Aim - Hard Week: I have just come off a rest week and I am racing Challenge Half Barcelona on May 16th. This means this is my last hard weeks training before the race with a one week recovery going into the race. I need to recognise if I am starting to push too hard and do sessions that are going to effect how well I recover the following week, so basically I will start to back off at the end of the week to ensure I am sufficiently rested to ensure the race is worth the trip.
Saturday 1st2hr aerobic run
Sunday 2nd3hrs45min strength ride 3x{8miles over gear, 4miles hard, 4 miles easy} straight into 15min hill reps
1hr easy recovery run
Monday 3rd6km upper aerobic swim, really enjoyed this session;
5x100 off 1:30, 500 off 1:30 base
4x100 off 1:25, 400 off 1:30 base
3x100 off 1:25, 300 off 1:30 base
2x100 off 1:20, 200 off 1:30 base go all the way down and straight back up for a 5.6km mainset
Strength gym
Tuesday 4thSpeed session; 4x1 mile (ish) reps on Weston loop; 5:06, 5:00, 4:58, 4:57. Av. 5:00
2hr45 ride at Castle Combe
Wednesday 5th5km swim
1hr45min run....went exploring, got lost and knackered
Was intending on doing a TT in the evening but it was an hours ride away and I would have just been rubbish and potentially have put myself in a bit of a hole
Thursday 6thDay off
Friday 7th4km speed swim
Hill reps on the bike 2x(North Rd, Bathwick)
TotalsGym - 1 strength Session
Swim - 15km over 3 sessions; 1 aerobic, 1 threshold, 1 speed
Bike - 7hrs 30 over 3 sessions; 2 strength 1 aerobic
Run - 5hrs 45 over 5 sessions; 3 aerobic, 1 short strength, 1 speed
SummaryI have a history of not resting up sufficiently for important races. Whilst
Barcelona is not an A race, you can only do so many Half Distace races in a year, so it would be foolish to blow it for the sake of a couple of days training. I knew on Wednesday that the evening TT was going to push me over the edge so went to bed. So I started cutting back from then, earlier then I would have anticipated but better that then getting to the race tired.
