First good week of training for the season

For the first time this season I completed what I consider a full week's training.  It was certainly not a big week, but it contained 1 swim, 3 runs & 3 rides.  The runs were an interval run, long run & brick run, whilst the rides consisted of short velodrome TTs, brick and a 90km long ride.  The week's mileage was swim 2km, run 24km & bike 130km, which equates to 161 Slowtwitch training points (a big training week for me leading up to a HIM would be 300+ points).

Anyway, that was last week.  This week the body feels a little stiff and I decided to taper for this weekend's duathlon.  It is pretty lazy to taper after only 1 week of effort, but it pays to listen to your body and gradually introduce training load over the pre-season.  If I am any chance of completing an Ironman in March, it is extremely important to stay healthy and injury free.

So far, this week has only consisted of 2 runs, an interval run with lots of hill repeats and a 10km easy run.  I usually run my long runs at a comfortable pace, but this time I ran to heart rate, which meant running about 45 secs per kilometre slower.  Hopefully my aerobic engine will adapt over time and my pace will increase for the same heart rate.  My dream is to be able to run at 5 min pace with a HR of 140 (that would give me a marathon time of 3h31m), but I think I am kidding myself - 5m30s is probably a far more realistic target (3h52s marathon).

I can foresee running to heart rate causing internal conflict during the season as I strive to find speed for the Sprint Distance races.  A lot of triathletes simply avoid the shorter races when training for Ironman, but I think this would make the season too boring.  There is nothing quite like smashing yourself in a short race.  The quality of the field is usually less, so there is always the chance of a podium and you are usually fully recovered within a day or so.

I'm looking forward to the Duathlon this Sunday.  I don't think I'll have much run speed (or endurance), but I'm excited to see what sort of time I can post of my new tri-bike.  The front tyre that punctured last race has been replaced and I've swapped the rear Zipp 808 for my disk wheel, I think the bike looks really good.

Of course I will almost certainly not learn from my puncture last race and will again race without a spare or even a can of pitstop.  Sometimes vanity is our own worst enemy.