After a fairly dismal, but adequate race at Muskoka, I targeted my bike as the weakest link. Unfortunate since I thought I was a fab biker... but more-so because it's ~50% of the race. Something needs to be done.
First thing was first. Could I find any free speed anywhere? I checked my position... this dude's got the flattest back in the West. I thought about what I did with my head... I keep it low and out of the way. I don't have an aero helmet... but are those really that important? Seriously. I don't know. I recently purchased a wheel cover. I can't afford new wheels. I've moved my bottle between my arms on my bars and got rid of superfluous bottle cages. I've made a tiny flat-pack, wrapped it up ultra-small and zip-tied it under my saddle. Super out-of-the-way. I think I've optimized that side of things...
But still! I'm somewhere under 160lbs, have a nice, well-fit TT bike... and yet, even 290W doesn't get me going 40km/hr. I don't know what to do. Maybe I am "cursed" with a wide body. Maybe my practically concave-chest acts as a sail. I don't know. All I can think to do is train harder.
With that in mind, cue bike "crash" block. Probably not the greatest name considering the sport... Never the less, I went for a very easy ride the Monday after the race and started from there. I road every day for 11 days (if one includes race-day as part of this week (who wouldn't)). I reduced my swimming and running during this phase, but did not eliminate them. Here is the breakdown:
Monday: 1 hour bike, easy
Tuesday: 10min @ 250W, 5min @ 300W, 10min @ 250W, 5min @ 300W -- 7:30 rest -- 20min @ 280W INTO 10 min moderate tempo run
Wednesday: 45min easy ride
9x200m swimming, various pull/paddles/swim, 1500m TT pace
Thursday: INDOOR - 15min @ 280W -- rest -- 3x2:30 >320W w/2:30 rest
(Deceptively hard. Holding 280W for 15min did not feel particularly easy as it probably should have been.)
Friday: 40min @ 280W -- 3-4 min rest -- 2:30 > 320W INTO 5km up-tempo run (17:46)
Later that night, 30 minutes easy running to shake the legs out a bit
Saturday: various HARD hill repeats. Anaerobic stuff for sure. 4x 3ish minute intervals. Finish it off with a little bit of threshold time.
Sunday: 40 minutes of moderate-hard fartlek running. Mostly moderate to be honest.
70 minutes easy riding
Monday: 20min @ 285W -- 10min rest -- 15min @ 285W -- 7:30min rest -- 10min @ 285W -- 5min rest -- 5min @ 285W
Later, 20min tempo run, 5ish mins rest, 1km fast
Tuesday: 50 min easy ride
10x200m swim intervals at around 1500m TT pace, 15 seconds rest between
Wednesday: 20km TT, all out. Power plumeted in the second half of the trial, only could average about 270-ish Watts and 31:30. Very tired, legs destroyed.
2x1000m swimming, long, slow, fairly easy stuff, broken up a bit into various strokes
This lead me into my "peaking" phase. I'm prepping for the Toronto Triathlon Festival, which I have learned is AG Nationals this year. Better get it right this time. More on peaking later. After the race. As a bit of a teaser... I'm feeling like I'm recovering... nervous I'm detraining... and not really feeling like I'm getting fast yet. Perhaps this crash week was a little too much and I just need some time... Come Monday I go into "race week" meaning dedicated recovery, so maybe I'm right where I need to be. We shall see...
Adam "Too late to fix anything now" Fortais
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