Just Getting It Done

This weeks Stats:

• Swim: 9,000m
• Bike: 150km
• Run: 35km
• Training Time: 12 hours

The travel related interruption to my regular routine was much greater this week as I headed offshore to South Korea to attend a wedding. It meant that there was a much bigger focus on training earlier in the week as time constraints limited my ability to train over the long weekend.

The week kicked off in typical fashion with a Monday afternoon pool session. Usually this is more of a recovery set thanks to fatigue from the weekend. I felt surprisingly fresh and felt even better when I hit the water. It was great to finish a Monday night set without having to drag myself out of the pool.

Despite the threat of torrential ran, Tuesday turned out to be a great session. We hit the hills around Vaucluse for alternating hill repeats, pushing hard enough to get the required strength/resistance training done without burning the legs out for what was to follow Tuesday night. The usual post ride roll around the beaches produced absolutely cracking morning shots showing the sunrise trying to force its way through the horizon. Tuesday night marked the first hit out at our new post daylight savings venue. Due to the upcoming long weekend, we did our usual hill repeat session. After a solid warmup we headed to a relatively short hill between Moore Park Road and Oxford Street. By the end of the 30 mins of hill repeats it fell more like a mountain than a 300m hill!

After another solid pool session Wednesday morning I had to cram Thursday morning’s bike session and Thursday night’s run into a morning brick session. We headed out of the park and did some TT efforts down to LaPerouse, which is far more undulating than the usual Centennial Park efforts. I followed up with a 1 hour run off the bike with a couple of small hills thrown in for good measure.

Friday was a rest day as I spent most of the day in transit to South Korea. After exploring Seoul on Saturday morning, I managed to get a quick treadmill run set in after getting the bullet train down to Ulsan. Trying to play tourist and triathlete at the same time can be a challenge. Sunday morning before the wedding I had a brutal set to do in the hotel gym. The set was 20 mins on the bike, building each 5 minutes followed by a 5 min run on the treadmill. That seemed easy enough until I had to repeat it 5 times! The first set was tough as it was hard just to get the legs moving. Things got better from there until the final set. Fatigue was setting in but I still managed to get through it. I was all set for a 1km test set on the Treadmill Monday morning but the body just wouldn’t co-operate. I’m now back on the train and heading for Seoul for a little more site seeing before heading for the Airport.

I fear the week ahead is going to be difficult with only 2 1/2 days in Sydney before heading down to Melbourne. Balancing the demands of training with travel was never going to be easy but I am enjoying the challenge. The goal is to get through the next week then have a two week mini build into Nowra Olympic Distance, which I will be going into as a training race with no taper.