Building Into May

With Base Training completed, and the Build Period beginning, we’re edging ever closer to the business end of the season – racing!  Some may say that race season started way back in January with the Helsby Half Marathon, but I’m talking about the real stuff, triathlon racing!

As my races approach, training now seems to take on greater importance.  Sessions need to be more specific and focussed on race day(s) and to an extent that’s what I’ve tried to do.  This month running sessions have generally been run at a slower pace, and are longer in distance.  Swimming – well I’ve managed to put the wetsuit on and get into open water four times in May!  The sets in the pool have been focussed on distance rather than speedy intervals.  Cycling has been less race specific, although the TT bike did make an appearance on a couple of occasions.  I’ve managed to cycle the IMUK course a couple of times so I know what I’ve let myself in for.  I’ve even had a sports massage this month – things must be getting serious!

Total time spent training this month has amounted to almost 62 hours.  I’ve actually spent a lot longer than this on the bike, in the water or on the road, but this is the ‘moving time’ i.e. the amount of time actually cycling rather than stopped figuring out directions, taking a call of nature or just faffing!

62 hours is the most I’ve managed in a single month this year.  This is largely down to the amount of time spent training in Ireland with Mersey Tri.  More than 33 hours were clocked up during eight days!  As I write this, I’m feeling the benefits of that hard week.  Cycling is feeling good and running is comfortable.  Even an open water swim felt good at the weekend!

As for the breakdown:

Swim

Wetsuit practice required!

I managed 9 sessions in 5 hours & 30 minutes.  4 of these ‘sessions’ were in open water and didn’t last very long or consist of much swimming!  They were still useful – getting the wetsuit on and off, testing out new goggles, feeling the cold water again. 

Bike

I clocked up 39 hours and 10 minutes cycling time, covering over 900k in the process.  However, the month started off very slowly.  After a big April (almost 1100k on the bike), the first week in May consisted of one very short effort on the TT bike (15k at the club duathlon final).  The 900k did not include one 100 mile ride but instead consisted of five rides of over 100k (four of those in Ireland) and the rest shorter rides.  A total of 610k was completed during the Ireland trip.  The other long ride was 140k, and that was spent riding to the IMUK course, doing one lap and then coming home – all in terrible rain and wind!

Run

This month I managed my biggest running month of the year – breaking the 200k barrier to clock up 208k (16 hours 50 minutes).  12 of the 23 session were over 10k (compared to 9 in April and 8 in March).  However, with Ireland taking up a large proportion of the month, I only managed to fit in one long run (27k).  My focus on many of these runs was trying to dial in my Ironman running pace.

Racing This Month

Despite the start of the triathlon season, races were thin on the ground this month due to the Ireland trip spanning two weekends.  I did manage one race, one race-like effort and I was also a spectator at a race - if that counts?

The race was the Mersey Tri duathlon final (see race report).  I did manage to run my quickest ever 5k (18.45), have a decent bike leg and then run very quick off the bike (11.02).  I was pleased with that race! 

The race-like session was again running – at the Mersey Tri 3k TT running session.  I managed to PB this race, clocking a 10.57 and coming in third overall.

As for being a spectator, I went along to the Liverpool Womens 10k to watch Lynn run her first ever 10k.  This was a great experience and I was so pleased for Lynn when she finished the race in a super time of 1 hour and six minutes.

This month also saw me take a trip to the bike shop (Quinns) to start preparing for my IM races.  I asked them to fit a bigger cassette onto the bike to give me an extra gear or two for the hills in IMUK and IM Wales!

Looking Ahead!

So, onto June and all that brings.  This will be the last big, complete month of training.  It will also be the start of the race season with Bala Middle Distance on 12^th June and Liverpool Olympic Distance Triathlon on 26^th June.  On 30^th June, I will travel down to Lands End to begin our LEJOG challenge.

This is the month where the fun begins!