The Most I Have Ever Trained
I have spent so much time training for my first Tri – and now Tremblant 70.3 is just two weeks away!
I have never trained more – for anything – and the chart proves it: I averaged 1.75 hours per day of training in May, including two weeks of 13.5 and 14.1 hours. Last August I ran over 600 kms training for my fall marathon, a huge training load, but that doesn’t come close to the training I have put in this May.
So how do I feel? Like I could never do enough. It just seemed like one of the three sports was being neglected to get in meaningful training for the other two. Here is a summary of how things went.
Training Load
Sleep
A special mention here. Impossible to get enough. Ever wondered where MacKinnon went to in the spring race results? I have not raced since early March for good reason. Sleep. Weekends are for sleeping in, not races. Amen.
The Swim
I have a “Beginner” badge from the old Red Cross program when I was eight years old. That was my last swim lesson until this past November. A bit rusty after 43 years? I swim like a truck. After a few swim lessons I joined the masters swim class at Lifetime Athletic.
To quote one of my early training notes: “The 100 yd repeats on four minute sends were exceptionally cruel.” Then the impossible: 8 x 100 yd repeats on 2:30 sends. The first two times this set came up, I only lasted two repeats.
I have made good progress, but let’s be fair. My kick is remains awful (I still sometimes stall and go backwards). My front crawl while kicking is too ugly for words (I saw the video). But I can now pull 2:00/100m with a pull buoy and that is all I ever hoped for – that and a good wet suit.
The Bike
I grew up biking Hamilton’s mountain access roads. I knew the bike would come back easily to me and I was right, but with one huge exception: I have a rather sensitive left glute and hamstring area, and the indoor spins this winter chewed it up and spit it out. I could bike, or I could run, but I could not do both in equal measures. Up until now, I have left my run behind.
Although the focus was on the bike so much more was not done. No Trainer Road sessions. Scant few quad blasting sessions.
Yet my FTP sits at about 250 watts. That is over 4 watts/kg and more than enough to send me on. Bring on the hills, I am as ready as I could hope.
The Run
OMG my legs seem to be perpetually drained of juice. Killer swim sets and hard bikes leave nothing for the run!
And, as aforementioned, I have left my run reluctantly behind. I put up a valiant effort at the Chilly Half last March (1:22:00) but it was a painful experience given the 40 to 50 km run weeks I was getting in. I have run more during major injury recoveries. And I just don’t feel right unless I am running 80k per week.
The main problem was scheduling. Mon/Wed swims left Tues/Thurs for runs. And those days would be harder efforts. But I am getting old and don’t do well on two day recoveries; I need three days now. I also need to run every day to keep things from seizing up, and that was just not an option. The result was a nasty pain in the ass.
The expectation is that I will smoke the run, as I am one of the faster 50 year olds in Ontario. But I am having great difficulty most days just holding onto 5:00/k. Racing a half at 4:15/k or faster just seems impossible. Both my indoor tri’s went well, and I was able to run at or under 4:00/k off the bike (after a hard 30 minute spin). There is hope.
So do the sports “help” each other? Does biking make you a better runner? I think mainly not. The sports are almost mutually exclusive. As fit as biking may get you, I find that run fitness needs its own specificity of training. I needed a 100k run week (no bike) followed by deliberate and careful speed work to kick start a much needed improvement.
Summary
Things are starting to click. My swim continues to hit new record paces (recently 1:33/100m). My run VO2 is on the rise and once again I am clocking sub-19 5k tempos. My bike 40k is under 1:10 (over 34 kph).
Looking forward to race day and seeing how it all fits together.
Swim. Bike. Run. Let’s do this!
