My last training week before the taper is over!

Well that’s it then…..today marks the beginning of my taper to the race – has the FEAR set in…a little, am I looking forward to it? Oh yes!

For those not of the racing/training persuasion the programme I have been following is a phased programme. It had three build phases looking at developing certain skills – basic skills, endurance and speed skills each a month long. These were then finished off with a build phase (bit of a hit and miss affair for me with work at the moment) of two weeks which honed those skills and the last two weeks before the event are what is termed the Taper. Tapering is a strange experience which I really wish I had known about when I was swimming competitively! Basically you keep the intensity of the sessions high but you reduce hours. This is to ensure that the body has time to recover before the race and you do not injure yourself whilst maintaining fitness. I find it really hard as I feel restrained and frustrated – a bit like rest weeks, the good thing though is if you get the taper right you feel like exploding on the race day – hopefully contained enough to be manageable through the day!! Any way that is currently where I am – a bit apprehensive, but generally buzzing!!

So what have I managed on my weekend off between overseas trips?

Saturday-

First proper Open Water swim (I know leaving it a bit late!!). I went up to Lake 32 at Cerney around 7.30am – very few around at that time but the waterfilled pretty quickly. By the time I left there were over 30-40 people in the water. Lake 32 is one amazing facility – okay the changing rooms are a little basic and rather oddly you can see the bottom of the lake almost all the way across, but the water is nice and clean (and clear) and the feathery lake users do try and get out of your way…anyway…one circuit round the bouys 750m – 12min 45s, very happy, but I need to do more practice in my suit as it limits stroke a bit which I need to get used to….
Later after taking Anja and Jules to a friend’s party I managed to squeezing in a short turbo session – 30 mins over the Wimbleball route – at 115% of normal – my god it makes the hills harder (and the first 5km is all 5-8% hill!)

Sunday – 3rd Westonbirt Tri

Last year this was the first triathlon I ever did and I was bricking it, this year it was a transition practice with an explosive training session attached!

Very happy with the result – I came in 119th in 1:23:54.9 – sub 1:25 and in the top 50% (249 completed it, 1 DQ).

The swim was pretty good – I went out at around RPE8-9 for 100m and then eased off for the next 200m (RPE 5ish) before building for the last 100m to RPE9 – I exited in 5:42.5. The run to transition is really long – over tarmac but I still got through T1 in 4:21.4, before heading out on the bike. The bike was fantastic – a bit of headwind coming from Sherston to the Red Bull but I held off two other guys from the wave to come in at 45:33.3 – a PB. T2 was pretty smooth (1:52.5) although I did struggle a bit to get my watch off the bike! The run did not feel quite as good with the fluid sloshing around in my guts (I never get used to the feeling) but by about 2.5km things were going pretty well. I came in at 26.25.3 – a new 5km PB – all in all an excellent finish to my build phase and a really successful race – dead chuffed! Afterwards I recovered pretty quickly and the superb post race massage from Caroline helped the shins no end, I will be booking in a full hour when I get back from the States before the 70.3!

In the evening I felt a short hill set was needed so I loaded the Wimbleball route again – set it to 120% and went off for 30mins – challenging after the morning but made me feel that I had put a good end to my build phase!

This week is a bit of an unknown as I am at a UK conference Mon-Tue and then in the US for a meeting Wed – Thur or Friday…hopefully I will get the chance to put some hours in…..

Later
I.