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.
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.
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.
The inclement weather cleared up and we were presented with beaming sunshine and a truck load of humidity to boot at Thursday afternoon’s run fitness test. The course has been shifted out from 1km to 1.5km which made it all the more challenging. We were to do 4 to 5 sets on a short 200m recovery jog getting faster each lap. Starting at around half marathon pace I opted for a slightly conservative 5:00 pace for the first lap with the aim of getting 15 seconds per KM faster each rep. The 4:45 and 4:30 laps were solid and I still felt ok, even with the humidity, but I knew the real challenge was still to come. There was no shame in failure going into the 4th and 5th set so I pushed a little harder and got through the 4th in 4:13 and wasn’t sure how much I’d have left for the final effort. Despite the energy sapping humidity I got through the final rep in at 3:55, leaving the tank completely empty. It was my best run to date with my improved form holding up well.
see where I was at, so I went out at 4:45 pace for the first half. It felt comfortable but I knew the second half was really going to hurt as the fatigue from the bike TT and humidity started to bite. I went after it and was getting along at a 4:28 pace knowing full well I was pushing my limitations. Sure enough with just over a km to go I blew! I just could not hold onto it. I still managed to limp home for a small negative split. Despite the blow up it was still a great indication of how far I have come and gives me some good insights ahead of next weekend.
I had to skip some of the 200m swim off between sets. It really helped me recognise that sometimes when I’m pushing too hard in the pool my stroke rate increases unnecessarily and my technique deteriorates. I took this lesson into Friday’s swim session with fantastic results.
ooking forward to it after being excused from Thursday nights hill run session to freshen up. I knew I was going to need the extra rest. The session was split into two with the first half a 90 minute out and back run at a steady pace before we got into some interval work. It was my first long slow run with my new technique so I was interested to see how I would go. The pace was comfortable at around 5:40 and I felt great (aside from my ongoing toe issue which has also improved remarkably). The real test was coming. After returning from the out and back we were straight into a fartlek session. It was a pyramid set, which is hard enough on the best of days let alone after a 90 min warm up run. At the end, it finished up being a 26.5km run in total and I was very happy with the outcome. I finally feel like my run is coming together.
This we will go down as not only one of the key weeks of this build but potentially the most important of my short triathlon career so far. While I’m not a terrible runner, it is my weakest leg. The additional training volume since taking up triathlon has exposed my sub-optimal running technique which has resulted number of minor injuries and niggles which have stopped me from reaching my potential. That could be about to change. I have been working of my technique with coach Spot for some timer. Despite his guidance I just hadn’t been able to crack the optimal running formula. Like a scene out of Big Bang Theory, one of BondiFit’s more accomplished runners walked into the room at the start of Thursday’s run session and solved my complicated running formula with one observational comment. He didn’t know it at the time but it has made a monumental impact on my running ability.
I got the same result. I ran my 3.5km flat lap of the park comfortably and to my surprise managed a 4:25 pace when I would usually be working overtime to break below 5:00 after a hill repeat bike session. It has certainly increase my optimism and belief that I have the potential to reach my triathlon goals.
Following a big week of endurance sessions over the holiday I was really looking forward to getting into some speed work with only four short weeks to go until Geelong 70.3. Unfortunately, torrential rain over the first four days of the week limited the ability to open up the throttle. Tuesday’s hill repeats were a little treacherous; descending repeatedly down Watson’s Bay Hills in the heavy rain. The rain was still around during Thursday’s interval session in the park which meant the focus was more on strength work rather than speed.
the hope that the rest will allow me to get back to running without discomfort next week. It would be nice to go into a race with full run fitness for a change!
the week before were a blessing and despite blowing up in the TT yesterday I got through the 123km right on four hours, even with 1500m of climbing.
davidjflanagan 