Life Lately... Mainly Triathlon Training!

There's been a dearth of what I would term "personal" posts on here lately. Quite a few race reviews as I try to clear the backlog of races I wanted to talk about last year and the odd Vik's Picks post but little else. That's not for lack of things to talk about, on the contrary there's been a heck of a lot going on and frankly when I've had some down time I've not felt like opening the laptop to write about it. Life's a bit all-or-nothing right now... with the emphasis on ALL!

This year is the year of the wedding and the year of my half iron distance triathlon amongst other things (see my side bar for full event listings). Since January I've already clocked up three official half marathons and a night run. I'm working on new classes and opportunities for my business, including gaining my CiRF (coaching) qualification and working on another older adults fitness course. I'm neck deep in decisions about gift lists, accessories, table decorations and guest lists, playing step-mum every other weekend and trying to fit in the odd social thing like an evening with Mary Berry or seeing The Mavericks play The Indigo at the O2. Add into that training that's ramping up and it's no wonder I feel a little like I'm burning the candle at both ends. A friend brought it home to me recently with a message informing my that I "looked f*cked" in an instagram photo not so long ago and that I should slow down.

Looking less than brilliant after 40 miles on the gym bike.

I've been increasing my swim distances for Swimathon 2017. I've previously done the 2.5km swim but this year I'm tackling the 5km distance. I've done 4km in training and frankly I'm counting on that to get me through. I've also been building up my cycling distances. I'm a reluctant cyclist, not yet au fait with cleats or rollers and a bit of a wuss when it comes to cycling outside. I'd signed up for the standard distance on the Wiggle Spring Sportive which was advertised at 50miles but now turns out to be 66miles. I'm up to 40miles on the gym bike with no more time to really push further before the event so am hoping that sheer will and determination will be enough (along with the support of Dean who is also taking part). So much for it being a bridge to my triathlon! Both the swim and the bike sections for the triathlon are shorter than these events so I'll be in a good place if I can maintain some of this fitness. 

Severe goggle marks after one of my longest swims.

The running is a different matter. Comfortable at half marathon distance I've not managed to hit my planned longer runs lately. When I'm pushed for time, it's the running that usually gets shelved. I *only* need to be able to run a half for the triathlon but we do have some longer distance events coming up which I want to be able to complete comfortably. I won't lie, I am getting a bit stressed out about it, but I have to be realistic. I'll be able to reduce time in the pool soon and so will have a little more time for running. It's been finding suitable blocks of time that's been the real struggle, especially ones that aren't on consecutive days.

Strength needs to feature, though it's often neglected.

On average I'm doing one swim (1.5-2hrs), one cycle (2hrs plus), and two runs a week (10k-ish and one longer)  with occasional yoga and mini strength workouts or HIIT sessions. I'm generally enjoying the training, and although I'm not seeing any changes in my body I know it's stronger and more resilient than it has been. Rest and relaxation are also part of training which is why on Thursday last week, instead of going out for a long run I took some time out. My body felt heavy and if I didn't rest I knew I may jeopardise my ability to train later. 

Yoga is part of my self-care regime.

Things don't really calm down after the triathlon... although I'll be able to drop the cycling and swimming if I so choose, I'll need to keep my long distance legs going for the honeymoon... he's only gone and signed us up for the Costa Rica marathon!! No excuse for not being in great shape on our wedding day though.

What's your "A" race or event this year? Are you suffering from training stress or taking it in your stride? 

Friday Night Swimming

Friday evening, the end of a long week. All I really wanted to do after finishing my work at the gym is to go home, have dinner and curl up in bed with a book. Especially as my 6:30pm cancelled at short notice so I have an hour to hang around before going to swim training. As I sit in the gym, all be it with a cup of tea, I feel the motivation ebbing away so I get in the car and drive over to Reading to  sit in the car park for half an hour and call my mum. I reason that the nearer I get to the pool, the more likely I am to do it.

It was only the third time I'd joined the Thames Valley Triathletes swim training session, and only the second in recent weeks. And I'm yet to get to the point where I stop trying to make excuses not to go; I swam last night, my arms ache, I’ll be late, they will have their maximum number of 15 already, I’ll make a fool of myself, I should have had a snack, my housemate will have used all the hot water by the time I get back and I'll have to have a cold shower (I dislike showering at the pool)… all ridiculous and unfounded.

