By this stage of the season I would normally be getting some speedwork in as I build up to the first triathlon of the season, but since this season is aimed solely at Ironman UK in August, I still haven’t started on any high intensity stuff – in any case, all the books say that there’s no point in high intensity sprint reps when training for Ironman. There is also the small matter of the Fred Whitton Challenge in 3 weeks time. So it’s time for some hill riding. Today will take in the tough Blaze Hill and Pym Chair above Bollington before heading south on the Spud Riley route via the Goyt Valley. If I’ve got the energy, I’ll finish off the circuit up Fernilee incline and head over to Chinley via the hideously steep Dolly Lane (I’ll post the route on Mapmyride and link to it here later).
So the cycling is going well. The running is pretty good too: I’m doing an 18km run on a weekly basis at the moment and am slowly building this up to about a 25km run. I’ve had a few hamstring problems, but have nipped them in the bud with stretching, ibuprofen and ice, plus a few days on the bike before trying a run again.
Cycling: 1768km so far this year
Running: 260km so far
Then we come to the swimming. Swimming has always been by far the weakest suit in my triathlon hand, and I’ve never got around to proper coaching – one of the issues in having a young family is the difficulty of training at fixed times. Flexibility is the name of the game for me. As a result I’m one of the breaststrokers cruising around at the back. Paradoxically this means I tend to enjoy open water swims in races a lot more than most as I find my own pace and get a good view of the field and the surroundings. But this is to dodge the issue, yesterday was my first (yes, first) swim session of the year. Actually, I was quite pleased; I managed 1km (40 lengths) in 22 mins and could have gone further, so all is not yet lost. I’m going to have to up the game if I’m going to get to the start line of the Beaver half-ironman in 5 weeks though.
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