Endurance Goals for 2014

It's been a few years since I blogged. I decided that people aren't that bothered about my results, or my training! 

However, I thought I'd start again, purely for my benefit, so that I can reflect on the big races I choose to do. This could help me improve as an athlete, and reflect on why I have or have not achieved my end goal.

Having raced and underachieved at Ironman before, and having achieved my big running goal of going sub 3 at Abingdon Marathon last year, I decide to give IM another crack, and that it would be my big goal for 2014. With a number of club athletes from Clapham Chasers competing at Ironman Frankfurt, it was a goal I felt excited to work towards. Though I tend not to excel over longer distance endurance races (my weight being the limiting factor), I've always enjoyed the thrill of training for something long, and with a big goal in mind. As much as I enjoy racing 5 & 10k's, I like the process of training for something big! So by February I was embarking on a 5 month plan to achieve IM glory. 

My running has come on leaps and bounds over the last year, down mainly to a more strategic approach to training, and specifically increasing the focus on tempo runs, rather than track running. Where I found track running useful for developing flat speed, stretching my anaerobic threshold was possibly what I really needed to work on, and what really helped me

PB's at the beginning of the year were as follows;

5km - 17:34

10km - 36:13

HM - 1:20:39

M - 2:57:57

I chose Outlaw Half, 6 weeks out from Frankfurt as my tune up race, and in the time building up to that, would put together a plan where I would try and structure my training as follows;

Mon - Steady turbo

Tue - tempo run

Wed - Interval turbo, swim

Thu - interval run

Fri - Easy run

Sat - steady run, endurance swim set

Sun - long ride into tempo run brick

Obviously, work and training with clients would affect this, but it would give me a structured focus for the week.

I also chose two half marathons; Wokingham, where I ran well for a pb a couple of years before, and Paddock Wood, in Kent - a flat, fast half two weeks before London.

I would also enter two 5km races on the track, and the Majorca 312 sportive in April, an event that would really kickstart my cycling.