This week’s post is a little late, and somewhat truncated. I actually have no idea where my time went, but seems I’ve been too busy/tired/lazy to get anything done, and now it’s already halfway through the next week. Time is weird like that, I’m lucky that I don’t need to work a normal 9-6, I’m living completely alone currently so can set my own schedule with only occasional calls interrupting my monastic life, but I still seem never to have the time I need!

This past week marked the official start of my “serious training”, and at 12 weeks out from my planned race, I’ve seen an increase in my training hours, with a total of almost 20hours over the seven days. Somehow my body is holding it all together, although I am feeling the odd tweak in hips and the lower half of my legs, but nothing serious enough to stop me. I’ve been on this current training plan long enough now for the glow of a new project to have worn off, being tired is the new normal, and the race is still 3 months away, so motivation is at premium and I’m at that stage of literally having to persuade myself (by fair mean of foul), to get started on virtually every work out. I’ve developed various strategies which I’ll probably bore you all with later, but suffice to say, at least presently I am sticking with program and progress is being made!

Training Week Five – week beginning 19th April 2021

Weight:  Monday 19th April – 82.1kg

Run: Total 6hrs 02mins. 4 sessions plus 2 bricks.  Long run 20.03km

Bike: Total 9hrs 30mins. 4 sessions all indoors. Long Bike 4:45hrs/138km

Swim: Total time 1hr 54mins. 2 sessions. Long swim 3km

Walk: 0

S&C : 2 x 60mins gym

Monday. Felt the need to get for a recovery run as my legs felt so stiff and tired. It kinda worked, they felt looser but still super tired. A session at the gym including a long swim also helped revive the body a bit. Tuesday was a toughie, with both a decent run and some tough intervals on the bike trainer to get through, and I was glad when it was done.

Wednesday was gym and swim, followed by another interval session on the Kickr. Thursday was just a single workout, my “fast run day”. I put “fast run day” in quotes because it is a very subjective comment, as my fast running is still much slower than what used to be my slow running, but I’ve seen a near 20 second improvement on pace over the past couple of weeks along with a drop in heart rate, so the effort has been worth it

Friday was “horrible interval session” day which included two sets of 3 x 3 minutes intervals at 115-122% of FTP. I really didn’t expect to manage it, but apart from needing to dial down intensity slightly for a short time in a couple of intervals, I did very well! I was just too tired to go for a planned swim, and swapped the pool for a hard session fighting to stay awake on the sofa!

Sat is long run day. After the efforts on the bike the day before, my legs were shot, and I couldn’t imagine doing the 18k I had planned. So I set out for an easy 6km, slowly warmed up to the task so added a few km, which I kept repeating until I actually ended up with 20k on the board! Not bad, although the map of my run on Strava was all over the place (a drunk wasp comes to mind), clearly showing how I kept adding a few km on rather than planning a full route.

Sunday was supposed to be a long ride outside, but temperatures of around 3-4 degrees and a 30k wind put me off (I really am a wimp when it comes to outdoor riding, no matter how hard I gee myself up the night before, I consistently fail miserably come the morning!). However I do have a high endurance for mind (and butt) numbing session on the trainer, and cranked out 4hrs45minutes in front of the TV in the afternoon. I find it interesting that I always get comments on my long Kickr sessions, complementing me on my fortitude, when actually the opposite is true, I do the indoor sessions because I don’t have the backbone to get outside and do them in them on real roads.