Week 8 Ironman Training Build

After the Sunday Ride to Mundaring and run off the bike

Swim on the Swan Saturday

The coldest winter July with quite a few wet days is now coming to an end .Not the ideal training weather for a humid and hot race in October but its got to do . I have had the advantage of being able to train late on the weekend and I have been doing just that and getting lots of sleep.

On week days this week I have had 2 rest days ...the fatigue and mental tiredness with work just meant I needed to have a break. Monday , I skipped the swim and allowed the body to just have a rest .Tuesday I skipped cross fit and did a wind trainer session with a road trainer programme ..Really pushes the legs . I managed a programme called Sill with 9 minute blocks at 200 watts and spikes of 1 mins x 3 at 222 watts . There were 3 blocks of 9 minutes . Felt pretty cooked after that .

Thursday, I rode with the intention of riding to cross fit but the wind and rain changed that . I rode the 34kms home and did a 30 minute recovery ride on the wind trainer . In the afternoon I did my Wednesday run with just under 9kms .mainly keeping to between 5.45 and 5.08 pace .

Friday , I did an easy run of 50 mins and covered 7kms and then swam 3.5km doing 60 x 25 m with increasing the hard efforts from just one 25 m every 4 to 3 out of every four for the last 20 . There were recovery swims of 200 m between and then 400m easy at the beginning and the end with 800m with PB and paddles.

Saturday .Late start and the legs were really sore so I had 1 hour on the wind trainer and then a 4km run and cross fit in the afternoon .We did Bring up sally which is usually a squat WOD but this time we did various variations with sit ups, squats , lunges , planks and leg raisers. they all hurt but its good for the core.

Sunday

Inverted the training and did the long ride today and missed my long run. Today I started late again but the temperature was hovering at 3 degrees and it was cold .I headed for the hills with a 71km ride to Mundaring Town through Helena Valley . It was also a little windy . I felt pretty comfortable and there were a few steep gradients on the ride today .Saw quite a few cyclist about . I managed to get to Mundaring in just over 1.5hrs and then rode back really pushing especially on the downhill leg . I managed to ride back with the Midland cycling Club juniors who were riding near Helena valley . I finished with an average of just under 25kph which was a little better than last year . I ran 5.5 km off the bike keeping to about a 5.50 pace. In the evening I swam a straight 2.5km with the PB and then ran home . 

Whilst not following the programme I drew up exactly I am getting some strength work in and next week is the start of some speed work .