Last week was 1st week post testing. It felt really nice to hit the sessions with some definitive pace, heart rate and power goals, instead of winging it as I had been for the most of this year. Continuing on from Tuesday where last week’s blog left off, the rest of the week was a mixture of low intensity swimming, riding and running.
As you can see above there are a few orange and yellow boxes in my training peaks weeks. But the 3 swims were each short by 2 - 300 meters at most and I had already achieved the desired outcomes with the interval sets I had programmed in. The 1 run I cut short by 10 minutes purely because I had to get my car to the mechanics on time and due to fluffing around a bit first ting in the morning I ran out of time.
But over all I was very happy with last weeks overall progress. I hit a bit over 19 hours of total training time which involved 4 swims, 4 bikes, 4 runs 2 weights sessions and 5 Core sessions through out the week. Overall it was a big week but with most of it being in Zone 2 or under for the entire week. Overall I am not feeling too bad.
2 of my key sessions last week were my long run and long ride. 1:40:00 run and 4:10:00 ride. The long run I began to put some rolling hills in to it. The plan was to still sit at an easy heart rate and when ever the hill incline caused the heart to raise above 126 BPM I would slow to a power walk. Along David Low Way heading North there are a lot of steep pinches so I thought I would likely spend a fair amount of time walking. I was pleasantly surprised on how much running I actually did. Don’t get me wrong I didn’t suddenly develop in to a crazy good runner but it was only the really steep and prolonged sections I had to return to walking. The northern route along David Low way is one of my favourite routes to run. The view is spectacular and the terrain is varied. Basically a good morning out.
Sunday morning was long ride day. I decided to do one of my favourite loops. Up through Black mountain. It is a great climb but not stupidly steep but long enough to allow some good steady state climbing. Again as yesterday, once in the hills the views were spectacular. We really are spoilt for beautiful scenery around here. I also got to catch up with Andrew Trout another Cup Cake Cartel team member, and if you are a regular reader of my nattering’s the very same legend I helped crew for earlier this year in his Ultraman Attempt. Overall a great 120 km ride with some nice hills and great views and a bonus catch up with a mate.
I hit all most of my training goals this week. With just the swimming still lacking a little bit in some of the sessions volume. As I have said though before my swim is a massive strength and for now as long as I am hitting 10 - 15 km each week on the pool I will keep a basic level of fitness and have the opportunity to ramp thing up a bit from February next year when I go back in to a squad session to get things moving again.
My running volume for the week was just under 4 hours and ride time was 12 hours. For a 19 hour week and feeling pretty good.
I also spoke to a sport dietician a little over a week ago. It is funning when you get used to eating certain ways. You just assume you are doing best practices. Basically I did every training session fasted and took in calories for the harder and longer sessions.
The dietician told me I had to eat before all training sessions for now to get used to eating before all sessions. I was basically starving myself and causing my body to conserve energy as much as it could do to the lack of energy coming in to feed the training I have been doing. So a week in I have been going ok. I am looking to drop a bit of weight before Cairns. But for now the main goal is to fuel the sessions properly and STAY HEALTHY!!!!.
The plan for this week is build on the consistency I have started to pile on and maybe build a little more volume in on the run and ride. This week on Tuesday my trainer session goes from 3 minute to 5 minute intervals still working in the VO2 zone. This will be a real challenge but I am looking forward to it.
Until next week.
Mick