After a monster weekend of training, I know now that i am well and truly deep in my ironman preparation. I have never been this structured previously nor this disciplined. Some would say that i have officially "changed". After only consuming a total of 4 beers for the entire month of July, I have really noticed the difference with my training and recovery. My socializing have been restricted to spending time with my training partners whilst training and not much more. Previously, I would not restrict myself to this strict lifestyle as I love life and spending time with people close to me.
The weekend entailed a 5 hour ride, which we headed down the Great Ocean Rd to Lorne and return, followed by 2 runs for the day. The ride was fantastic spent in great company. The weather wasn't ideal riding weather, however was great my what I wanted, a bit of wind. The 2 runs for the day served a purpose which I go through completing task at hand.
Sunday started with a solid 2 1/2 hour hill run, which by the end of it, my legs knew that the had been in the hills for over 7 hours for the weekend. An easy hour ride on the mountain bike spinning the legs also reminded me that I had worked hard, and achieved big gains by doing this.
An easy recovery swim in the afternoon completed the weeks training at a total of 23hrs in the bank.
Today was a leg rest day, don't be mistaken, leg rest means that the arms work. After organizing a swim with Greg, he then sent through the swim set for the day. 5k in total, giddy up, count me in on that baby. What followed didn't quite excite me that much, a long set of pain.
The session went like this:
1.7k warm up (1.32min per 100)
4 x 800 m at threshold (11.20 min for the first three leaving on 13min)
The last 800m started the same as the first 3, uncomfortably comfortable, then bang, 600m in, my arms decided that they were done. I still managed to come in on an even 12min which I was happy with.
100m c/d.
For me, getting through a very solid 4.7k before I was done pleased me no end. The good news is the direction my swimming is going, the bad news is Greg telling me we are going to do 2 of these per week.....Ouch, the really bad news is that James is going to join me on 1 swim per week. Now James is to Greg what Greg is to me, a distance shadow in the water. Interesting times ahead. The only benefit of swimming with far superior swimmers is that at most you can only ever be 50m away from them, unlike riding or running!
For me, I have one more monster week before a slightly easier one (still around 20hrs) leading into Yeppoon, then 3more weeks before I jet set across to the big island for my final 3 weeks.
Am I ready now? Not quite.
Will I be ready in 10 weeks? You had better believe it!
For now...
X-Man
Ps, I have also been working on a new nutrition plan which is working wonders, a few tweaks and it should be gold!!
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