The Week That Was - (IM - 7 weeks to go)

This week was the heaviest yet culminating with the Pacesetters/Great Eastern 30k Run. The injury seems to have been kept at bay with lots of heat treatment (deep heat ointment) but it's still floating around so I have to be careful. Lost another KG so that's all on track.

Monday Kicked off with a very sore left calf muscle/Achilles. A solid swim helped "massage" that and loads of heat ointment to hopefully stimulate the body to repair it. Managed a decent hour and a half on the turbo in the evening without aggravating it too much but boy is riding on the turbo boring or what (even in front of the home theatre)

Tuesday again started with a pool session, longer this time and my right arm is definitely feeling strained - blimey, I'm falling apart. At lunchtime I did my usual spin class and a bit of core work and stretching. The evening turned out to be rather eventful - I started a gruelling 15k interval session on the treadmill only to have the treadmill split in half during the session (how fat am I) - the belt kept on going so I finished it anyway - similar to the bike turbo this is numbingly boring.

Wednesday Ironman training is starting to get into a routine now and today is my usual 80k ride before work immediately followed by a run. Last Wednesday I managed a little under 11k but for some reason this morning I was totally in the zone - I added a couple of K onto the run at the end and managed a very credible 12.5k at quite a rapid speed - must be getting fitter - can't help thinking there's a big crashing abyss lurking around the corner. Wednesday night was the tri swim squad coached session at Bukit Jalil Stadium - my right arm was strained so I was a little nervous about this session - after a few drills and some input I felt that my technique was massively better and sure enough no strain on the arm - BREAKTHROUGH!!! 3.5k of hard sets in the bag.

Thursday real long hard swim at home again in the morning, even after last night it went well (another 3.7k in the bank). The evening is what I try to tell myself is a recovery run but I hate it, legs are like stumps and it really is a slog. I did two loops and Shilpa ran with me for the second loop which helped enormously (9k but the less said about it the better)

Friday a turbo session in front of the tele. A mindnumbing hour and a half but the boys came and kept me company for the last bit before they went to school. Somehow I managed to break my saddle during this session - should I be starting to get paranoid about my weight I wander?

Saturday 196k, rolling hills to PD via Megamall - pretty hot today - Sam took a shorter route so it was left to Aaron to keep us honest and hurt us. He did a fine job. Did my usual 8.8k brick run afterwards, it was tougher than last week, partly as it was hotter but pulled it off OK. Thought to myself, nice job, the week's over - but then remembered the small matter of the GE 30K race in the morning - oo ere!

Sunday GE 30k Race, went better than it should have, fabulous pace for a training run, can't help thinking that I'm still motoring on borrowed time - I'll keep it going while I can though - no complaints, I just don't want to fall flat on my face come race day.

Again very happy with the week 26 hours of hardcore cardio all quality sessions (even the ones I hated). I've dropped another Kg but the Calf/Achilles is still niggling and may pop at any point if I'm not careful. If I'm to follow my periodisation training then this week should be an easy week, however, I may start the week with the intent on keeping the volume the same or similar as last week but easing off on the intensity and see how that goes.

A solid swim again this morning kicked the week off nicely and I took the boys to school (almost on time) afterwards - 6 more weeks to go and 4 weeks of misery before the taper starts.