Friday & Saturday and a bit about next week...

Dear All

 

Well its getting close...the Busselton Half Ironman, that is!

 

Its been a funny couple of weeks with various people away with work or holidays, those who caught the dreaded "lurgy" and the couple of you who have had little niggles here and there.

 

For those training for their first ever Half Ironman, hopefully you'll now appreciate that the actual training part of the program is the "easy part", its the "injury / illness / work / family / social balance" that is the "hard part". You could say that training adds to the stresses of everyday life and for that reason, the thought of training for a Half Ironman is just too much for many to comprehend. However, taking on this challenge and getting to the finish line is not just about what happens on the day, but the journey you took to get there. That journey is something you should be proud to be taking right now!!

 

At this point in the program, immediately before we start to taper down, you will typically feel at your most "stressed" or fatigued. When you train, the training process builds fitness (gradually) and fatigue (quickly), balancing these two is the key to a successful taper. Start to taper too soon and you start to lose too much fitness, taper too late and there's too much residual fatigue left over, leaving you 'flat' come race day. There's a really great article at http://www.freewebs.com/velodynamics2/workoutrecovery.pdf (think I've shown you all this before?) which looks at how and why its important to balance this fitness / fatigue 'equation' to provide optimal form come race day.

 

So, with all this in mind, it may please you to know, that this weekend will be our last long brick session as we head down into a 3 week taper-program!! We're going to split this up as such for the next 3 weeks:

 

1) NEXT WEEK = a moderate week of training with no really long sessions but maintenance of intensity, culminating with the Rottnest Boot Camp on the 18-20 April.

 

2) FOLLOWING WEEK = the taper 'proper' commences, with a marked drop in volume but maintenance of intensity.

 

3) RACE WEEK = a very steady week with a couple of little "pick-me-ups" and focus on good quality of sleep + nutrition + hydration + positive mental attitude!!

 

Here's the next few days then:

 

Tonight = either the last 2 hour long run for those who didn't do it on Monday, or the 5,4,3,2,1km intervals as per the program. Both will be long but the advantage of having me "barking at you" if you're not pacing correctly should be well worthwhile!!!

 

Friday = meet at Cottesloe Beach at 6.30am for an open water session focusing on swimming straight and paired-drafting skills.

 

Saturday = meet at Cottesloe Beach at 6.30am for a brick session comprising 1000m swim + 60km bike + 10km run

 

Sunday = rest day

 

Monday = 60 mins run + spin session at the Sweat Shack in the evening

 

NB. There is an error in the program for Sunday 20th April stipluating a 2hr run...this will actually be an 80 minute run.

 

See you out there!

 

Paul

 

Paul Newsome
Swim Smooth & Kirby Swim
www.swimsmooth.com
+ 61 (0) 431 540 980
Follow the Blog at http://swimsmooth.blogspot.com/