Week Four Nov 13  – Nov 19

A really interesting week.

Of course the biggest thing was my decision on Wednesday to give up my daily runs. While this was a biggie for me, what I didn’t expect was the immediate effect it had on my energy levels, both mentally and physically. This in turn meant I produced some really good session towards the end of the week (and the beginning of this one, but that’s for a later date). I am also sleeping much better, which is a massive relief as my inability to sleep properly had become so much of an issue I had taken medical advice recently, they had prescribed meds and suggested possible surgery .. but seems the best medicine was less running!

I am back on my travels this week, so will be a drastic cut in training volume, which isn’t so bad as that fits with idea of having an easy week every month or so.

Mon –

Swim lesson – 60 minutes. Love my swim coach Lisa, she is really getting through to me. My stroke is getting better and I am so much more relaxed in the water.
60 minutes gym strength work
5km easy run

Tue

Swim lesson – 60 minutes of drowning interspersed with gliding through the water like a shark..
Bike – 80 mins Turbo. Warm up, single leg drills, 5 x 3 min big gear pushes  off 2 recovery, 10 minute cool down. Yep,  getting the hang of one leg drills.
Brick run – 3km
60 min strength work at gym

Wed –

Swim – 100 x 8 warm, 200m x 10, 4 x 50 cool down. Started well although tired and stiff muscles in back. But things went downhill after warm up, firstly they closed all but one lane and stopped me half way through an interval to move to that lane. ( quick whinge – there were three lanes in total, they decided one was for water aerobics attended by five elderly enthusiasts, another was for walking with a couple of people, which left the only lane for swimming crowded with at least 6 people, all swimming at vastly different speeds. … doesn’t seem right to me) Then was a case of constantly getting stuck behind slower swimmers or allowing faster swimmers to go before me at turnaround.  Frustrating and tiring. Completed all, may actually have gone over as I lost count …

Was after this that I felt so tired physically and fatigued mentally that I made the decision to quit daily runs.

Thurs.

Run. 70 mins. 10 mins Warm Up. Then 20 @ 5:43/ 20 @ 5:33 / 20 @ 5:17.
Maybe only mental, but felt refreshed after only a single swim session and no run yesterday, which is shown by the faster pace compared with previous efforts. Still a bit haywire with my pacing but getting there.

Fri –

Swim – 80 mins intervals 400, 300, 200, 100 warm up, 300 x 6. Better than Wed effort, was playing around a bit with stroke. Took 20 sec breathers with ease. I generally start off the interval with 30 second lap, but seemed to slow by few seconds every lap

Bike – 80 mins Turbo. warm up, single leg drills, 4 x 5 mins hard. Definitely better but felt bit listless, probably should leave more space between the workouts. Need to upgrade my indoor trainer though, it’s over 10 years old and beginning to show it. No brick run, and early night.

Saturday –

Run. 90:01 mins 17.42Km. YES YES YES!! I am not sure if it’s because I dropped Wed and Friday run, or maybe not much wind or getting some good sleep in .. I have no idea but I felt light and no effort to run, which shows in a pace 20 seconds faster than last week. Wasn’t really tired either, could have gone on.

Sunday –

Long Bike. 86.9km 2:55:45 on turbo plus quick outside spin of 12.5k in 31mins. I decided to use the Computrainer as strong winds forecast, however had the urge to at least get some fresh air, so went for a pre training 3loop 12.5k ride near my home. Then jumped on the trainer to repeat the same ride as last two weeks. I pushed reasonably hard, although not full tilt. Was very happy to knock 5 minutes off last weeks’ time
Run – no brick run. Yep, was enjoying the freedom of not having to run every day. I will try do bricks generally, but this week was special!

 

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