Triathlon Training - the Road to 70.3

I took a bit of a break from triathlon training over the last month, to focus on two 'pet' events which have been the focus of my early season. I treated them both as 'A' races, despite the fact that they were only a week apart, and despite the fact that my 'true' A race is the 70.3 in 5 weeks time. The first of these was the 2018 City to Bay. City to Bay 2018 For the first time this year, the C2B has offered a 21.1km event, as well as their usual offerings of 12k, 6k, and 3k. Looking at my calendar, the half-marathon was perfectly timed in terms of my 70.3 training, being about 6-8 weeks out. I figured that it would give me a really good indication of where my form was, especially since I'm more worried about the run than any other leg. One of the huge benefits of the C2B is that the offer free running training workshops, for the 12 weeks prior to the race. This year, I managed to make all but one of the sessions, and as with every other year, they hav

What a week this has been! According to TrainingPeaks, I did 941TSS, which is almost certainly the most I have ever completed.  It's also likely under-estimating, because I haven't included my netball match from Sunday night, and that certainly wasn't gentle! So, this week was always slated to be a big week. It followed a rest week, and had the first of the really long sessions on the bike. Monday, which was supposed to be a rest, ended up with a gentle run with my sister, but Tuesday is where it really ramped up. STarting with a solid set of intervals on the bike before work, I then finished at the pool in the afternoon, before going to a core training session in the evening. I still ache a bit from that! Wednesday was a City-2-Bay Training session, consisting of a 3-lap (1.3km) time trial. I wasn't feeling 100%, so I took it pretty easy, but surprised myself by taking nearly 10 seconds off my time from the first week. I think the pacing worked much better, since m

I have a friend who has decided to do the 70.3 with me in November, and naturally there is some friendly rivalry. He works as a PT, lives in a gym, and is probably about 30 watts stronger than me on the bike, even after all my training. He recently completed two 6-hour pedal prix races solo, and nearly managed to keep up with my entire team! However, his swimming is lacklustre and his running is about to begin. So, I think I will lose a bunch of time to him in the bike leg, but hopefully make up more than that in the water. He (jokingly) talked about aiming at a 5 hour 70.3, and I had to do some maths to work out what that would look like. I then gave up the maths, and instead looked at what would be a realistic finish time for myself. Here are my calculations. Swimming: if I can keep up 2:30/100m (which is probable, especially in a wetsuit), I can do the swim in 50 minutes. Ride: if I can average 35km/h (possible), then I will finish the ride in just under 2.6 hours. I allowed

Last week, I came down with a cold. Not an extraordinary one, but certainly enough to keep me off work for a day, and have me feeling rotten for most of a week.  Normally, I would just push through, and try to keep on training, but for once, I actually backed off, and stopped training for a week. So, Thursday through to Monday was 'resting'.  This isn't something I'm used to. If I don't exercise for two days, that's a 'long' rest, so having 5 days off in a row was something new to me, at least in the last year.  Yesterday's bike workout was a set of 1-minute intervals at 130%, with 2-minute recoveries. 5 intervals, and 3 sets. I felt absolutely amazing during the efforts, and felt like I finished each interval and each set comfortably and evenly. Then, swimming that afternoon, felt smooth, powerful and effective. Even the core workout session after that was good, although by that time I was beginning to struggle to keep up.  I guess th