Monday 23 February 2015

70.3 Training – Week 6

Wowzers that was a week and a half of training! When coach said we were going to have a 4 week block of strength and endurance which would include a bit of hill work he wasn’t kidding around!
Yup...MUCH bigger!!!
My reliance on coffee has gone up a notch or two over the past week!

You may recall that last week was a recovery week (aka sloth mode engaged!). I have learnt that when we have our next recovery week I shall be even MORE diligent about building up the energy reserves for the next block.

It has been a BIG week, a good week but a BIG week most definitely.
Over 11hours!! A big week indeedio...
Monday – main set was the swim in the evening. It was good to get back to the Monday swim which I have missed for a couple of weeks through one reason or another. Always manage to leave to pool with a happy glow exuding from my shoulders and this week was no different! Usual warm up and drills followed by a main set of 400 build repeats…done!

Tuesday morning – cycling intervals. Hmmm…the first of our hill training block. Kings park loops. A strange concoction of trying to get us lost riding various permeations of the three main roads through and around the park. 3 loops = 1 circuit = 16kms. 2 circuits in the bag. Sadly fortunately coach was standing on the roundabout at the car park and “encouraged” me to get the last loop in. It took a fair bit of strength to point the bike back down the hill…thanks coach!

Tuesday evening – running. The traditional long slow distance run. I have come to the conclusion that I should not be presented with a choices. I am weak and feeble minded and will wuss out the first chance I get. Context…the route was one we have done before, uphill clockwise around Kings Park and down onto the river foreshore and home. This particular night the choice was at the foreshore to turn left (away from home) to get an extra 3 kms in or to wuss out turn right and head home. Well I had mentally defeated myself before I got to the river and as such turned right and spent the next 3 kms berating myself for not sucking it up and running the extra. Needless to say I did not enjoy Tuesday nights run!

Missed the sessions on Wednesday due to work commitments, laziness and residual sulking from the previous evening.

Thursday morning – group ride. Really a great ride and enjoying the circuit. This week the highlight was actually getting dropped at one of the traffic lights (with 4 others) and then putting the burn on to catch the main group. It took us 25mins to catch the pack (partly due to a few unfavourable traffic lights) and there were stretches of roll through sprints at over 40kph but when we did catch them it felt great!! Was so pleased with the effort! It was stuffed but smiling!

Thursday evening – running intervals. Wow – another big session. Ran the trails in Tuart Park (Hilly trails!). This involved a 1.6km loop. 1km UP (66m elevation gain per my Garmin) and then 600m “recovery” back down to the start. I know that these sessions must be good for you (other than trying to induce a heart attack) and I am sure that when we run on the flat I will be grateful for all of these extra muscles that I have built running up and down the trails but at the time it is REALLY hard to see the future benefits! 4 loops completed with minimal tears.

FRIDAY – OH HOW I LOVE FRIDAY REST DAYS!!!

Saturday – BRICK session. Target times 80 – 90min ride followed by a 40 – 50min run. The plan was to get a steady ride in and not try to exhaust yourself prior to the big Sunday ride that we had planned. It started really well with a bit of a chat and a spin of the legs but ended up being a bit of a quicker ride towards the end. In my defence the ride up the freeway is a great path and it really is easy to build some speed along there…39.9kms completed (83mins) and onto the run.

The power of the mind came to play here. Lesson learnt from Tuesday (I am claiming that in any case even though I just stated it now!) in that I decided on the ride that I wanted to get 9kms completed regardless of the time taken! Ended up with 8.8km in 48mins (not sure where I lost 200m but ho hum). It was a good session. Tough but good!

Sunday – long ride. This was a big one!
That first climb was over 15kms long!
Following on from my less than enjoyable hill session acouple of weeks ago this was going to be another uphill ride (see Garmin elevation profile). Oh my goodness was it uphill. In a perverse way I enjoyed the longer climb over the shorter steeper one a couple of weeks ago. That said, nearly 15kms of climb was quite a lot to deal with. It really is a test of both physical and mental strength to keep on moving (and positive) on the climb (something I failed at two weeks ago). Really pleased to have made the climb and never before have I been so elated to see a large group of lycra clad individuals waiting at the end of the climb!

A short stop, half a peanut butter sandwich and we were off again. Coach held back as we had splintered into a couple of groups over the climb and I would be grateful for that later on. A great downhill section was promptly followed by a sharp uphill section. Sadly, the realisation hit me during the downhill decent that what goes down must go up and that took some of the fun out of the decent. An impromptu stop to fill water bottles was a bit of an undoing for me. Getting off my bike was not a smart idea as my legs were concrete when I tried to get going again. Sadly I did put my foot down on the next climb as I thought I would have fallen over if I didn’t and that then lead way to a 60 second stop halfway up the hill. That 60sec was enough for me to drop off the back of the pack by some way. Plugged on until we came to the next rest stop which the group had probably been at for a couple of minutes so were keen to keep rolling. I rode at the tail for a short while and let the last wheel know I was doubling back to the service station to wait for the coach and his group. I needed the rest! I was really grateful for the rest. I must have had about 3 – 5mins total but it was glorious!! Something to eat, a coke and some water and we were off again. I was revived. My legs felt much better and I was happily riding along mid pack again. Apart from the exciting decent down Welshpool Road it was an uneventful ride back to the city. It was a good ride (92.5km / 3:36:17) and I am chuffed to have got it under my belt.

Learning for the next one…EAT! I need to snack to keep my levels stable. I waiting far too long to have something to eat on this ride and I suffered for it as I was in calorie deficit and as such anything I did have was a drop in the ocean (until the coke and snack!).

Thanks for reading and until next time happy training!

Wednesday 18 February 2015

Telstra Series – Race 3 – Busselton Olympic Distance

Ok, ok I know it is overdue but none the less here is the race report of my first Olympic distance race (raced 1st Feb).
I'm going to blame a lack of caffeine for the delayed report...
The beautiful city of Busselton hosted the 3rd race in the Telstra Tri Series. This was the first year that Busselton were hosting this race with it having been in Mandurah previously.

Monday 16 February 2015

70.3 Training - Week 5 (recovery week) AND a race report

So we have already completed 5 weeks of the 70.3 course. Time absolutely flies by when your life revolves around training sessions…it is funny how days of the week start becoming referred to as doubles, singles, bricks or rest days!

Monday 9 February 2015

70.3 Training – Week 2…and 3…and 4 Opps!

Yup…I’ve been pretty slack over the past few weeks. For the couple of people out there still reading I am sorry and I will endeavor to get back to some kind of normality and regularity with my postings.
Yup - Mondays - not fun!!

In interests of keeping the training blog up to date I will do a whistle stop recap of weeks 2 – 4, mainly with the highlights.