Saturday's training

Its valentines day, so after cooking my wife breakfast in bed and breaking up the fight going on between my 2 kids - we headed off for where - but the Gym of course!

I had a pretty good swim - managed 1000m in 20 mins - it felt pretty easy - although I have to say that now I am back at home - I really ache - especially my pectoral muscles. Perhaps it wasnt as easy as it felt.

I got into my running gear after the swim and headed out into the cold - it was only about 2 degrees above 0 - and there was still ice and snow on the ground - but to be honest - that actually made the run more enjoyable this time. I ran around a place balled Billing Aquadrome - a caravan and camping site that is pretty massive with a load of lakes in it.

My only companions on this run were Geese and Swans - and quite a few of them - especially when I got to the frozen lakes. There was so much ice it was amazing. After the warmer days we have had and the sun - I am still stunned by the fact the snow is still around up here.

I kept my pace pretty low today - around 9-10km an hour. This felt pretty easy and I settled into it quite well. It also more importantly wasnt hurting my knee. I stopped half way round to take a phone call from a friend - but I didnt need to - and the legs felt as if they could do more - which is encouraging for the half marathon. The interesting thing as well - when looking at the graphs is - this little drop in pace has brought my HR right down to 140-150 which is around my lactate threshold - so it looks like this is a pace I can hold for quite some time. It isnt quick enough to really do the half marathon in under 2 hours - but it is damn close....

I managed 9.35 km in 01:01:42 - not a stellar time - but encouraging at least in the fact that I wasnt tired, could have carried on and didnt have any niggles.....