Monday 26/9/11
My AM session was run intervals. I really didn't feel too fresh, after the prior 2 days on the bike (215km). But I managed to hit the target of 2 x 2.5km @ z4 pace. My avg pace was 4:06 and 4:07. That distance is just enough to really hurt. My legs were pretty trashed though. I hit the pool at lunchtime with the boss and squeezed in 2km, with the main set as 4x200 -ve split & 3x300 -ve split plus 4 x 50m hard. It was really cool, overcast and uninviting for a swim, but Bold Park is usually pretty warm and this was the case today.
Tuesday
An easy day with no running or riding. The weather was horrid for outdoor swimming. Really windy with a freezing SW breeze almost causing white caps! There was only 2 other suckers in the pool. I swam 2.4k as 3x300 -ve split, 6x100 @ T-3" pace and 6x50m as 25h/25e. It was cold when I got out of the pool...brass monkey stuff!
Wednesday
Started off by missing my alarm wake up. Some how stuffed up setting it. So woke up 35' late. Rushed around and jumped on the bike for the planned one hour of bike intervals. Managed to squeeze in 59' with 1 x 8', 1 x 10' and 1 x 18' zone 3-4 intervals for a total of 32km. Was filthy at myself for sleeping in though. I then went for a run at lunchtime and did around 8km with 3 x 5' z3 efforts. The legs were not feeling too good by the end though.
Thursday
Long Run day. Up early for a 2 hr hit out. I wasn't anticipating a good one, but it turned out OK. The program was 30' w/up, then 2 x 15' z3, 30' z2 & then 20' z2. I made it to just on 13km (12.911 to be precise) at the turnaround point. The efforts were fairly hard work to maintain on the way out and I anticipated a tough run home. I felt my energy levels waning after about 75min...so I scoffed a few more lollies and had a stern word to myself. The return trip of the out & back course was a bit easier and I stuck to the plan for the most part. The last 2 km is always hard, as there are two hills to go up and one of them is a pretty decent size. Thats what you get for living on a hill! Anyway, the 2 hr mark was reached with sight of the letter box, so a +ve split of 31". Turned out an avg pace of around 4:40 pace, which I am pretty happy about. So 26km all up.
Friday
The AM saw me hit the road again by foot for an easy run of 40' and 8km. I couldn't deny the hound dog a run so she joined me. I managed 6 x 30" strides. Had to drag the dog along by the end too. She has no endurance! I managed another lunchtime swim also. The program called for a Big Tri Day on Sat, which included a swim, but I moved that forward to Friday. It was a 1k TT. So after 5 x 100m w/up I hit for 10 non-stop laps. I started pretty well and felt fairly strong. I snuck a glance at my watch after 5 laps and it said 8:35. So I figured I could maybe do a 17:15, allowing for a bit of a fade out in the 2nd half. But I managed to finish strongly and -ve split the TT by 8" and ended up with 17:02. So more or less on track on that score. I think I need to get down to sub 16' before IM though. So lots of work to do in the next 9 weeks of swimming.
It was the end of the quarter at work, and a pretty tough week. So the boss declared drinks at The Boulevard pub (the old Floreat) for post work drinks. It was not real hard for me to just have one pint and then head home. I wasn't feeling too crash hot anyway. It's a great pub and I could easily spend more time there...maybe next year.
Saturday
The program called for a fairly big day, made up of 4:30 bike and 1:00 brick run. With heaps of work on the bike. So Rat drove over to my joint and we spun into RW together, via Bernster's place. Unfortunately, he was pretty crook. But loves riding with RW so much he fronted up anyway! PJ was there for the 1st time in ages. I thought the 3rd Amigo was almost fictional! So after a bit of faffing and a briefing from Butch we headed off on modified Circuit 1. It was pretty windy, with a gusty ENE'ly blowing. We put some efforts in the usual spots, Mt Henry, Burke drive (x2), Left bank, Leighton and Victoria Ave/Jutland Pde and a very horrid Mts Bay Rd (nasty headwind). I wasn't feeling the best before I left home, but came good. The legs were Ok, neither good nor bad. But in the back of my mind was the rest of my training day...so I didn't put in 100%. I kept my HR below 82%, which is high zone 4 for me on the bike. Then Rat, PJ & I peeled off from town and headed south down the Fwy bike path for 45' of solid IM paced riding. We took it in turns at the front of the train, mostly keeping out of the zone. Except for PJ, who apparently had a tendency to edge a bit closer than what even a very lenient TO would allow! Not that we were observing the full 12m rule anyway...but no use in drafting on a training ride unless you are feeling terrible. Anyway, we said ciao to PJ and meandered on back to Scabs. Rat & I were starting to feel a little fatigued by this time and we rolled in to my garage right on 4:30hrs and about 138km. A quick pit stop and a change of clothes and we set off.
The legs felt like the proverbial bricks and took about 3k to feel close to normal. It was pretty warm and Rat & I were struggling a bit. We managed 5min pace as an avg though. I felt fairly good for the middle section but it was a real effort towards the end. It only got to about 25 deg, but felt more like 30, as we had the breeze over our left shoulder coming home. It was a good test. Mentally and physically. A good gauge to see where I was at. Lots of work to do! The ride had been a pretty solid hit out and had taken a fair bit out of my legs. You really don't want to be doing any big efforts near the red zone on race day! Anyways, we did 12k in 60min. I was glad to stop, thats for sure.
I made it into the shower and had a sandwich before the AFL GF started at 1230...so perfect timing really! Then I very much enjoyed seeing the Cats run over the top of the Pies. Nick came over and we watched the game together.It was a really good game and went goal for goal for a fair while. He bought some Italian biscuits and we had a nice coffee at half time...Not a beer was consumed! Very un-Australian!
Sunday
Scheduled Rest Day - slept in until nearly 7am, which was great. The legs were pretty trashed too. I cooked up a big 'cafe style' brekky for the family and we all enjoyed doing not much. Then it was gardening and mulching etc. After which we all took the dog down to the dog beach and had a walk and muck around before lunch. Then I nodded off in front of the NRL GF as Manly put the Warriors to the sword in what was quite a good game for at least 60min. It felt good to have a rest day. I think the next one is about 3 weeks away...
So all in all a fairly solid week. A run focus - 5 runs, with 3 swims and 2 rides.
Summary
Swim: 5.9k
Ride: 170k
Run: 66k
Time: 12:25hrs
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