pheeew.... it's been busy times. Both, training and work have geared up and I found myself more ready for bed than for a 1/2 blogging session.
On the training front it was a moderate/easy week (easy on the pool, moderate everywhere else) with the race las Tuesday, TT (which saw me going to 95% of my HR by mistake) and a new breed of brick sessions that made a great impression in the squad.
How to become a better time triallist.
The TT business went like this; we have a set TT course for 16 or 25km with repetitions of a big and a small lap depending on your distance. I know that my big lap takes me between 14.45 and 15min, if I'm there after the first lap I know I am on track. This time around I did it on 14.30, which meant I was either going too hard too soon or I was in line for a season't best, the second lap was just 4 seconds slower, things were looking groovy! Just a couple of days before coach and I agreed that doing more and more TT's is the only way to get better at time trials. So, there I am, in line for a PB and trying to hang on to it... I didn't look to the HR monitor often enough, and after finishing and doing the run off the bike I check the data and it turned out I was flat out the entire way, with the average being 91% and the max 96%. I thought that would be a NO NO, but it wasn't and I got a season's best that I must crush in the upcoming weeks.
A new kind of bricks
Saturdays bricks were different this time around. We're all at a level where most of our improvement on the fitness side has been made. There is room to get better, but that will be only after a new base period during the autumm and winter months. Now it is time to get smarter and race smarter. With that in mind, our brick session was changed from the usual swim-bike-run to 3 mini triathlons with proper transitions and 2min rest in between each rep. It was as closest you can get to a race situation. Coach came up with bike stands that we set up as if it was a transition area and we had a proper run from the sea to the transition and from there to the road. The distances were 600m - 6.6km - 1.3km approx. the bike was hilly and the run was flat. We had a group going with Jeremy and Martin and we ended up doing similar times, our transitions were OK, then better and for the last one I think I nailed them in flash times. There's a video that I have to get my hands on and will put in the blog soon.
this is the first time that I do three little triathlons one after the other almost nonstop. It was good to work on the higher intensities, and great race simulation because the transitions were the exact environment you have in a race. Being a short bike, it also helped for me not to loose so much ground against better cyclist. Now I want more, so we'll see.
Saturday afternoon the weather got greyer and greyer and it rained for most of the night and morning. Non stop. No long Sunday ride, trainer instead.
I hope your weekend rocked as well.
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| A grey day in September |
How to become a better time triallist.
The TT business went like this; we have a set TT course for 16 or 25km with repetitions of a big and a small lap depending on your distance. I know that my big lap takes me between 14.45 and 15min, if I'm there after the first lap I know I am on track. This time around I did it on 14.30, which meant I was either going too hard too soon or I was in line for a season't best, the second lap was just 4 seconds slower, things were looking groovy! Just a couple of days before coach and I agreed that doing more and more TT's is the only way to get better at time trials. So, there I am, in line for a PB and trying to hang on to it... I didn't look to the HR monitor often enough, and after finishing and doing the run off the bike I check the data and it turned out I was flat out the entire way, with the average being 91% and the max 96%. I thought that would be a NO NO, but it wasn't and I got a season's best that I must crush in the upcoming weeks.
A new kind of bricks
Saturdays bricks were different this time around. We're all at a level where most of our improvement on the fitness side has been made. There is room to get better, but that will be only after a new base period during the autumm and winter months. Now it is time to get smarter and race smarter. With that in mind, our brick session was changed from the usual swim-bike-run to 3 mini triathlons with proper transitions and 2min rest in between each rep. It was as closest you can get to a race situation. Coach came up with bike stands that we set up as if it was a transition area and we had a proper run from the sea to the transition and from there to the road. The distances were 600m - 6.6km - 1.3km approx. the bike was hilly and the run was flat. We had a group going with Jeremy and Martin and we ended up doing similar times, our transitions were OK, then better and for the last one I think I nailed them in flash times. There's a video that I have to get my hands on and will put in the blog soon.
this is the first time that I do three little triathlons one after the other almost nonstop. It was good to work on the higher intensities, and great race simulation because the transitions were the exact environment you have in a race. Being a short bike, it also helped for me not to loose so much ground against better cyclist. Now I want more, so we'll see.
Saturday afternoon the weather got greyer and greyer and it rained for most of the night and morning. Non stop. No long Sunday ride, trainer instead.
I hope your weekend rocked as well.
Those mini races sound awesome. I'd like a waffle too.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great week with the new breed of training...lots of learning all the way around.
ReplyDeleteD