Following Ironman Switzerland I’ve had a decent rest – in 10 days only done a few days of light training. Now getting back in to it and focussing on Kona. Need a big block of training and a big reduction in weight ! That is perhaps a topic for another entry but this one I’m focussing on adjustments to my training. Somewhere, sometime I read that getting success often reinforces bad training habits since u just want to repeat what worked even though something different may have got a better result. This  has been something that’s concerned me for a while. I certainly suffer from continuing with what seems to have worked. For me this is ever more volume. To a point this gets improvement in results but continuing this almost certainly guarantees over training at some point.

So how does this translate into my next block of training

SWIM

Target is to attend all the club coached sessions. This means 3 x 90 minute sessions a week which will always include a long main set at decent pace. Together with this a single long steady swim on Mondays. This should translate into about 20k a week which is quite abit less in volume than what I was regularly doing through the winter

BIKE

This is the area I’ve seen most improvements and there is more to come. I’ve not read much that suggests getting the miles in isn’t what’s required. Thus I will continue with my long rides each week. The main tweak will be to include some interval work in one of the sessions. Thus the aim in my basic week will be 100 milers each of Sat, Sun and Tues. Sat and Sun would just be steady, if cycling with someone just stick with their pace, tea stops etc… Tues will be on the TT bike and will include some race pace intervals down and dirty on the Tri Bars. Thursday morning will be tempo riding on the fixed. On the build weeks I will up the mileage aiming for a double century or two before Kona

RUN

This is where I feel I need most tweaks. I think I succumbed to just plodding out the miles. It felt that last year it worked – a 3.07 marathon at the Longest Day being the high point. Since then my speed has decreased: 3:18 IM Florida, 3.20 IM Lanza, 3:24 IM Switzerland. I need to reverse this trend. Speaking to a friend that managed a 3 hours marathon at IM Switzerland I think brick sessions are missing. Also – compared to Longest Day I raced heavy at all of the above – losing pounds will definitely help. As for training my plan is to run post each of my 3 long rides. The idea is to get into the habit of running my 6.5 mile loop after each ride. I plan to re-instate the Wednesday morning run I was doing with Jo over the winter. The aim being to do some tempo running. Lunchtime runs will no longer be just go how I feel but will aim to increase the pace and have 5-10minutes tempo towards the end. Also plan to try and build up a long run on Mondays. Key with this will be to be aware of how my legs are feeling and avoiding getting injured.

Now just need to execute on this plan for the next couple of months !