Back to it with the Training

I may still be in a bit of a ‘post peak slump‘, but it’s time to start getting on with some training. On Wednesday I was supposed to do a long interval run with 5 lots of 1 mile efforts followed by 3 mins recovery. I wasn’t really in the mood so instead did a long steady 9 mile run. Not quite what was prescribed, but the schedule I have at the moment was written up before my Big Cow qualifying race and now that I have qualified the training schedule will change because I now have a new ‘A’ priority race scheduled for October – Namely the ITU Age-Group World Championships in Auckland.

I have had a little chat with my coach Pete Jenkins and told him what I think I should do next and he seems to be in agreement that we need to go back to basics, almost as if starting the year over again. So, that will entail a month of Base Training, followed once again by a Strength/Build phase and then into a Speed/Race phase ready for October. My plan is to take a little bit of time out from hard, structured training. I’ll still be swimming biking and running but the sessions will be less structured for a few weeks and have more of an emphasis on enjoyment. I’ll get out on the mountain bike, go windsurfing and surfing and join others on group training sessions. All in an effort to reset both physically and mentally before getting back into it properly. The periodisation starts again.

ClimachX Diversion

So, with that in mind, after my long steady run in the pouring rain on Wednesday, I met up with John and had a pleasant ride around a diverted ClimachX trail on my mountain bike. The rain had cleared but the trails were still very wet. It was good to be out enjoying myself on the trails, chatting to John and not worrying about heart rates, speed, perceived exertion and such like.

Yesterday’s schedule had me doing a hill reps run and a swim.

I started with the run which was supposed to compose of:

• 15 minutes Warm Up
• 10x 2 minute hill reps
• Cool down

I still wasn’t feeling particularly motivated and the grey dreary weather didn’t help, nor did the fact that my shoes were soaking wet from the previous days run in the rain. Still, I did quite fancy some hill reps so I got out there and did it. The hill climbs were pretty difficult and I did feel like giving up after the third, and then again after the 5th. By the 6th my calves were feeling tight and I almost used that as an excuse to give up and again after the 8th time up the hill. But I stuck with it an completed all 10 reps in the end.

Hill Reps

My actual performance wasn’t too bad, it’s just the motivation and ‘verve’ that seems to be lacking. It was however good to do and once again I wasn’t too worried about times, I was just out there running.

The swim in the evening went well. Again rather than do the prescribed 3x 750m at race pace I just went along to a club coached session and swam. Nothing too hard but good fun and nice to be swimming and training with others.

I’m quite looking forward to some relaxed fun sessions now and then getting back into it in earnest next month when the hard work preparing for Auckland really kicks in.

Tags: Mountain-BikingTrainingTriathlon