Explaining 3 week training block

Just before I go and clean the house, I have a prospective client calling round pm and am taking Cameron to our music group (pre-schoolers music and movement) we got to tumble tots (gym for preschoolers) on Wednesdays. I thought I would write down my current training ideas.

I have difficulty running and riding easy (I'm all or nothing) so this winter I have changed my recovery plan. I am actually having some. A 4 week block is as follows . A full week training followed by Monday off except for swimming. Train the second week and then take Monday and Tuesday off except for swimming Monday, then I train for another 6 days and then I have Wednesday through to the following Tuesday off running and biking. I do my three swims as usual as active recovery. Remember my swimming is all drills from total immersion.

I think I need a seperate blog to keep training ideas and methodology seperate.

Splinter stops run & mind over matter

Yesterday I got a long splinter in my right big toe, the same foot with the ankle problem. I had to get a pen knife, a pair of nail scissors and tweezers and perform surgery on the toe to remove it. I thought it was going to okay. But I got up this morning and I decided to leave my next run until Sunday.

I had another great session on the bike last night. The main bit was 30 minutes if intervals of 3x 1.5min then 4min all with 30sec easythen repeated (all at what is approaching lactate threshold ). LT is based on feel not tested, I was going to have a test but I spent the money on having new partsd on my race bike instead. This is the toughest ride in this block of 3weeks training. I'm just progressing really well on the bike sessions that I think are going to be too hard ,are hard but manageable. It is probably a case of mind over matter.

Mental hang up

If I think I have had a bad training session (even on reflection it wasn't too bad) why does it mentally lodge in my brain and I can't sahake it off? Tuesday night I had a really good bike session where I thought it was going be harder than I could handle, when it turned out to be hard but manageable and I climbed off on cloud 9. And yet after swimming last night which I perceived as a bad session because I was trying to drill at 10strokes per length I would also throw in some 11s and 12s I couldn't shake the demoralised feeling. I analysed that I wasn't 'hiding my head' (total immersion term), I was also tired and eaten a lot, a huge amount of pasta to near swim time. My problem is that I expect to improve every time so instead of drilling on 10 strokes I was expecting to start getting nearer to 9 and was probably trying too hard instead of letting it flow.

I can feel the ankle injury.

Ankle injury is better!

I hope I'm not tempting fate but it seems that my ankle is better. I started going without shoes around the house, I was wearing them so I could wear my orthotics this seemed to make it (the ankle) feel better. Going wihout shoes seemed to make it feel even better. I ran Sunday and couldn't feel it at all, I ran Tuesday and could sort of feel it by the end of the 3miles I couldn't feel it and haven't since and that includes last night's hard bike session and this mornings run. It's almost as if something has gone back into place.

I forgot to mention when I returned to this blog that I'd bought some Bike fit system's wedge to try and sort out my lobsidedness on the bike, due to leg length discrepancy which seems to have become a lot worse over the years.

I was looking at the QROO website at the extremely pretty bikes that I will never be able to afford. I'm going to post a picture of my old trusty race bike soon - after all this is real Tri.

Picture of my training bike

I've noticed it is common practice to post pictures of flash new racing bikes on triathlon blogs. I don't have one. Here is my trusty steel framed Zarossi training bike, no frills, two wheels , handlebars and a chain.