But ultimately what gets me there, signed in and peeling the second ticket out of my booklet of swim session cards is the thought that it will be so much harder to swim the 2.5km for Sport Relief if I don’t go. I don’t want to fail and I know that great things happen at the edge of your comfort zone. I reassure myself that everyone was a beginner once. 

The pool is colder this week but the welcome is even warmer than before. I'm starting to recognise people, learn a few names, find my place in the pack. Lyn, our coach explains some terms on the warm up sheet for me (long dog?) and I find I'm not the only one who didn't know. My arms feel heavy after a 1750m swim the night before but somehow I get through everything, fighting the drowning feeling on the catch up drill. I'm the only one in my lane who seems happier with bilateral breathing than single side and I take huge comfort from Lyn telling me that I'm doing really well. When I get home I find hot water, a light dinner and notice the definition my arms are starting to develop. 

I only started my training 3 and a half weeks ago, swimming once or twice a week at the local pool to build up distance and the proportion of lengths I do with front crawl, and now attending the swim training sessions to improve my technique. This is in addition to my usual exercise regime of 2-3 runs, a yoga class and a HIIT or Boxing workout. It’s been hard work, and frustrating at times when the pool is busy, or I have to go late at night because of work, but I’m starting to feel as though I can do this; I’m not the slowest in the slow lane on club training nights and I’ve swum further in the pool in one session than ever before. I think I'm beginning to look forward to the Swimathon!

Race Schedule for 2016

The mayhem of January has now passed and my thoughts have turned rather suddenly to what my event schedule and race goals might be for the year. As we entered 2016 I wasn't feeling very driven towards anything particular. I'd signed up to a handful or events in the latter part of 2015 and really thought little more about it.

But a week or so ago I received an email informing me that I'd been chosen to pace at the Hampton Court Half Marathon on February 21st. A small sense of panic kicked in. I'd run a respectable time in Tromso in January but had really only been ticking over since then, with few miles under my feet in the weeks to date. Now I knew I needed to get out and practice running at pace and satisfy myself that I could comfortably cover the distance as required. It's one thing running for yourself and quite another knowing people will be relying on you!

And so as I added Hampton Court into the diary I realised my race calendar here needed to be updated too. So here are my confirmed events for 2016 so far:

• Hampton Court Half - I'll be taking part in this as a pacer and I'm VERY excited.
• Leith Hill Half - I got free entry to this in return for marshalling two years ago. The first half is uphill and the second half downhill. An interesting challenge that I just want to complete.
• Royal Berkshire 10k - I had to defer my entry to this from last year but am looking forward to running with friends. No time goal here. Yet.
• Swimathon - Get Berkshire Active and This Girl Can are putting together a virtual team of ladies taking part in challenges for Sport Relief this year and I'm in! The 6 mile running distance doesn't feel like much of a challenge so I'll be taking part in swimathon for a second time but going up to the 2.5km distance - eek!
• Polesden Lacy 10k - I'd love to run at a National Trust property and this "challenging" 10k looks to be extremely pretty. Planning to get round and then make a day of it with my parents.
• Cakeathon - Running and cake. Both very dear to my heart. A lapped event over 6 hours with plenty of cake to fuel me. I'd like to achieve ultra distance.
• Stour Valley Marathon - This got a great write up last year and I fancied doing something scenic. I've covered ultra marathon distance off-road and much of Medoc was on track but this will be a step further. Not time goal yet.

In addition to the confirmed events I've seen a others that I am interested in but haven't entered yet as I'm trying to stagger entry fees across the months. These are almost definitely going to happen:

Polesdon Lacy. Photo by National Trust

• Chiltern Classic Sportive (short distance) - A true cycling event has been on my mind for a while. I rarely choose to go cycling so need something to force my hand. This looks to be a distance to challenge me without being scary, fairly local and far enough away in the calendar to allow for truing to happen. Will set me up nicely for the triathlon...
• Thorpe Park Tri - I've enjoyed the triathlons I've done and feel I should step up the distance. A friend has signed up to do this and has persuaded me to do likewise. What a cool location!
• Oxford Half - The one thing I would really love to do this year is get my half marathon time down to a sub-2 hour. It's going to take some work but the right course will help. Oxford was recommended as a flat course. Still waiting for entries to open but keen to do this.

So those are my plans and goals. And, as ever, I'll be updating you on my training and how I get on at each one. 

Are you doing any of these or have you done them in the past? Any advice or tips?

