7 big days of training to go. The body is definitely getting tired and ready for a rest. Next Monday and Tuesday will be complete rest days and I’m actually looking forward to them.
Over the weekend, I had a fantastic long ride and run. I did my long ride on Saturday, using the National
Road Race Championship course at Buninyong for the majority of the 100kms. I intended to do 120kms but started a bit late and ran out of time. However, this was irrelevant as I pushed particular hard on the undulating terrain and tested myself significantly up the King of the Mountain climb on several occasions. I followed this with a 20 minute run off the bike.
On Sunday, I did my long run at Albert Park because it is a gravel track, so it’s slightly softer than an asphalt surface and that little bit easier on my joints. It also has drink fountains in several spots. I wanted to do a session at race pace for 20kms and I did it wearing exactly what I will be wearing on race day. However, I didn’t do 20kms straight as this would add that little extra stress to my body. For this reason, I broke it into 4 sets of 5kms and took 2 – 3 minutes rest between each set to ensure that I could do the exact same pace for each of the 4 sets while maintaining technique. I could also have a drink of water and take an energy gel during these breaks.
The run couldn’t have gone any better! I decided that my first set of 5kms would be the bench mark for the next 3 laps. Whatever pace I was able to hold during the first set, I would be aiming to match that 3 more times. My first 5kms was completed in 18:45 minutes, making it 3:45mins/km. Initially, I thought this was going to be very hard to match, particularly, during my third and fourth sets but I had to get through my second set first.
I was using my Garmin GPS watch to track my pace and exact distance to ensure, if my legs were willing, that I was as close to the desired pace as possible. Well, I couldn’t believe how good my legs felt during the second set as I stuck to the 3:45min/km pace. This was repeated in the third set with only one out of the 5km falling back to a 3:50min/km pace before I picked it back up. On my final 5km effort, my legs were definitely fatiguing but I was able to maintain an average of 3:50min/km pace by being highly focussed on my technique and breathing. Today, I am very sore but there will be no running today.
This brings me to the week ahead. I have 9 sessions to complete over the next 7 days and this is exactly what I will be doing:-
Ø Monday (today) – Swim 4km
o Warm up 1km with a mix of freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke.
o Main set will be 7 x 400m freestyle using the leg buoy and hand paddles swimming just below race pace effort.
o Cool down 200m with backstroke and breaststroke.
Ø Tuesday – Brick session (indoors using bike trainer and treadmill)
o Warm-up 10min spin, 5min jog.
o 3 x 30mins ride in a large gear above race pace effort/10min run just above race pace effort.
Ø Wednesday – Swim 4km
o Warm up 800m with mix of freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke.
o 30 x 100m freestyle at race pace with 10 – 20 seconds in between.
o Cool down 200m with backstroke and breaststroke.
Ø Wednesday – Core workout
o Swiss ball crunches very slow and controlled.
o Reverse Crunches very slow and controlled.
o Plank with alternating 5 second arm and leg raises.
o **Perform 3 or 4 sets to exhaustion on each.
Ø Thursday – Treadmill Interval Run session
o 10 minute warm up jog.
o 10 minutes of drills and dynamic stretching.
o 5 x 2km @ 20km/h with 500m @ 12km/h in between.
o Cool down 5 minute walk and stretches.
Ø Thursday – Ride session on indoor trainer
o Warm up 10 minutes.
o 30 minutes single-leg work – 1min left leg/1min right leg/1min both legs x 10.
o 60 minutes medium gear at 90 – 100 RPM.
o Cool down 5 minutes easy spinning.
Ø Friday – Swim 4km
o Warm up 800m with mix of freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke.
o 30 x 100m – 50m fast off a deep water start/50m cruise back. 30 seconds rest in between.
o Cool down 200m with backstroke and breaststroke.
Ø Saturday – Long Ride 130kms
o Perform the same ride I did the previous Saturday out to Gisborne. Return part way to bottom of the climb and back to Gisborne before coming all the way home. Aim to be done in 4 hours
o Run 20 minutes off the bike as soon as I get home.
Ø Sunday – Long Run 20kms
o Exactly as I explained earlier with 4 sets of 5kms @ race pace.
After all of this, the rest days will be absolute gold!
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