Week 11 of Endurance - 1/3 of Training Plan Completed

This week the training went well but I had to modify it somewhat for a planned moving of my son and preperation for a half marathon. I kinda cramped all my training earlier on in the week with most of the harder training from Monday to Thursday. The weather has not been the greatest this week but I managed to get all the biking done staying dry. After my Wednesday Tempo Brick ride the weather was turning kinda bleak.

I had a brick workout that day and did not feel like going out on the run outside. I therefore stripped down to my shorts only, donned my running shoes and did my run on my treadmill at a 4 percent grade and with an average heart rate of 145 to 150 BPM. I got into a good rythm and turnover very soon after a quick transition and ended up doing 6k in about 40 minutes.

Thursday, I had a good Tempo run on Thursday also and my two swims this week brought back the soreness in my shoulders. I can't seem to shake this soreness and think that it might be arthritis as it even bothers me in my sleep. I am not too worried about this right now as long as I don't try and push it. I am hoping that my speed will pick up a bit later on in the lake. My continuing problems in this area of my training is not going to get me down and I remain positive.

As it turns out, I did not have to help out with the moving this week so was able to get my third ride in with decent dry weather and kept it easy because of the upcoming race. Saturday was a complete day off any training and staying off my feet as much as possible. I met up with my buddies Sat afternoon at our favorite coffee shop and talked Tri talk for a good 3-4 hours. Since we are on different programs altogether we have not a chance to meet up since my birthday on Jan 12. It was good to get back and connect and catch up on our tales of woe with our training.

Sunday, I woke up feeling ok but not feeling as well as expected after a comlete day off. Had a light breakfast and headed off for the race event about a 100km North of here in Courtenay. Was starting to stiffen up from riding in the car and was glad to get there about 45 minutes to race start. I quickly registered, headed off of my warmup and got back in time to get some good stretching in there. When the race started, I knew within the 1'st 3 kms that things did not feel right. I felt sluggish and could not seem to get into a good rhythm. I held an easy steady pace with my coach. From 7 to 11k, was the hardest as this would be the most hilly sections of the course. I reached the half way mark after struggling up the hills a bit. On the way back is usually my fastest on this course as it is mostly downhill. I thought I was making steady progress towards on this second half and it seemed like my turnover was fast enough and very few people were passing me but when I reached the finish line and saw the clock, I was kinda of shocked into how slow my time had been. I really thought that I would be between 1:33 and 1:34 but the clock showed 1:36 plus. I was totally surprized at this and was wondering how much time I had lost since last year. I am hoping that this is just a fluke as losing about 3 minutes time in a year is too much to contribute due to age that's for sure. Maybe the training week was a bit harder than I thought also and was not fully ready for this race. However it is no use getting discourged and analysing this to death. I have to put this out of my mind and remember that I performed the best I could for this day but a better time was not in the cards. Time to move forward and get on with the second third of my training plan and into Week 12. My training bike rear wheel is finally fixed and looking forward to some good riding. Better weeks ahead I'm sure.