Not Just For Athletes : ithlete

We all know the importance of rest and recovery as part of our training schedules, right? Overtraining is a very real issue but how do you find the balance? Sometimes it's not always easy to tell when you should rest, when you could push yourself a little or when you're just being a bit lazy. I know I've been there!

There are multiple ways to record your training, whether it's a sports watch with GPS device, an app on your phone or online. But how can you tell how when to train and when to rest? Your heart rate (HR) gives a good indication of this but HR variability (HRV) is even more accurate. The HR increases as you inhale and decreases as you exhale and the difference between these is known as the HRV. If you're well-rested there will be a wider gap than if you're overtrained or stressed.

There is now a system on the market called ithlete, consisting of a HR sensor (various, from £44.99) and an app (£7.99), which allows you to measure and record your HRV, alongside other details such as muscle fatigue, sleep quality, mood and diet, to give a view of how your body is responding to the demands put upon it and how hard you should workout.

I've been trialling the system for over a month now and it has definitely had a bearing on my training. Each morning I plug the finger sensor into the headphone socket of my iPhone, launch the app and carry out the one-minute breathing exercise while my HR is read from my finger. After this I enter the other measure on a 1-10 scale including how hard my last workout was and I get a reading. If the number is green, I'll benefit from a harder workout, amber suggests I should take it a little easier and red is an indication that I really should rest. The chart shows the trend and average over time as well as your other readings so you can spot any trends or correlations.

If you want a little more meaningful data interpretation and guidance then ithlete Pro is a web-based platform that syncs with the app and Fitbits. It gives a pictorial representation of your readings, including more subtle workout zones and summarises guidance in a single sentence.

The ithlete Pro platform costs £3 a month or £30 per year but you can sign up for a free 2 week trial on the website. It's very easy to register and there's a great little tour of the platform; it took me all of two minutes to set up the account, have a look around and sync the existing data from my phone.

I've heard that there are more exciting developments in the pipe line which I may be in a position to write about in the future. For now though, I will be continuing to use ithlete to guide me in the intensity of my workouts, especially as I head into September, a heavy month of events for me.

Disclaimer: I was provided with a complimentary finger sensor by ithlete in return for a review but paid for the app myself. All opinions are my own and I genuinely found benefit from using this device and app.

That Friday Feeling... On Thursday?

A Bank Holiday weekend throws me at the best of times. That Monday feeling on a Tuesday? Wait, it's Friday already? What? But this weekend was even more confusing than usual.

Last Friday was fine. I'd done a full week in the office and headed to Guildford to meet fellow Team Bear member, Patrick, for the first time ahead of his 2Swim4Life event at which I was supporting; I've met very few people on the team and sometimes it feels a bit like Pokemon (gotta catch 'em all!). Saturday and Sunday melded together a bit as I alternated 4 hour shifts poolside to help ensure Patrick was warm, rested, watered and fed between miles for 24 hours. It was a brilliant event to be part of and gave me an introduction into the swimming community, which is very different to the running community. I felt out of place without a bobble hat or a dry robe and concluded that they are all a little bit bonkers, in the nicest possible way. That said there's a very strong possibility I'll be persuaded into some swimming events in the next year or so.

Proper old-school towelling robe!

So I headed home from Guildford lido not entirely sure if it was Saturday or Sunday (goodness only knows what day it felt like to Patrick) only to discover that the sniffle and itchy throat I'd been trying to keep at bay with copious amounts of ginger tea was fast developing into a full blow cold which tethered me to the sofa and required a sick day on Tuesday. But I did watch a heck of a lot of House of Cards and got ahead on my session planning.

Guildford Lido at night

I worked from my sofa on Wednesday and by the afternoon felt up to tackling my training run. Thursday was business as usual. At least I think it was Thursday. My entire schedule was off track! I had to skip two runs this week but still managed to clock up 13 miles and a swim so I'm happy with that, especially as 4 of those miles were decent paced trail miles.

This weekend I'm helping out at another swimming event, the Uber Swim at Dinton, and socialising with some friends I've not seen in far too long. Bring on the brunch!

Have you ever found yourself immersed in a very different sporting community on occasion? Did the Bank Holiday help or hinder your training?

No Rest For The Wicked (Except on Wednesday)

After returning from Iceland late last Thursday I was straight into the thick of things at the weekend. I had a great time helping out with preparing goody bags with Barnes fitness on Friday night, chatting, dancing to some old skool tunes on the radio and munching on pizza.

