Rest day....

Monday was my usual rest day....and MUCH needed this week, I was feeling quite fatigued!

A look at my TSB from training peaks confirms this....minus 46.7! Usually I am too fatigued to hit good sessions and need a rest below minus 30 - 35, so I'm feeling it at the moment.

Even when I get back into it on Tuesday I will probably be too fatigued to hit good numbers, so I might have keep the intensity down a touch and freshen up.

DAMN RAIN!

I was feeling a little tired in the legs from yesterdays run so slept in for an extra hour before heading out for my planned 5hr ride and I'm glad that I did!

The weather reports all week have been talking up a big rain from tot come through on Sunday, but had said it would come through in the afternoon. Unfortunately it cam though Newcastle at 6am!

I got all dressed, loaded up the bike and pockets and as I pulled out of the driveway it started to rain. A quick check of the radar confirmed my worst fears....

This meant that I was back into the garage and in for a mind numbing morning on the trainer!

I wasn't able to complete 5hrs as planned, 3.5hrs and I had enough. I got through 2 episodes of Orange is the new black and the morning sports updates, but couldn't take anymore.

Next week is the final weekend of kids netball with only 1 game at 9:30 as my oldest daughters team was knocked out in the semis, so I will be able to swing my long rides onto Saturdays from then which will be great. I can then execute a good long ride on Saturday and then long run on Sunday morning which is much more like the race fatigue rather than trying to do long 5-6hr rides on sore legs from long runs.

Next week I might head out at 11am for the long ride and get my nose into the wind a bit too, so I can  mentally prepare for dealing with the wind while riding.

Not a bad ride, a little low on TSS and longer would have been better;

Into the weekend!

It was a cracking morning for my morning swim today, with water temp of 26 and a beautiful sunrise coming up, winter is ending!

My swim is coming along really well form the work I'm putting into it and I'm feeling quite strong in the water now. The extra k's may not necessarily transfer into a big chunk of time of my swim, but I'm are that I will come out of the water much less fatigued than normal.

Swimming is my weak leg

and I normally come out of the water sucking in the big breaths and have to work very hard for the first half of the bike to make up lost time. Hopefully in Kona this will not be so bad, although up against best in the world I'm sure that I will still be on the back foot somewhat.

This mornings swim session was 4000m and involved;

200 w/u
8 x 50 (free/non free)
4 x 100 as (fist, catchup, hypoxic, sighting)
6 x 200 on 3:50
100 easy
7 x 100
1000 aerobic

Felt quite good right through to the end of the session and my confidence is growing with the swim. Previous ironman preparations a 4km swim was BIG and I would only do that a couple of times on the last 10 weeks, now I'm knocking out a couple a week!

My long run in the afternoon was a tough one!

The plan was;

2hrs done as;

30 min @ 4:40min/km
30 min @ 4:30 min/km
30 min @ 4:20 min km
10 min @ < 4:20 min/km
20 min aerobic cool down, holding good form through to completion.

Long run link

This run really tested the concentration levels and mental strength as it built up intensity as the fatigue was coming on. I used it as a test for my race shoes by going out from home 30 mins and returning back 30 mins, then swapping shoes from ON cloud surfers to the New Balance Zante's. The jury is still out on what I'll use but I'm leaning towards the Zante's.

What a run that was though, I was working pretty hard for the last 10min section of running faster than 4:20min/km's! I could feel my hamstrings and calves working hard and starting to get sore, so I was glad for the aerobic final 20 mins!

A great day of training and I executed two tough sessions relatively comfortably.

Tempo run & swim

I'm transitioning from more speed focused running work to tempo & race pace focus, which allows me to keep pushing out the k's, not stress the body too much and get that race pacing ingrained. I don't allow myself to run any faster than 4min/k's now so that I minimise the risk of injury.

This Friday's run involved;

15 min warm up
3 x 10 min @ tempo effort
15 min cool down

Total distance for the run was 14.7km and it felt great.

Tempo run link

I'm feeling great leading into this weekend.

