Training Review - Week 4 - Jan 21 to 27


Monday I started with easy commutes on the bike. The temperature has dropped again since last week and even 5 layers and winter gloves was barely sufficient. In the evening I went to TPT swim session and made it through the full set, and an additional cool down, but at no sort of sensible pace. 

 Tuesday I rode in to work, without losing any fingers to the cold. In the evening I ran home, taking another 3 minutes off the time I did last week. In just two weeks I have cut more than 10% off that run, and it felt a lot easier even at that pace. 

 In the evening I went to bucksburn to do my fast swim session. I did a set of 50m efforts on 1 min starts. When I did the same session a fortnight ago I managed 6 reps before I started missing 50 secs. This time I got to 23 before dropping to a 50.12. Clear improvement, but doing a quick bit of maths afterwards, I would have to string the first 20 reps back-to-back just to sneak under 16 minutes for 1,000m. There is some way to go before May. 

Wednesday I had the closest thing to a rest day. I took the train in to work and then coasted home on my bike. In the evening I did the stretching and rollering session that I had planned before swimming on Tuesday. 

Thursday I woke up to -5degC temperatures. I didn't fancy an hour run in that so I switched to jogging around to the train instead. In the evening I had a leaving do for someone from work. I made a sensible appearance for a couple of hours before leaving early and heading to the pool. I did some sensible reps but I am going to mark this off as a junk session rather than just a bad session as the reps were properly lazy and I could equally have just paddled a mile up and down. 

 I put in a short core session before bed just to try and unload the weekend a little bit. 

 Friday I jogged to the train again to make up some of the missed miles from Thursday. 

 Saturday I did a yoga session in the morning before we went through to visit my dad for the day. That gave me most of a rest day before potentially racing on the Sunday. 

Despite the horrific weather I went across to race Sunday at the Westhill Duathlon. It was cold and windy and alternating sleet and rain but I ran so much better than at Banff a fortnight ago. For some reason that improvement didn't carry on to the bike, which felt like I was working similarly hard but the clock says was pretty terrible. Looking at a handful of results from people who raced both it looks like I went anywhere between 2-5% faster. Good improvement for just 2 weeks of solid training.

 In the evening I did my second yoga session and cleared up my weights session for another complete week. 

 I am going to take 'fast run' credit for both my duathlon runs as even the much slower second run was inside the target pace I had set for this week. 
Targets - Swim 3.0 miles, Bike 36.0 miles, Run 17.0 miles.
Stretching session x1, Core session x1, Weights session x1.

Physio sessions x1. Yoga session x2.

Monday - Commute ride to office 7.1 miles in 30 mins.
Commute ride from office 7.1 miles in 34 mins. 
Swim with TPT 2,400m in 54 mins. 

Tuesday - Commute ride to office 7.1 miles in 29 mins.
Commute run from office 6.9 miles in 61 mins. 
Swim at bucksburn 1,250 m in 27 mins. 

 Wednesday - Commute ride from office 7.1 miles in 33 mins.
Stretching and rollering session.

 Thursday - Commute run (via train) 2.6 miles in 25 mins.
Swim at bucksburn 1,600m in 33 mins.
Core session.

Friday - Commute run (via train) 2.6 miles in  mins.

Saturday - Yoga session 28 mins. 

Sunday - Westhill Duathlon
Warm-up - 1.2 miles in 11 mins.
Run 1 - 2.5 miles in 17:33
Bike - 9.7 miles in 38:32
Run 2 - 2.5 miles in 19:28.
Weights session.
Yoga session.

Actuals - Swim 3.3 miles (5,250m). Bike 38.0 miles. Run 18.4 miles. 
1 short core, 1 short light weights and 1 stretching / rollering session. 
45 mins of yoga.
Physio exercises x 0.

Cumulative actual, (Cumulative target), [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 11.7, (10.4), [11.4], 
B 183.0, (122.0), [134.2],
R 67.6, (61.0), [67.1].
Core         - 4, (4)
Weights    - 4, (4)
Stretching - 4, (4)
Yoga         - 8, (8)

Fast run sessions     - 5, (>4) 
Junk swim sessions  - 2, (<4)

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