CHALLENGE WEEK (30HRS)

Photo
I have greatly changed my bike setup. I now have a pair of FSA vision tech aerobars and a forward seat post. This has enabled me to move forward around 5cm so that I am now only 3cm behind the BB and my drop at the front has increased to 15cm. This new position feels perfect and I feel like by making these adjustments I have just bought myself free speed.

My goal this week is to simple break 30hrs. I'm lucky in that I have a this week off due to school holidays. Looking forward to taking on this challenge both mentally and physically.


Monday: Day 1
Bike: (5hrs), 127km, av hr 123bpm
The first 2hr were painfully slow due to stop lights and walking over bridges (av sp was only 23.9kph)
Then I jumped on a main road and hit it for 40min (av sp 35.1kph, av hr 134bpm, power 248watts). My position with the new aerobars feels perfect. I'm forward and down lower. sitting on 36-38kph now feels very comfortable.
Run: (1hr), 12km, av hr 133bpm
getting quicker. Almost sub 5min/k's @ Aet -11bpm. fatigue could be keeping HR down. However, my legs felt pretty good after along ride this morning. Day 1 done.


Photo
Here are the stats from my 1st ride of the week. it was a good 5hrs. The 1st 2hrs were crazy slow due to bridges and traffic lights. I managed to put in a pretty good 40min TT at IM effort in the middle of this ride. I averaged 35.1kph (av hr 134bpm), which is 2bpm under my IM effort. overall I think the new position on the bike has made me jump up another level. The rest of the ride was spent doing fartlek effort up to mod-hard. As you can see by the dark blue line I have to make alot of stops due to traffic lights. Training in Japan is frustrating sometimes.

Tuesday
Bike: (3.5hrs), 89km, av hr 114bpm
Focus was on high cadence today. small chain ring only and to keep cadence up over 100rpm. It was getting tough after 3hrs.

Photo: Nutrition is so important during big weeks of training. As you can see I tend to enjoy Starbucks over here. Towards the end of every ride this week I'll be stopping off at Starbucks and loading up on as much food as I can. This will help me recover between sessions so I can continue to put in the big miles. After this meal I'm suing very close to home. I'll then rest for an hour and then consume a 2nd post training lunch.
Run: (32min), 6.1km, av hr 128bpm.
First sign of real fatigue. av hr is dropping again. legs felt good. Still feeling light on my feet. mental I'm okay, physically I'm fine. I think tomorrows sessions will begin to show there true colours.
Day 2 of challenge week over.

Wednesday
Run: (1:20), 15.3km, av hr 131bpm.

Photo
My longest run in 6mths. My feet held up really well. What is most important though I was able to maintain a very level HR profile and maintain my pace over the course of this 80minute run. This is a good indication that my running economy is good and I'm probably ready to start increasing my run volume through more frequency.

9min on 1moff, My pace for each 9min block was 5:09, (123bpm), 4:48 (132bpm ), 4;49 (133bpm ), 4:42 (138bpm), 5:04 (131bpm), 4:52 (135bpm), 4:59 (135bpm). Very happy. My Aet -10bpm pace is now well and truly under 5:00min/ks. I'm ahead of schedule. This was my longest ever run in 6mths. Even if I run an IM now at this pace it will mean of 30min PB for me. It will be interesting to see what my pace is at Aet (ie IMeffort).


Thursday
Bike: (5.5hrs), 145km, av hr 118bpm
Route 246 was good. It had plenty of rollers, Route 16 was flat. TT'd home back from Yokohoma (1hr@MSS). feeling strong again after a day off the bike yesterday.

Friday
Bike: (3:10), 79.5km, av hr 122bpm.
Did this as an easy aerobic ride with 50min of Steady efforts. easy Aerobic ride this morning. Body is holding up well, better then expected. It's becoming more of a mental challenge then a physical one now.

Run: (1:05), 12.9km, av hr 133bpm
I could of quite easily slept all afternoon, but decided to stick with the plan. Ended up being the most enjoyable run of the whole week. Legs feel super, feet are good too.


Saturday
Bike: (3hrs),76km, 107bpm
Aerobic ride. legs are quite fatigued now. Left knee is getting a little tender. Only 1 day to go

Run: (30min), 6.4km, av hr 136bpm
Continous run. No walk breaks, Got into a really good rythm. HR was right on Aet. Running very well at the moment.

Swim: (1hr), 2.5km
10-15min w/u
500 free +10 base
400 free + 10 base
300 free + 10base
Holding around 1:30's with bouy. Strength set
drill 20min


Sunday
Bike: (3.5hrs), W/T 75km, av hr 108bpm.
That was a huge mental challenge. My previous longest W/T session was 1.5hrs. I was devastated when I woke up to see it raining outside. I had to really buckle down on this one to break 30hrs of training for the week. I'm stoked. I ended up doing a mix of everything, single legs drill, steady state, progressive HR sets, high work.


Photo:
My heart dropped when I stepped outside at 6am this morning. I was sitting on 26.5hrs for the week so far and I only have 3.5hrs more to do. IT'S RAINING!!!!! I'm not a big fan of the W/T as I find it really boring and slow even with movies to watch. My only option was to buckle down and do over 3hrs on the W/T. This meant doubling my previous longest ever session on the trainer. Damn you Harris you are making me work hard for this. You will pay.



Run: (27:58 ), 6.1km, av hr 140bpm
No walks on this one. Just went straight into a lower steady to Aet pace run. Everything feels good. Feet felt 100%, no issues.
This was a really good way to finish off my Challenge week (30+hrs). it's now beer-0 clock





Swim 1:00
Bike 23:40
Run 4:55
Other 1:00

Total 30:35!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Summary
This was a huge mental and physical breakthrough for me doing this challenge week. There were plenty of times I just wanted to sleep in and or cut back on some of my sessions. However, I had a clear goal in my mind that was to break 30hrs of training in one week. I did it. I stuck to the plan and I'm really pleased with the way I never gave in to the tiredness, fatigue and rain that could of easily cut this week right back to around 20hrs.
By doing a week like this I feel as though I have passed a big personal test and I'm now ready to resume my consistent 18-22hrs weeks with more time being spent in and around the steady zone. Up until this point I feel as though I have spent the last 6months preparing myself to train. I feel like I am now ready to be able to handle the training neccassary to take me fitness to the next level.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone out there

Fluro