Elephants!
Just a quick update on triathlon training to give you a break from the aquascaping project! Things are going OK as I gradually ramp up ready for the season. I’m losing a bit of the weight that I put on during JOGLE last year as well. I’m nowhere near race weight yet but it is at least a start.
Swimming
Swimming is swimming for me. It doesn’t seem to matter how much or how little I do, I stay pretty much the same pace – with maybe a gradual slow down as I get older. I have yet to do any open water sea-swimming this year but might start taking a few tentative dips soon. I’m hoping to get Anna in with me too. Instead I tend to get into the pool early in the morning before work at the University on a Wednesday and Thursday and then again after an early morning run on a Sunday. A complete mix of sessions too, the odd long steady swim and lots of different intervals, drills and other taxing efforts to keep things interesting.
Biking
Once again, much of this has been indoors thanks to my Tacx Flow Turbo Trainer and the TrainerRoad software. I’m following a training plan from TrainerRoad and it isn’t easy. There have been a number of times where I simply haven’t been able to complete a session as I was just too tired – especially the Friday evening sessions that I have planned – In fact I might alter my training plan to miss these out in the future. Mind you, there’s rarely a time when I think I’ll complete one of the sessions easily. The plan includes one long steady ride each week which is always fine, but the sessions with supra-trheshold intervals are always tough. I generally go through them thinking that I won’t make it, only to surprise myself at the end when I do so. My last session ‘Elephants’ was just such an example. After a warm up it was straight into 6x 5 minutes at 108% FTP. The first one was hard and I thought I was going to blow up, the subsequent intervals were all the same and not once until about 2 minutes from the end did I think I would make it. But make it I did, only to have to do something very similar again in a couple of days time.
I have managed to get out in the real world a couple of times lately. Well wrapped up with thermals, overshoes, buffs and gloves, but at least it was dry each time.
Running
The running continues too. Usually 2-3 times a week, with one steady (often hilly) run, one hill reps session and one short run off the bike. There’s not much to report here other than the fact that most of these runs have been in the dark, but finally Spring is on its way and I’m now able to see where I’m going by the end of them.
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Great work, Alan. Elephant’s is one of my most dreaded/favorite workouts. Have you tried getting workouts in during the early morning? Sometimes that helps me have that little extra kick to get it done, and then the rest of the day seems like a breeze.
-Trevor from TrainerRoad
Cheers, I do sometimes do early morning workouts, up early to do one today in fact, but I usually swim or run in the morning as the turbo trainer tends to wake my wife up… So, although the ‘rest of the day may seem like a breeze’ after a hard TrainerRoad workout first thing, nothing is a breeze when you have a tired grumpy wife to contend with!! 🙂
Al.
Alan! Your wife is never grumpy