Finally got in an easy 30mins on the trainer before work, let’s see if I can get to the office nowwithout a panic 
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Gym first thing. Lot of supersets. Lot of muscular endurance.
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Second swim this week - something must be wrong with me
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Wednesday 5k easy run and 30min turbo
Thursday 21k trail run with 1100m vert
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Wednesday
AM - 
32 minutes with12 minutes just under threshold
was absolutely freezing, so cut short what was going to be an hour session.
PM - Lunchtime 
8km Intensive endurance - 38’, 4:44min/km.
Good session felt strong throughout, although a bit of knee pain in the first half, not had any knee pain for about 5 years so it was a bit of a shock. Seemed to clear up though, hope its not something that comes back in the coming weeks
Thursday
AM - 60 minutes with 12’, 10’, 8’ and 4’ minutes just under threshold, similar to the session I intended to do yesterday (Wednesday.) Ended up with 34-minutes time in zone (TiZ), really enjoyed it.
PM - Lunchtime Easy 7km with 4x short strides - 5:29 min/km
Got totally soaked, but enjoyed that more than the runs in the ice and snow last week. It might have been very wet but there was almost no wind so it was actually pleasant and a nice temperature.
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Hill repeats with daughter as part of London Marathon - that was a shock to her system 
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As per the rant thread I tried going to the gym but my arms were heavy and tired so it was a bit half-hearted.
I then had an easy 6K plod while the GF was at the shop.
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55 minute zone 2 run on the tredders.
Very dull.
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Doffs cap. Nearly an hour on the treadmill, I don’t think I’ve got the mental capacity for that.
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6k easy run with zl (now I found the right thread in the right tab)
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Gym first thing. Bit of rowing, few more weights.
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Friday
32 minutes recovery
10km 49:13 - 4:44 min/km (was meant to be easier than that but the pace just came naturally.)
Saturday
22km 2hr – 5:27 min/km
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Managed 103km ride with 2400m elevation gain in today, in 5hrs.
2 runs of 12km in 1hr01, 260m elevation gain, and 2 indoor bikes of 45mins, 1hr15, so far this week.
Managing to be fairly consistent, averaging 8hrs a week in the last 12 weeks. Gradually going to build on that now. Finally feel like I’m making a step forward in fitness.
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Went for a run. Didn’t really want to.
I have a few usual routes and decided to let fate decide how far I was going to go… at each junction the first car I saw, if the number was odd I would go onwards, if it was even I’d head home. This ended up being one of my standard 10k routes.
Until I ended up with the “home or hill” options… it lead to hill… a punchy little number. How many reps? Well that’s down to the last number on the first car I saw. Of course it was a '19 reg. The last two reps were a real struggle!
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16k easy run with zl
35mins strength
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This weeks long run for London marathon with daughter - 19km this week
20 secs per km faster than last weeks 16.7km
Progress
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Up early, lumpy 5.2km run.
22:14. 61m elevation.
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Tuesday and Friday runs (both easy, flat and around 10kms)
Thursday and Sunday gym. Mainly uphill cardio - there’s a bit of a protocol (or variations of one) coming into play with a number of my ultra crew at the moment which seems to be paying dividends. Adding a load of uphill treadmill sessions, though I’m adding in the stair climber too. It’s mainly fast hiking, but also some really slow running - all on incline. Trying to replicate the way you attack hills in a long off road ultra. Calves are definitely feeling it at the mo!
Have also been doing some back rehab stuff in between treadmill and climbmill. Will look to increase this to more stength vs rehab in Feb if things are looking OK.
So far the back is mainly playing ball. Was a bit stiff and aching yesterday. Assume from Friday’s run. But hard to tell as nothing is linear with this injury. Also spent a good few hours wallpaper and paint scraping yesterday which is hard on the core/back.
Might give it all a day off tomorrow so as not to tempt fate. Then maybe go for a similar week if things work out well.