After work I completed a 2500m swim which was a shortened version of my planned 3500m due to going out for a fundraising dinner with the Team Prawn families. One of the guys is doing the Gold Coast to Newcastle cancer council ride so we had a fundraising night at one of our sponsors, The Premier Hotel in Broadmeadow, Newcastle.

My wife is feeling much better so she was really keen to go and  catch up with everyone and we were leaving at 6pm so my swim was shortened unfortunately but is is all good.

My rides are increasing in time now that I'm into the big key phase of the training block, this mornings ride was 2:23hr and I will be trying to find time to get these up to 3hrs if possible.

I executed the planned ride nicely and felt comfortable holding the wattages that I was targeting. I was aiming to build through the ride and finish with my last 20min interval closer to HIM power.

My targeted intensities and the results are shown below;

Pretty happy with the numbers, although slightly down on what I planned when I set out the plan for the week, but I'm a little fatigued and have a few solid days coming up so didn't want to over do things.

                            

Ride link

In the afternoon I went for my usual aerobic run while the kids were at netball training. This week I was not so fatigued and sore so I aimed at running it closer to the pace which I am aiming for in the race. Average pace for the run was 4:40 min/km which is pretty close and I didn't want to go much faster, considering my key sessions are coming up in the next couple of days.

Aerobic run

Back in my local pool!

So this week my local pool has re-opened for the summer season which is great as it makes life a little easier to get to and from the pool for me.

I live in about 500m from a great swimming centre, in Lambton a suburb in Newcastle but it closes over winter so I have to either swim at a 50m indoor pool at the university or travel 15-20 mins to another outdoor pool bt during the vbusy times of the day it can take longer.

The Uni pool is always full of learn to swim groups, squads or overseas students who can't swim and have no idea on lane etiquette. You are often swimming along during your set and are stopped in your tracks by an asian student doing some weird form of breast stroke or up to 9 people in your lane, 2 of whom can actually swim under 1:30 for 50m!

Now I can stop in on the way home from work in peace and quite to complete my swim training and then be home within 5 minutes of getting out of the water! Last night is was fantastic as there is hardly anyone using the pool yet as it is still a bit cool outside and 22.5deg in water.

I had a lane to myself the whole swim and almost the whole pool for half of the time!

I completed a planned 4km swim set;

1000m IM effort W/U
5 x 200 band/paddle/buoy
1000m steady aerobic
1000m IM effort

Previous IM training blocks I only swam up to 4km maybe once in the final 10 weeks, but this time I am finding myself swimming much better and loving these longer swims. I think that I am definitely swimming much better now than ever before, so hopefully this translates to a good swim in Kona.

In the morning I completed my planned run session which involved;

15 min W/U
3 x 3km at 10-20 sec below IM pace
10 min C/d jog

Nothing much to report on the run, it was just a nice steady tempo style session which I completed comfortably. I am trying not to over cook the running this week so I can hit the bike sessions as planned.

3 x 3km run session link

So another good day in the bank....

Winter just won't quit!

Rolling out the driveway this morning it was a fresh 5 degrees and when out along the low lying areas it was 3 degrees! I just wish this winter would be over already, but at least it's not raining I guess. I don't know how people in Melbourne or New Zealand ride through winter, it must be miserable.

My training has switched slightly now for the bike where I am building on my endurance and working on holding the target IM power comfortably for long periods in preparation for the event.

Today's ride consisted of the following session;

IM consolidation ride link

I was able to execute the session pretty much right on plan which is pleasing. My power is slightly below what the podium guys in my age group are hitting but that's life, I will just work on improving my performance and see where that leaves me.

I am aiming to ride around 205w NP for the course which should get me around a 5hr ride and at this stage of my preparation that is wholly achievable, I just need to complete the workload well over the next 4-6 weeks to consolidate my ability to hold these numbers for long periods.

My second session for the day was an aerobic lunchtime run around the hills near my workplace. This run is a great strength run and I see it as the mortar which holds the blocks together, where the blocks are my quality runs sessions done in the mornings and my long run on the weekends. This run just complements them and adds that extra aerobic conditioning and toughness in the legs.

Link to run file

A good day of training.