14 Weeks to Kona

Total training duration - 16hrs 55min (low due to mid week illness)

• Swim - 4.3km
• Ride - 296km
• Run - 58km

 On Thursday it was 100 days to go.....

Did my first wind trainer session this season on Monday. Yep, that's how I remember it - boring. Set myself in front of the TV but it's still boring. I prefer the velodrome. I feel I get more out of the session. Regardless, I completed the session, watched the morning news and saw Lauren and Stirling before I left for work. It also made it an easier day on the bike. Monday's bike session usually includes additional duration due to the added commute to and from work. 

Had a massage with Richard Squires that afternoon. Good timing the day after a hilly Kew Boulevard run session. 

That's the last time I let Richard use his teeth!

Into The Routine
The training weeks are now 'routine'. I get up and train, finish work then train. The session intensity and durations vary but the are set on the same day each week. Turn up to training, clock in, train hard, clock out, another tick in the box...NEXT...

The motivation is starting to fade a little. Getting harder to drag myself out of bed. Need to keep the inspiration going. I haven't lost motivation, just starting to fade. Think I need another interim achievement / race / something to give me another spark. It will come I just need to keep pushing through.

One unusual occurrence I'm noticing is I sweat in bed a lot more than normal. To the point where the sheets are saturated - I wake up wet. This also happened while training for Ironman Melbourne. The internet diagnosis suggests it can be brought on from additional physical training. Very uncomfortable to wake up all wet but it comes and goes depending on the weeks. It's been less frequent this time round.





The Training Week

What a typical Tuesday & Thursday night Tan session looks like

Tuesday night's run was good with a 90 minute 'easy' duration. Ran as a group with Oliver Jones, Johan Moylan, Henry Polk and Steve Guy. On the second lap of the Tan Steve and Johan started creeping away as my heart rate was creeping well over the 70-78% MHR range. They ended up looping back to pick up the rest of us before they accelerated away up a hill again. We finished as a group and managed to enjoy some good conversation during the session - proof that we didn't go too hard. All up we ran 4 laps of the Tan plus I ran from work = 19.4km session averaging 4:33min/km pace.

Back to Kew Boulevard Wednesday for a bike strength endurance (SE) session. This included 7 x Yarra St repeats and a big gear lap - a real leg and lung burner. There's nothing fun about Yarra St repeats on it's 20%+ incline. 3 weeks ago I replaced the chain rings - 39-53 to a bigger o'symetric 42-54. This required a new chain which didn't work with the old and worn cassette. So I replaced the 28-11 with a newer 25-11 I had in the shed...It's amazing how much difference a few teeth make at 20%!!! Felt like I had it in the big chain ring. It was tough. Apologies for the bike gearing talk. Probably lost a few people there.

We finished with an easy 30min run off the bike. 

7 x Yarra St repeats

Lauren bought a whole box of fundraiser chocolates this week. After shoveling down most of them early in the week I took the remainder to work to share. Gave away some to the boys at Kew on Wednesday...but then ate the rest before I could share them at work. 

4 rolls for lunch Wednesday

 

Thursday was disappointing. Got up and went to swimming to do the 30 x 100m smash session and couldn't even make it through the warm up. I was trying to push through but had a stomach ache and barely enough energy to turn my arms over. Had a rest mid warm up, tried to continue but just couldn't do it. There was something there niggling in my tummy during the week that hit me in the pool that morning. Ended up going home and back to bed sleeping for most of the day. Missed the run that night and swimming on Friday morning. Really hate missing sessions but there was no way I could train and I knew that rest was the requirement.

But I was back for the paced OD ride on Saturday. This is an Over Duration ride which essentially means a much longer ride than we would normally do in training...in the most increadibly windy conditions!!!! Unfortunately there were only 3 of us doing that ride - Steve Guy and Mark who is another MTC Kona qualifier. As it is done to our own pacing we split after the 25km warm up. Did a paced 180km followed by and easy 20km spin making a 200km ride in 6 hours 6 minutes (actual ride time). The 180km paced portion was 5 hours 18 minutes for an average of 33.9km/hr. 


The comparison against past performance:

• Saturday's OD ride - 180km paced portion - 5:18 avg 33.9km/hr (solo)
• Dec 2012 OD ride - 180km paced portion - 5:27 avg 32.97km/hr (solo)
• Jan 2013 OD ride - 180km portion in Torquay - 5:11 avg 34.68km/hr (bunch ride)
• Mar 2013 Ironman Melbourne bike - 180km 4:52 avg 36.99km/hr (solo)

Analysis - Saturday's 180km paced portion of the OD ride was faster than the comparable Dec 2012 ride. The difference being there was much more wind on Saturday than the Dec 2012 ride but I felt I pushed a lot harder this time (possibly fighting the wind). Am I faster? I'd like to think so. 

The laps:

Lap 1 - 25 km warm up with the wind.
Lap 2 - 90km at Ironman intensity with varying wind direction.
Lap 3 - 25km easy into the wind.
Lap 4 - 40km at 70.3 intensity into the wind.
Lap 5 - 20km easy spin to finish.

The laps on Garmin Connect

After the OD ride followed a 60 minute run off the bike - 13km averaging 4:38min/km. Instead of running along the beach I ran toward the West Gate Bridge for the first time. It kept me away from the wind and was a pleasant change of scenery. Definitely worth doing. 

So after a 6:30am start and a 2:30pm finish it was an 8 hour day out. Glad to get that one under the belt especially given the 2 days of sickness. 

Home from the OD ride

Lauren and I went out for dinner that night. Started out well by me walking into a fixed bar stool. Right into my quad - it really hurt! Then could hardly keep my eyes open......

I'm not drunk, just really really tired (that was my one and only glass of wine). Not my best moment.

 
THEN SUNDAY I BOUNCED RIGHT BACK AND SMASHED THE LONG RUN!!!!! 

Not really. Sunday's 90 minute run was a non-event - 18.8km averaging 4:50min/km. Didn't feel very good, my legs were really hurting. Just took it easy as my body wouldn't let me do any more.


That night we went to Steve Guy's for dinner and had a tour of his awesome new home. We ate fanastic lamb, drank great wine, then ate excellent cake and closed out with some epic TV viewing (Ironman World Championship 2012 and the previous night's TDF final 10km). If you ever get invited to Steve's for dinner, DO IT! He cooks a mean roast lamb.
 
The week's wrap up -  a disappointing mid week illness but good to get the Saturday session complete. I feel the training load finally caught up with me this week. Feeling a bit blah.

Less than 100 days to Kona! Or 3 months 1 week!

GOTTA KEEP GOING ---------->>>>