Many hands make light work

Saturday started with an early morning PT session followed by parkrun and then a trip to Dover to visit my cousin, his wife and their little girl who is soon to be my Godchild! We had a lovely afternoon together, walking the dogs in the drizzle, descending on a local tea room and watching Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs (bizarre film). We even talked health and fitness as they've just bought a cross-trainer.

Sky and Grace. Grace lengthened my arm by about 3 inches

Getting slightly lost on our walk, trying to take a "shortcut"

I didn't get home until about 11:30pm and was up at 6:30 (BST) on Sunday to help out at Dinton Duathlon. The weather hadn't caught on to the fact it was now BST though and it was a windy, drizzly day but that didn't stop the competitors turning out and giving it their all. Once again I got to meet some more lovely people who were marshaling but ultimately it was the competitors themselves that were the stars of the day. I had just as much admiration, if not more, for those at the back of the pack as those at the front.

What all the best dressed marshals are wearing this season.

I managed to squeeze in a long-ish run on the treadmill (avoiding the weather) before heading to London to meet my folks for a cracking evening at Ronnie Scott's for the Blues Explosion featuring Paddy Milner and Marcus Bonfanti among other notable musicians. If you like Blues music and you aren't familiar with these guys you really should take a moment to check them out. How I managed to stay awake on the way home I don't know!

The rest of the week has been relatively routine with a lighter training load and even a proper honest-to-god rest day on Wednesday. I will admit to turning up early for teaching and being quite envious that I couldn't join in with the boxing class nor my own kettlebells class. Thems the breaks. No cycling this week but 33 miles run over 6 sessions and my swim lesson. Doesn't actually sound like much of a taper when it's written down but it's not felt arduous.

I've got a beautifully quiet weekend ahead with just light marshal duties, a couple of light runs and a dog walk. I intend to try my best to keep it that way! Next weekend is the Brighton Marathon. Oh how that's snuck up on me. I've made plans with friends and family, ordered the iron on letters and have started to think about my packing list. I'm currently more excited than anxious and long may that last. If you haven't sponsored me yet and could do so I'd be really grateful. Just head over to www.justgiving.com/VikkiRunning/ Thanks!

What are you up to over Easter? Low key or doing as much as possible?

Cake, Concerns and Case Studies

It's less than a month to go until the Brighton Marathon and so last weekend I did my longest run to date in this set of training; 3 hour run at marathon pace. I wasn't looking forward to it and although I managed to keep the average pace I had aimed for I'm still nervous that my longest run has only been 16 miles and that I have to maintain that for another 10 miles. If I'd designed my own training programme I'd have run further. My longest runs were 18 and 20 miles respectively in my previous marathon training. But I'm trying to keep the faith.

As if 3 hours of running wasn't enough I also took Jasper The Dog for an hours walk that day. Dogs don't care that you've run 16 miles. They tend to want to bound around for as long as you'll let them. I've grown very fond of Jasper very quickly and might try a bit of a jog with him next time.

The highlight of the weekend though was joining my friend Debbie for her 100th park run. As is customary there was cake. A huge Victoria sponge that was demolished in the cafe over talk of the Barcelona marathon and lashings of tea. Perfect.

I started the week feeling rather fatigued and ended up skipping my workout on Monday. I could feel that I needed the down time and so after PTing a friend and staying a while for dinner and a much-needed chat I ended up in bed around 9:30pm, falling asleep to an episode of Breaking Bad. I had the best nights sleep in around two weeks. I did Monday's workout on Tuesday after RunFit but still struggled. Despite feeling as though I was working hard I couldn't get my heart rate into the zone I was meant to. But I moved my body and slept well again. I developed a streaming nose on Thursday for no apparent reason and started to fret about my training again. Twitter gave me all the advice about rest that I'd have given others which I tried to take. I've done what I can and am trying not to worry about what I couldn't. Sum total of this week's training amounts to one strength session including a 200kg prowler pull (which I'm pretty pleased with - so sue me), one swimming lesson and 27.5 miles run.

Lunch in the garden, topping up the iron and vitamin D levels

I had a blood test to check that my vitamins and minerals were all in balance as although I've not changed the supplements I'm taking, my lifestyle has changed a bit and I'd been feeling more up-and-down. Glad to report that all levels are normal apart from my cholesterol which has apparently gone up since my last test in September but as I wasn't told whether my HDL or LDL was high it's not a very helpful reading. So sleep, good food, rest and less worry is the order of the day I think.

