Wednesday, August 13, 2008

July 2008 - Training Summary

July was a good month....the weather got hot and humid and as such training wasn't hindered [apart from the occasional work meeting! and a week long visit from friends :-) ]The long workouts begun in earnest for Ironman training and for good measure an international distance race was thrown into the mix. Here are my training stats for July 2008.

A typical four week month that incorporated three hard weeks and a recovery week midway through the month. The key was to start getting ready for Ironman and so long distance stuff was the focus.....5 hour century rides and 2 hour runs (although I am not that hardcore to do them as bricks, just 30min runs after the centuries!).

The race down in Colonial Beach was cool. We spent the weekend down there and got some time on the beach. The race itself was very low key and I managed to place 8th overall. As I had expected I didn't have much "zip" after a couple of hard training weeks without much speed work. The run was great though and I had the 2nd fastest run with a 35min 10km. Here are the numbers in the log from July 2008:

Total Workouts - 43 including
15 cycle sessions
15 run sessions
12 swim sessions
(9 bricks) and 1 race (Colonial Beach Triathlon)


Total Time - 57 Hours 32 Mins (14 Hours 23 Mins Weekly Average)

Cycling Time - 33 Hours 15 Mins (8hrs 19mins weekly average)
Running Time - 12 Hours 58 Mins (3hrs 15mins weekly average)
Swimming Time - 11 Hours 17 Mins (2hrs 49mins weekly average)

Total Mileage - 793.0 Miles

Cycling Mileage - 658.86 Miles
Running Mileage - 113.09 Miles
Swimming Mileage - 21.01 Miles

The numbers were quite consistent throughout the month (except the recovery week at 9hours) and importantly the long workouts were going well. The key now is to add more speed work into those long sessions and to gradually push harder to try to simulate above race pace efforts. A very encouraging item is my pace and effort running off the bike....recent runs have felt great and a sub 7min pace has felt effortless even after the 5 hour rides. Hopefully that will continue and will translate to a good Ironman marathon.

August brings new challenges to training in that we are going back to England for a two-week vacation.....the bike is coming with us and the plan is to continue training through the vacation. The first week is scheduled for a recovery week (on the beaches of Southern Spain) but the second week is back into a normal training week (well that's what I hope but I think the evenings will be late, very late and so early morning training won't be too appealing!).

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