Well there we go, first race of the 2010 season under my belt. It also marks the last training session of a very solid 9 weeks without any specific recovery, meaning I've been tired, so totally looking forward to my ensuing recovery week and 21st birthday on Thursday!
It was the second race in the newly formed Scottish University league, consisting of 2 aquathons, 1 duathlon and a tri. Today was the duathlon, the triathlon which also acts as Scottish University champs will be held in 4 weeks time outside of Edinburgh, my first tri of the year.
The league is the result of some really hard working and keen University Tri captains, very much including the University of Aberdeen's Ben Christman. The whole Aberdeen team this year are better than ever and today we had a great turn out bagging (I would say) the majority of the top 10 spots. I look forward to doing some training with the guys and representing the University twice more before the season ends.
So the Duathlon today was a 4km run followed by a 20km bike. However, I woke up on Friday to a blizzard and (in Aberdeen at least) 4 inches of snow. This pretty much convinced me it would be cancelled which was a bummer as I was looking forward to testing out my completely knackered legs. By today the temperature had risen slightly (around -2 this morning) and the sun was out thawing much of the bike course. The run was still slippy as mud, with much of it being mud, and all of it off-road, including 500m in the snow. 400m was added to the course to allow for a location change for transition so the run ended up being ~4.4km, going through the 4km marker at 14minutes 10seconds.
Off onto the bike and the 20km loop, after leading the run for the first 3km or so Craig Dale from Edinburgh University got 20m on me and was out onto the bike first. I spent the first 5km catching up with him but from 5km-15km he steadily put about 20seconds on me. Over the last 5km I definitely got my legs and started hammering it back into town, 50kph on the flat. After a short mishap with a slight wrong turn I was back on course and across the line in 2nd, feeling great.
After the tough 2 months I've just had and the level of my fatigue this week the result was very encouraging. It looks as if my running has improved as we'd all hoped and my bike is strong.
It's definitely time for me to rest now though and enjoy my 21st birthday. The recovery will do me good,
First race down, whole season to go. Let's do it.
Mike
Sunday, 21 February 2010
Wednesday, 17 February 2010
Cool Runnings
I was already writing this post in my head last night as I ran around the 10mile Tuesday night loop in the snow. It was meant to be the weekly Metro Running club hard set that I've done each week on a Tuesday since early October, but the heavy snow and below zero temps kept everyone, and I mean eeeeveryone, at home.
By the time I showed up at the meeting spot the snow had turned to heavy rain and the wind was blowing in pretty strong from the sea. Don't ask why we run by the sea...maybe as it makes running harder? But annyway I sucked it up and headed out alone for the 17km loop, tried my best to go hard, but came in a little slower than usual in 1 hour 8 minutes.
Definitely one of the hardest runs I've had to do, needed some company, or an ipod...or a beer! But I got through it and quickly drove home for some spaghetti pie...and cookies!
Would like to give a shout out to my buddy Andrew Young who's racing today at the Winter Olympics in the Nordic Skiing events. He raced on Monday in the Men's 15km and will race the sprint event today. I've trained quite a bit up at the Callaghan Ski centre where the events are being held and I hope Andy has a great race today, he loves Whistler almost as much as I do and these games are probably the closest thing he will get to a home Olympics. At 18 he has a pretty amazing career ahead of him, so good luck dude, race like you stole it.
Another shout out to my buddy Zack from Vancouver who met Simon Whitfield last week and proceeded to ask him about me. No not Simon's 2 Olympic medals or multiple world cup victories, but me, which is both funny and awesome. So thanks to Zack for being an amazing friend and supporter but also to Simon for saying nice things about me and also being an all around cool dude.
That's enough for one day, I'm off to play with my new Sidi bike shoes (birthday next week) and head off for my evening bike set,
Stay Classy,
Mike
By the time I showed up at the meeting spot the snow had turned to heavy rain and the wind was blowing in pretty strong from the sea. Don't ask why we run by the sea...maybe as it makes running harder? But annyway I sucked it up and headed out alone for the 17km loop, tried my best to go hard, but came in a little slower than usual in 1 hour 8 minutes.
