Week 18 of 26

Some pretty big numbers this week, in my books anyway. With the training camp in Niagara for the Civic holiday long weekend, it wasn't surprising. And I did my sessions during the week with that in mind, just pacing myself so that I can finish strong at the end.

Monday was a 3.5km swim in the evening. Some shorter sets - 10 x 50m, 10 x 100m, 5 x 200m pull buoy, 5 x 100m. Tuesday was the usual 90km ride to Lakeside and back. I took a gamble with the dark skies and had a brief period of drizzle but didn't get too wet.

Wednesday was Splash N Dash in Lake Whittaker. Did a warm up swim of two loops. Goggled didn't leak this time but it fogged up pretty bad. Luckily I was able to stay close to Matt's feet throughout the swim. Started the run with Gillian and Matt. The young Gillian is a star runner, she only did 1 loop of the swim and was on her second lap of the run, I had trouble keeping up. Matt did a surge just before the end of the 1st lap and I was unable to respond. But the gap stayed about the same. Total time 45:46, a new PB - 1.6km swim 25:22 and 5km run 20:24.

Thursday was a 75km ride to Thorndale and returning the opposite direction to Vanneck and back. Some light drizzle. Got overtaken by an older cyclist attacking the hills but my steady pace managed to catch up to him later ;) Friday I managed to get off work early before the long weekend, so I ran under the sun for 80 minutes in Springbank, 18kms. Immediately followed by a 3.4km swim - 400m warm up, 200m pull buoy, 200m pull buoy/paddles, 3 x 400m swim, 3 x 400m pull buoy, 100m cool down. My calves cramped a couple of times so I needed a few minutes to massage them.

Saturday morning, a 2 hour drive to Welland for a training camp in the Niagara region. First workout was a 75 minute swim in the Welland canal. I tried on my skinsuit which I intend to use for Ironman Malaysia as the race is non wetsuit swim. The water was a bit cold and I almost gave up halfway but soon got used to it. Had a bit of chaffing at the back of my neck as there is padding unlike the wetsuit. Managed to swim 4km. A 2.5 hour ride later with some big hills, my legs felt rather empty. Must be all the kicking in the water without the wetsuit. It was a pretty hot afternoon too. Pot luck barbecue dinner that night and we all slept well.

Sunday was the epic long ride today. Only a couple of us have Ironman races in September, while the rest are tapering for theirs in a couple of weeks. It drizzled throughout and some of the roads had quite a bit of gravel, so we had to be careful especially in the descends. I had a gentle fall sideways when I slowed down too much and got caught in gravel. Nothing serious, just a soft landing on my right palm. Rode with the main group for almost 4 hours and then just the two of us for another couple of hours. I then did a 10km run from the Welland residence to the canal and back.

One more day of camp left, an hour's swim tomorrow followed by the long 2.5 hours run, so I'm heading to bed now to get my beauty sleep and rest.

Week 18 of 26 statistics:

Swim - 14.0km (4 hours 13 minutes)
Bike - 397.9km (13 hours 48 minutes)
Run - 33.0km (2 hours 26 minutes)

Total - 444.9km (20 hours 27 minutes)