Week 23 of 26

Wow, what a week!

Monday was Labour Day public holiday. Greg, Clare and Peter were going to do a 100km ride to Lakeside and back. So I started my ride earlier, went down Vanneck all the way to Gideon and back. Managed to get 43kms in before I met up with the others. It was a very foggy and pretty humid. It rained a bit while we were cycling too. It was nice to have some company and we took turns to lead and pushed the pace every now and then. After the rest were finished, I only had another 40km or so to go, so I did the same thing as I did before - Vanneck to Gideon and back. 183kms clocked with an average pace of 31kph, pretty pleased!

Tuesday was 75 minute run in Springbank. Same set as last week - 6 x 7 minutes fast/3 minutes easy. I was only a tad bit slower. Can't complain considering I had the big ride the day before. Wednesday was my only swim for the swim. But it was a long one. 400m warm up, 4 x 50m, 400m, 4 x 100m, 600m, 4 x 200m, 600m pull buoy, 4 x 200m pull buoy/paddles, 100m cool down - added up to 4.3km, my longest swim this year.

Thursday was the usual mid week 90km ride to Lakeside and back. I installed the Garmin Edge 500 and it was pretty cool to see all the data in one screen. I forgotten my HRM strap though. Friday was an hour's run from UWO campus to Springbank via Gibbons Park. It was very humid. My heart felt like it was beating abnormally higher than usual when I started but I shrugged it off. When I finished, I felt a bit faint and almost passed out! I leaned against my car and took some deep breaths and felt much better. Not sure what was that all about, maybe the sudden change in humidity.

Saturday was my last 6+ hour ride. It was pretty gloomy but luckily I didn't get wet. I rode to Lakeside and then towards Vanneck and all the way south to Talbotville and back. Very windy too and it had to be headwind on the way back. Managed just over 182km with an average of 30kph. I brought my HRM strap this time and nice to know that my average heart rate was at 129bpm, about 68% of my max HR.

I ran off the bike for 30 minutes, trying on my new Saucony Fastwitch 6 and Compressport socks. They felt great and I was able to hold a sub 4:30 per km pace. That evening, Li-Ann and I celebrated my last long ride by having dinner at Marienbad, a nice Hungarian restaurant. We split the platter and it was just nice for us. I didn't order a drink for myself but I did have a few sips of Li-Ann's wine.

Sunday was my longest run in the build. My one and only 3 hour run as I bailed partway through on the previous one. I started at about 3.45pm, it was very sunny but cool and dry. I averaged about 4:35 per km for the first 75 minutes or so, then dropped it to 4:45 per km for the next hour, with the remaining about 4:55 per km. I'm surprised at how great my legs felt but the nice weather definitely helped. Did 4 loops around the neighbourhood. Covered just over 38km with an average pace of 4:43 per km.

Feeling really happy with the solid effort this week. The volume decreases in the coming week but not a full on taper yet.

Week 23 of 26 statistics:

Swim - 4.3km (1 hour 13 minutes)
Bike - 455.1km (14 hours 51 minutes)
Run - 75.4km (5 hours 45 minutes)

Total - 534.8km (21 hours 49 minutes)