Week 7 was another testing week. A chance to assess where I am, and to make sure that the training I am doing is working and making me either faster, able to endure more or more efficient… I was just testing bike this week. Wasn’t going to be able to make Park run and I wasn’t able to schedule the test swim in, but don’t think I am getting faster
First up was the weigh in
| Start Weight: | 115kg |
| Current Weight : | 109.0kg |
| Weight lost: | 6.0kg |
The weight is still coming down and I’m still in front of the target. In years previous I’d now be reassessing my targets and making them harder to attain, and then failing to hit them or the ones I originally set. This year I’m leaving the target at 99kg and if I hit it great (I’d better!). If I exceed it, even better but I won’t be lumping more pressure on myself than what is already there.
On to the training…
Monday
Rest day. There was a club meeting for New2Tri and I was traveling with work so I used the day for rest. It always good to meet people new to the sport too and see how enthusiastic they are about starting their triathlon journey.
Tuesday
Tuesday evening was round 4 of the Inter-Club TT. I’d held 306 watts the last one so was hoping to improve on that.
I met Graham in Summerhill and we cycled to the start as a warm-up. We signed in and then just before we were due to start I realised my front wheel was rubbing against the fork. No amount of fettling could sort it and as it wasn’t rubbing too much I decided to ride anyway. It would slow me down but would affect power readings and I was only there to race myself.
Legs were tired as I set off but got into the zone quick enough. Seemed to take forever to catch anyone (or even see them) but I eventually got close to my minute man (the bloke who set off a minute before me) just as the line came into view. I overtook everyone else in front of me.
I managed to hold an average power of 306w – This was exactly the same as before. I was a little disappointed with this and the time (27:56), but at least I didn’t do worse.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1649179276
Straight from the TT was a swim session. A nice way to end a tough day! Got a bit of cramp in the calves so didn’t finish the cooldown but a tough session trying to hang on to Ivan and Graham’s feet.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1649447765
Wednesday
Wednesday night run club in the National Indoor Arena. Decided to make this into a longer training session by running from home and back with Daire. A finger in the air calculation reckoned on this being about 2.5km there and back. It wasn’t it was 4.5km there and 4.5km back. The run there was good, nice and relaxed and chatty. We then did the interval session. There was a long enough warm-up, then it was meant to be 4 x300m with 100m recovery, four times. I managed 3 before time ran out. The run home was painful. Real lack of energy and struggled to get any kind of pace going at first, eventually settled into a nice slow jog.
If I was to assess what training stimulus I got from the extra run session it would be nothing. But from a calorie burning point of view and mentally – as in running when the going is tough, it was a good session.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1651554614
https://www.strava.com/activities/1651555540
https://www.strava.com/activities/1651556070
Thursday
The dreaded FTP session. After the TT – and no improvement, plus doing the test on tired legs after the run the day before. In the end, it went well with a nice increase of 7% to 324w and up to 3w per kg.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1653687214
Friday
Club Run – Met with Artiom and Hilary and did the same route as the previous week. A nice easy 12km up from the Maxol, around Tyrrelstown park and back again.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1655368579
Saturday
Turbo – The Chores. Did this outside in the sun. Bad idea as it was roasting and the fan outside does nothing but blow hot air. I managed 50 mins of the 70 before I gave up – legs were tired and it was a real struggle.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1656948193
In the evening I went swimming – just a 1500m technique session to help keep the feel of the water.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1657490925
Sunday
Woke up and it looked beautiful outside. Cracking weather for the club spin. 12 of us out for an easy 30km loop (was week 1 of New2Tri so we had stepped back). A nice route around the back of Tyrrelstown / Kilbride. When we got back I sat and drank coffee with a few of the others whilst most of the rest went on to do another 40km.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1658580774
I then had a 2-hour turbo to do – started and did the warm-up but wasn’t feeling great.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1660308366
So went out and did a 40km loop I use at race effort.
https://www.strava.com/activities/1660055636
Conclusion
| Discipline | Swim | Bike | Run | S&C |
| Planned Time | 2:00:00 | 6:00 | 4:00 | 3:00 |
| Actual Time | 2:00:00 | 6:00 | 4:00 | 0:00 |
Really happy with the week – hit all the planned times for training except S&C which, I might just have to face up to the reality that, I just don’t have the time for it.
Everything seems to be moving in the right direction, run intervals are getting faster, swimming is getting slightly easier, and bike power is moving up.