Training Week

After last weekends Gold Coast Triathlon I thought that I would be having a rest but that definitely was not the case. After being away my weekly averages on the bike had dropped and I knew I had to start some serious running training.

The week started on Tuesday with an easy 40km on the bike on the Gold Coast and then running started on Wednesday where I ran 10km and wow! Didn't this hurt! That was the furthest I had run since state triathlon back in February.

Thursday consisted of a double run day, 5km in the morning and then another run session in the afternoon down in Townsville. Yes that's right, I was off travelling again. My afternoon session consisted of 5mins easy, 10mins hard followed by 10x 30second efforts.

Friday was a rest day for running but this is where my serious riding began, well at least what I thought was going to be serious. I had arranged to go on a bunch ride in Townsville and this ended up only being the easiest 30km followed but two hours at the coffee shop afterwards, those actions just made me sound like a complete coffee rider and please don't get the impression that I am ha-ha. I was so annoyed about the lack of mileage that I had to go out in the afternoon and smack out a quick 50km to make up for the lost kilometres in the morning. This put my Friday totals up to 80km.

On Saturday I was supposed to meet another bunch in Townsville and thankfully this was a little bit more up to my standards. I met the bunch at 5:30am and we headed to Harvey’s Range, the pace was steady all the way there and as we hit the climb a few of the guys attacked and I wasn't able to hang on. Once I was dropped I got into my rhythm and I started catching the other riders. When I reached the top of the climb I met a cyclist by the name of Ruth Corset and she rides for the Holden Women’s Cycling team. I had recently just seen her win a stage in the Adelaide Tour, so when she fronted to the ride I recognised her immediately. We finished the day off with 131km and I thought it was a bit of an honour to ride with her. Running wise I did a 7km session when I returned to Cairns that afternoon, which involved 6x 3minute intervals. It was a pretty tough session but I was determined to finish it because I have ambitions of doing really well in Cross Country and in the rest of the triathlon season.

Sunday was going to be a somewhat hard day because I wanted to ride again (I think I’m addicted) and I also had to do a long run. I did an easy 60km ride to start my morning off and then I rode another easy 30km in the afternoon with a few mates from my running group. The rest of the athletes who I train with did their long run in the morning and the furthest someone did was about 11km. I get competitive when people run longer than my longest run recorded on my watch so I became very determined to beat what the others had done. I felt really good as I set into it so I kept on running, as it progressed I felt a few little niggles but by this time I was so far into it that I knew I couldn't stop. When I got home I had clocked up just over 15km, smashing what the others had done. I had actually run for so long that it was dark outside and Mum went out looking for me…Whoops!

My weekly totals came to:

            Cycling: 350km

Running: 42km

I can say that I am extremely happy with how that week went. It will be interesting to see if I can sustain those averages especially when I add swimming into the equation. I guess it's a little bit of trial and error but for the first week of hard training I am proud of my efforts.