The strategy conversation you can only have here
My long ride on Sunday (yesterday) was as good as last weeks was bad. Great weather, very little wind, and a route which was much more conducive to a long time trial ride (well almost).
We had a 40th on Friday night (we're in that season with one or two every weekend). I didn't really drink anything and got a lift home with friends leaving Dee to dance while I rested my legs. I got up at 5.30 and managed to hop into the pool at Constantia Virgin at 6ish for a 4km swim.
It was a great session and something I really like about the Mark Allen programme is that they make the swim workouts interesting. Every one slightly different and really brings out the best in me. Here is the programme that I did:
Warm up 300 swim, 200 kick, 4x50 on 30 sec rest. Main Set 1x1000 swim on 2 min rest, 5x200 on 30 sec rest making sure total time for the set is faster than the 1000 straight, 10x100 on 20 sec rest alternating between rest of 30 sec/15 sec. 200 kick. Warm down 100 easy.
I managed to take 10 seconds off the 5x200 which was a big push in the last set. The exercises are always designed in a way to push harder and faster which is great. I did a gym session after that. Gym consists of 12 exercises to work the muscles that I need to swim, cycle and run and then I do some situps and push ups to finish off.
Saturday night was another 40th which was quieter but I was exhausted by 10.30pm when we left after having filled up on some delicious food. I managed to get out on the bike at 5.30am and headed out towards Somerset West via Voortrekker Road.
Once through the built up area of Bellville / Parow the road is fantastic through Kuils and Elsies River. At Somerset West I took the back road up to Sir Lowry's Pass village and then crossed the N2 down to Gordon's Bay, Strand and back onto Voortrekker to head back into town.
I did one short stop after about 4 hours to refill my water bottles and eat some food. I had a craving for something salty so ate a packet of chips and drank half a Lucozade. I normally have Game in my water bottles which I refilled as I had some powder with me.
It was great to get off the bike and stretch. Overall I still felt quite good. Up until four hours I was averaging 30.2km/h which is a good average for me. That average is always keeping my heart rate below 138 which is my ideal fat/carbo burning ratio.
Hours four to five were fine but things did deteriorate in the last hour as I got back onto the Peninsula and did a loop down to Sunrise Circle and back to Wynberg to build up the km’s.
The packet of chips and Lucozade came back to haunt me and I had severe stomach cramps for the last hour and a bit. It was really painful but then probably good training as I’ll be prepared for a little unexpected pain on the big day.
My programme wanted me to do a 6h15 ride and I was wanting to fit 180km’s into that time. I managed to get through 180km in 6h11 which was great. This is a faster time than my Ironman time last year. More than the time though, last year I hadn’t done a ride as long as that ever before so this is a great confidence booster for my training.
This week-end I do a slightly longer run and a shorter ride 5h30 and 30 min run in a brick session.
I am training for Ironman South Africa on 5th April 2009. This blog posting reflects on my experiences in training. I completed the Ironman in 2008 for the first time. I am incredibly social with the goal to finish primarily, have fun and learn. I’m by no means a serious competitor.