Week 11 of 26

So I had quite a big week. My legs felt like they've been ran over by a bus!

Monday was an evening 3.8km swim. Lots of drills and finishing up with 400m of freestyle kick. My legs cramped a few times, I had to stop in the middle of the pool to stretch! Must have been a combination of the cold water and the long run the day before. Tuesday was a 90km ride to Lakeside and back. It was windy but it was nice to have it blowing on my back on the return - I was clocking over 40kph!

Wednesday is Splash N Dash day. I swam for about 30 minutes before the start. No idea how far I swam as the buoys weren't put up yet but I'm assuming it's the same distance as the course. One of the buoy markers were blown away so the swim was modified to 3 loops instead of the usual 2. Still, the distance was pretty similar and Greg recorded 1650m for the 3 loops. I let the first few faster swimmers go off on their own and stuck to my own pack. Had a quick transition and felt great on the run. Matt was behind me today and there was only Greg and Cynthia in front. So I gave chase and managed to overtake them after the 1st lap and put on cruise control to the finish. Overall time was 47:56 - 26:59 for the swim and 20:57 for the 5km run. About 2 minutes quicker than last week!

Thursday was a 75km ride to Thorndale and then to Vanneck and back. The wind was coming from the south so it didn't really affect either direction. I felt great and rode over 32kph average. Friday I was meant to be up for a morning swim but I didn't have a good night's sleep and re-scheduled the swim to the evening. This meant pushing the evening run to another day. Main sets were 1200m swim (20:08), 1000m pull buoy (17:23), 1000m pull buoy/paddles (16:16). Pretty happy with the times considering the lack of sleep I had.

Slept early Friday night and woke up fresh on Saturday morning for my long ride. The weather was overcast and it was actually pretty chilly, I had to put on two layers of long sleeves. Rode to Southwold and back, surprised that I felt great despite a pretty windy day. Must be the wonders of the 8.5 hours sleep!  Rode over 136kms with just over 30kph average. A quick 30 minute brick run after, legs felt a bit heavy at first but settled into rhythm very quickly, 6.7km clocked. I rested a bit in the afternoon and felt good enough to make up for Friday's missed run. Ran for 1 hour 20 minutes, wasn't expecting much but was pleasantly surprised I kept it under 4:30 per km average.

Sunday, as usual I delayed my long run to the evening. With good excuse this time, I think my legs needed the rest after the big day before. Started at 5pm and it was very sunny outside. I had 2 hours 15 minutes in the program. I knew it was a big ask to try for 4:30 per km average again, so I kept my expectations realistic and aimed for at least 29km. The legs felt heavy after about 75 minutes but thankfully my pace didn't drop too much. Clocked just over 29.2km with an average pace of 4:37 per km.

Li-Ann comes back on Tuesday and I'm looking forward to seeing her. I've taken it for granted how my meals are all prepared after my long workouts. Of course she is much more than that. We are often pre-occupied with our own interests, but I do miss her presence and being close to her. While she was not around, I visited our local tri store Multisport Zone, which is unfortunately closing down end of this month. They were selling everything at 50% off! The temptation was great, I bought myself a pair of Louis Garneau Tri X Lite shoes and a pair of bib shorts, both for only C$157.

Great temptation + wife not around + weak heart = unnecessary purchases!

Looking forward to the lighter load next week, finishing it with the Guelph Lake Olympic distance triathlon, my first tri race of the year. See you then!

Week 11 of 26 statistics:

Swim 10.9km (3 hours 17 minutes)
Bike 302.4km (9 hours 46 minutes)
Run 58.8km (4 hours 26 minutes)

Total 372.2km (17 hours 29 minutes)