This weekend I've got to get my head back into the books one more time to finish off my case study and draw up some session plans. I'll also be helping out at Cholsey Chase and walking Jasper again. All this productivity is nicely book-ended by extra fun in the form of a gig and an evening of The Walking Dead viewing, both of which I'm looking forward to A LOT.

Papers, papers everywhere

Have you managed to get out in the sunshine this week? Just why is it that running and cake seem to go hand in hand?

Sheep, Storms and Soppy Dogs

Life is still mainly eat, work, train, sleep, repeat but I have managed to have a bit of life outside of that. Saturday was a happy mix of a speedier-than-planned parkrun, the arrival of some proper vinyl to listen to (music is right up there alongside food and running in terms of things I love) and a marvellous dinner with some family. I sort of bounced from one thing to another on Sunday; from Kent to Berkshire to dog-walking to cinema to run to zombie-watching to conversation with a far-flung friend. It was mostly ace.

The ace parts were taking my godson to see Shaun the Sheep (which I probably enjoyed more than he did) and getting to walk a beautiful soppy black lab called Jasper for a couple in my capacity as volunteer for the Cinnamon Trust. We took a walk across some local heathland in the sunshine, getting vaguely lost. I think he might be game for a bit of jogging!

Silly soppy Jasper

The not so ace part was my run. The only time I had to fit my run in was in the only part of the day it was due to be wet. I was meant to be out for 2h15. this did not happen. I was prepared for the weather but even so the sheets of rain that I encountered after only 5 minutes and the subsequent drenching my a car provoked a few profanities. I found myself in a quickly darkening forest and with stomach cramps that reduced me to a walk. I got home as quickly as I could and counted myself lucky I rarely have sessions like that.

About to brave the storm

So including the aforementioned runs, the last seven days of training has consisted of a strength session, 15.75 miles on the bike, runs totalling 31.2 miles and my swim lesson which focused on crawl technique and breaststroke turns. Not too shabby!

Juggling teaching/coaching, work, training and downtime has been pretty tricky this week though. With regards to training it's not that I can't manage the sessions themselves, it's trying to physically fit them in that's proving tough. I'll be sending my coach a revised schedule of commitments to try and address that. What's becoming clear is that I'm going to have to make some fairly big decisions soon. probably sooner than I'd hoped.

Early morning sunrises 

Please tell me I wasn't the only one caught in a storm at the weekend? Anyone else secretly love kids films?

On Becoming A Metafit Instructor

For reasons that will become clear in due time I recently undertook a day course to become a metafit instructor. Metafit, for the uninitiated, is a "30 minute metabolic workout". The workout aims to change the resting metabolism by working big muscle groups with simple un-choreographed, high intensity intervals, inside of 30 minutes. It was developed by former Royal Marine commando Justin Corcoran who actually taught my group himself.

Metafit is one of my favourite classes these days. It's bloody hard work but I always feel great afterwards and I can get through knowing it's only 30 minutes. Well, actually it's 30 minutes including the warm up... the evil part ranges from 17 to 22 minutes... quite manageable. The idea is to go all out during that time though so you're spent by the end. There are lots of squat thrusts, burpees, walk out press ups and sprints. All things I dislike but want to be better at.

The course took place in London in a dance studio. There were only seven of us, two guys and five women, all at different stages in our fitness careers; as such it was great chatting to everyone. We started out by actually doing one of the latest releases, "Behind Enemy Lines". I'm rubbish at commando crawls and my get ups need some work but overall it was awesome. What I like about the classes is that they are such hard work you are entirely focused on getting through it. Even though we were working out in front of a mirrored wall I don't think I looked in it at all.

Dans la studio.

Similarly to Les Mills branded workouts, there are new releases every month. Unlike Les Mills the music is PPL free and the ongoing subscription for instructors is much lower. Also unlike Les Mills the instructor does not take part in the class. It is physically impossible to do the session and teach it. Just can't be done. Justin was constantly moving around the group reminding us to jump higher, make the moves bigger and PICK THOSE KNEES UP NOW! In the nicest possible way of course.

We learnt a lot about the origins of the workout, how to teach it effectively and practiced instructing some warm ups and mini-sessions ourselves. It was a lot of fun, and rather refreshing. Since the course I've been brushing up on all the moves and trying to put myself through a few sessions at home. That takes some will power I can tell you!

