This weeks Stats:
- Swim: 23,000m
- Bike: 402km
- Run: 40 km
- Training Time: 21 hours
It has been a month since my last training blog and there has been plenty going on. At the time of my last post I was a week out from Norwra Oylmpic Distance which was going to be my last race going into Cairns Half Ironman. Unfortunately, my season has been cut short and reaching my goal of qualifying for this years 70.3 World Championships is now out of reach. I saw a specialist the Wednesday leading into Nowra to find out what exactly is going on with my toe and as it turns out, I have been running for the past three months with a torn planta fascia at the base of my second toe. In an attempt to avoid surgery I had an injection the following week and have had my toe taped ever since, leaving me unable to run.
I decided to race in Nowra anyway as I couldn’t do much more damage running a further 10km but fate had a way of intervening twice. First, I lost my spare tyre after hitting a bump on the first lap of the bike leg meaning a flat would mean my day was over. I ended up getting that flat on the second lap, 500m from where I lost my spare. I rolled on the flat tyre and was lucky enough to find it on the side of the road, only for the spare to flat a few hundred metres later.
With the injection out of the way following Nowra I have to wait until the 1st of June before I find out if things are progressing sufficiently to avoid surgery and hopefully get the all clear to start running again. I made the decision to withdraw from Cairns given even if I am cleared, I won’t have the preparation time to get my run to where it needs to be to qualify. Also, with my history of run injuries I am likely to over do it trying, so I took the tough decision to take a step back and focus on the big picture.
With the injection working a treat and the swelling in my foot finally gone after three months I have been back training hard over the last two weeks. Without being able to run, I have increased my focus on the other three triathlon disciplines: Swim, Bike and Nutrition. On the latter I had a visit to my Nutritionist, Kate Johnston of Kore Well-being to dial in my nutrition plan now that I am effectively in my offseason and I have reaped immediate benefits. I have also upped both my swim and bike volume which has actually seen me chalk up more training hours per week over the last two weeks than I was doing when I was still running.
I have added two swim sessions to my program which means I am now swimming over 20km per week. I have already noticed an immediate improvement from the additional swim load, which is no doubt also due to not having hard running sessions the night before my morning swim sets. I have also added additional bike kilometres to my training which has taken my weekly load from 250-300km per week to over 400km each week. While the immediate benefits of the additional bike load has not been as significant, I have seen some improvements and have also been able to adapt to my new TT position much quicker. It is amazing 
how some small tweaks to you bike position can result in a increase in power output and endurance thanks to improved comfort.
My immediate focus now is to work hard on my swim and bike over the next two months before I take a well earned break. Hopefully,
my toe continues to heal so that I can avoid surgery and get back running before too long. As far as racing goes, the 70.3 worlds on the Sunshine Coast means that there are no more Ironman 70.3 races until late November early December so I have plenty of time to get prepared for my next World Champ Qualifiers to book a spot to Chattanooga Tennessee in 2017. I am also pondering adding another goal to next season which is also exciting. For now, I’m looking forward to seeing how much progress I can make only have to focus on just my swim and bike.
After three weeks of travel including 2 countries, 3 states, 6 flights, 8 trains and countless busses, taxis and trams it was good to finally get back in the groove. Traditionally I have found it challenging to train consistently while on the road and out of routine but like everything in life, the more you do it, the better you get. While those three weeks on the road weren’t entirely perfect, I resumed my usual training load in pretty good shape. My only niggle continues to be my toe/fore foot which is still giving me a bit of grief but hopefully the specialist I am due to see this week will shed some light on the situation.
holding on. I find it makes for a different kind of effort, with it just as challenging even though it is slower as there is no drag. This week however Spot pushed me back up in the fast lane. I feel like my swim is really coming along and while my times aren’t plummeting, my technique is improving and faster times are not too far away. The highlight of the week swim wise however was finally getting back in the ocean after almost a month away from BondiFit Beach!
Run sessions this week were a bit more of a mixed bag. Aside from the ongoing toe/fore foot niggle, my run is really improving. On Tuesday we had 1km intervals on a 300m float. We were doing them on a new road loop which was really fun. My first two efforts were 3:53 and 3:52 which included an uphill, up wind finish. On the second two we reversed the course and my times came down to 3:46 and 3:44. It feels really good to run fast at the moment, something which hasn’t always been the case. Thursday’s hill run set was also a new road run venue. It was a tough set especially as I ran to and from the set which added a few extra kms. Saturday’s grass hill runs unfortunately aggravated my injury which meant that my two hour run off the bike became a 30 min run on Sunday.
This week was my final of three back to back travel interrupted weeks of training. This week saw me in Melbourne for the weekend, where I was in the unfamiliar position of being on the other side of the fence, in the role of supporter. I was in Melbourne where my partner Bec was competing in her first powerlifting competition. She is a true inspiration, hitting her PB in two of the three disciplines and going within 1 lift of her PB in the other. For those of you who think you go alright in the gym, she can squad and deadlift more than twice her bodyweight. Try that next time you are doing a strength session.
struggle to get the arms going or come out of the blocks firing. Luckily it was the latter. Having a short rest from swimming really freshened me up. I had a very strong session and am feeling really good in the water at present.
meant an uphill finish. Thanks to some pacing from one of my regular training partners Jase, we got back in just under 29 mins.
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.
o 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!
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.
The first of my three travel interrupted weeks almost went to script. For the first time I managed to stick to my training plan while on the road. Not taking my bike away with me meant that I spent a lot more time running, clocking up a record 60km this week.
