Building Momentum in August

The general theme of recent months has been that training is going OK, but not as good as originally planned with the major worry being my lack of big running miles. Now is the time to ignore the past and concentrate on the current. Good progress in August has made this task easier.

Now that we are closer to the events (Duathlon Worlds & Mandurah 70.3), the focus on running as much as possible has gone. The base is built (max weekly mileage of 52km) and now we can concentrate on building speed. Less days running means there is more time and energy for riding and swimming. The swim focus (10 weeks of 10km) has started and I’m now aiming for at least 2 rides per week.

The major downside this month has been the amount of time taken to recover from the Silvan Trail Run.  I was expecting to be sore for about 5 days, but it is now dragging on for 2 weeks. This has no affect on my swimming and only minor impact on my riding, but has meant missing the majority of my run sessions in the second half of the month.  Hopefully this will not be a major issue, as the trail run itself should have provided lots of training benefit.

Swimming

• Big swim block has begun as planned
• Technique is improving (Wed night with Coach Neil has helped a lot)
• Haven’t seen the speed improvements yet
• But am better able to hold my form throughout session
• 1km TT of 17m33s (1m45s per 100m)
• 1m14s slower than July’s 1km TT, but without wetsuit (or drafting)
• Wetsuit gives me roughly 10 sec per 100m, so effectively faster
• Aim of fast lane by late September is about 50/50 chance

Riding

• More focus on riding over August
• Getting in 2 rides most weeks
• Glute soreness holding back efforts a little
• Short effort speed (ie. 5 min) starting to come back
• Possibility of getting close to peak form by October
• Duathlon on Sunday will be a better gauge

Running

• Still held back by injuries
• Very tight quads early in the month
• Really struggled with glutes since Silvan Race
• Long Training Runs have been missed as a result
• Longest Runs 1h45m In June and Silvan Trail Run
• Will hopefully manage to sneak in a 2 hour run before Oct

• Big test will be the Duathlon on Sunday
• Aerobic efficiency has improved with the easy run pace improving for the same heart rate
• Very unlikely to get 5km time under 18 minutes
• 1h25m Half Marathon (in Sep) stills feels a possibility

Outline of August Training

3 Aug - 9 Aug

  2 swims - 6.6km

  2 rides - 112km

  5 runs - 43km

10 Aug to 16 Aug

  3 swims - 9.9km

  2 rides - 95km

  5 runs - 38km

17 Aug to 23 Aug - recovery week

  2 swims - 5.4km 

  1 ride - 115km

  2 runs - 11km

24 Aug to 30 Aug

  3 swims - 9.6km

  3 rides - 159km

  3 runs - 23km

Looking Forward to September

• Weekly WattBIke and Treadmills in Altitude Chamber
• Continuing Swim Focus (and hopefully get faster)
• Make North Rd Ride a regular weekly ride (so 3 rides a week)
• Extend Saturday Ride distance up to 140km
• Try and extend fortnightly long run up to 2 hours
• Unlikely to get in any of the planned double run sessions

Summary

Due to lots of illness in June and then injuries in August my riding and running are not quite where I wanted them to be.  But it could definitely be a lot worse.  So a good month of training in September could still see me hitting my targets.