Category: 2015 Long Distance Triathlon Build Up

The week ahead.
I said I would do intervals with Jochen on Wednesday, that kind of screws up my plans a bit, but should be ok. We will do 7x1km probably at around 3:45 pace.
I will do my hilly intervals tomorrow so that I fit in the key run workouts. On Tuesday I think I will go swimming and maybe run home after (I always say I will and never do!) That will leave a cycle on Thursday and either a swim or run on Friday.
I want to do another good long run on Saturday, before another 10k race the weekend after. 32km+ would be good. Hills seem to be my friends nowadays, so I will probably head south again through the Weinberge.
On Sunday it looks like there might be a little chaingang going on. Our Cologne Bike and Run team is planning a ride, even though it might be 0 degrees out. It’ll be good to get a decent length ride in and hopefully they don’t want too many explosives on the climbs, I don’t think I am quite ready for that yet!

With no midweek update this week, it'll be a bit more about the workouts this week.
Monday was a rest day, it was partially planned as this week was an easy week, but work went late and my MTB was at the train station, so I didn't get home until 7pm, so I just took a rest day.
Tuesday I did a 15.6km run outdoors. It was a base run, with my HR somewhere in the 130s and the pace at 5:20 per KM. It was nice though.
Wednesday I did some upper body work in the gym, followed by a boring 1h on the bikes in the gym. They are obviously better than nothing, but I can't say I look forward to them. I might start to do some midweek rides outside in the dark. I have bright lights, it should be ok.
Thursday was my one intervals session of the week. 7x1km on the treadmill (1% incline) at 15.6km with 250m rest at 8km/h. I was a little apprehensive as it was the 0.6km/h faster than normal, but it was pretty easy to be honest. The last one was a little more difficult, but there was always some left in the tank.

Friday I had Swim training session 3 with Max at Nieder-Olm swimming pool. Me and Jochen decided to get some private swim coaching as we are both a bit rubbish. We had the first 2 sessions in December, but due to illnesses and holidays we haven't managed to get the last 3 arranged until now. Max is still ill so sat on the edge of the pool to watch our techniques. Apparently my technique is quite good, I turn my head too much to breathe and my kick gets a bit wonky, but otherwise it's not bad. We had quite a lot of fast intervals in this session, the hardest part being 5x50m races between me and Jochen. I managed to win them all, but they were close for the first 25-35m then I moved clear. I think the gym upper body work might be helping out there. Anyway, it was a hard session but it gives me hope of doing a decent swim split in a half later this year, and surviving the full distance swim!

Yesterday was snowy, cold and windy, but it was long run day, so I did a long run. Running against the wind was horrible as the snow went in my eyes about every 0.3 seconds, but after the first few km it was almost always a cross wind or tail wind. I tried out a new route to Klein Wintersheim – Nieder-Olm – Zornheim – Ebersheim – Home. It was going to be too short, so I went for a loop in the industrial park in Hechtsheim to get it over 30km. It ended up being 31.4km at 4:57/km. A decent pace but my HR was only high 140s average. I was still feeling pretty tired at the end though.
Today was still cold, but dry and not too much wind, so I decided against dying of boredom in the gym doing a 2h session, and went out for a ride. It was surprisingly good! Only 63km in 2:20, but its a start. I felt like I could keep pushing a little even at the end. 250km is still a long ways away, but I have time on my side.

https://www.strava.com/activities/245406094

Weight 78.2kg (+0.3kg)
Running 58km (220km YTD)
Cycling 91km (272km YTD)
Swimming 2.2km (9.15km YTD)

I am not surprised that my weight is up, it was a good week for my diet, it's just that last weeks weight seemed like a low blip. This weeks weight still puts me down 0.8kg in the last 2 week, so I am still pretty happy with how it's going.

So week 2 was a good one, so the plan won’t drastically change this week.

Run at least 4 times
Cycle: 2 times but I need to get a real longer ride done. I’m not talking 150km here, I’ll be taking baby steps, but 4 hours would be a decent start.
Swim: I might as well keep on with the 100m more each workout routine. so I expect 2 workouts of 1.9km and 2km.

I think I will try some TCEC things this week too. The ones that fit best are running on Tuesday and Swimming on Wednesday. Depending on what we do on Tuesday, I’ll either do my 7x1km or the hilly treadmill run on Thursday. Saturday long ride and Sunday long run seems fair enough. That leaves Monday and Friday, one will be a swim, the other an easy outdoor run. I might tag on an easy 5km run after the gym cycle again as that seemed to work.

These obviously aren’t set in stone, I could try to cycle on Wednesday, then go to swimming and take a day off! Let’s see how I feel and, nearly literally, where the wind takes me!

Right, where were we? I'd knocked out 4 workouts on Monday and Tuesday, Wednesday went as planned, 11.6km outside run in the cold and dark. It felt really easy, as evidenced by my HR average of 136, but the average pace was a decent 5:18 so that will do for my easy run.

On Thursday I was at the gym again. I did some strength work on the legs and the triceps, before getting on with my hilly treadmill run. I failed on this run last week, so I was happy to have fairly cruised through it this time. There was one very brief stop, but that was only because my shoelace came undone. It was still a hard effort, but I think and hope I can do this exact workout a few times more, before trying to increase the pace a little.

