Week 22

This week I manage to hit 20 hours for the first time in a while and on Sunday I have a real breakthrough session, not just because of how well it went but also because of how quickly I recovered after it. After months of slogging through hard slow bike rides I’m starting to see results. Ironman is such a long slow process, and progress seems particularly slow and hard in the early stages but if you just keep on ticking off the sessions and doing the work the results inevitably come.

If you missed last weeks update you can check it out here or if you’re new here and want to spend your whole day reading about my super exciting training exploits you can settle in here with a coffee and packet of biscuits
Monday 20 1:50 (2)

S&C :55 John Belton

Run :55 10k easy jog
Tuesday 21 work 3 hours

Off training
Wednesday 22 2:55 (1) Work 8 hours

Run 2:55 30k inc WNR loop

I was surprised to feel very tired right from the start on this run. Despite a day off yesterday and a relatively easy day on Monday. It meant that what was due to be a 2.5 hour run turned into close to 3 hours but to be honest I was really glad to get it done, slow or not.
Thursday 23 3:45 (2)

Swim 1:40 5000m 3800 tt

Bike 2:05 66k 7,8,9,10 minute anaerobic intervals

Hard bike session and I was buzzing after a good mornings training. The swim TT was about a minute slower than last time but considering the limited amount of swimming lately and how tired I was on yesterday’s run I’m not to worried. From a fitness point of view I didn’t slow too much during the TT only losing about 10 seconds in the last 1000 meters compared to the first 1000 which is probably a better indication of fitness than the actual time.

In Mallorca if I can get out of the water in a position to be able to race on the bike and run that’s going to be my best strategy. Both of my previous qualifications came like this. The huge time investment needed to become a good swimmer probably isn’t the way to chase qualifying this time. If I do make it to Kona I will need to put in more swimming to not lose as much in the non wetsuit swim. But for this race the aim is to become a decent bike/runner.
Friday 24 2:15 (2)

Run 1:10 12k easy

Swim 3000m 1:05 4×400 paddles
Saturday 25 2:25 (1)

Bike 2:25 60k

4×15 min big gear seated intervals. Tired legs today so it felt slow and I struggled to push hard on the intervals so I just settled for what I could do, got the session done and ignored the numbers.
Sunday 26 6:50 (2)

Bike 6:00 186k

Run :50 10k run off bike

This training session is the single best one I’ve done for Ironman. It’s the one that delivers the biggest benefits but it’s also the one that kicks lumps out of me if I do it wrong. On a good day I finish it on a massive endorphin buzz. On a bad day I want to throw the bike over the nearest ditch. Today was a really good day. Despite close to six hours of rain I just wanted to keep on riding. I thought 200k followed by a run would be a cool session but I stuck with the coaches orders and did the 6 hours as prescribed. I did stretch the run out slightly but only by a couple of kilometres. While I didn’t feel like I had much speed on the run, I started at just over 5 min/km and at 4k decided to pick up the pace. I was aiming for 4:30’s and I got down to that but the effort was really high so I backed off a little and found a comfortable groove just a couple of seconds slower at about 4:40/km. I felt like I could cruise at that pace for a good while. In the end I finished feeling like there was loads more in the tank, even after close to 7 hours training. This was the best day of the year so far in terms of training. Funny how 7 hours in the rain and wind ends up being such a great day.

Total weekly hours/sessions 20:00 (10)

Swim 2:45 8000 (2)

Bike 10:30 312k (3)

Run 5:50 62k (4)

S&C :55 (1)
Monthly accumulated hours/sessions

Total 64:10 (36)

Swim 8:45 24800m (7)

Bike 35:20 953.5k (9)

Run 17:35 207k (14)

S&C 2:30 (3)