Last week was a planned recovery week but I decided to delay it a tad to get a few more hard sessions in, as I was feeling pretty strong.
The weather was good enough to get outside on the bike last Monday and I did 90 mins up and down the Mare Harbour road, working hard on the hills. In the evening I did 10 x 200m in the pool on 30 sec rest, with my last split being the fastest of 3 min 09. A fairly intense session.
Tuesdays run was 10 x 400's. I got up early intending to use the grass track but the weather got the better of me...snow had arrived! There wasn't much, but enough to make the track too slippy for any kind of pacey running. So the treadmill it was. It's not that easy doing this kind of workout on a treader, what with the 'time lag' when selecting the speeds and the rocking and rolling of the machine once it gets there! I just had to not start the clock until it had reached the required speed. I 'simulated' my 400m by selecting a 5 min mile pace and running for 80 secs, and then a minute of easy jogging. I increased the pace for the last few, up to 12.7 mph, but kept the efforts to 80 secs. It felt quite hard but I never seem to be able to work as hard on a treadmill as I would if I were outside, especially for speed intervals.
Wednesday was an intense bike workout. Total session lasted 1 hour, consisting of 30 and 60 sec sprints with same time recovery. Hard but good.
Rested Thursday. Friday was a tough bike/run brick. The bike was 10 min steady, 10 min big gear 'crunch' (50-55rpm), 10 min hard then a 15 min hard run. This was then repeated but the next time the run was at max effort. I felt this session! So much so, that the swim in the evening was cut short due to my quads starting to cramp up and my toes starting to spread apart! Ouch! It was supposed to be 4 x 500m at a moderate effort but I only managed 3 and called it a day while I could still use the steps to get out of the pool!
That was the end of the hard workouts. Saturday was a steady/easy ride with single legs and spin-ups followed by a bit of core stuff.
Sunday was a nature hike! I was lucky enough to get a heli trip to a nature reserve on one of the islands called New Island. We trekked up and around the island taking photos like Japanese tourists of various wildlife. We saw Black Browed Albatross, Rock Hopper penguins Fur Seals and the local 'hard men' birds of prey called Cara Cara. It's quite bizarre how close you can get to some of these creatures, as you can see from the snap!
The weather was good enough to get outside on the bike last Monday and I did 90 mins up and down the Mare Harbour road, working hard on the hills. In the evening I did 10 x 200m in the pool on 30 sec rest, with my last split being the fastest of 3 min 09. A fairly intense session.
Tuesdays run was 10 x 400's. I got up early intending to use the grass track but the weather got the better of me...snow had arrived! There wasn't much, but enough to make the track too slippy for any kind of pacey running. So the treadmill it was. It's not that easy doing this kind of workout on a treader, what with the 'time lag' when selecting the speeds and the rocking and rolling of the machine once it gets there! I just had to not start the clock until it had reached the required speed. I 'simulated' my 400m by selecting a 5 min mile pace and running for 80 secs, and then a minute of easy jogging. I increased the pace for the last few, up to 12.7 mph, but kept the efforts to 80 secs. It felt quite hard but I never seem to be able to work as hard on a treadmill as I would if I were outside, especially for speed intervals.
Wednesday was an intense bike workout. Total session lasted 1 hour, consisting of 30 and 60 sec sprints with same time recovery. Hard but good.
Rested Thursday. Friday was a tough bike/run brick. The bike was 10 min steady, 10 min big gear 'crunch' (50-55rpm), 10 min hard then a 15 min hard run. This was then repeated but the next time the run was at max effort. I felt this session! So much so, that the swim in the evening was cut short due to my quads starting to cramp up and my toes starting to spread apart! Ouch! It was supposed to be 4 x 500m at a moderate effort but I only managed 3 and called it a day while I could still use the steps to get out of the pool!
That was the end of the hard workouts. Saturday was a steady/easy ride with single legs and spin-ups followed by a bit of core stuff.
Sunday was a nature hike! I was lucky enough to get a heli trip to a nature reserve on one of the islands called New Island. We trekked up and around the island taking photos like Japanese tourists of various wildlife. We saw Black Browed Albatross, Rock Hopper penguins Fur Seals and the local 'hard men' birds of prey called Cara Cara. It's quite bizarre how close you can get to some of these creatures, as you can see from the snap!
Once I got back to camp I went for a 40 min easy fartlek run and finished with plenty of stretching.
Today, Monday, started with an easy swim, with drills, and this afternoon will be an easy bike. Tomorrow will be a rest day with stretching before my first 'race' of the season...a 9km x-country run on Wednesday. Looking forward to a bit of 'competition' pain!
Train smart.
That read like a whole extra week of hard stuff!
ReplyDeleteOn the treadmill (with which I am only too familiar after the winter we've had ...) the best way of doing this kind of effort session is to leave the treadmill running at the fast speed and simply take the RI as feet to one side rather than jogging which as you say takes an age for the machine to wind up and wind down and kind of negates the whole point of the session. Hope I'm not teaching granny, suck, eggs etc.
K
Good work Mal! Are you a Vet now? My days of winning Vet competitions are running out now that am an 'older' Vet!!
ReplyDeleteYou certainly are training hard Mal, try not to hurt yourself before you get home so you can put that work you've been doing into a race.
ReplyDeleteYep Sags, sad though it is, I'm a vet! I was last year too, but as it was my 'iron distance year' I didn't race too many shorter ones. I don't think you need to worry about me taking your vet titles just yet mate, not unless I can sabotage that bike of yours!!
ReplyDeleteAlthough training is going well down here, I know not to push my luck! I learnt the hard way last year!