Ironman is an individual race. It’s very easy to compare yourself to other athletes or people you train with. This is the one fundamental mistake which will bring your mental strength to a very messy end. Believe in yourself. You know you can do it. It’s just how well you handle it. Have a sense of humour. (Sarah Hulme)
I was on holidays for the next 2 weeks and this was to work perfectly to put in 2 more hard weeks before taper begins. This week in particular was going to be tough...Saturday and Sunday was another assault on the Blackall Range, with a 12km cross country race and return ride home thrown in........here we go.....
Monday:
The afternoon session started with a good 20min full body stretch to loosen up part that had become a little tight after the race yesterday.
Then it was straight into a run/core session. This session was based around the treadmill. It worked something like this 4min on the treadmill (1min walk then into a 5mim pace run) then straight off and complete 80 bicycle crunches in a minute. There were some variations of this every 3rd rep with a prone hold or squat hold. This whole thing was repeated 10 times.
Good session, felt good once it was all over.
Tuesday:
It is the holy day.....the day of the long run.....
2hr Long run.....working with 10's and 1's again this week.
This week I was more prepared with the nutrition and it work well. The body had the energy to maintain a good pace throughout the full 2h09min run.
Over this time I completed 25.5km at an average pace of 5:05min/km
Legs were in great form this morning.....the running is moving me in mysterious ways.
In the evening it was into the pool for a 3.2km session. The plan this week was to have an injection of swimming to just top the base up a bit.
Wednesday:
In the morning was an easy spin on the bike with the squad.....in the rain of course. It was good just to turn the legs over.
Nothing in the evening...just to rest up.
Thursday:
Today I ventured out to the pool and with a cross country course handy put together a different session that involved a 10 x 100 pull buoy then running 3km cross country course and repeating this 3 times. This was a good session and the body felt good throughout.
Then in the evening was back in the pool for another 2.8km session.
Friday:
The morning session was back in the pool with a 3.5km strength session.
The afternoon was time to put the feet up before a big weekend.
Saturday:
Time to put the body to the test.
It was up at 4.30am for 5.30am start on our 200km ride.
This was the same ride we did 8 weeks ago and it was going to be a good guide as to how the cycling is going.
This time there is 9 of us.....some doing it for the first time...some doing it for the 4th time...but we all knew it was all about pacing......the first 2 hrs was about just turning the legs over....
Heading off out to Dayboro and then up to Mt Mee and then stopping at our first aid stop at D'agular......2.5hrs on the clock and it had been a solid ride so far....probably a little harder than I would have liked but the legs were still working well. It was now out the Landsborough....a relatively flat ride but still had some pincher's in it.
Throughout the ride I was working with my new nutritional strategy. 3 x 20min (00 - gel, 20 - solid, 40 - gel) each hour.....working on increasing my carb intake per hour throughout the ride. I have been using a banana as the solid component of the ride (on the 20min)
The other thing that was critical for me on this ride was that when I got to the aid stops...it was a very short stop......get what I need and keep going......you don't stop in the race......
After Landsborough it was up the range.....it doesn't matter how many times you do this it never gets any easier.....but there is no letting up....when you get to the top.....you then go across the top of the range which I would class as a hilly ride on its own.
To make the climb up the range a little more challenging it was on the TT bike.....just had to suck it up.
It just keeps going.....it there an end to it.......I think the lowest speed I got to was about 7km/hr.....I was happy just to stay upright. Got to the top, the legs were fatigued but not gone......spent a number of K's spinning the legs over and they began to turn over quite comfortably....just in time to go across the top of the range.......ahhhh......
Finally reached Mapleton and began the decent into Nambour then continued on to Caloundra via Maroochydore and Mooloolaba.
The time of 6hr45min had elapsed and 194km. This was a 45min improvement on the same ride 8 weeks ago......the hard work is paying off.
Time to recover the legs with an ice bath, a feed and then into the skins......we have a 12km cross country race tomorrow.
Sunday:
Our big weekend continues......up at 5.30am and out the door cycling up to Buderim for a 12km cross country race....on these 'fresh' legs.
The course was 4 x 3km laps over relatively flat terrain except for one incline which went for about 300m. It was also quite boggy under foot.
The strategy...go hard until I blow up......
Lap 1 went out conservatively....nothing too mad!
Lap 2 the legs struck a rhythm and began to pick up the pace a little.
So far so good.
Lap 3 the hurt began to kick in...but so did the mental will power and the leg strength......was this too hard I was wondering...ah...what the heck....lets give it a nudge....the hill did bite a bit but I bit back!.....
Lap 4 the hurt and fatigue was present but not over powering...the will the run strong and hard was winning through.
Finished the race....I was spent! Time.......52m05s......I was wrapped.....such a strong solid run given it being on tired legs. Things are looking good!
Time to jump back on the bike and head back to Brissie. 3.5hrs and 94km later were returned to where it all started about 30hrs ago.
A very satisfying weekend and one that indicated to me that I was on track to achieve my goals for IM Australia.
Weekly Stats:
Swim: 12.5km (4h10m)
Bike: 367km (13h20m)
Run: 46.6km (3h44m)
Core Strength: 1hr
Maintenance: 1hr
Weekly Total - 21h15min
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