Cloud 9

One of the best things about training for triathlon over a single sport, is if you become injured, chances are you can still train hard in the two other disciplines. I'm still keeping it easy on the run, so far I have completed only an easy 20 minutes. It didn't seem to aggravate my foot, but it still isn't 100%. Looks like it won't be for another week. The good news is I get to focus on cycling and swimming.

This morning was an extra swim set, just some technique drills, a few easy repeats and some medley work. Looked easy on paper, but my body still isn't used to backing up swims each day and my arms and shoulder felt like rocks. That's okay for this type of swim since yesterday, I completed a very solid threshold set. It was my best swim since returning to the pool.

The thing I love about cycling is it doesn't cause the same muscle damage as running. No eccentric loading to really hurt the legs and joints. One of my favourite aspects of cycling, is that I can from time to time, back up two to four hard days in a row before recovering. Running I definitely cannot do this.

For the last three days I have completed an high intensity set, an aerobic 80km with a couple of good climbs and finished with a solid threshold set of 2x20min today. My legs now feel like lead and are ready for their recovery day tomorrow.

The 80km ride is my current long ride. Doesn't seem like a long way when training for the Ironman, but it is still only early days. The pace was way down (and will be for a while), but I felt comfortable holding a good aero-position throughout, and nutrition wasn't a problem. The ride included a 7km steady ascent at about a 3.8% grade, which took me into the clouds by the time I reached the top. Gotta love riding in the clouds.

Comments

  1. Ewen11 July 2007 at 19:18

    That makes sense Jason, although I still don't know how TdF riders do that many hard days in a row.

    ReplyDelete

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