A Big week

Wednesday 9 November

Morning: Swam 3.1 km comprising 600m free warm up followed by further 400m free . 8 x 50m made up of 25 fist and 25m free .Main set 300m, 250m, 200, 50m x 2 at threshold pace.cool down 2 x 50m backstroke and free. A relatively hard session.
In the evening I got home late from work so i ran from home and did  approximately 9.3km it was dark and it was slow.

Thursday : I managed to get out by 5.20am and rode round the river with 3-4 efforts . I had breakfast at Ekka where the Exceed group met up. In the evening i rode home making a total of 68km .

Friday : I got up early and went to the pool and began swimming before the session started. I managed 3.2km with a 1000m warm up and then 200m of medleys and then the main set was 9 x 200m building to the last 100 m being fast. Then just did a 200m cool down.

In the evening I did a 10km run but it was very slow.There was a strong headwind and I was travelling very slowly. I did a 10km run in just over 1 hr. My slowest run but I felt quite lethargic at the end of the busy day.

Saturday: It was my longest ride for a while. I left at 5.45 am and rode from home .It was slow going with lots of traffic lights which made for a lot of stop /starts . I struggled a bit on the ride down and finished 86 km in just over 3 hours. I then pushed harder on the return leg. Finished the ride in 6.17 .It was slow going but I am happy with the pace on the Freeway bike path. I felt pretty comfortable on the ride and only around 60km did  I start getting a niggle in the back but it settled after 30kms and   I  was pretty comfortable on the way back.  I seemed to feel that the ride down was tougher .  There were not as many riders on the bike path as in previous weeks .Presumably everyone is starting  to taper with 3 weeks to go.

The ride into the city and back were slow as there were lights and a pedestrian bridge to get over , but once I was on the Freeway bike path I managed to get into a good pace. There was a fair bit of wind about and I just had to remain focused.

It was a slower ride by comparison to my rides earlier in the year but I got off the 180 km ride feeling pretty good  possibly because I ate a  lot  on the bike . A whole bag of sweets and dates which would have been about 200gms , 4 gels of 160 gms of carbohydrates , I bidon of 70 gms of Gatorade and  3 more of water  with salt and electrolytes. No cramping issues and I did not bonk. I had a few issues with the bike as it was making some real weird nosies and felt like the crank was not funtioning properly. It may have been the chain coming into contact with the front  derailleur during the ride .




I was a little sore the next day but did an easy 30 km recovery ride on my way to Tony's . We were going to do a swim but in the end he had pain in his hip and there was no one swimming at the Cott so I did not fancy swimming alone . We had coffee and I rode home  and swam at the Inglewood Pool . I did a leisurely 2.1km swim.

It was probably not critical that I finish every session this week. It is 3 weeks to the Busselton  Ironman and I must say mentally I have been tired of training especially in the rain. I am not quite at race weight and the wheezing and asthma issues will be something I have to just work round for the race. But overall , my preparation has been good. I have not had any injuries and just 1 or 2 colds. Despite the wettest training lead up to an Ironman , I  have been lucky. I see these past 4 months as a real build period for a stronger 2012.

It has been more a mental challenge this time round and more about the Heart . Just grinding out the sessions has been counter productive and I think the weeks I change the programme and ditched some of the activities has helped. My swimming has suffered a little and I will have to refocus some of my energy next year towards getting more efficient.  It isn't a large component of a Tri but it would be great to be efficient .


Swim: 3.15 hrs or 8.4 km
Run: 5.10 hrs or 55km
Bike : 12.10 hrs or 333km

Total : 20.55 hrs