But you can now find me on the list of metafit instructors in the area and I'm looking forward to teaching for real.

Getting a Coach

Sometimes it's not easy to take the necessary steps back to be objective about your own abilities and your training, even if you have the necessary skills. I'm now a qualified PT and have successfully designed programmes for myself and friends to help us achieve race goals but despite this I've decided to take a step back from my own training and hand the responsibility of designing a training plan to a coach.

Why on earth would I do that? Well for a start I don't know everything; I am still learning, reading around different subjects and discovering different approaches to training. I have also traditionally focused on only training for the next race, rather than looking at my year as a whole. Finally when I'm programming for myself it's easy to get a bit too involved, to be easy on myself or not be completely honest about strengths and weaknesses.

So when I got the opportunity to try a month's coaching with Performance Coaching I decided to give it a go. I'd been intrigued to know what it would be like. It might not be for me but at least I would find out what it was like to have someone else do the thinking for me. Plus it made me feel like a pro, having a coach. This was serious stuff!

The upfront work was quite involved. After a chat on the phone about my goals and background I was asked to elaborate on this by completing a 50-odd page document with information on general health and fitness, training goals, previous race experience and outcomes, available time, current training and basic diet overviews. All of this influenced the designing of my plan which I can access online through the Training Peaks platform. I can log in online or via an app on my phone to see what I'm meant to be doing when then upload my Garmin data and add comments to sessions for review later.

The first week was geared towards determining my HR zones and making adjustments and from then on it was simply a case of getting on with things. I've found I treat my workouts much more like appointments than I used to. My training tended to be a bit of a movable feast as no one was looking over my shoulder. Being accountable to someone really does make a world of difference, even more so when they're in control of the plan. And I'm continuing to learn.

My coach has been incredibly approachable and quickly got a feel for my attitude to training. At our check in after two weeks he was already correct in his assumption that a couple of sessions showing as missed on TP wasn't just due to me being sloppy with uploading.

As I near the end of my trial I am starting to consider whether I want to continue with my coach. We click and I am certainly more focused so I'd like to but there are finances to consider. I already pay for a gym membership, occasional classes elsewhere and want to take some swim lessons in the New Year. However Performance Coaching offer a number of levels of coaching which could make this affordable at a basic level. I know some people who pay for the top package and that would be amazing but it's unrealistic for me.

You don't have to be a pro to have a coach, and even on a short term basis it could be useful if you want more targeted training. Plus it's fun to feel like a pro!

Do you have a coach or would you ever consider it? If you're thinking about it, you may find this article an interesting read. 

This Is It...

This week's training:

Saturday: Rest day

Sunday: 10 mile run

Monday: 4 mile run

Tuesday: 3 mile run

Wednesday: 2 mile run

Thursday: Rest day

Friday: 1 hour swim session

This is it, it's finally here... G-Day. Gatliff weekend. My First Ultra. I couldn't have asked for a better week in the run up to this. It's been busy enough to keep my mind distracted from getting too anxious but one or two things got cancelled which gave me enough time to avoid panicking about all the things I had to do. 

After getting a bit of a boost from Ira  Rainey and Mark Kleanthous at the Running Show I went out in the pouring rain for a 10 mile easy trail run on Sunday and actually really enjoyed it. I even took some pictures! It helped me to make some kit decisions and gave me a real confidence boost. I had my friend's lad over for the afternoon for making and baking; the cheesecake and pizza tasted all the more delicious for those wet miles.

The 4-3-2 mile taper runs have left my legs feeling fairly energetic. I know that by the time Sunday rolls around I'll be raring to go. All my kit is together ready for the journey to my parent's tomorrow (I've packed two of almost everything) and although I've got a proper race vest now I'm still taking my camelbak just in case I have a change of heart. I don't know why. There have been a few not-entirely-reassuring mentions of the quality of the route instructions but I figure I've got a compass, foil blanket, whistle and my phone and as long as I'm not on my own at any point I'll be fine... And of course the all important snacks have been purchased (pasties, satsumas, gels and bars).

As I'm saving my legs now I'm taking the opportunity to marshal at my local parkrun tomorrow and then to meet up with a friend for lunch and a gentle stroll. This marks the start of lots of lovely socialising in the next couple of weeks as the focus shifts from Gatliff-intensity training to being a bit more relaxed with time for Christmas outings and gigs. See how I'm still distracting myself from those 30 miles by the though of lovely things still to come?

