One of the oldest and still truest quotes in this sport
“ if you want to run a good marathon in an Ironman … do lots of cycling”
Keep that powder dry till the trainers go on and a lot of people may be looking at your back moving away from them on race day.
Stick at it.
20 mile bike 
after the rain. Back in the saddle after a few weeks running. Feel light as F
It’s like the Amazon down by the river now. A green tunnel. Amazing. Getting in all those negative ions man
City’s always amazing this time of year. Really quiet, far less traffic. Everyone’s lounging around in the cafes in the evening or strolling in the park. University avenue never re opened to traffic after lockdown so it’s mega civilised. Feels like a different country
Naff all except walking for 3 days, although I did have to drag 45kg of luggage around today including down 2 flights of stairs at the accommodation.
Moving to Lahti tomorrow and the plan is to do a loop of the bike course. Saturday is a write off with the hamstring so might as well do some cycling. Only downside will be leaving the hire car as I can’t get to the room until 4 I think, so will need to assemble it on the road 
All being well I’ll try and get out again on the Friday and see if I can get a swim.
Plenty of walking though.
Does this mean you’ve knocked the race on the head Jeff?
Mentally, yes. But I’m loathed to waste all that money!
I’ll do the swim and bike assuming my test rides don’t aggravate it.
Then decide whether to try and jog/walk or something but I don’t want to risk making it worse and a 21k walk doesn’t appeal! It’d be nearly 3 hours walking
Another week and it would be ok, I’m trying some exercises and will keep massaging it
Dropping car at garage for service is always a good excuse for a ride both ways to get home and go pick up later.
Only 10k each way through the centre of town, but enjoyed the bus dodging, tram line bunny hopping and according to my HRM, an impromptu interval session.
As some of you may have gathered, I’m not sure that I’m bi-polar (what’s in a name eh), but always have the mega-highs with the sunshine and the mega-lows with the wet 10 degrees it’s been for some days this week so far. Added to that the vacuum of post 1 yearly tri event, and that’s an odd mix. Oh add to that some tasty bottled beers from Booths (only Northern England, or heading South to me).
Put it all together and you have a week, so far, of a completely fucked up head, 3 (will say tasty) bottled beers per night and some shit food. Some running hill reps Sunday and a nice rainy run yesterday eve. No core and strength so far, have about 1.5 hours to do before end of week. No swim no bike no real motivation… maybe time out is good as we do become slightly obsessed perhaps?
A day on the beers beckons for Friday with a mate in the Borders, then, maybe teetotal for a week. I think that I need to get some other event booked in this year, 'appen a hill race, else I feel that I may just lose he plot 
Helvellyn?
Humid run first thing.
7.1km. 30 minutes. 89m elevation.
If I get back from work on time, will swim 1.5-2k tonight.
Was a tad cooler for me on the run this morning. Not quite so humid with a light breeze, but still warm. Did the same mixed terrain route from work. Had to be a bit more careful on the gorge today though as the rocks were much more slippery. Probs should do that Garmin tracking thing really, as nobody knows where i am. May prove difficult extracting myself from the bottom of the gorge solo.
16.5km run with 428m elevation. Great start to the day. Legs are feeling the week though, with 3 x runs on the bounce.
Feel free to totally shoot me down as you didn’t ask for my advice…No doubt your a decent runner and obviously doing something right!.. But I feel like you could potentially get more out of your training by not running with such an elevated HR for alot of your runs. Speaking as a fellow revver (runs a HM at 180+), I just reckon you could really improve your efficiency by capping it at say 150 for most of them. I know running slowly is pretty boring. There is good research out there and I’d started to see improvements until I needed to switch up my training due to injury and TCR. Maybe I’m too invested in HR training… 
Totally fair point sir, and happy to receive. That’s what the forum is for!
I have actually done the low HR stuff properly in the past. It really was successful, but it did require (in my N=1 experience) big volume to be really effective. I was training for London mara and it was all low HR (sometimes super heated – wearing layers and layers of clothes). Like literally no tempo, no speedwork at all. I PBd at 5km, 10k and ½ using this method, but I was running 110-180km weeks for weeks and weeks on end. Ultimately though I did pick up a niggle a few weeks before London which derailed my mara completely. That was back in 2017.
What I found since was that when only running 30-45km weeks as I am now, that the low HR stuff just doesn’t seem to kick my fitness on. So I feel that there must be a certain threshold of volume that needs to be met before the low HR stuff works, otherwise I’m just not stressing my system enough – as effectively it’s just too easy and I’m absorbing the load.
Now I’m no coach or sports scientist, but this is how I’ve assessed and reacted to it over the years.
I guess the question here is, what is that volume threshold? When talking IM training, as that’s what I’m currently doing, you’re probably right to point out that I’m getting near/past that threshold and maybe should be backing off a tad. I don’t know. I’d need to mix it in with some sharper sessions, but my training plan (I don’t really have a plan, more a rough guide) is so erratic that it’s tough to fit in; as I tend to have to take what I can where I can. This week for example – 3 days in a row isn’t ideal. But Mrs GB is away all weekend from tomorrow lunchtime, so I’ll not be able to run Fri-Sun. Turbo will be my only option, so I’ve front loaded the running.
It’s definitely food for thought though mate, and I know you’ve mentioned it before. I’m probably in half decent HIM run shape at the mo, but would guess that I’m lacking in the 3hr+ strength and endurance that I need to build upon. Similarly bike needs a lot of work!!!
All part of the puzzle though I guess!
Plus as you say, running proper low HR is boring as sin! 
Nice 90 min trail run
Fairly easy I was hoping for 130 bpm average
Nice that I found myself running 5 min kms on a long slightly downhill section at a very low ( for me ) hr.
Hard to get up 15% gravel type roads without raising the effort though so av hr 138 max 161.
Lovely start to the day.
Yeah at a 3 runs a week volume for me I’d probably be going 2 lower end HR (<150 roughly) and the other one at the higher end. I certainly wouldn’t want to be doing all low HR stuff! But yeah something to potentially think about 
Its also gonna help keep you fresher for a bike training session too.
For me, total volume is all that matters - it’s why the norwegian “double threshold day” running is now popular, simply 'cos it’s MORE VOLUME - the slower speed is necessary to run more (both for injury prevention, but also simply fueling) It’s not “what volume do I need to be doing to run slower?”, the question is “how do I add more volume?” And it’s when the question of how to add more volume necessitates running slower.
There is a complication when increasing volume, and how you manage injury risk, where it maybe running more easier stuff reduces injury risk, but that is certainly not universal.
2nd attempt at 20 x 200m off 3m30 this evening, failed again. This time was derailed by 1) kids in the pool who kept getting in my way -how dare they, what is this, a residential compound for families? and 2) goggles were really uncomfortable for some reason and kept having to adjust them 
ging: 3) was feeling generally sluggish and the rest period was dropping perilously close to zero.
Might have a 3rd go tomorrow morning before the whippersnappers are up.
Thank fuck - some pictures
Otherwise it’s I ran 7km before work. Woopie fucking doo
100m swimming today in the pool - now 34 degrees and too hot to do anything even if I could be arsed - don’t know how you manage it @fruit_thief
the pool here is cooled, which I guess helps
