So this starts the full week section of my holiday and with my Grizzly blisters on the mend then there is no excuse for not getting a few hours in, although I'm sure the weather and my parents coming down for a few days will feature amongst my feeble excuses as the week goes on. The Target?? ............ I'm not dumb enough to put a figure on my aims because that leads to certain failure. BUT after my post the other week and my discovery that I'd only hit 15hrs once last year then I do have 'for me', very lofty aims.
Monday - A 3hr bike ride was a good solid start to the week on a nice day. As is normally the case with my training there was no plan of action and I changed my mind several times during the course of the ride. Throwing Muddiford Hill in after 40miles was a bit of a stinger on the legs too. An early wake up call to the week I think.
Tuesday - A big day today...... First up was my tried and trusted 7mile run along the Tarka Trail with Rosie, then a quick dip at the pool. I decided to seehow far I'd swim in an hour so it was simply a case of jumping in the water, starting the stopwatch and swimming. I took my 400m splits to keep track and make sure I didn't lose count. It was nice to have my fastest 400m at the end and 4,200m later I was climbing out of the pool and heading for the showers. Job Done!
The afternoon was nice and steady until I decided it was time to jump on the turbo trainer for my promised weekly session. Spinervals Week 11 in the bag. The evening session was a toughie, off for a rare trip to my local Running Club I'd planned to take it nice and easy with my legs already feeling trashed. Still, when the group session turned into an ego run I just had to hang in there and keep everybody in check, can't let them go thinking I'm losing my edge........... can I ;-)
Wednesday - Only 3 days in and my legs are beginning to feel the strain already. The weather didn't look great so I took the shopper out for a spin. Two big long climbs and legs that hurt, hurt, hurt was the order of the day. I had to put some work in towards the end just to get the average speed above 15mph but we got there eventually.
Thursday - Today had to be an easy one. A 1hr pyramid ride on the turbo trainer (40mins working up the gears & 20mins dropping down) and a 1hr swim session. I managed a 1k TT & 12x100m off 1:45's but it's a rare day when I'm not enjoying a swim session. Must be getting tired!!!
Friday - Long run day. First up this morning was a steady 13miles of run/walk (9min:1min) before coming home to pick the pup up and put in another 7miles. At the start of the run I felt awful, but it passed and I managed to pick the pace up a little in the last 3miles and put in a proper hard 20th mile which was nice. I sat around like a vegetable for the rest of the day before my concience got the better of me and I jumped on the turbo trainer for a quick 35min spin before my squad swim session. We never do 'sprints' at squad training .............. until tonight it seems when I'm wrecked and then it's 50's and 25's all night. I think someone must have tipped the coach off ;-)
Saturday - Damn it rained this morning!!!!! It was a filthy morning so I dragged the shopper out and went for a steady ride out to meet one of my clubmates and we headed off along the Tarka Trail to avoid the traffic. On any other day I'd have stayed at home in the warm, but it's training week and training MUST be done. This afternoon was probably the worst I've been for a long long time. I took the pup out for her regular 7miles but turned around just over half way and came back, I wasn't in a good place at all. Bad Times!!
Sunday - the last day of a tough week. I thought it would be easier to back off a little today rather than smash myself stupid. A Tri Club swim session where the main set was 12x100m off 1:50 and a Club track session where I half ran, half chatted/coached/kept my eye on the others there. I still got 5miles in, but it wasn't any great shakes.
So that's it, the end of my training/holiday week. From now on it's back to work and fitting some training in when I can. Overall I'm happy with it, sure I got tired as the week went on but it was a massive increase on what I've been doing lately and a massive increase on any training I've done in recent memory. At 20.5hrs (232miles swim/bike/run total) it was 5hrs more than my biggest week last year which came in the build up to Ironman Florida.
Most importantly I've come through a solid training week without any preperation and my body has handled whatever has been thrown at it. No injuries, no aches, no strains, no pulls, no tweaks, it's all good. Now if only there was more time in the week I'd confidently be able to build from here, but .................... unless those lottery numbers come up I'll just have to wonder what would happen (maybe a good thing ;-) )
3 comments:
Funny. Since this is what I wrote to Brandon:
"Things for me get dicey with triathlons. Indeed, I had you in mind when I posted my why-the-tri? entry because I set out my thoughts and I would liked to have heard from someone on the other side setting me straight. Unlike runners, every triathlete I’ve met, you, current and former club mates, are incredibly nice. Given the effort it takes to be the best you can be I really and honestly don’t understand breaking it up into three. But the triathletes I know work really really hard (harder than I do), and you’re right to call me out on the point.
I don't know why I wouldn't want to know you. You must mean another "Joe." Since you seem to be another one of those hard-working triathletes -- I mean that seriously since the ones I know always seem to be getting up at dawn to do their rides -- put your thoughts on the post to which I linked, the one that says about my doing the run segment of one, "It was fun and I have a lot of respect for those who did" the whole thing.
Joe Garland
There should be a close-quote mark after "...on the point."
FYI
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