Cycled with the HERT squad from Centennial Park through Rose Bay, Vaucluse, and Bondi. The loop is just on 30k in distance and includes a stack of hills. Have not ridden over many hills recently so it was good fun to try my hand on them after all the flat road TT pace training. Final 35-40mins was spent riding around Centennial. Despite the hills the intensity was fairly low (under 120BPM average) for the first hour, however I picked the pace up once I was back in the park. Whilst I felt strong on the hills, the legs were dead over the final few km. Combined with an annoying saddle sore I did not feel that crash hot and was happy to call it quits after 50km (or just under).

The evening swim squad was a hard session with plenty of swimming. The 400m on the 2:00 were taken at an easy aerobic pace coming in on around 1:50, while the 100m on the 1:50 were flat out, coming in on 1:35. For the first three hard 100s I had to slow down in the back 50m as I had caught the swimmer in front. I led the final three 100s so I had nothing holding me back apart from the fatigue which had set in. As a result the final reps were the same as the others, around the 1:35 mark.

TRAINING:

AM: 1h 40min cycle (49.5km). Avg HR 130BPM. Avg Spd. 29.7kph. (6/10)

PM: Swim Squad (2.7km) (8/10)
> 500m w/up
> 4x 100m on 2:00, 1x 100m on 1:50
> 4x 100m on 2:00, 2x 100m on 1:50
> 4x 100m on 2:00, 3x 100m on 1:50
> 3x 100m on 1:50, 1x 100m c/dwn

Almost made 10km in my run this morning. Almost! Felt quite good, with no achilles troubles or major leg fatigue towards the end. HR was in a good place and the nasal breathing was not too difficult (this is the longest I have exercised with continuous nasal breathing). Felt like going faster, however I tried to settle into an easy rhythm and focussed on my technique.

Recovery/lower aerobic intensity for the spin, trying to keep the HR below 160BPM. Evening cycle felt pretty good. Cadence spot on between 90-95RPM with the HR very stable in a lower aerobic zone. Quads a little fatigued but came good throughout the workout. Nothing too intense so they did not get stressed out that much.

TRAINING:

AM: 40min run (9.8km). Avg HR 153BPM. Avg Pace 4:09/km. Nasal breathing all. (8/10)

AM: 40min spin. Avg HR 141BPM. (7/10)

PM: 1h 30min cycle (wind trainer). Avg HR 140BPM. Included 2x 15min nasal breathing efforts. (8.5/10)

Took the morning spin session at a recovery/lower aerobic pace. Legs were still a bit tired from the training efforts over the weekend, but HR stayed within range and was recovering quite quickly. Surprisingly I felt quite spritely in the swim session following the cycle. All reps came in between 6:15-6:25 and were fairly comfortable. In the first half of the set my stroke count was 16-17 strokes for the 25m lap, while towards the end it was 17-18 as the fatigue set in.

Legs were once again a little tired in the evening cycle, however after the warm up they felt a bit better. TT effort taken at 165-170BPM, and felt pretty comfortable. Over the last 10-15mins of the effort I had to concentrate on keeping the cadence up as the leg fatigue was having an impact. HR recovery was very good, coming back down to 140BPM within 2mins after the TT.

TRAINING:

AM: 40min spin. Avg HR 141BPM. (7/10)

AM: Swim Session (2.8km) (8/10)
> 7x 400m (with fins) (on the 7:00)

PM: 1h 30min cycle (wind trainer). Avg HR 156BPM. Included 55min TT effort. (8/10)

Taking advantage of the Easter Monday off work, Vlad and I rode out to Palm Beach and back. Felt brilliant in this ride (must have been the roast lamb last night). Plenty of energy and strength in the legs so I was able to keep up with the Ironman! Beautiful weather and peaceful with very little traffic on the road. Undualting terrain so it was a little slower than the usual rides, but alot more scenic (75km around Centennial can drive you nuts if you do it too often). After the HERT group ride on Saturday (2:25, 82.6km @ 34.2kph and 131BPM) and the 40min spin yesterday it has been a good long weekend of cycling.

