Isn't the summer wonderful? Life just seems so much better when the sun is shining.
As for me & my journey on the 'Road to Roth', things are pretty sunny as well.
This week has been really enjoyable on more than one front, giving me a lot of confidence and renewed vigour to take forward into the crucial final weeks.
After a decent block of some solid days, including an Oly-distance race and a 20-mile run session, I felt pretty darn shattered at the start of last week. I mean not just physically shattered but struggling to keep my eyes open shattered. There was nothing in the tank at all.
A wetsuit swim on Wednesday indicated that I hadn't recovered from the previous 7 days or so, therefore some much needed rest was taken ahead of focusing on being ready for a quality weekend of training.
I put the rest-time to really good use, in terms of supplementary prep for Roth. The aero-bars were fitted, as was the behind-the-saddle bottle cage. New bike shoes were ordered & received along with an awesome kit bag from blueseventy.
The kit bag is their transition bag, which I spotted at the Little Beaver. Its a really impressive piece of kit and can easily handle all of my race day kit. I always like to take-away some learnings from others at races and this is one of the better ones. Knowing I have a plan for race morning for my kit etc, is another brick in 'peace of mind' wall.
I've got a lot of time for blueseventy as a brand. I also wear their Helix wetsuit plus a few other products & have always found them spot-on. Wetsuits are a really subjective piece of kit, with some many brands out there, but I would always recommend blueseventy. With so many pros wearing the Helix and their skinsuits, I take this as a glowing endorsement of their quality & performance.
Anyway, I digress....
So, like I was saying, getting a few more pieces of kit in place ahead of Bala and then Roth has helped with the whole confidence and peace of mind piece.
Now, onto the training.
Saturday was an awesome day with great weather, a great venue and a really great session.
An early morning open-water swim was a great start. I swam for 2 x 30 mins continuously and felt really comfortable. I covered over Ironman-distance and the heart-rate never got above 78 bpm - so super easy. The arms & shoulders are now getting used to the wettie and the stroke feels far more natural. One key take-out was that everything feels more comfortable when I don't wear a tri-top underneath the wettie. Therefore, I'll now be leaving the tri-top in T1.
Ok, so after the swim and some chit-chat over coffee in the sun, I headed out for a 4 hour bike. The bike was now loaded up with 4 water bottles, plus the new aero bars, so the increased weight & handling needed practicing.
After a nervous start, I settled down nicely onto the bars and really started to feel the benefit of the more forward position. I felt really strong, was turning a bigger gear for less effort and the stats were all on the "sunny side". In fact, I would go as far to say that this felt like my most complete bike session ever.
Nutrition-wise, I continued to use the impressive Clif-Shot Bloks as my solids and the Infinit Long-Course Formula as my fluid source of calories. The rear two bottles containing water & Nuun. The Bloks were perfect for the hotter conditions, as they're quite refreshing and don't leave the sickly feeling in the mouth. The Infinit formula is really working well. I'm using the Lemon & Lime flavour and it is just right & not OTT.
OK, so a great bike just left a 50 minute run. A well-paced "transition" and off I went for multiple laps of the water park lake I swam in earlier. The legs set off at their own pace for the first few minutes but soon settled down. I was really pleased with how comfortable a solidly-paced 6.5 miles felt. No dramas, everything felt under control, especially when using the car as a water-station to keep the hydration levels topped up.
After finishing the run, a quick dip in the lake to help the legs cool down wrapped up a great days work.
Sunday brought "just" a 2 hour endurance run. Again, all went well with a comfortable 8.5 min/mile pace not taking my HR above 135 bpm (so, very comfortable). A pain in my left calf did ease off after 30 minutes or so, only to return towards the end. Ended up being pretty painful, so a physio is booked in for Friday. I'm not too concernedd, as I think this is caused by some lower back tightness after the more aero-bike session on Saturday.
So, there you go....a really pleasing week. Accepting that it is OK to be tired but not wishing to put myself in too deep a hole, the focus will be hitting the key, quality sessions. Bala is in 11 days time, so I'll be ensuring rest is balanced with quality efforts.
All in all, the world is a happy, sunny place.
Heres to more of the same for the foreseeable future.
See you next week,
Sparky
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