Something different

Many of you would know, that I am someone who is very resistant to change,and lead a structured, regimented life. Especially when it comes to my triathlon training. I ride and run the same routes, I do the same workouts from week to week.

So it was good to have a bit of a mix this week, as I started on a new training program, in preparation for Ironman Western Australia in about 6 months time.

Monday morning, we all met for the BYL group ride, but as it was raining cats and dogs, we decided to skip the ride, and head straight for coffee. It was also Bill's last day before he flew to France. So it was nice just taking our time, having a chat.

Tuesday morning, it was still very wet. I joined the BYL group run, we did an interval session at the park near Mount Hospital. We did 2x 2km, 2x 1km and 1x 2km with 90 seconds rest in between the 2kms and 30 seconds rest in between the 1kms. I'm not used to running intervals at all, I started off okay and got a bit quicker in middle sets but I started losing steam towards the end. My splits were 8:27, 8:17, 4:07, 4:16 and 8:46.

In the afternoon, I did a 50 minute swim session. Started with 10 x 100m warm up, then did 100m, 200m, 300m, 400m, 300m, 200m, 100m with pull buoy and paddles on 1:35/100m cycles. Finished up with 8 x 50m alternating butterfly and backstroke.

Wednesday morning, I'm glad I had an indoor wind trainer session while it poured again outside. Did 20 x 1 minute on the big gear with cadence about 65rpm, 1 minute rest in between each. All in, a 65 minute session including warm up and cool down. My fingers hurt just as much as my legs from switching gears every minute.

I did an easy 40 minute run after work. It was getting dark as I started about 5.10pm, ran on the shared path along Graham Farmer Freeway from East Perth until the Great Eastern Highway and turned back. The skies opened in the last 10 minutes and I was drenched! Even took me a while get clear visibility before I started driving home. Did about 8km, nice relaxing pace.

A longish 70 minute run was on the program on Thursday morning. Still feeling a bit sore from the hard Tuesday interval run and the 40 minute run the evening before. I don't usually run one day after another, let along 3 days in a row! Managed 16.25km at a steady 4:18 per km pace. In the afternoon, I did a recovery 50 swim session, did some kicking and light pull buoy sets.

Friday morning, another 50 minute swim session. The usual warm up, then I did 8 x 200m with pull buoy and paddles on 3:10 intervals. Again, finishing with 8 x 50m alternating butterfly and backstroke. It was relieving to know that I've only single session training days for the rest of the week.

Saturday, myself and Sam joined the Cycles Bespoke for a ride into the hills. Sam and I looked a bit out of place with our tri bikes. It was very cold that morning, about 7 degrees. We rode into Darlington, coming to a very steep climb, I was averaging about 9kph. We then regrouped at John Forest National Park and were told that the worst was over.

It was, but from then on, the roads were a bit rough and my whole bike frame was shaking. But it was a nice, peaceful feeling riding in the woods, a kangaroo crossed right in front of us at one point. Descending the hills was a bit scary, I tapped on the brakes slightly, my maximum speed was only 58kph. The whole ride was about 55km, Sam and I decided to do another 45km around the South Perth foreshore.

Sunday morning, another ride was on the cards, this time for 2.5 hours. I tried keeping close to 30kph but with the fatigued legs and the moderately strong winds, I finished with an average of exactly 29.0kph.

So that wraps up my first week under a training program. Total training hours of 12.5, may not seem much to many. But considering I'm only used to 8-9 hours before this, and only hit 13-14 hours once or twice during my peak Ironman training, I'm pretty satisfied. Helps me sleep better at night too...