2 weeks to Port

Photo
Bike course profile. It looks like those that are strong in the hills will do well on this course. The plan for me is to control the watts on the those ascents, crest the hill and pick up speed as quickly as possible on the descents. Then the idea is to soft pedal or not pedal as much as possible on any descent. If I can turn the 180k TT into a 170k or even a 160k it will work to my advantage. I think people are going the make the mistake of trying to make up too much time of those descents by pushing too hard. I'm going to do the opposite and thats is coast as much as I can on anything that heads downhill hill.

Well, it’s not far away now. The body has just pasted through the hyper recovery mode (6-7 days of feeling very sluggish). I’m starting to feel good again. I even had a 30min run off the bike with no pain. I think the nurofen has helped me out here.
So my planned brick session(1.5/30) on Tuesday went well. Rode a tempo finish for the last 20k and managed to av 35.3kph through the hills. I did a very comfortable 6km run in 27min, which is still too fast for what I’m aiming for. This tells me that I need to control the arousal levels even more on race day. My goal is to run a 3:30 IM. If I can keep my foot injury at bay I think I might have a reasonable shot at that target.
My final BT session for the week will be a 2/45 on Sunday. After that I will just kick back and relax.
The IM run
Looking at the run course the plan is to put time in the bank before I hit the hills. The first 12km is quite flat and the aim is to run that first 12k in around 58min. The next 9km is up and down and the goal then is to use that 2min buffer to complete the 1st 21km right on 5min k pace (ie 1:45). After that I’ll aim to repeat the same process for the next 21km. I think the danger point on the run will be from 31-36km. I looks quite hilly through that section and there won’t be much left in the tank by that stage. Hopefully I’ll have enough to be able to dig deep and hold onto those 5min k’s for the run home. Although my run preparation hasn’t been what I was hoping for. I think I’ve completed enough quality bike and swim sessions to build a solid endurance base. Where I know I will fall apart is the durability in the legs. The run down hills is really going to tear me apart this year as I haven’t been able to do any hill training this year. I’ll probably look at running on soft grass at every opportunity I get when I tackle those descents. The more I can control the pounding in my legs on the day the better I think I’ll go.
Anyway that about it for me. Thanks everyone who has offered me support and tips in the past, it’s been much appreciated. Goodluck to all those who are competing and I hope everybody has a great race.
Monday
Swim 3.3km 1hr. Squad. 600 w/u, 6-150 (k/d/s), 6-100 on 1:40 (1:30, 1:25, 1;20 x2). 250, 200, 150, 100, 200 w/d. A good swim, stroke feels strong in th water. Starting to feel a little fresher now.
Tuesday.
Brick session
Bike 44.3km 1:21. (av hr 147bpm)20km TT North Time: 34min, av sp 35.3.
Smoked this TT this afternoon with Harris. Heading north is hard as it is basically uphill most of the way. The tailwind helped us along though. overall hr was really high. Might be due to 3 cups of strong coffee I had today and one just before the ride. RPE was good, getting through the sluggish period now.
Run 6km 27:16 (av hr 147bpm). Wow. The nurofen works. I felt unreal running. No pain at all. Although the run was only 6km. I held 4:30's and felt like I was running very conservatively. Focused mainly on RPE, which maybe won't be a good thing coming out of T2. Don't need to run that fast. Would be happy to hold 4:50-5min k's out of T2 for the first 6km. Av hr is right where I want it to be for the IM.
Wednesday
Swim 3km 42min. Ocean swim. Super clear conditions this morning. Very dark getting in the water at 6:30am. Swam from Continental pools to north beach and back twice. Uppped the pace on the second lap and broke 10min coming back for the first time ever.
Thursday
rest
Friday
rest
Saturday
Swim 2.2km 35min. Conditions started out good but then became progressively worse. Swam up to North Beach. Did 2 laps around the buoys @HIMpace then swam back to the pool @IMpace.
Sunday
Final Brick session

fluro