Definitely one of the hardest runs I've had to do, needed some company, or an ipod...or a beer! But I got through it and quickly drove home for some spaghetti pie...and cookies!
Would like to give a shout out to my buddy Andrew Young who's racing today at the Winter Olympics in the Nordic Skiing events. He raced on Monday in the Men's 15km and will race the sprint event today. I've trained quite a bit up at the Callaghan Ski centre where the events are being held and I hope Andy has a great race today, he loves Whistler almost as much as I do and these games are probably the closest thing he will get to a home Olympics. At 18 he has a pretty amazing career ahead of him, so good luck dude, race like you stole it.
Another shout out to my buddy Zack from Vancouver who met Simon Whitfield last week and proceeded to ask him about me. No not Simon's 2 Olympic medals or multiple world cup victories, but me, which is both funny and awesome. So thanks to Zack for being an amazing friend and supporter but also to Simon for saying nice things about me and also being an all around cool dude.
That's enough for one day, I'm off to play with my new Sidi bike shoes (birthday next week) and head off for my evening bike set,
Stay Classy,
Mike
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Pre season
Last week after a solid 50 straight training days I headed down to Stirling for a much needed 5 days with my coach before the season starts.
The proposed season start date was set at March 21st with the Scottish University champs but that's still sooo far away...so I'm doing a University series duathlon this weekend. It will be my first run/bike race and first proper effort of 2010.
That said last week in Stirling had some pretty decent efforts. A lot of big swim sets as firmed up my confidence in the water and feeling much stronger on the bike as well. On Sunday I headed out for the Stirling Tri Club's 96km Reliability ride, I set off with the last group and stuck in for much longer than I thought I could, especially after the previous few days. Thinking back to last year, even last summer, that ride would have floored me. So its all good.
So this week will be tough again before my race this coming weekend, followed by a much needed relaxing few days around my 21st birthday on the 25th.
On another note my summer plans are firming up, I'm now confirmed to race Pro at the LA Triathlon in October my second race in California after the Santa Barbara Tri in late August. As more races are confirmed I'll keep you all in the know.
Hope everyone is training well,
Enjoy the winter Olympics!
Mike
ps. Thanks again to everyone for their support and encouragement over the past few months, it's been great.
The proposed season start date was set at March 21st with the Scottish University champs but that's still sooo far away...so I'm doing a University series duathlon this weekend. It will be my first run/bike race and first proper effort of 2010.
That said last week in Stirling had some pretty decent efforts. A lot of big swim sets as firmed up my confidence in the water and feeling much stronger on the bike as well. On Sunday I headed out for the Stirling Tri Club's 96km Reliability ride, I set off with the last group and stuck in for much longer than I thought I could, especially after the previous few days. Thinking back to last year, even last summer, that ride would have floored me. So its all good.
So this week will be tough again before my race this coming weekend, followed by a much needed relaxing few days around my 21st birthday on the 25th.
On another note my summer plans are firming up, I'm now confirmed to race Pro at the LA Triathlon in October my second race in California after the Santa Barbara Tri in late August. As more races are confirmed I'll keep you all in the know.
Hope everyone is training well,
Enjoy the winter Olympics!
Mike
ps. Thanks again to everyone for their support and encouragement over the past few months, it's been great.
Sunday, 7 February 2010
February
Been a good week, made some decent progress on my University thesis (due in 10 weeks) and got in 3 swim sessions, 5 run sets, 5 bikes and 6 gym workouts (26 hours).
Did another leg of the Aberdeen 3km Beach run series on Friday, finishing 3rd this time around, my mum also raced taking 22 seconds off her PB, good family progress :)
Weather is still rubbish up here, my Sunday ride today was very dreary ... but it just made it that little bit more solid, all good preparation.
First race of the season in 6 weeks, time to get fast then...
Thanks for checking up,
Mike
Training Videos from Sunday 7th Feb
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