Ok, so it appears I may have told a little Porky Pie last week. You see, after the last abbreviated update I promised I would "do better" next week.
Ummmmm.............No. It appears not.
It appears that when one is a Dad, decides to start training for an Ironman, takes on a new job, new job involves an accelerated study program, plus having a life to live means that sometimes there is simply not enough hours in the day.......and sometimes some things need to take a backseat. Unfortunately, this blog is one of those things that needs to be fit in around many, many other things. My apologies.
So last week (25th/31st July) did not start well.......at least from a training point of view. My current study has a block of 6 assessment tasks all due on 3rd August and, as a result, there have been a number of very........very late nights to try and get the work done in time. Monday & Tuesday were spent with the head in the books putting together all the bits and pieces needed for these bloody assessment tasks.
I managed to get out on the bike on Wednesday morning and I picked an absolutely bloody ripper for it..........given it was -2.8 degrees. Yes, that's right. Minus!!!
Holy Crap. Was it cold??? I had so many layers on there was practically nothing left in my cupboard, including 3 pairs of gloves and my fingers still froze. My toes weren't much better despite the 2 pairs of socks and 2 pairs of bootie covers. Took until about midday before I could feel my frigging nose again!!
Wednesday night was a session at the pool of 2000m, including 8 x 100m intervals. Out of the pool in 40 minutes, but took me about 2 hours to get out of the joint after chatting with every bloke and his dog.
Thursday morning was back with the regular running group and a huge crew of 16 turned up despite another cold one. A positively balmy -2.3 degrees this time! Managed to get just under 10k done in 50mins and was able to negatively split the loop by nearly 2 minutes. Felt good, despite a very sore adducter that was giving me some grief.
Friday morning was back out on the bike again and it looked like summer had finally arrived. it was exactly 0 degrees! A quickfire loop with the regular crew and then back to Friars for the traditional Friday morning breakfast and tall tales. It was then back to the pool after work for what was to be a 2000m time trial. Unfortunately, Friday night is not the best time to try and do time trail and I found myself drifting off half way through and just plodding. Finished the TT in 40.21 and was probably 2 or 3 minutes off what it should have been. Meh.
Saturday was a scheduled 10km run TT. Ruley is keen to try and get some updated times across all disciplines given it has been some time since we put down some base times, hence all the TT's!
Given my new Garmin 310XT still hadn't turned up, I thought I would do the smart thing and take my mountain bike with me and a) warm up on it by b) measuring the loop I was planning to run. Super smart hey? So, after riding the loop twice and coming up with 1.97km each time, I measured out an extra 150m to ensure I made up the distance for a total of 10km.
Bit of a warm up and then it was launched into it. I was keen to try and break 50mins but knew that it was going to be a bit of a stretch. Was expecting to see a 50.xx in all honesty. I was feeling ok and coming up to the 1km point I had marked when on the bike, glanced down at my watch which read a first kilometre of 3.59. WTF???? I knew I had dosed up on caffeine before heading off, but this was insane - I can't run that fast!
Finished the first lap in 8.16. Clearly, something was very, very wrong. Apparently it was my MTB speedo. Fark it! So now I wasn't sure how far the actual loop was and I was all over the place with my pacing. The 10k TT was ruined. Ended up doing 6 laps which I am guessing was around 11km in 56.xx. Got home and had a bit of breakfast then it was off to a working bee at the Tri Club.
This was followed a short, sharp 1000m at the pool and some quality time in the recovery spa's and sauna. A bit knackered so a quality nanna nap on the couch completed the afternoon.
Sunday was a club duathlon, so out there early to assist with set up then official starter, time keeper & photographer. Once finished and packed up it was time to get home to change to get ready to head out on the bike. Unfortunately, the wind had picked up by this stage, but at least the weather was nice and warm at about 15 degrees.
The plan was to do anywhere between 85 & 105km dependant on how the legs felt, so settled down onto the tri bars and started to get into a bit of a rhythm. Feeling pretty good i had decided I was going to see how quickly I could pull out a 90km time trial and I went through 30km in 55mins. I kept pushing and went through 50km in 1.31. Still feeling pretty good I got to 65km in 1.59 and it was around about here that I thought I had hit the wall. It was no coincidence that I had turned North and into a block headwind and felt like I was going backwards.
Eventually turning West at the 80km mark I tried to keep the head down and push through the last 10km. Ended up passing through 90km in 2.47.xx and rolled the last 2km home feeling like I had died........except that my gooch was on fire! Ended up averaging just over 32k/hr for the ride and was pretty happy with how it all went. Must admit though I was knackered and it was very early to bed Sunday night.
So training for the week was:
Monday Rest day
Tuesday Study day
Wednesday Bike 44km, 1.21, Avg 32.1k
Swim 2000m (inc 8 x 100's), 40.23
Thursday Run 9.5km, 50.40
Friday Bike 44km, 1.25, Avg 31.0k
Swim 2200 (inc 2000m TT @ 40.21), total approx 45mins
Saturday Run approx 11km, 56.55
Swim 1000m, 19.51
Sunday Bike 92km, 2.52, 32.0k avg
Despite having some very ordinary dietary choices thanks to the crappy study schedule, I was pleasantly surprised to see 100.2kg flashing back at me when stepping on the scales on Monday morning, representing a total of 19.8kg over 20 weeks. Still on track at this stage, and half way to my goal weight, so all good. I think it might get significantly tougher from here on in though!
So, with the majority of the assessments now out of the way hopefully there will be no more late nights going through that crap. what is particularly scary though is that I am now only a bees dick away from being qualified to teach in the TAFE sector. Scary!!
Train safe
Ayto