On Friday I went to Taubertsbergbad straight after work. I'm under no allusions about my swimming, it is pretty rubbish, but I am trying to build into it instead of knocking out 3k now and never wanting to swim again, I started with 1.6km last week, then 1.7 and this time 1.8km. I was experimenting with holding my breath for longer underwater, instead of immediately exhaling. Having the air in my lungs should keep me more buoyant, which in turn should improve my body position. I felt like there was something to this, but I wasn't feeling comfortable with it. I will keep trying. I did 100m sets, almost all around the 1:52 mark, the fastest was a 1:47. I turn like a boat, so I don't think I am faster in a 25m pool than a 50m one!

Yesterday should have been long cycle day, but it was blowing an absolute gale, so I ended up doing 90 minutes on the trainer whilst watching 'Remember the Titans'. It wasn't exciting, but a decent workout too. I am getting worried at the prospect of 250km early in April, I need to get some long outdoor rides in in the next few weeks.

Today I ran a bumpy 30km route. Pretty much everything that made last weeks long run bad, didn't happen this week! No toilet breaks and no chafing, I also didn't really fatigue too badly. It was really windy, and at times I wanted to head home and settle on 25km or so, but when it looked like my route was going to get me back after 28km, I decided to both go further and speed up! I plan to add something to my long runs, i.e. 1 fast km, 1 slow km and sustained efforts at marathon pace, but today's one was a good one, especially considering it wasn't flat at all!

https://www.strava.com/activities/239657438

Weight: 79.0kg (down 0.9kg to a record low for me since I was about 17 years old!)
Running: 65km (123km for the year)
Cycling: 70km (98km for the year)
Swimming: 3.5km (5.1km for the year)

I’m bored at work, so here is a midweek update.

On Monday I wasn’t feeling it much, I was hungry after work, but as Quatchy was already at the gym, I kind of had to go in too! I was happy I did though, I did 1 hour on the spinning bike, it’s not the most exciting thing in the world, but I found the 25 minutes moderate difficulty followed by 5 minutes easy not too bad.
To keep the marathon training ticking over I did an easy 5km on the treadmill at 11kmh without any incline. I think that if I hit my 3 workouts (1km intervals, hilly intervals and long run) every week, I will only do really easy runs outside of those.

On Tuesday I was more motivated and went straight to the gym and went for the 7x1km intervals. It was done exactly as I planned, 15km/h for the 1km interval, 8km/h for 250m as a rest. The first few were easy, the last ones were quite tough, but manageable. I had to rush to get home, eat and leave the house to go swimming. Swimming was pretty good too. I tried to use my legs more consistently and really reach out with my hands. I was generally doing 50m sets with a short rest. I was seeing some 48 second 50m lengths in the middle, with one 47 seconds. It started fading off towards the end though, so I think the 1.7km was enough for the day.

The plan for the rest of the week looks similar to what wrote last time, today: run outside easy. Thursday hilly treadmill intervals w/strength esp swimming muscles. Friday Cycle and leg strength. Saturday – At least swim, possibly add in a outdoor cycle. Sunday – long run 30km or so.

Lets see how this week goes and maybe change things around for a better fit next week.

The diet is going well. On Monday I ate a few chocolates and a bit of cake at work, otherwise I haven’t eaten badly at all.

(note to self: I need to take the 19:16 Straßenbahn to the Pool and either the 20:58, or 21:28 bus back home, getting in at 21:38 or 22:08)

Well week one was a short one for the blog, as it was only 4 days, but for the stats I’ll use the whole 7 days.

Weight 79.9kg (-1.4kg)
Running: 4x 1 long run, 1 intervals, 1 hilly treadmill and 1 outdoor easy. (58km)
Cycling: 1x 1 hour at the gym (28km)
Swimming: 1x at Mombach pool (1.6km)

Running wise it wasn’t great, my long run of 24km was interrupted for about 15 mins by looking for a toilet, that ruined my rhythm and I didn’t feel great for the 8km home. My hilly treadmill run on Thursday was also a bit of a failure, I couldn’t hold the 11km level 5 hills, hopefully it is just a post Christmas lull.

I didn’t get much chance to cycle, partially because it is damn cold outside and partially due to laziness, I should have cycled 2h yesterday 🙁

Swimming, well I am back in the pool at least! Jantastic means I will have to swim at least once a week, but I want to do 2 a week and some strength work on the other days. My GPS watch should be interesting as the year goes on, I could see my first 50m of a 100m interval was often 53s, but after 100m it was always 1:58 or slower! Am I really swimming 12 seconds slower on the second half? If I am then maybe muscle endurance is the main issue for me, not technique.

I also did strength training at the gym 3 times, mainly legs and core, but some tricep work too.

So the plan for the next week: Swim tomorrow, intervals or TCEC run on Tuesday, Cycle on Wednesday, hilly treadmill on Thursday, Cycle on Friday, Swim on Saturday, maybe with extra cycling, then long run on Sunday. I know there are no rest days there, but Monday and Saturday are swim only days, so they shouldn’t overly tax me. Now that I look at it, I see only 3 runs… I will have to tack on a run after one or both of the cycles, just easy runs, but 3 isn’t enough..