No, I’m not quitting the 1 year plan and heading back to real employment, but today is the last day of easy week. From tomorrow it’s back to the basic week for 2 weeks and then another big push week before I head into my taper. So I’m trying to make the most of it before I get back into solid training. I think a final cruise to a coffee shop in the afternoon may be in order. It’s a beautiful sunny day here and the whole week promises more of the same. Can’t wait!
I’ll keep this post relatively short, been blabbing enough lately as it is. Recovery week seems to have worked. I’m having to hold myself back on the bike a little at the moment reminding myself I’ve 3 weeks of hard work to come. My legs don’t feel entirely dead on the run, which is a bonus in itself. I have plans for a lot more running over the coming weeks so it’s good they’re at least starting out fresh. Swimming continues much the same as before, my fitness is improving as I can knock out 4K sets day in, day out. My aim for the next few weeks is to take that improved fitness and work harder in the water.
One of the challenges of the next 3 weeks is that each week ends on a race. So to hit the goals with a race and some travel in there will be a bit trickier. Next weekend I race at Noosa, one of the more famous olympic distance races. However like many of these big races numbers are so high that drafting is a big issue. For me it’s a C race I’m doing to experience the event and be able to say I’ve raced Noosa. As such I’m going to race on my training wheels and take the opportunity to collect some power data from a race. Who knows where I’ll come, but I’ll enjoy a weekend away, training on the Sunshine Coast.
Following Noosa I then have Port Macquarie Half-Ironman, as with the Gold Coast Half I don’t intend a proper taper. I’ll cut volume a little on the Friday and Saturday so I’m not entirely exhausted. I’ll race Port in full race set-up as a practice run for Busselton. My goal? Not to have a flat and so beat my time of last year! Breaking 4:30 would be good though, if I was greedy maybe a top 5 in my age group there. Travelling back from that race will be a bigger issue, it’s a 6 hour journey and likely to happen on the following Monday. Effectively taking 1 whole day out of my big week! I’ll sneak in a workout before we leave and something when we get back, then it’s hard training everyday.
I’ll finish my big week with a local sprint race. Should be good fun. That’s fun in the sense of hurting a lot! A part of me was tempted to race it old school in speedos! Fortunately a bigger part of me has more sense. It’ll start the last big day of training with a really intense session, which I’ll follow up with a few hours on the bike and a bit more swimming and running. If all goes to plan I’ll hit over 40 hours again in that last week.
So some challenging times ahead, but that’s what I’m here for. There’s a few things I’ll be working on to help support the goal.
- No internet in the morning – I waste too much time when I could be getting to the pool.
- No more Klondike – stupid solitaire game on the ipod! Once I hit $10000 that’s it I’m done!
- Get to the pool as soon as possible after breakfast – by not doing number 1 this should be easy
- Take an afternoon nap when you can – yeah, I know it’s a tough life
- Afternoon stretching sessions before that nap – really tough.
- At least one 5K swim set a week, with more in my big week.
- At least one 6 hour ride a week, with 2 in my big week.
- Lots of running, but a little bit more quality each week.
- Run (more) off every bike – it seems to be working.
There’s plenty to do and lots to achieve. I hope that I’ll come out the other side of these 3 weeks in better shape than I went into Switzerland. Then I execute a good taper and on race day in Busselton it’s good-bye 9:40s, hello 9:20s.
Not so short after all! Easy week has been good, I’ve indulged myself a lot as I know it’s back to the ‘monastery’ for the next 3 weeks. Lots of food, a few kit treats and back to work to earn them. I’ll just mention my first trail run from the weekend – it was great fun. A lot more than on the road, even if I did manage to trip up once and cut my hand! All good though and it really works your leg strength. The plan is that once I’m back from WA, Pete and I will be regularly hitting the trails to work on run strength. A bit more variety is always good and if it makes me stronger, even better!
P.S. New shoes number 2!
