First win of the year.

It may only be alocal interclub cross country but hey a wins a win! I felt pretty good Saturday I swam for 1hr in the morning had a steady 2 hr cycle , then travelled down to Richmond pk for the 5.7mile race. I ran my own pace the whole way and finished in 31mins 15secs I think at least 2 mins clear of 2nd.
Then On Sunday got up early for swimming but forgot my wallet so had to go home(V clever!) so just did a few core exercises at home before leaving for our Fit-For ride, great ride , chilly weather but beautifull clear skies and a great route. I did about 100mile and had a bit of a blast up Boxhill at the end, I had to really dig in to Win the prime at the top though!!

Had a bit of food then did 1hr run with a hard 10k in the middle, felt really good!

Days like this make me feel everything is right on track for a great race in Lanzarote on 21st May! 117 days to go! (I think I added that up right)

I need to really up the swimming more now, I know I need to swim much faster as I want to also have a great race at the Elite Olympic dist champs to. (those guys swim seriously quick).

A Good Idea to take rest days!

Yes I have taken a full day off, well nearly I went on the rollers for 10mins or so Thursday.

I felt tiered after the weekend so took it easy on Monday and ate quite a few Bourbon buscuits, mmmmmmm, tasty. Then Tuesday felt a bit sluggish but after Swim 4k, Run 3xhills, Bike 2hrs steady, then in the evening actually felt a bit better doing my 5x1200m reps on the track, very cold and windy though, so I blaimed this for the slow times, But then on Wed I woke up early for swimming but really felt VV tiered so went back to bed, felt V guilty about this, but got over the guilt by about 9am and went on the bike and felt ok did 4and a bit hrs hilly.

Then I was gonna do my 5km reps but on the first one kinda felt rubbish so called it a day and so took it easy Thursday and Friday. But will be back to a hard weekend all being well.

I'm having quite big cravings for cake, Ice cream and biscuits!! I think my body is trying to put back on the weight I lost over christmas, but "NO" I say to my inner deamons allthough sometimes I say yes and eat a few (well quite a few(usually at Johns)) custard creams, mmmmmm mmmmmm mmmmmm. Bad though!

Well rest days can be bad for the mind so best to occupy my mind with other things so going to the cinema and started reading a new book, John Simpson's Autobiograpy on the Afgan war, good so far. I let you know how it goes.

Cross Country and a sore elbow.

Another good weeks training,
Mon:easy swim,bike and run.
Tue: 1hr Swim, 3hr bike, Test session at track 1km in 2:47 lap jog 800m in 2:15 lap jog 400m in 63secs.
Wed: 1hr swim, 4hr bike, 50min run with drills and strides.
Thur: 1hr Swim, bike rollers, 20min jog.
Fri: Easy swim and bike, run on treadmill 15mins getting up to race pace for a couple of mins.
Sat: Easy swim and bike on rollers, Surry Cross Country Champs, beautiful day sunny, dry but windy, I finished 10th which I was pleased with, this gets me seletcted for the Inter Counties cross country and half marathon champs both in March and will fit in well with my Ironman preperations.
Sun: Easy swim at Gym and 30min run tempo on treadmill. 6hrs on bike but fell off early on(slippery corner) and have a V sore elbow, hopefully it'll ease soon, I think it's just bruised, one fall in the winter is fine, lets hope this is it for the winter.

As long as the elbow is fine I'm doing a test session up a boxhill, basically the BallBuster(1lap run 3 lap bike and 1 lap run) I'll let you know if I would of won the BB.

Thanks for reading
Stephen.

Quite a few hours training in Cyprus..

I hope you had a good Christmas period, I know most normal people don't use Christmas as the best time of year for a training camp but I think it's a great time to train, quiet roads, (good weather in Cyprus), and it avoids the Christmas excesses.

I was quite tiered after the weekend before Christmas when I ran 2 hard Cross country races in 2 days along with swimming and cycling as well and so I took it fairly easy up until I flew out to Cyprus on the Christmas eve.
My Christmas Day entailed, after breakfast; 1hr swim, 3.5hr Bike and 1.5hr run.
Basically the rest of the week was the same with 1hr swim, 3-4hr bike and 1-2hrs run every day for 6 days I did in total 36hrs training not including the core exercises and stretching in the gym. I managed to lose nearly 2kgs so I'm back to my racing weight of last year which is good.

Cyprus was a great place to train the roads around the national pk and game reserve were great, all in the hills and very quiet, the weather was between 17-22C and the sea was warm
enough with my wetsuit on, without a wetsuit, as my brother Mark found out it was a bit cold. Mark also managed to bump into a Russian pro water polo team and they invited him to train with them the following day, oh good fun I said, until I saw these Russians, they were massive, literally 7ft tall built like the proverbial outhouse and rather ugly too! He had a very tough session but survived and enjoyed it.

I'm pleased with my form at the moment I'm running better than last year, I'm picking up the cycling mileage from now and my swimming is still improving. I feel that every thing is on track for my first goal of top 7th at Ironman Lanzarote, 138 days to go.
I flew back on New years eve so just had an easy swim, bike and run in the gym. Then on New years day had 1hr easy bike, on Sunday I had a good day no fatigue in my legs and had 1hr swim, 5.5hr bike and 50min run including 1 lap TT of next Saturdays Surrey cross country champs - I'm looking for a good run here so am laying of the running distance this week.

Oh BTW, I have shaved my head and face and I feel like a new man, I'm sure it must be good for my Kama to have a shaved head. It seems to make me more focused on training, I think that's why some monks do it, to cut out as many distractions as possible (hair isn't much of a distraction!). Anyway I still feel very motivated for this coming season.

Thanks for reading
Stephen Cleanshaven Bayliss