Last weeks poor effort, whether enforced by injury or through my own inaction wasn’t the best of starts to my first Olympic Triathlon. Well, Easter week 2014 will be the week forever known from now on as the week that the training fought back!

I wasn’t a happy bunny last weekend writing about my lack of effort, one of my goals for 2014 is to give 100% wherever possible. I may have been sore from running but that shouldn’t have stopped me cycling or swimming. This may be in my busiest month of the year in work, but if I can get time to watch House of Cards (how good is House of Cards!!) I can find time to exercise. I am the only one in control of my own destiny, the buck stops here.

The last 7 days has been more like it, a 2,000m swim can be done in my lunchtime, the endorphins of a decent run or bike ride last all day and far outweigh the effects of getting up at 6.30am to have it done before family time kicks in. All in all, things improved dramatically and despite being away, I got work done on all three disciplines for the first time.

I set out at the beginning of the week to try to work out some personal targets for TriAthy, how fast was I compared to others? Where did I want to finish? How was I going to handle the event, did I just want to finish, or would I be able to push hard and make a real stab at finishing as high up the rankings as I could?

A quick scan through the 2013 results handed me some pointers at where I should be aiming time wise, I know my current abilities in the individual swim, bike and run events, but what about when they’re combined? I’m pretty certain I’ll finish, I’m also now pretty certain I won’t be last. I’m 90% certain I can push and get a decent time for my first Olympic, now all I need to do I work and change that 90% into 100%.

I’m happy that the last 7 days got me closer to where I want to be and that I’m finishing the week stronger than I started it. Except for a bit lot of chocolate, I probably could have done better on that front, but sure Easter is just once a year and we only eat chocolate at Easter don’t we?!

I got 100lengths (2000m) done in the pool on Tuesday and another 75 (1500m) done on Thursday. These are all 100% front crawl and are generally done without stopping. I do tend to work in blocks of 10lengths from 0 to 50 where I concentrate on different aspects of the stroke – the kick, the glide, arm movement, twisting, breathing etc. The last 50lengths are supposed to be a perfect representation of what I just practised!

Only one block of S&C, on Wednesday. I need to get more of this into my week and really must make time to do it. I have a perfect plan put together by the lads in the Sports Surgery Clinic in Santry – when you have that much expertise at your disposal, it is a shame not to use it. I have a plan that is designed for 2 sessions a week, I just need to make it to the gym! I also got a 5k in, parkrun course again, no ill effects afterwards.

Why is it called a BRIC session? Nobody on twitter could tell me. I got on the bike for a proper spin for the first time this week too – we travelled to relatives for Easter and I’m proud of the fact that I researched a course in advance, sent it to my watch and actually brought the bike to do the training! TriAthy Olympic is a 40k ride so that’s what I did – the target was 90mins and we finished in 88. I’d call that a result! then it was practise transition, runners on and out for 5k to experience the ‘jelly leg’ syndrome – not too bad there either – target was a 6min km and came in just under – another result. Not many people have to call their wife to get the alarm code for the house because they set it off while practising transition though – that’s a new one on me.

Finally Easter Sunday was such a beautiful day, it was a shame to miss the opportunity to get out on the bike again – 22k at a decent pace got the legs moving.

Yep, definitely happy with all that, sorry for the long post – the injuries are feeling ok too, my achilles survived the bike and run sessions well, with no major stiffness afterwards and the back is responding well to stretching. The week ahead will be difficult with work and being away for most of the week because of it, but there’s always something I can do, I just need to work out how to do it!

Garmin data…
Wednesday 5k parkrun course – Data Here
Friday 40K bike ride – Data Here
Friday 5k Run – Data Here
Sunday 22k bike ride – Data Here