Hello September :). Winter is officially over! Not that it really feels like that at the moment, still some pretty cold mornings (for Sydney anyway :P).
It’s also officially 3 months until the Ironman and the day I have committed to starting this blog.
It means that training has to start getting more serious as I need to get the volume of work in consistently. For me, the part I dislike the most is the swim, so over the next few months this is a particular area I need to build upon.
So, to kick things off, below is an overview of last week’s training. Having been away a lot over July & August, I’ve finally been able to reach the number of hours I’d like to be able to hit consistently. I was supposed to add in another swim on Sunday but to be honest, had zero energy left by that point. Hoping to get to 3 swims next week…
Lesson of the week: Make sure you eat on the bike! Whilst 116km isn’t a huge distance to most triathletes, it was my furthest distance and a milestone for me. It was also pretty hilly and being in a big group with a few stops meant we were on the go for 5 hours. Normally I take one bar or piece of food with me, however taking advice from the others I packed some more this time. Whilst I didn’t really get particularly hungry, I forced myself to eat something every ~45 minutes and although I was pretty tired, I never hit a point where I couldn’t continue. There’s a lot of science into how much and how often you need to consume during endurance activities, but for me it was more a case of when I could grab something at the traffic lights! My snacks of choice were; 1 x Cliff bar, a massive handful of nuts & dates & some electrolytes in one bottle of water (the other bottle I just had plain water). The dates in particular were a lifesaver. Thinking of trying to make my own kind of date/nut energy bar to take in the future. If you have a recipe, I’d love to know!
Monday |
AM Run session12km – mix of hill work and a long slow jog to finish.
PM Gym Strength session focusing on upper body and core exercises for the rally car |
Tuesday |
AM Bike interval sessionGood warm up with some 60 second efforts, followed by 5 min intervals split into 3min hard, 1min harder, 1min harder.
PM Swim 1.8km with 20 x 50m efforts |
Wednesday |
PM Track session4 x 800m efforts followed by a 3.2km tempo |
Thursday |
Out at the race track. Good excuse to let the car do the hard work  |
Friday |
AM Tempo run1km tempo efforts
PM Ocean swim 1km |
Saturday |
AM Bike rideLongest ride so far! 116km hilly ride + 8min run off the bike |
Sunday |
REST |
Totals |
11hours 42minTraining Stress Score: 868.9 (new record for me!) |