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2025 Review
But first, an apology…
I haven’t really been on this Training Tread for months now and previously I’ve always enjoyed seeing what others are up to & adding a 
for encouragement when I got the chance. Unfortunately, since I started a new work contract in September, I’ve been under major work stress, with too much travel (either M1 or train), staying in hotels, with associated rubbish eating & drinking (including service stations 
). So, here is my belated training update.
Note: My training stats reference 2014 because I lost my detailed training records from TT1.0 (2005-2013) and only have annual totals for those years. 
Swim – Total 168.7 km / 66 sessions / Avg. 2.6 km / Max. 3,266m
I can’t believe how long it has taken me to get back into regular (ish) swim club training. Still a long way to go in terms of getting speed back, but a HUGE step in the right direction.
Monthly Review – 2025 included all the Top 6, of my Top 10, monthly swim totals since 2014. 
Annual Review – 2025 was 5th biggest swimming year in the last 25 years, my biggest year in the last 15 years & I covered more distance than the 8 years from 2013 to 2020 combined. 
Bike – Total 7,133 km / 252 sessions / Avg. 28.3 km / Max. 50.7km
Monthly Review – 2025 included 4 of my Top 10 monthly bike totals since 2014.
Annual Review – I managed to clock enough distance on my last session of the year (31/12/25) to scrape over my 2024 annual total, making this my biggest bike year on record (just).
New (to me) Exercise Bike
In Oct.25, I found a barely used bike on Ebay, that just required some assembly.
Which keeps me firmly in TriTalk’s ‘Dentist’ category for turbo set ups. 
My two old/broken bikes were taken by the modern equivalent of the old ‘Bag & Bone Man’.
(Bloke in a big white Mercedes van who took these within 30 minutes of me leaving them out!)
Run – Total 721 km / 136 run / Avg. 5.3 km / Max. 8.1km
Monthly Review – 2025 included 4 of my Top 10 running totals since 2014 and Aug.25 was my best month (95km) since at least 2009. Unfortunately, any hope of sneaking past 100km was scuppered by the effort I put in with a chainsaw vs. tree stump in the heat. Then my new job ruined any chance of building on it for the rest of the year.
Annual Review – Again, a conscious effort in December allowed me to just scrape past my 2024 annual total, making this my 3rd biggest annual run total ever.
Time – Total 428h 26 m / 454 sessions / Avg. 56 mins / Max. 1h 50m
Back in TT1.0, I often used the phrase ‘The healing power of statistics’ in my Blog and that phrase certainly rang true as I pulled things together for this 2025 Review.
Glass Half Empty
Initially, I was frustrated how much training time I lost between Sep. & Dec. due to a new job, especially when it came to my running.
Glass Half Full
But it was only when I pulled the graphs below together that, despite this set back, it became clear what a great year I’d actually had.
Monthly Review – Anything over 30 hours a month is good for me and Jun. to Aug. ranked as my Top 3 months for training hours since 2014.
Annual Review – You can really see how I have been building up from 2017, when my total training hours came in at pitiful 9 hours for the whole year!
Weight
Again, I haven’t been anywhere near the ‘Weigh In’ thread in months and those months have not been kind to me either (see excuses/apologies at the start of this update).
Height = 5’ 7.5” / 1.71m.
01/01/19 – 14st 8.6lbs / 92.8kg - Personal Worst
01/01/25 - 11st 12.8lbs / 75.7kg
31/12/25 - 12st 8.4lbs / 80.0kg
Clearly, a weight ‘rollercoaster’ is nothing new for me, but it still disappointing.
Hope the measurement police enjoy the mix of Kg & Lbs in these graphs.
2026 Outlook
2026 hasn’t started much better work wise, so I might take a step away from TriTalk completely for a while until I have some proper time to spend here. I’ll turn 61 next month and history tells me that I need to accept there will be times when I simply have to fit in what little training I can around what is going on in my life/work.
Until next time, take care, Paul. 
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