The road to Roth has been a long one, it has been tough, but I feel like I am coming out of the other side in the best shape of my life. I just need to not mess things up in the taper, and on race day, and I should be good to have a successful race.
Monday
Cycled to swim training, I really pushed the pace as I was a bit late. We only have 1 lane this week (school holidays) so only the Roth starters were allowed to train. There were 5 of us total, the other 4 all do their own thing, so I had Chris – the coach – to myself. I got a good few tips and swam in my wetsuit the whole time. 1:22/100m was ok, at a push, but 1:27/100m seemed like an easier pace to hold for a longer time.
I did 6x100m and 2x200m as the main set, and a few drills and water starts, and that was it. Only 45 mins, but it is my tapering week, so it’s ok.
Cycled home with a bit less power, but still a decent pace.
Tuesday
Just a little Brick today. A 45min bike followed by a 15 min run was planned. I picked a crappy bike route and was worried about puncturing, but I didn’t so it was ok. I took my bike up to the flat, then set off on the run. My pace was far too fast, but tried to slow down. I managed to go from 4:15/km to 4:40/km, but I felt like I was walking. On Sunday I will have to be more controlled. After another bad decision of running a short and uneven trail (I almost turned my ankle) I got back home after just over 15mins.
Wednesday
The weather is heating up. I had my last swim session before Roth today. There were only 2 of us there, Dirk Kornau and me. Chris came too, which was good of him, as he knew I would be the only person there!
It was a short swim, I did a 6x100m at 1:27/100m like on Monday. The first one I had to go very slow to stay on pace. The 3rd and 4th were with flippers, but at the same pace. Swimming in slow motion my first 100m was actually too slow! I needed to go 2s faster, so I sped up and swam the next in 1:20… oops! After 30 mins I was done and ready to cycle home.
Thursday
Just a shortish run after work. I planned 45mins, but ran 9.1km in 42 mins, and didn’t fancy adding and extra 3 mins for no reason, so that was that.
Friday
My train to Nürnberg was at 1pm and I had to get some last things ready and do some jobs around the house, so I ran 1st thing before breakfast for 8km at a shockingly fast 4:36/km. My legs are feeling great at the moment.
Saturday
Just to keep a bit of the feel for the water, I went for a dip in the Rothsee. I had picked up my bike from Stephan and was waiting for the team photo before the bike check-in so had 15 mins free. The water was nice, but there was lots of seaweed in the deeper water, which creeped me out a bit. I also kept thinking that I could see Jellyfish, but it was just the air from my swimming. I was for 15mins and my gps says it was 750m.