Hi Blog followers
Welcome to Blog # 37.
The weeks are ticking by as I head towards Ultraman Australia on 13-15 May 2017. Coach Ray has me back into full training. Normally after an Ironman, let alone two Ironman events over a two week period, Coach Ray continues his athletes with training, but at a lower duration or lower intensity in order to recover. Once he determines the time is right, it is back to the full schedule.
This means I know roughly what I have each day of each week i.e. swim and a run on a Monday; swim and a bike on a Tuesday; brick session on a Wednesday (bike followed by a run); swim on Thursday; long run on Friday; rest day on a Saturday with only stretching, and a long bike on Sunday. This hasn’t changed during the recovery stage. It is simply lesser durations of each activity.
So I am back into it in full swing and have my set running routes around Silverstream for shorter durations, or around Upper Hutt for longer durations.
Friday for example is a 2 hour run, so I’m out of bed at 0430 and doing a half marathon before work every Friday, covering both Silverstream, Upper Hutt and some.
When I go my long bike on Sunday I head out over the Akatarawa’s from Upper Hutt to Waikanae which is a good hill work out, down State Highway 1 to Paekakariki Hill, which is a good leg burner to get up and over, pop out to head over the Haywards to State Highway 2, then back into Camp.
When my bike training is shorter I do extended loops of Whitemans Valley hitting those hills. It’s not all doom and gloom as there are plenty of flats, but I am conscious that at Ultraman Australia last year, just about every corner we went around there seemed to be another hill in view.
I recall Debs Pohatu who was conducting a recon of what was ahead for us on the Ultraman Australia Double Marathon saying “no more hills mate”. The look of desperation was passed to her with her cheeky smile when we got around the next corner to see the killer hill coming up. Probably the Australian version of Cardiac Hill (my Singapore Days) or Heartbreak Hill (NZ Ironman cycle course), which I had to run up. It was all great fun to give each other a bit of cheek to keep the morale up as the kilometres slowly ticked by. I will ensure Coach Ray has Debs running beside me for that hill this year lol.
Training has been off pace this week. I’ve had guys at work who are into this sport tell me to get my heart rate up by dropping gears to pedal faster or higher gears and munt it out, neither have worked. I can only put it down to operating on limited broken sleep as I am a crap sleeper who gets a few hours broken sleep a night. It might be time to get some sleeping tablets to knock me out, as Coach Ray will be preparing some heavy sessions soon.
This weeks photos are from Ironman NZ which was quite stormy to say the least. Ironically the exit of my swim photo shows my hand over my face. I’m not sure if I’m still wiping the water from my face or still in disbelief of a hellish swim.
In the cycling photo I am still dripping wet having just got out of my wetsuit where PK, whom I knew from the Army, became my volunteer and peeled my wetsuit off me and sent me on my way.
I am in the thick of it in the run, judging by the single band (yellow) on my right arm. The arm band indicates I am into my second of three laps each 14 kms long.
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