Week 7 PJ ‘s Training Summary 12-9-11 to 18-9-11
The comment on Fluro’s email this week was “ Gidday PJ… are you ready to rumble ? ” looks like it’s business time. Week 1 of IM specific training coming up. The plan is to get straight into absorbing IM specific volume on the run. On the bike a combo of ME and still some FTP work which will be dialled back over the next few weeks. Key bike session is a 5 hour ride Saturday backed up with a key 2 hour run Sunday and 1hr 20 min run Monday to back that up. Holy crap !!!!
Just reflecting after seeing Joules at Freo yesterday…..what fantastic people I have had the pleasure of meeting and training with through this fantastic sport, some who are very near and dear friends.
Monday
Evening was a swim set at Melville Pool. After a warm up it was 4 sets of 6 x 100’s. After the second set I looked up at the next lane and thought I know you….it was Jenn !! She had come down to do a kilometre. I was watching her plod up and down and thought gee I wish I could do that !!! Good set 2.7k all up.
Tuesday
A brick session was the plan for this morning. “World Champs” first up. I had to roll out 5 minutes before the groupo and do 4 efforts of 10 minutes at FTHR. I got down early for a 20 min warm up. Fluro turned up early on his TT bike as well. His plan was to start 4 mins after the group. All went well and I got to Canning Bridge and they hadn’t caught me. I reached the Narrows and still no group. They should have got me by now. So I hit Mounts Bay solo and my last 10 min effort finished just after Steve’s Hill. I was recovering up the Jutland Parade hill when I heard my name shouted out. The boys shot past me in numbers with Fluro going hard on the front. I couldn’t believe he had caught them. He is so bloody strong on the bike at the moment. I managed to jump on the back and hang on till Christchurch. 4 of us “ran the Gauntlet” but the group beat us today. We could see them just up the road but couldn’t catch them. My legs still felt heavy today. Still feeling the effects of Saturday’s hills ride. The plan was to run off the bike so I threw the bike in the back of the car at the Left Bank, swapped shoes and headed out along the path on the river’s edge towards Leeuwin Barracks. I went out way too quick, it was supposed to be easy out. There is something mental about running off the bike…..as if your brain assumes you’re racing. I just got my pacing right at John Tonkin Park and there was a familiar face running the other way. It was Butch.We exchanged pleasantary’s and he decided to turn around and run with me. He was telling me how the fellow Amigos had smashed up the group on Saturday by riding so hard…..were your ears burning Amigos ?? I said farewell at the Bicton Pool and put in 6 strides on the way back. I past Richard Stacey heading home on his bike, presumably after coffee, which I had forfeited in lieu of the run.
Wednesday
A rolling course run today, Z2 on the flats, Z3 uphill and hard on the downhills. I decided to run from work out to Melville Beach and back. That way I could get a few rollers in at Pt Heathcote and Pt Dundas ( Majestic ). Conditions were perfect for running. It was overcast, quite warm, a full moon was shining and there was no wind. The river was like a mirror. My heart rate seemed all over the shop today. It was hard to get up to Z2 initially and then later I had trouble keeping it out of Z3. I got down to the Melville Beach Car Park and bugger me if it wasn’t Butch running the other way…..again !! He was a long way from home and had either run a long way or had parked his car somewhere. What’s going on Butch ?? not secret training for IM by any chance are you ?? Funny watching people walking, jogging etc. I was surprised how so many of them looked grumpy. How could you be? out in such magic conditions at the best time of the day ?? I finished off well and felt like I had chased some lactate out of the legs with that run. One hour all up.
A long pool session tonight, 3.6k. I got down there at 3:30pm hoping to get the majority of it done before it got too busy. A young girl I have aquainted was in the lane. She is training for the Uni Games. Omg this girl is soo fast. I just try and keep out of her way. A lot of bouy work in this set so I got through it fine. Some floaters came in the fast lane. Seriously pisses me off. Time they started policing this at Melville. I may have to vent on some pool attendant. You swimming slow ?? stick to the slower lanes. 1hour 20 min all up.
Thursday
I woke up this morning sore up the outside of both quads. ITB’s I think. Bugger because Thursday is big interval day. I got down to the Left Bank a bit early so I could have a decent warm up and get some blood flowing into the legs. At 5:30am we headed to Christchurch Grammar to do our bike TT’s on our Claremont course. First up was a 20 minute TT. I headed out first but the legs were heavy. The road was wet too. Down to Steve’s at Nedlands and back to Christchurch to finish. Next up was a 10 minute effort to Steve’s. I was off first again. I managed 35k/hr av for TT1 and TT2. Not my best effort for that course but all I could push out today. The last TT was to be a 4 man TT from Steve’s back to Christchurch. The plan was 1 minute only each on the front. We took off but by the time we hit the Jutland Parade hill there was just Rosco and I left. We had dropped Dave and Dr Rick. Rosco picked up the pace and I managed to see it through with him for a 36.6k/hr av. We regrouped and headed back to Freo along the “Princess Highway”. On to Curtain Ave and the boys put the pedal to the metal. Down to Leighton and Tom was on the front. Oh crap !! We managed to hang on until the footbridge where Rick (in front of me) dropped off the back. I went around him but just couldn’t catch the others by then. No coffee today, everyone had places to be. Total 47k 1hour 32 min.