In other news I did my first swim session in ages today. I've got the good vibes from having exercised before breakfast but it was pretty demanding and demoralising for someone who struggles to swim more than 2 lengths front crawl in one go. On a more positive note I got my current assignment done and dusted so that's another weight off my mind, all be it one that will be replaced by the prospect of leading my first RunFitUK session next week. Actually that's pretty exciting!

So I end this post with two requests. One: it's going to be a long day on Sunday so any texts or tweets to break things up would be fab, especially in the afternoon. Two: the reason I'm doing this in the first place is to raise money for charity so if you can spare a couple of quid please sponsor me at http://www.justgiving.com/VikkiRunning or by texting  VRUN86 £5 to70070. Thank you, you're all marvellous. 

Whatever your challenges are this weekend - go smash them!

RunFitUK : A New Type of Running Club

The last time I attended my local running club I got left behind on an 8 mile run. It was winter, dark, bit miserable and unfortunately not the first time I'd felt that sort of exclusion. I never went back and haven't joined a traditional running club since. It's a pity because I enjoyed the social side of the club and the difference it made to my fitness. Far easier to motivate yourself to do track and hill sessions as part of a group.

But there are other I ways to achieve these things without being part of a traditional club. For the social side I have twitter and Facebook. Now hang on, I hear you say, those aren't the same as real-life social connections. No, not on the face of it, but I have developed a bigger set of real-life running friends via these platforms than I ever did at the club. RMR has been a big part of that.

(c) RunFitUK

I can go out with my real-life-friends-from-twitter and run miles whenever I choose and for running fitness there is RunFitUK. For those not in the know, RunFitUK is a club that focuses specifically on elements of running fitness such as technique, speed, strength, balance and agility. It compliments any existing club training you do but crucially involves no distance running. Sessions are held outside, in all weathers, and use the creativity of the coach (along with a few small bit of kit like resistance bands and running parachutes) to put you through an excellent work out.

(c) RunFitUK

(c) RunFitUK

Earlier this week I attended the evening session at "The Cage" in Weybridge where coach and co-founder Cassie put just three of us through our paces with drills, strength exercises and most importantly games! Being such a small group we got loads of personal attention and encouragement, got to chat a little (when we could catch our breath) and left with that slightly wobbly feeling that comes from having worked hard. My favourite part was the reverse-tag game we played at the end. Joined to someone else with a velcro strap your aim is either to break the link or prevent your partner doing so by sticking as close as possible. Hard work but masses of fun, The DOMS I'm feeling today though are almost certainly due to the box stepping and bear crawls we did with resistance bands around our ankles and wrists respectively.

The Cage (c) RunFitUK

RunFitUK currently have active clubs at Welwyn Garden City and Weybridge with another soon to start in Colchester. In addition to those I'm delighted to announce that I will be starting a club in Bracknell in the very near future! I'm really excited to be a part of RunFitUK and would love to see you there if you're at all local to Bracknell. Booking will be via the RunFitUK website and announced on twitter and Facebook in due course. Many more clubs are in the pipeline for locations across the UK so keep an eye out for one more local to you, or alternatively consider joining the team to start one near you. 

What Is : Training Periodisation?

The world of fitness is full of jargon. I'm not sure there's a runner left who isn't familiar with the term "fartlek" (but probably plenty who can't help but snigger) but there's still plenty of terminology that you may not be so familiar with. I certainly, have only relatively recently come across and started to understand the term "periodisation".

Periodisation is really just a term to describe the introduction of planned variations into a training programme. This commonly involves alternating phases of specific types of training and training loads. But why would we want to do this? Well it's seen to be an effective way to make progress and reach a higher level of performance. If you do the same thing all the time, while you may make improvements initially, you will soon plateau.

The approach is used a lot in programmes for new exercisers, increasing the intensity of a CV workout every few weeks to continue to overload the body (which is how improvements are made) whilst reducing the risk of overtraining and injury. The variation also helps to keep the training interesting and challenging.

