West End Loop - 5km - 37:48

Amazing.

Even though I had ran already this morning and Adam hasn't run since last week, we still managed to know over a minute off our time this week. The run itself was really fun and again made me think how much better it is running with someone. All in all a very successful day on the running front. Hopefully things stay that way. Going to run with Adam again on Sunday after my shift. 5km round Victoria park on the South side - a nice change in scenery!

Skelmorlie Loop - 5km - 29:29

That's right folks 29mins and 29secs.

I wasn't supposed to be running this morning as the weather was due to be crap and I'm also running this evening in Glasgow with Adam but when I woke up the sun was shining and I thought "What the hell!" It spat a bit after I started but I continued round and although I felt a bit out of breath today I still felt quite good. I think I probably was at my maximum though as I had almost no sprint at the end and I was please to reach the house.

So that's it - 30 minutes has been broken. Now it's just a question of shaving off the odd 10-15 seconds here and there and trying to get it down to 25 minutes before the race.

On a random note I was treating a Triathlete the other day who was in his fifties and his best time for a sprint was 1 hour 6 minutes which is impressive. He also just finished an Iron Man in 11 hours. That's just crazy. The good thing was he says that I won't be last as there are plenty of people who drop out during the race. He also said that sometimes people only swim one length of the pool then stop. In saying that, I could still be the last person who actually finishes the race! Anyway, here is a picture of Hillary Swank running. Inspiration for slobs like me!!!

Greenock via Gourock Loop - 20km split 40min - 35km total 1hour 19min

I almost bailed out of this one today.

Looking out the window this morning there was trees being blown all over the place and the rain was lshing down so I opted for the indoor trainer. After about 2 minutes I realised that the rain had stopped and the wind seemed to have died down somewhat so I thought "F*** it!" and took the bike off the trainer, got my warmest and wind/rain proof-est gear on and braved the weather.

I'm glad I did. It stayed dry for the whole route and the tailwind out to Gourock gave me an artificially fast 20km split that knocked 4 minutes of my previous time. Still I'm going to count it as my new PB and that gives me a reasonably decent time to aim for more consistantly.

Overall, I lost a lot of time on the way back as the headwind was awful and at points I was only doing about 15 kmph. Not exactly the stuff of legends but regardless of all that I'm just happy that I got out on the road today.

Skelmorlie Loop - 5km - 31:00

And once again the 30 minute mark eludes me.

I was eager to try out my new jacket today and it lived up to it's windproof/waterproof claims. However, there was such a headwind - 29mph according to BBC weather - that I'm actually quite pleased with the 31 minute time. If there had been little or no wind then I think I'd have crossed the finish line in under 30 minutes.

Next time Gadget!

West End Loop - 5km - 39:02

SO I met up with Adam again this evening and we had our second "buddy run". Once again it was good fun and we did more running than last time (and a lot less walking). As you can see from the time - while still slow - smashed that of last weeks 42:32. Very impressive I thought. I'm looking to shaving seconds off this time over the next few weeks and hopefully we can get under the 30 minute mark together by May.

Now for a shot on the bike trainer for a cool down!

Shore Road Screw Up - 31km - 1:06

Although freezing day on the bike - a grand high of 7C. I tried to do the Greenock loop via Gourock that I did last weekend but the road is closed at the Gantock Hotel as the whole thing is a smoldering wreck. I think it must have burnt down over night. It's been derelict for some time now so I can only assume that it's was vandals.

So I got as far as that and then had to double back then go up the IBM road as far as the hospital turn off then back down to Skelmorlie. I'm sure that I could have done more but my feet were going to fall off and I'd forgotten to put on my shoe covers so that didn't help much.

Incidently, the only split I took was at 10km and that was 20 minutes so I think I was on course to post a faster time than last week. I guess I'll have to wait till next Sunday.

Another thing that you might have noticed is that I have only be posting complete minutes - I broke the speedo in Australia and I'm afraid that I can't read the seconds or the km fractions. Bummer.

Skelmorlie Short Loop - 3km - 19:34

This was awful today.

I had nothing in my legs going up the hill and for the first time since starting my training I had to stop. I wasn't even 2/3 up. I started running again once I was at the top but there was nothing there. So when the opportunity to take the stairs down to Shore Road appeared... well I took it.

As Brad Kearns says - sometimes there's no point pushing through as you're going against what you're body is telling you. Well my body is telling me that I'm not a pro athlete and carrying 16st around is not good for me. In all honesty, as I've said before, I think that just going on a diet and losing 3st before the race will do me more good that the exercise (from a race time point of view).

