And the training continues ...

April was officially a good training month!

The sun was shining, there were plenty of days off with bank holidays and I was in the mood for training!!

Consistency is still good, as it has been for most of this year, managing to do some sort of training activity on 28 of the 30 days in April.  In fact, I managed to total 50 different sessions during the month!  Two a day training sessions are now becoming the norm.

Mersey Tri Duathlon

According to the training log, I completed 60 hours of training in April – which is my 2^nd highest month ever!  It is second only to May 2010 – where 30+hrs were logged during the MerseyTri training week in Ireland.

For me, the biggest achievement in April was clocking up in excess of 1000k on the bike (1088k), which included 6 rides of more than 100k (the most I've managed in a single month!).  This is my second highest total ever - once again behind May last year (Ireland trip). Most of the 100k+ rides were with Mersey Tri but two of them were on my own, including one up to Rivington for a lap of the IMUK bike course.  The bike legs seem to be getting stronger, with the pace of the rides improving together with stronger hill climbing.  If I want to keep up with the other cyclists on our Lands End to John O'Groats trip, and improve my Ironman performance, cycling is something that needs to develop further.

Mersey Tri Duathlon

I've been running more frequently than previous months (20 sessions compared to 18, 13 & 15 in the previous three months) but only completing similar overall distances (180k).  This obviously means that I'm doing more shorter runs.  Two thirds of my running sessions were less than 10k, compared to 40% of my runs in March.  During the month more focus was placed on speed, tempo and shorter interval work.  I did manage my longest run of the year though - a 31k effort, running at 4.48k pace, complete with negative split.  I need to do several more of these types of run during May and June.  

I managed two PB's during the month.  The first was for 5k (at the Mersey Tri duathlon) - 19:16.  The second was the Mersey Tri running session where we did a 3k time trial - 11:03.

Swimming volume was less than March, as this was sacrificed towards the end of the month for more bike miles - a very conscious decision.  Seven sessions were completed, totalling 21k.  My 1000m TT improved by 8 seconds - hitting 13.40.  I also swam my first 4k+ session of the year.

The month of May will see the end of Base Training, and the start of the Build Period.  The emphasis switches from volume to more specific 'race like workouts'.  According to Joe Friel 'success will be determined not by what you did in general on a weekly basis at this time in the season, but what you did specifically in a few key workouts each week.'


Friel goes on to say that 'not every workout should be racelike.  If you tried to do that you’d soon be toast.  You also need recovery days.  These are easy days when physical adaptation takes place.  Without adequate recovery the intensity of your racelike training sessions will diminish over time due to fatigue.  You will only be going through the motions while checking off workouts on The Plan.  That’s just a waste of time and doesn’t get you ready to race.  Every key workout must have a defined and measurable intensity'.

May and early June will therefore include some open water swimming, the dusting off of the race bike, some longer runs and some good brick sessions.  That said, May will also include the Mersey Tri annual training camp in Ireland, which will include a fair bit of volume, particularly on the bike.


The Build Period and race season is nearly upon us - and I can't wait!!