70.3 Training – Week 7 Week 8

Well, it has been at least 3 weeks since I last missed an update so I was due. Life has been as hectic as ever lately, juggling family, training and work and in truth I think/know that I have dropped the ball on two out of three over the last couple of weeks….family and training.


Yup - pretty much sums up the desire this week...

This is not meant to be a confessional but as something I can look back on in the future I would like it to be an accurate reflection of the goings on at the point in time. Overall, you will see that I have missed a few training sessions (which impacted my mood!), but what you won’t see is that I certainly feel that I have not been fully present at home in supporting my wife and engaging with my boys. This is something that is playing on my mind and I am working to rectify. As ever, none of what I do could be possible without the support of my wife and for her I am so very grateful!

Week 7:

In summary,

Tuesday morning I had nothing in the tank and missed the interval session.

Tuesday long distance run. Managed to get a whisker under 13kms on the run. Very happy as I was working to maintain a set pace (5:40/km) and managed it…quicker for the first half and slowed for the second but overall on target. Probably had another km or two in me in truth which is good and the benefit of holding the set pace I guess! So humid that I looked like I had swum rather than run by the time I finished!!

Thursday morning was a new route for the ride. The Water Tower ride…ie Hills. A great out and back track (27kms total) that took in some pretty generous hills around the suburbs. Really enjoyed it, I think I like the short sharp hill climbs!

Thursday afternoon, running intervals at the track again. 800m interval with a 2min rest between each. This was good fun and I managed a consistent pace of 4:01 for most of the 7 laps completed. Felt pretty buoyed by this achievement.

Saturday BRICK – this was a pretty big session. This saw us complete two 20km ride – 5km run sets. It was a nice flattish course along the river front and provided for some fast riding. I REALLY need to get some areobars for my bike as I am still feeling the impact of the headwinds on some of our courses. I also took the opportunity to work on taking gels on board during the ride, 1) for practice and 2) for the energy required to complete the double!

Sunday – bonus rest day – a long weekend holiday here in Perth. Rest day that was enforced by my wife – she must have been seeing the need for the rest more than I was feeling it…

Week 8:

Monday was a holiday in Perth and as such there were no scheduled training sessions. One of my teammates suggested an entry into the Open Water Swim (OWS) competition in Rockingham (site of my happiest race to date). After the initial trepidation I thought it would be a great chance to test the wet suit again as well as give myself a confidence boost over the distance (2.5km – longest OWS to date). Apart from getting a little lost (yup I can even get lost doing two loops of a rectangular circuit!) and probably doing some extra distance I ended the swim with a 53:26 time. Happy to take that as an opening bench mark and as a confidence boost for the distance swum!


Glamourous exit to the swim (photo credit Daniel Carson Images)

Tuesday morning bike intervals were a return to Kings Park. Really enjoyed the second outing on this course and felt a lot more energetic after the completion of two circuits, only time constraints prevented another loop or two.

Work commitments resulted in a missed running session.

Thursday morning ride was a welcome distraction as the work week was proving to be pretty heavy and this was a good way to blow off some steam.

The Thursday evening run was again, unfortunately, missed.

By the time Friday evening came around I was pretty much enough of the work week and launched into the weekend training sessions at the demise of family time.

Saturday BRICK sessions were hard and fast. Two reps of a 10km hill ride followed by a 4.5km hill run…point to note – no break between sets! I went into it and wanted to take the mental break from the world and focus on the training and that is what I did. I managed a consistent 21min ride each time and a 24min run. I was done by the end but it was needed!

Sunday Long ride. More hills. My desire to continue to exhaust myself continued on the Sunday. After the last long ride two weeks ago where I was exhausted and out of energy through poor fuelling I wanted to ensure I actively worked on my nutrition this time. Peanut butter and Bovril sandwich, 2 x tubes of Shot Bloks, 2 x peanut cereal bars and 1 x Hammer gel PLUS two bottles with Shotz electrolytes in them. The sandwich I had half at each of the first two regroup points but the shots, electrolytes and the cereal bars I had spread out over the whole ride in 10km intervals (water at the 5kms).

Total elevation gained over 850m...sheesh...

I would be lying if I didn’t say that there were times when I wanted to put my foot down and get off my bike and sit on the side of the road and collapse into the foetal position and there was a VERY fierce debate raging in my head, particularly on the ascents. I am very pleased to say that I managed the whole ride with no unscheduled stops (ie I didn’t put my foot down apart from regroup points!) and by the time I finished I was in much MUCH better spirits than in the previous week.

The downside from this smash fest was that by the time mid-afternoon arrived I was done. Stubbornly I tried to continue on through the day, when I should have had a 30min power nap and re-joined the family as a happier person. I was rather more akin to a bear with a sore head (and a bit of a useless one at that) content to be grumpy and snappy from the confines of the couch rather than participate in the usual activities of the family. Not one of my better days…and a fail in endearing my family to the Ironman challenge…

The week ahead is a bit of a mystery in terms of the work week at the moment but in terms of family time I will be working my absolute best to not repeat the mistakes of last weekend.

Thanks for reading.