Wow, the legs were sore and sorry every time I got up from my desk today. I was wondering how I would get through run intervals this evening. The plan was 6/400’s@ 5k pace and 4/200’s @ 3k pace. We warmed up and things loosened up nicely. I was able to get through the session fine with good consistent numbers.
Friday
Rest day but I wanted to get my third swim set in today so that I didn’t have to do it tomorrow after an epic five hour ride. The All Black v Japan game wasn’t being broadcast free to air either so that may have swayed me the other way. The set was 4k but when I went to get changed before I left work I realised I had everything except my Budgie Smugglers…..doh !!!! realizing I couldn’t get away with swimming in undies at Melville I had to go home first then head down to the pool. Mental note:- pack a bag of spare gear and leave in the car. End result was I dropped 1k off the session as it was 5:45pm when I had done 3k.
Saturday
The plan was to do a five hour freeway path ride today. I was to hook up with fellow Amigo Paulie and Dr Rick who would join us for an hour or so. This was the first decent session I have done with Rat in this campaign. I saw this as a good opportunity to trial a few different things regarding nutrition. I had 2 bidons of Gatorade on the back and a bidon of Shotz electrolyte on the front. I put the Bento box on and had a Power Bar, 3 gels and 4 Marmite sandwiches packed in. I rode from home down to Pt Walter for a warm up then down to the Raff’s to meet the boys at 6:30 am. We were soon on our way and locked in to IM mode . We had some IM efforts to do so after South Street and the new Hospital we were into it. HR was well down and we were clocking along nicely at 34-35 k/hr. I’m thinking that this is a bit easy, Rat was thinking the same. Doh !!! then I twigged….we had a tailwind and were gonna do it tough on the way back. The nutrition went really well. The Marmite sanga’s were great. Rick did point out though that if I was going to use them on race day it would be hard stopping them from turning into toast. I may have to try other savoury options. We hooked up with Andy Fagan aka the “Fooker “ for a while. He was out for a “spin” down as far as Baldivis. We let him go because his “spin” pace had us gagging and we were deviating from the plan. Rick had peeled off by this stage so it was down to the Rat and I. Great to have a chat and a laugh. We turned right on 2 ½ hours from the Raff’s which had us within sight of the Pinjarra Road overpass. Bang !!! yep straight in to a headwind. This was going to be hard yakka. We soon kicked in to a 20 minute big gear interval which really took the sting out of my legs. After a 10 min RI it was supposed to be a 40 min interval at HIM pace but we struggled to pull this off into the wind. That was a long 40 minutes and the rest of the ride we dialled back to IM effort back to the Raff’s. Rat was heading to work. Don’t know how he could after that. I headed straight home to refuel as it was nearly 11am. A good session, we were lucky with the weather too. 5 hr 4 min and 153k in the bank. The time went quickly with the chat and the intervals. A good hit out. The legs felt surprisingly good. I got straight in to cooking up some eggs and beans, coffee and a muffin to replentish the 2700 odd calories I had expended. I was hoping to get a Nana nap in the arvo but it didn’t happen because there was more rugby to watch South Africa v Fiji followed by Australia v Ireland. Soo glad I got my 3rd swim in Friday arvo !!
Sunday
Day 1 of a 2 day long run session. The plan was to do a 2 hour run this morning and back it up with 1 hour 20 min run tomorrow. There were two hurdles for me to get over before I could execute this plan. The first was the fatigue in my legs and the second was the extreme weather due to the massive front that was coming through……bugger !! I didn’t have to think about it for long just get out there and get it done. I put on the number 2 tri suit for comfort, fuel belt and headed out the door into the pissing rain. The wind was behind me going out so just the driving rain to contend with. The legs were tight but I just went out easy and found my rhythm and things were soon turning over ok. After 50 minutes the fatigue started to kick in. I ran past the Raff’s and under Canning Bridge. The turn ended up being at Helm Street. Heading back I turned around Heathcote into Waylen Bay and the wind hit me. Bloody hell it was honking through at about 30 knots. I got around Majestic Point and copped the full brunt, even stronger coming across the Melville Water. A gust took me right across the boardwalk just about flattened me. The waves along Melville Beach were about a metre high hitting the beach. The rain was coming in horizontally and stinging my face. The leg fatigue was really kicking in. This was turning into a mental game. I thought to myself yep this is what the Amigos talk about on the IM run. I know how it feels now. Fluro’s words came to mind
“ What you need to be doing is experiencing and dialing into the fatigue that will creep into your body………..”
Shit yes……I was there coach. I made it home 2 hr 2 min and 22k later all in lower Z2. This was the hardest training run I have ever done anywhere, anytime.
Reflection post run “ Am I up for this IM ? Am I tough enough ?? “
A long and hard week on the track for the first IM specific week.
16hrs 45min all up. Swim 9.3k, Bike 252k, Run 48.3k
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