TRAINING:

AM: 2h 30min cycle (75km). Avg Spd. 29.8kph (Max 70.2kph). Avg HR 140BPM. (9.5/10)

Struggle street for me this morning at Balmoral. All kitted up in our uniform wetsuits, Vlad, Jeff and I performed 8x 250-300m reps. The main aim was to work on the navigational skills. I actually thought I was doing well until the 5th rep when I ran into the rocks near the beach cove. Managed to slice my hands and feet on all the oyster shells on the rocks (adding a bit of blood to the water to attract the sharks!). Shoulders were good today but I just lacked enrgy and power through the water. As I fatigued I felt a bit unco.

Around midday Aaron and I headed along the Northern Beaches and performed the Akuna Bay loop. We cut it a little short by sneaking along Forest Way (awesome road to ride along), hitting 50kph+ whilst still in aerobic zone (great for the confidence!). Started off wanting to turn back, but as the ride progressed I felt better and better.

TRAINING:

AM: Ocean Swim (Balmoral) (2.2km) (4/10)
> 8x efforts around buoy #1 and into beach cove/beach

PM: 1h 55min cycle (60km). Avg HR 152BPM. Avg Spd 31.3kph. (6.5/10)

Found it incredibly hard to warm up at Centennial this mornning. The temperature has really dropped in recent mornings, and I wasn't quite rugged up enough. We had a 20km TT around the park (5x laps, finishing on the hill up Loche Av.), so I definitely warmed up eventually. It was good to post a time which I can compare to in future sessions. Splits for the 5 laps were 5:40, 5:47, 5:59, 5:50 and 5:44. Nice little pyramid. I think with this experience under my belt, I can try to hold a more even pace throughout, and go for a stronger finish up the hill.

TRAINING:

AM: 1h 30min cycle (50.2km). Avg HR 145BPM (191MAX). Avg Spd. 33.2kph. Included 20km TT effort (31:40). (6/10)

Shocking morning run. Just could not keep my HR down. For the most part it was hovering around the 170BPM mark. Way too high. Felt a little dodgy but at least the body is holding together (as well it should be on the mileage I am training on).

TRAINING:

AM: 20min run (5km). Avg HR 167BPM (188MAX). Avg Pace 4:05/km. Nasal breathing all. (5/10)

AM: 40min spin. Avg HR 131BPM. (5/10)

Jumped on the wind trainer early on to knock out an equivalent of 30km. Felt fresh and energised after it. Nothing high intensity, just base work.

Probably ran a little too hard in the evening run. HR indicates that I should have gone slower, however I find my HR is generally higher during evening sessions (perhaps influenced by the 40min of light spin work preceding the run).

TRAINING:

AM: 1h cycle (wind trainer). Avg HR 141BPM. Included 2x 15min nasal breathing efforts. (8.5/10)

PM: 40min spin. Avg HR 117BPM.

PM: 15min run (3.8k). Avg HR 157BPM. Avg Pace 3:58/km. Nasal breathing all. (7/10)

Slowly building up. HR data skewed by some wacky readings (185BPM MAX etc). Felt fairly comfortable and no trouoble from the achilles. I will be able to enter a 5k fun run soon..

TRAINING:

AM: 15 min run (3.7km). Avg HR 161BPM. Avg Pace 4:12/km. Nasal breathing all (7.5/10)

Refreshed from a couple of days of reduced training load, I was able to hit up a hard wind trainer session. The rain this morning meant the base ride was canned, but I havn't done some high RPM interval work for a while so it was a welcome change. Felt strong and hurt like hell. HR took a while to come down after the 2nd effort.

Found myself demoted to the slow lane again in the swim squad in the evening. Very frustrating as I was swimming on heels the whole way. First set of 100s were coming in between 1:35-1:40 which was pleasing. Did not take too much notice of the time for the 200s as I could not really swim at my own pace. Still it is good to get a feel for the water.

TRAINING:

AM: 1h cycle (wind trainer). Avg HR 158BPM. Included 2x 10min efforts @ 110+RPM. (8/10)

PM: Swim Squad (2.4km) (8/10)
> 8x 100m (on the 2:00) (breathing towards wall on all laps)
> 4x 200m (on the 4:00) (150e,50h/100e,100h/200h/200e)
> 4x 200m (on the 3:45) (150e,50h/100e,100h/200h/200e)