'Bouncing back' from sickness

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 my pace was almost exactly the same over the entire time trial.

Thursday was a long, steady-state sweet-spot session, bricked together with a 30 minute run at race pace. I did that early in the morning, and just felt amazing for the rest of the day. It's so nice that the weather is finally improving, and I can see where I'm going!

Friday, was another long session on the bike, 80 minutes including 4x15 minute sweet-spot efforts. I then met Aaron (my competitor/challenger) at the pool, and completed my longest ever swim, 2,500m!

Saturday was a real challenge. The bike session was 2h15m, and was all sweet-spot at between 65-75% effort. That was followed immediately by a 30m run at race pace, which felt surprisingly good.

I'm experimenting with salt tabs in my water, and I think I'm ahead of the cramping curve, thanks to those. They aren't cheap, given how much water I go through, but it's definitely better than cramping.

I also got to test out my new hydration systems on the bike. I bought a saddle-mounted double bottle cage, and a handle-bar mounted Profile Design drink system, which is amazing. So easy to refill and drink from, even if the straw does poke me in the eye a bit.

Sunday was then a 'long run', which I decided to make a half-marathon instead. I ran the first 8km with my sister at about 6:00/km, but then finished the run by myself, and managed to bring the average down to 5:25/km, which is faster than my PB. Thanks to a few breaks with Catherine, I didn't actually beat my PB, but I now know that I can smash it next Sunday at the city to bay.

Sunday finished with a trike session in the new trike, which feels amazing. My legs were pretty shot, but I was still averaging very close to my race pace, for about 30 minutes.

Finally, a netball match, which we HAD to win to make finals. And... we did!

What a week! Not for another recovery week before the City 2 Bay!

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