Winter Training (and other stuff!)

March 2014 - part 1

The problem with not updating your blog very often is that when you do start to write again, there is so much to talk about that its hard to know where to start. I am ashamed to admit I haven't updated my blog since the end of the triathlon season in September last year. A couple of reasons for this:
1. laziness (I've just got out of the habit) and 2. I didn't think it would be very interesting - after all, all I have done all winter is train, train, train! But actually now I've started I realise that I do have lots to say as, although it seems like all I have done all winter is train, I have done so with quite a lot of thought and with some new ideas and changes, which I thought I might share.

Every year I get to the end of the race season and re-assess how it went and then I decide what I want to do next year. Sometimes this is easy as I usually have something that I didn't achieve or could have done better. This time I have found it a lot harder as I had the most amazing summer ever and I can honestly say that I achieved everything I set out to do (and more!) and enjoyed every minute!

So I spent October doing nothing (in the form of training). I still swam, cycled and ran but I did so when I wanted to not because I had to and only at a pace that meant I could really enjoy it. I also walked the dog, went down the pub, went shopping, visited friends - basically I had a life. Obviously after a few weeks I was totally bored with this and started to plan how to start my winter training. You see I genuinely do enjoy training and the good feeling it gives you when your body does more than you thought it could. But I realised that after a fantastic 2013 I had to make some changes so that I could get just as much from 2014. I decided that I would bring in at least one new thing each month so I could feel like I was progressing over the long winter months - and this is what I did:

September: Mark and I joined David Lloyd gym - OMG what a gorgeous place that is! A quiet and clean pool at any time of the day, luxurious changing rooms, WATT bikes, a choice of pilates, yoga and body conditioning classes and amazing hot chocolate. Expensive but totally worth it. My friends Sam, Chris and Anna were also members so I would have lots of people to train with.

October: I started a pilates class and rested. I also decided to concentrate more on Duathlon rather than going back to the European Triathlon Champs again - so my main races in 2014 will be European Duathlon, World Duathlon and World Triathlon championships.

November: Cross Country races - so hard! Watt bike endurance sessions - training to power for the first time (what a revelation!). Long swim sessions with my training partner Sam - between 3.5 and 4.5 km each time and sometimes as early as 7am! She is always so happy in the morning (and I'm not!)

December: Whey protein - the best recovery aid but I only take it after high intensity sessions. Velodrome training - I am lucky as my Dad is a coach at Manchester Velodrome and I can kill two birds with one stone (2 hours of quality cycling in the warm even in December and a visit to my Mum - all is good)

January: Group turbo training sessions - with Jamie of Success Cycling. The most intensive cycling ever! I also raced my first Womens Road Race for about 25 years - scary but great fun even though I got stuffed in the sprint!

February: Bike set up - I reviewed my position with the help of Jam at Fred Williams Cycles and got a bit more 'aero'. I also started an on-line training package 'Nutrition for Sports Performance' and I'm already learning loads.

March: I got myself some new sponsors (well, my amazing husband Mark did) which means that I have so many people believing in me and that is so motivating! KWB Workplace and The Senator Group have basically made it possible for me to travel to the Worlds in Canada this year without worrying about the cost - even better they have also sponsored Sam so we are both very lucky girls. - and then I also had confirmation that On Running were going to support me for another year, which I am so pleased about. They are really supportive and encouraging even though I am nothing like some of the other people they sponsor such as Nicola Sprig, Caroline Steffan, Jackie Slack etc and their trainers really are the best.

Obviously there were some things that I didn't change this year as they are tried and tested (by me)

Regular massage (thank you Russell)
Good diet (thank you Mark)
Lots of sleep
Tempo running
and most of all consistent training with a bit of variety

I even snuck in a couple of holidays - both very different but that didn't stop me being active. I did a bit of yoga and warm weather running on the beach in Cape Verde in January

 

and then Mark and I went out to see our daughter Charlotte who is working in a ski resort in Italy. Running up a mountain at altitude in the snow is SO hard! but great fun and it was fab to get my old training partner back for some hill reps (she's still got it!).

So that's the 'team' I have around me - thank you so much to everyone who has helped me over these last few months;
Mark (of course), Jamie at Success Cycling, Jam at Fred Williams Cycles, Sam Anderson (for making me get up so early to do those HUGE swim sets and much more), KWB, The Senator Group and ON Running.

I can't believe how fast this winter has gone and how quickly the first race of the season has come around - Oulton Park Duathlon - my race report is in part 2.