Thursday’s run set was just as tough. As I had an afternoon flight I had to replace my usual short run off this bike with the Thursday afternoon run set. The set was a 3km warm up, followed by 400m hill repeats with a 2km tempo run and 1km cool down to finish. Sounds simple enough and doing it fresh I’m sure it would be. Doing it after 3km and 5km intervals that included hill finishes and it wasn’t as easy.
finish. Lucky it was easy to start, as the early start meant for the first 4kms I was running using my phone as a torch while looking at the GPS to make sure I was heading in the right direction. I felt pretty good through the first hour and a quarter. The second half of the faster 30 mins was a bit of a test but I managed to get through unscathed.
Celebrations after another successful race down in Wollongong were short lived and training resumed literally straight away. Sundays are usually our long ride day with a 4 to 5 hour ride, with at least a 30 min run off the bike. As the long course athletes who had raced had only ‘trained’ for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, we had to jump back on the bike post race and ride back up to Sydney. Didn’t seem too hard in theory, but theory went out the window the minute we headed off into a stiff head wind. A soul crushing 80kms and 3 1/2 hours later and it was finally time to relax and reflect on the race.
m up to really get the body moving we dived into a set of 18 x 100s. It consisted of one easy, one medium and one hard lap, then repeat. Only each repeat had an additional hard lap. By the fourth repeat we were basically sprinting 4 back to back 100s . It was a real arm burner!
After the fireworks of Thursday morning’s bike set, Thursday night’s hill repeat run session and Friday morning’s sprint swim session were much more routine ahead of what was a pretty big week. Saturday we headed South to Cronulla Beach. The main session was a long run with a twist. It started of with a 6km run south around the coastline and harder back. This was followed by a 3.5km easy run to the Wanda Sand Dunes where the pain was still to come. We were handed down the challenge of three hard efforts up ‘The Mexican’ which is a rather steep 50-60m dune with a steep 10m kicker at the top! There was plenty of burn in the legs by the end of it. This was followed by a 3.5km race back to South Cronulla Beach. The ocean swim that followed was certainly needed to cool down.
I can’t believe it is race time again. It feels like Geelong was only a week ago, but tomorrow morning I will be back on the start line for the Australian Standard Distance Championships. The fact that it is the Championships had little to do with me lining up to race again. When I first started racing, I was racing every 4 to 6 weeks but back then my training load was much lower. Coach has me racing a little more to keep the race practice up given the large gap between Geelong and Cairns.
It is amazing what a difference a week makes and after feeling very deflated after last Saturday’s bike session, I’m chomping at the bit to get out and have a crack tomorrow. Going down from Half Ironman Distance to Olympic Distance throws up one big dilemma: how hard can I go on the bike and still have enough in the legs to bring it home on the run. Despite feeling very fresh, Spot and I have agreed that it is best to go out a little conservatively and then take it from there. I will be racing another olympic distance event in Nowra in 6 weeks time so this race will give me some good data to work from.
It is a week out from the Wollongong and the lead up couldn’t be any different than the lead up to Geelong. The last three weeks since Geelong have been testing to say the least. Following a week of recovery with a few easy sessions I had a solid week trying to get back into the groove. The last week, however, has been a bit of a roller coaster ride.
So I ended up skipping Friday’s swim set in the hope that the rest would have me back firing on Saturday. Unfortunately, no matter how much I willed my legs to push, I struggled through Saturday’s bike set. When I thought things couldn’t get any worse, I copped a good dressing down from Spot. While thoroughly deserved, it isn’t always what you want to hear. After a constructive deconstruction of my training since Geelong amongst other things, I came away feeling more optimistic with my long term goal firmly back in focus.
The post Geelong rebuild continued this week with a solid mix of strength and speed training sets. Tuesday’s bike set was Hopetoun hill repeats which is a go to around race time. It is a steady climb which can be quite quick when you have a good crack. It was follow up in the evening with the Mona’s Fartlek run set, aptly named after Steve Moneghetti. After some hill reps to warm up the set was hard efforts with 100% rest. So it if was a 90 second effort it was followed by a 90 second recovery jog. The set was 2×90 seconds, 4×60 seconds, 4×30 seconds and 4×15 seconds. It doesn’t sound too bad but by the end of it, the recovery efforts feel short and the efforts feel really long!
ck from the front. It was great to swim in control and work on my stroke rather than busting my ass and burying myself just to make the time repeat.
swimming all the way out to the Shark Buoy for a sticky beak. After the customary photo shoot with Coach Spot, we then headed back to North Bondi. Sunday was a wet one and as I wasn’t feeling 100% I decided to test out my BKool Pro trainer that Bec got me for Christmas.
The week after racing is always interesting. You never know what to expect from your body. Whether or not you blow up during a race goes a long way to determining your recovery time. Fortunately for me I managed to execute my race plan successfully, avoiding blowing up, and came through the race uninjured and in pretty good condition. There was a fair fatigue hangover however, after going into the race a little overcooked, meaning; I wasn’t expecting much from the recovery week.
the Watson’s Bay hotel I’d chalked up 25km. Being able to run 37km in a recovery week really surprised me. It goes to show how much running with a higher cadence makes a difference on the body. Usually, I’d still be struggling to walk properly days after the race. The long run was followed-up by the usual Saturday morning surf swim at Bondi, which was just what I needed to cool off.
davidjflanagan 