretching class - which for some reason then had hardly any stretching of calf etc in it this time!

Time for some racing, early morning racing it was too with an 8am start, hardly my forte.

2.5km run - 14.8km cycle - 2.5km run.......although the run is more like 2.7 or 2.8km

Over a minute quicker than last year but sadly 4 secs slower than Lard was last year - I was 4th but would have been 5th if Rosco hadn't dropped out with dodgy calf during second run. This left it open for James W to win in 50:40 and Andy S to come second in 51:24. I was 7th after first run and 6th after the bike but had caught 5th, managed (surprisingly) to get away from Tisvilde Tim early on the second run and hold on by 40-50m.

Conditions were a bit slippery after it poured with rain all night - the run conditions were probably worse than for the bike although we were riding through puddles in La Santa village. Not sure whether it was the wet weather or the strong field that scared Jenson Button off as he was down to race - however by repute he is a master racer in wet conditions so I can only assume it was the standard of competition!

first run 11:01 (last year 11:31)
bike 30:17 (last year 30:02)
second run 11:15 (last year 12:09)

Runs were okay although should have pushed a bit harder on the first run to be closer to the front, might have been able to have a go at chasing the others on the bike then - although having said that then I felt disappointingly weak on the bike during the ascent, even dropped down to the granny ring at one point! Rode the whole thing alone which didn't help, could see the others in a group ahead but was getting no nearer at all.

Not including the very welcome time spent standing in the icy pool afterwards...

Large breakfast and copious coffee after the duathlon, didn't even manage the stretching class but instead soaked up the sun beside the pool.

Finally we all roused ourselves for the Aquathlon, the number of injuries and ailments and non-swimmers meaning we had quite a few teams as well as individuals.

I was with Andy Mitchell (as last year) and we gloriously retained our team title, a bit more satisfying than last year though as this year we did actually beat all the individuals! Felt better on the run that this morning, set out third and passed the other two about half way - realised afterwards that one of them was the guy who was third ahead of me in the duathlon (and beat me on both runs then) so pleased about that.

As for duathlon, better time than last year (12:49 vs 13:12) - if I recall I did feel dreadful on the run last year though!

Managed a full round of mini-golf this afternoon (which for some reason at La Santa is only 17 holes??). Was tied with last year's winner at the turn but preoccupation with fashion advice and giggling distracted her and I was left with the 2009 title. I think that was what happened - either that or she bottled it this year at the thought of proving that last year was anything other than a fortunate one-off fluke......