Anyway, after reassessing the situation I think that the problem is the indoor trainer. I was on it again for 40 minutes yesterday and although that's not a great deal of time it really does take a toll on my legs and I do feel it late into the evening.

Tomorrow is my long cycle to Greenock and back - by cutting the run short today I hope that I can beat my split for 20km and my 35km time tomorrow. That will have made today worthwhile.

West End Loop - 5km - 42:32

This was my first run with Adam. He's just starting out so we did walk/run/walk/run for this loop. I like to think of it as interval training as opposed to being lazy/unfit. Despite the slow time it was a good laugh and fun to run with someone else. Our next run is on Wednesday.

Meanwhile on the Skelmorlie Loop front - I'm going to try and break 30 mins tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

The bike trainer has also been treating me well but my legs hurt like nobody's business in the evenings especially after trying to do one-legged training. It kills.

Skelmorlie Loop - 5km - 30:25

Well I have to say that I'm surprised that in the space of 2 weeks and only 5 runs I've already dropped 4 minutes off my time. I guess that's what happens in the early stages - it's the later ones that get harder. Today however was still tough as it was only 2C outside and there was frost on the ground. The roads were quite icy too and on the steep descent to Wemyss Bay I really took my time. Shame though as I probably could have been sub-30 today if I'd not had to slow down.

On th plus side - the cycle trainer arrived yesterday and it's harder than I thought it would be. There are 7 levels of difficulty and I barely managed the first three. I also had a shot of that "one foot cycling" and that was impossible. Only managed 2 minutes a time with each leg. There's a really noticable dead space between about 3 o'clock and 9 o'clock where it's horrifically difficult to get the pedal over the top. It's going to take a long time and a lot of practice I think!

Also, I don't know if I mentioned, Adam is keen to do the Glasgow 10km and run with me once a week until I get back up to Glasgow. Then it'll be 3-4 times a week buddy!!

Greenock via Gourock Loop - 20km split 44min - 35km total 1hour 19min

Got up this morning and did the above route. Actually it wasn't too bad and despite the 8C temp there was almost no wind and it was relatively dry. They turning of the pedals was a bit difficult though as I'm still not back in cycling mode and it'll be a few weeks of regular use of the newly purchased (but still not arrived) indoor trainer. None the less I managed to knock 3 mins of the 20km split and I reall would like that down to about 35-37mins by the time the triathlon comes around.

On an totally different note - I dropped in on Adam and Emma before my shift this afternoon and Adam is quite keen to do a 10km race before his 30th Birthday which is in Sept. That coincides nicely wity the Glasgow 10k which I'm also keen to do. He's never really run before but is going to shop for running shoes this week and then we are meeting on Thursday evening to do a 5km walk/run to get him into his stride. I'm sure within 3 weeks he'll be running the 5km and then we'll move up to 10km and finally try for 10km under 1 hour. Fingers crossed.

Skelmorlie Loop - 5km - 31:07

...and the seconds are shaved away. Closer and closer to 30mins and then the goal will be 25mins but I think that's a bit of a stretch even with 4 months left to train. Fingers crossed for dry mornings and windless cycles/runs.

IBM and Back - 20km - 47mins

Stupidly I was out at 5am in true triathlete syle.

It wasn't till my ears had gone blue, the speedo temp said "4C" and it started raining that I realised this wasn't the best day to start my cycling training. I have to say that I was dissapointed with the ride and my poor time since my fastest in Sydney for the 18km trip back from work was 33:05.

Next time Gadget - next time!

Skelmorlie Loop - 5km - 32:05

No wonder it seemed much harder today! That said I didn't think that I was in the middle of knock off more than two and a half minutes. However, I gues I'm still not even running it at 10km/h yet.

I think that most folk are in agreement that it's the running part of the triathlon that makes the winner (unless of course I can somehow pull a sub-35min cycle out of the proverbial).

Perhaps I should just concentrate on shedding some pounds!!!

5km Skelmorlie Loop - 34:41

Well that's the first of many 5km runs in the bag. Not as hard as I thought it was going to be but the weather is totally appauling outside just now and the wind was so strong that it kept blowing my right foot into my left ankle so I constantly kept tripping up like a bit of a fool. I'm sure all the commuters were pissing themselves. Also, as you can tell by my dreadful time, I wasn't exactly pushing it!

So I guess the plan now is...

1. Run on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays

2. Cycle on Saturdays and Sundays.

3. Piss about on Tues and Thurs

4. Start swim training once I'm back in Glasgow (as there's nowhere to do that here)

I think that it might be worth making the weekend cycles fairly substantial ie round various islands etc. If your interested email me and I'll keep you posted.