My Training - December

 215km  160km  20km  7 hours

Christmas. It's wonderful isn't it. Home to the parents for champagne and charades. Not you? No, me neither. Rather, at home in London with the girlfriend. Thankfully I got some time off from work this year (yay to the new employer...evil eyes to the old one) and so there were no excuses to not keep up the training into the new year. Even the Christmas parties (all two of them) could not distract me from my schedule.

I hope it's a fast one!

For the first few days of December my ribs remained 'cagey' but I powered through regardless and all was soon resolved. With this new zest for life I celebrated my ability to once again grate carrot (refer to November post) with a homemade coleslaw.

I trained again (...must make that payment) with the new running club - VPHTHAC - boy they're some fast fellas there. I'm very much looking forward to racing for them and becoming more known within the club for both athletic and social reasons. It's good to be chasing heels. Hopefully I'll catch a few pairs throughout next year. The accountant in me is also buoyed by the £2 I won't be required to pay on race entries, now that I'm a club runner. Kerching!

December was the month I found Strava (find me as: Craigy Norris). Yet another distraction to my life, but the sense of community is welcomed and it's great to see how my friends are getting on. A pat on the back (kudos) is rather pleasant too. The more you are 'out there' so to speak, the more you push yourself I find. Not to be the fastest but to showcase continuous improvement is very important to me.

See you on Strava

Daria - my beloved Felt B12 - came in from the cold (finally) just before Christmas and I've been riding her in the spare bedroom ever since. Filthy innuendos aside, training on the turbo is the safest way to go hard on the bike and the continuous requirement to pedal means a better use of time than coasting along the roads. Though what Ironman taught me last September was that I failed to log sufficient road miles. Henceforth, I'll be getting out on my bike often with the primary focus being hill repeats. Somewhat hard to achieve statically at home.

Lovely Daria Werbowy

All this turboing allows for a lot of ultramarathon video watching on youtube. I find an ironing board the perfect companion to rest the laptop and keep nutrition at arms length. It quells the boredom (never) of a two or three hour ride sans scenery and also provides great inspiration for what lays ahead for me. One video I've watched a few times now is this one on the Badwater Ultramarathon which gets you through two hours - no sweat.

Perfect cycling weather

The best (training) news of the month was that London Fields Lido now has floodlights! What this means for me is that open air swimming is now possible after work. Never a morning person, I've already plotted my run/swim/run commute home. The 50m heated pool is my favourite to train in and I really value having such a fine facility close by. Over the festive period, I swam there in relative solitude, such were the bone chilling temperatures and mass exodus of the Hackney hipsters for Christmas. How will I progress my swimming this year, is the question I am asking. I have no qualms with distance, but I'm seeing little progress with speed. Learned technique and speed work is the answer. Damn, should have asked for paddles and a pool buoy for Christmas...

Let there be light

In the gymnasium I kept up with the weight pushing and I'm pleased to report the fruits of my labour are evident - I managed to carry the Christmas tree on my own this year (to the car). 

Still looking for some early year races. Do let me know if you've entered anything yourselves. Might even be tempted to enter a half-marathon having recorded a 1:28 over the park recently, so the mind now thinks "do a 1:25 then that sub-3 marathon may be on the cards". 

In February, there will be a lot of running (details to follow)...maybe I'll take January easy.