Now to introduce a few more terms. Periodisation of a training plan typically has three cycles that fit together: 

• microcycle - typically up to 7 days
• mesocycle - anything from two weeks to a few months
• macrocycle - the overall training period, maybe a year or two 

To illustrate, an Olympian's macrocycle is going to be 4 years, and within that time they will have several mesocycles (perhaps an endurance phase, a strength phase and a power phase), each containing a number of microcycles (maybe increasing the number of reps of a strength exercise over the course of a week, before dropping back but increasing the weight). 

Periodisation can be applied to just about any sport and running is no exception. Runner's World have a really good article giving examples and guidelines. I won't recreate it in full here but if you're interested in finding out more about how periodisation could help you prepare for your next PB then it's a good starting point. It outlines the three mesocycles of a base phase (endurance), preparation phase (building speed) and peak phase (race simulation).  The article also outlines the microcycles in terms of the percentage of time you should be dedicating to endurance/long running, strength training/hill running and speed work (there's those fartleks again).

Although I'm following a training programme at present I'm not sure it's periodised so I'm keen to try applying these principles to my Spring marathon training plan which I'll start at the end of the year. Are you already familiar with periodisation? Is it something you actively use or are interested in introducing to your training?

Training on Holiday

This week I'm in France visiting family. This coincides with week 5 of my ultra marathon training and as such my plan advises me that I should be running a total of 19 miles over 4 sessions. Some chance!

Generally speaking, unless you're on an activities focused holiday or have a lot of time to kill while your hosts are out at work (as I did in Chicago last year) you won't have or want to spend a lot of time on your work out. You're on holiday, you want to enjoy it, to sight-see and relax.

Sight-seeing on the run in Chicago

If you're just "ticking over" in terms of exercise, then you're probably not going to worry too much about fitting in specific workouts; a bit of holiday swimming and walking will see you right. But if you're going on holiday right in the middle of training plan then you might want to think about how you can maintain your fitness while you're away. If your plan has you down for a long run while you're away (luckily mine is scheduled for the weekend I'm back), you probably won't be able to fit it in. Rather than squeeze it in or try to make up the miles when you're home, just skip it. It's not realistic to try and make up miles, you might over load your body and end up with an injury. Better instead to schedule some quality sessions while you're away that will help other aspects of your fitness. All it takes a little preparation.

That said it can be a fantastic way to explore your temporary home and of course gives you ice cream credits!

The view from where I'll be staying

Set Expectations
Set your travelling companion's/host's expectations before you leave. Get them on side, explain what you want to achieve and why and they'll probably be really supportive.
Time & Frequency
Work out how much time you will realistically have to exercise. Perhaps you can get up a little earlier on a couple of days to work out before your plans for the day, or maybe you can make use of late afternoon in that odd period between day time activities and going out for dinner.

It'll make this lot taste even better.

Type & Quality
What sort of activities can you do? Does the hotel have a pool, gym or perhaps even classes? Is there a park nearby? Maybe there are some coastal trails. Decide what activities you can do and then how you can create a quality session.

What you can't achieve in terms of time or distance you can make up for with intensity. If there are hills nearby, great! You can do a great quality hill session to help put power in those legs. This will help you when you're back doing the long runs. You could do a sprints or pyramid session to help with pace if that's something you're working on. Both these sessions can be fairly short whilst remaining effective. A skipping rope takes up little room and combined with some high intensity strength sessions using your bodyweight or a dynaband can be really beneficial to your training regime. Strength is something that a lot of people fail to include enough of in their training plans and the same goes for stretching. Downloading a yoga workout to your phone or taking part in a hotel class could be really useful.

I'm looking forward to running past fields of sunflowers again
Photo credit OwnersDirect

Prepare
Make a note of the sessions you plan to do. Write down your swim drills, hill or sprints session etc. That way you will know exactly what you are meant to be doing and can focus on the task. If you use music to help your workouts (such as the guided pyramid sessions from AudioFuel) make sure you have them on your music player of choice before you leave, and take a charger!

If you're headed out and about alone to do your workout, tell someone where you're going and when you expect to be back. Take some currency, the address of where you're staying and a phone, just in case.

Now you just need to pack your kit and you're set!

Ah le Loire Valley!

Ideally I need to complete one hill run, two 4 mile runs and one 7 mile run in the next five days. Realistically I'll only be able to manage 3 workouts so I'm intending to do one 4 miler, one intervals session and one hills (if I can find a hill) or HIIT session. I won't have the time to do a 7 mile run but I think this will be a reasonable alternative. I'll report back next week.

Have you gone or are you going away in the middle of a training plan? How are you handling it?