Race Recovery

It’s been 7 days since the race in Shepparton and I’m feeling quite good. I have had 3 days without any exercise at all and 4 days with some light, low intensity sessions lasting between 30 and 60 minutes. I haven’t slept very well this week because of my early shifts at work but once I go onto late shifts, in a few days time, this will be the extra little bit necessary to complete my post-race recovery.  After which, I will begin my building phase for the Geelong 70.3.

I will complete two main cycles of training for Geelong. It will officially start on Monday December 2 with a 3 week strength building phase followed by a rest week over Christmas. This phase will include the following:-

Ø  Weight training for all body parts.

Ø  Extensive core training.

Ø  Extended big gear efforts on the bike during a mid-week wind-trainer session.

Ø  Strength swim session will use paddles while wearing board shorts for extra drag, and;

Ø  I will perform my long run mainly up hill.

I will be aiming to be as strong as I was prior to the Shepparton race in order to be able to train greater speed during my second training cycle throughout January. The second cycle will begin on December 30 and go for 3 and ½ weeks before having one week of recovery, one week of sharpening my body back up and a few light days before the race on February 9.

The main differences between the first and second cycles will be:-

Ø  Adding some higher paced efforts to my mid-week wind-trainer strength session.

Ø  Some higher paced efforts on the treadmill during my main interval session.

Ø  No board shorts during my strength swim.

Ø  Power based weight sessions, and;

Ø  Higher volume of training across all disciplines.

As I will be building on top of the base I already developed, by preparing for Shepparton, the first cycle is aimed at getting me back to that condition and the second cycle will be aimed at getting faster and fitter overall. Over the next 11 weeks, I will hopefully see a further reduction in my weight come race day. I was 73.5kg at Shepparton and I am hoping, with this increase in training for Geelong, I will reach about 72kg. With the hillier run course in Geelong, I think this will make a significant difference. However, during my race recovery I have already gone up to 75kg. Admittedly, I have eaten almost the same amounts as I was before the race but, obviously, without the same amounts of exercise. Nevertheless, this won’t hang around long once I’m back in the swing of things.

Before I sign off, I’d like to give a shout out to my mate ‘Rocket’, who competed alongside me in Shepparton. He has been training super hard this year as he, also, builds towards Geelong and then onto the Ironman at Port Macquarie in May, 2014. At Shepparton, he smashed out a 21 minute PB with a 5:07 finish. I’m really stoked for his huge progress and it’s so pleasing to see others enjoy this sport as much as I do.

If anyone out there wants to give it a go, to see what all the hype is about and see for yourself just what your body is capable of, send me an email at lincolnspt@hotmail.com

With my experience as a Personal Trainer and Triathlon coach, as well as 5 years in the sport myself, I would be more than happy to help get you pointed in the right direction.