Winter Training Update

I am making a new effort to start to make some regular updates to my blog which was set up last year, and have so far completely neglected! Maybe it's slightly late to talk about winter training, with the first signs of some sun and warmth already showing here in Leeds, but here goes. Since moving to Leeds late last September to study Sport and Exercise Science, I have done some studying, plenty of training, explored new areas, and made a bunch of new friends and acquaintances! The winter months have been about steadily trying to build volume, particularly on the run side of things (which was probably my weakest area last season) and maintaining consistency. The swim training I am now doing is somewhat different to back home where the sessions were geared towards club swimming and shorter 50m - 200m racing. We have five squad swims each week, and the sets we do aim more specifically at racing 750m/1500m triathlon swims; it has also been an inspiring and humbling experience swimming alongside (sometimes) or behind two Olympic medallists, as well as a host of other top GB athletes.

Out on my bike with training partner Gordon, photo c/o Liam!

As mentioned earlier the bike training has been about consistency and exploring new areas, with some lovely rides out towards the Yorkshire Dales, and some good company and strong training partners. Throughout the winter we did a weekly turbo session as a group in the Leeds Met Sports Hall, to keep some speed in the legs, while most of the rest of the riding was steady miles building the aerobic base. Now its coming to Spring the infamous (among West Yorkshire based cyclists) Leeds Chaingang has started up and this replaces the turbo session. Done as a 25 mile hard ride whilst trying to pull some turns at the front, or else cling onto the wheels nearer the back, this serves as great a great race simulation session, and the presence of pure cyclists (as opposed to triathletes) makes it a tough enough ride for the Brownlee brothers! My main focus for the winter was to improve my running, and try to bring down my 5/10km times. Early in the winter, November 2012, I raced in the Leeds Abbey Dash 10km, and was rewarded with a PB of 33.37. Having gone off slightly fast in the high quality field and suffered towards the end I was optimistic that there was room for further improvement in the short-term future. The general plan for training over the winter involved steady mileage with key harder session on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Tuesday nights are track sessions, so hard reps working from 10km pace to down to 1500m pace on some sessions, as it's important to keep the leg speed even though it can be a few months until race season. Saturday mornings were tough grass reps sessions with slightly longer reps, and this was either with the Leeds Met Cross Country Club, or a small group of triathletes on our own, or on some occasions I raced XC instead. These sessions were about building leg strength, running hard and learning to hurt!
Thanks for reading, and I'll try and update soon!