Run

The slow long one - 32km 3hours, took it easy all the way - a few stops to buy power bars and drinks.

There's a great website/brand called fetch. I get the newsletter every month or so. Basically the bloke who runs it collects all the data runners have and draws out interesting statistics - The latest one was useful.

1.

Bottom line - run 5 x 19-20 miles in run up to marathon

2.

Slow runners do their long runs too fast/it's OK to do your long run relatively slowly. 

- a 3 hour marathon is 6min53s/mile Based on this my long run pace of 5min30s/km is a little slow, I need to start thinking about taking it under the 5min mark.

3. 

In training slow runners start fast and get slower. Fast runners speed up (slightly) 

Turbo (am)

Warm up
10 x 500W x 20sec on 2-3min recovery

Yoga (pm)

- i'm still getting to grips with these more intense "strength" sessions on the bike. I've found technique becomes more important. I can see that my more usual, long, moderate intensity efforts may have allowed poorer technique, as it doesn't show itself. If I kept good form today I found the interval easier.

Other news
-  Rebecca Romero has signed up for the Ironman this year
Her blog has some stats - 425W for 3min 30 (3km) and 360W for 20min (10mile). I've been trying to find this sort of information, most cyclists keep it secret. Needless to say that's more than I can do!

- i've managed to get hold of a compex muscle stimulator - i'm not sure whether it's all hype but will be interested to see if it works.

- trip to Holland and Barrett to get some high fibre - i'm always hungry and think this is in part due to high calorie density (nuts, dried fruit, chocolate!). I will see if bulking it out makes any difference.

Swim (am)

A few blocks of 250m
Warm up, single arm, 5 breaths/stroke, fists, sighting back stroke, tumble turns (new for me!), 60strokes per min, fly, cool down.
Total 2.1km

Yoga (eve)

Another hour - I think this is the answer. It's definitely not a quick fix though. I still don't buy "and this cleanses your digestive system"

I've just watched David Walliams swimming the Thames - 20miles a day. It's made me want to maybe try a 10km swim this year.
- just entered, 10km Dorney Lake, Eton, Sunday 27th May. What swung it was that it is the venue for the Olympic rowing

It's only 4 lengths I think???

Yoga

Early! Only person there so got some great advice. The "downward dog" will never be the same again.

Run

9pm on the treadmill. Quick warm up then,
10 x 2min x 9km/hr x 14-15% gradient on 60-75sec recovery

A long day looking after George and Will so needed the run. In and out of the gym in 40mins - not bad. It's probably placebo but I get the feeling that the yoga has improved my run technique. I backed off the gradient 1% after a couple of repeats as there was a little too much stretch on the achilles.

Had an excuse to finish off all the hot cross buns in the cupboard.

Core

Usual routine

Swim

50m warm up
1500m at race pace

I was pushed for time as I only like Will to be in the creche for an hour. So I decided to go for it and see if I could knock out the 1500m in one go rather than in intervals. I managed it.
Two main lessons were;
1. Breathing out when underwater is the first thing to go technique wise
2. I became faster as it progressed. This seemed to be associated with lengthening the stroke a little as I warmed up, and not rushing it.

Yoga
Late night, only 3 people!

weigh in 71.1kg

Yoga

x 2 - I took up a 2 week unlimited yoga for £20 offer at blue cow yoga. It may be just what I need to sort out the right leg.

The weight is proving a bit stubborn to come down. I'd like to be 69kg for the marathon even though i'm not aiming to run fast (no taper and hopefully not too much recovery).

20 weeks to go

Run

am - 17km
pm - 13km

It looks like i've ditched the attempt at progressing towards a 100mile running week. There's just no way i'll keep the quality bike sessions in there. I will though try and keep the long run going. Today I had to split it so I could do my share of looking after George and Will. Really enjoyed it today, called on Paolo for 4km of the pm run.

My right leg still feels odd - it wants to drift into the centre line and has much less extension than the left. More questions for the lovely physios.

I've been taking it really easy on the long runs. This can be a bit scary as it's way off race pace. It's easy to start questioning your ability. Today though my pace per/km has started to drift towards the pace recommended on the McMillan running calculator - about 5.30min/km

I didn't have a clue about how many calories running uses so found a table in runner's world;