Training Review - Week 17 - April 22 to 28

Swim session was brutal. Lots of kick-only and pull-only drills. Not really what you want to be doing the day after a race. This was once again my longest swim session ever. Now at 2,150m. Race distance for my half ironman is only 1,900m so am already going 10% over that in 55 minutes with breaks between them. I am beginning to wonder if I can be out of the water close to 30 minutes on race day.

Pretty chuffed with Tuesday's run. Longer than I have been doing but went faster as well. OK, it was a very flat route along the old railway line, but still pretty happy with it.

Wednesday's brick session is turning into something of a nightmare. I can't remember the last time I finished it. It has become much too easy to quit it. I tried switching it back round to run then bike to get through it. My shoelace came undone at the 31 minute mark on the treadmill, so I hit pause, but then when I bent down to do my lace the auto-shut-off kicked in. I decided just to give it up and go do my hour on the bike. But I only managed about 20minutes of that before I was fed up of it and was working out where I could squeeze the rest of the time into my week.

Thursday the cinema timetable worked out well for me so I had an hour to kill after work. Managed to get on the treadmill and finish off my running miles for the week.

Friday I thought about having a rest day before two big biking days. But then I would have been shorting my swim target for the week. So I decided to sneak in a trip to Bucksburn. I like being the fastest person in the pool. I don't like being the second fastest person in the pool when some wee girl turns up and starts lapping me.

Saturday I went for a training ride from my house with a couple of guys from TPT. I was really struggling to go at their pace and thought it was just from trying to breathe the really cold air. So at about 15 miles I told them to charge on and I would cut back on my own. A couple of miles further and I was getting really uncomfortable from how rough the road was. Only looking at the road surface, it didn't look that bad... Once my brain caught up I realised I had a slow puncture on the back. Took me nearly a mile to find a safe layby to pull over and it didn't seem to be getting much flatter than when I first noticed it, so I took a gamble on topping it up with some fresh gas every 4 or 5 of miles to make the remaining 13 miles home. Got away with this trick a couple of times but then hit a pothole and popped it properly. 

Changing tubes with my winter gloves on is a hassle. Changing tubes in the cold without my winter gloves on was worse. As with Wednesday's brick session I was doing maths in my head as I pedalled back trying to figure out how short a route I could take and still make 100 miles for the week.

Sunday I was in two minds about going out on the bike again, but I dragged myself out to Kintore. So pleased that I did. Beautiful day and did 56 miles. That is the first full race-distance ride I have done. Doing a decent average speed, and I was doing more turns on the front than usual. Averaged out over 15 miles an hour with a few fast miles up at 27 and 29 mph. Even had to pocket some of my winter gear part way round because it was getting too hot!

So this week:
First time I have swum 2 miles in a week without a race, ever.
First time I have ridden my race distance in one ride.
Longest single swim session ever.
Longest single ride ever.
Longest weekly bike total ever.
... so despite dropping out of sessions on Wednesday and Saturday, an awesome training week.

So targets for last week (Week 17) were:

Swim >2 miles. Bike >60 miles. Run >15 miles. A core or stretching session

Actuals were:
Monday - Swim with TPT, 2,150m in 55mins.

Tuesday - 5 mile run. Dyce railway line. 43mins.

Wednesday - Gym brick. Treadmill 3.6 miles, 31mins. Exercise bike 7 miles, 23mins.

Thursday - Treadmill 6.5 miles in 55 mins. Cinema - Iron Man 3.

Friday - Swim 1,100m in 23mins.

Saturday - 31 miles in 2 hours 29. With a few stops.

Sunday - 56.1 miles in 3 hours 42. Stretching session. Core and stretching session.

Result - 

Swim 2.0 miles (3,250m). Bike 94.1 miles. Run 15.1 miles. 1 core and 1 stretching session.