70.3 Training - Week 1

Week 1 is in the books and by all accounts it was a good week.

Anyone would think I was tired and needed coffee....

It was great to return to structured training, something that I really did miss in the Christmas break, and something that helped me realise that I do have the willpower and fortitude of a flea!

A quick recap of the sessions had the week shape up as follows:

Monday – swim training. Felt really good to be in the pool again this week. Coach put us through our paces and ensured that we came out of the water knowing that we had been in a training session.

Tuesday – missed the early morning ride (1^st week in so opted out of it this week). Attended the Long Slow Distance (LSD) run in the evening. An 11km loop around the stunning Kings Park in Perth. Following the outer edge and running up the aptly named “Roller Coaster”. Several things came together for me on this run…

·         Longest distance run for a LONG time (like 3 months!)

·         Opening 5km was pretty much ALL uphill (I thought rollercoasters went down at some point!)

·         I got lost and ended up in the middle of the park instead of on the edge (still ended up doing 11kms though).

I completed the run and feel pretty good and happy at getting some distance back in my legs…looking forward to more of the same!

Wednesday – this week was a rest day.

Thursday – the first double day of this training regime.

Started out with a LSD ride. Was almost 30km with a couple of nice hill climbs. The only fault lies with me as I picked the incorrect group and as such the pace was a little slower than I would have preferred. Live and learn and this week ahead I will move up a group.

Ended off with a couple of laps around the old favourite Lake Monger near work. Was very happy (and relieved) to be accompanied by a couple of training buddies (helping to keep me accountable). Managed a nice 7km run, with the added bonus, after the 11km on Tuesday, of being mercifully flat.

Friday – Best Day = Official rest day

Saturday – Club BRICK session x 2 (Bike and run). I was a little nervous at the start as last time I participated in the BRICK session I hurt my hamstring and had to ease up for a few weeks. Extremely pleased with being able to maintain a strong run in both BRICK intervals (5:12/km and 5:10/km in each over the 2.5kmn run distance).

Opted out of the open water swim this week. Did have a nana nap in the mid-afternoon which was most welcome.

Sunday – LSD Ride. Chose to ride the river loop this week – was a nice steady ride, about 50km in 1:52. Am saving the hills for this coming weekend as Monday is a public holiday and affords the extra day of recovery from my first foray into the hills.

Week 1 - by the numbers

I am really pleased that I did ensure that I got in at least 30 mins of stretching on 5 days of the week. I think that this was of benefit and I will try my best to incorporate it in as often as possible.

I need to work on ensuring I get enough sleep in the week ahead. I think getting used to the early alarms this week has meant that by about 2 am I start having broken sleep in anticipation of the alarm going off…in fact my alarm only woke me once this past week. I also need to stop falling asleep on the couch as I am sure that the sudden (and frequent) jolting awake from the wife’s punch is not helping my fatigue management.

As ever, thanks for reading…