So its been a while since I 've penned any updates, about time. Anyone would have thought I'd lost interest in triathlon! Thankfully as I write training has been going very well, as always with a few caveats and exceptions! Last year my main weakness was my running, which was something that I specifically concentrated on over the winter. The technique work is now paying off which is great fun to see. More detail on that later!
Swimming
There has been none! Last year the plan I followed concentrated a lot on swimming and I kept up with it for the most part at the beginning of the plan, then I got so bored with the volume I let it drop off before the race which was rather silly. This year I've gone the other way and tried to keep a couple of sessions going before ramping up towards the later months. I've always been able to maintain a reasonable base of swimming so am hoping this plan works.
Cycling
This has been going very well. I've been hitting all my volume targets weather permitting and now that the clocks have gone forward getting out after work for a good length ride is so much easier. Training with power this year has really brought my riding on another level. As has having a very good new position on a correctly fitted bike! This is being reflected in my power numbers, and more importantly my training ride times. I've also been able to maintain close to 20mph averages for almost 70 miles at the moment, something which I was quite far away from last year. Hoping this should also improve given race conditions and aero wheels and helmet!
Running
My main area for improvement this year is going well. All of 2013 I barely set a PB as my running became gradually more and more inefficient. I was heel striking and doing it slowly. My main long runs were around the 9:00min/mile pace if I was lucky. I've chopped almost a minute off that pace, so my times are coming tumbling down, and as a result I've already set 3 new 10k pb's this year. This feels great, and is exciting. The last pb I felt like I was just out on a tempo run until the 5mile point, at which I realised a pb was within reach, so I all but sprinted the last 1.2miles. Not the most efficient way to get a pb, which fills me with yet more confidence given I'm sure I could go faster if well paced.
All of this is fairly meaningless over 10k distance when related to the IM distance, so I'll need to shift a focus onto doing some slightly longer distances over the next few weeks. It'll be interesting to see how this speed translates into splits in my coming races though.
Less than a month now until my first race of the year which is a sprint distance, so over the coming weeks I'll be concentrating on bringing up my swim volume and pretty much maintaining everything else. The bike distances will also start to pick up quite considerably too.
Looking forward to it. Another positive to note this year is my general outlook. I've been concerned that as I've completed the IM distance that I'd lost some of the fear that pushed my last year. I'm very aware that I do not want to become complacent. But I think being more laid back about training and striking up more of a balance between social time and training time has left me in a much better position. Last year I was fairly anal about missing sessions, and often pushed myself to being burnt out or ill, even injured. I've managed to avoid those things so far, yet am still performing better than this time last year, which is really positive.
I'll be looking to do some more analysis soon to try and quantify exactly where and how different my fitness is year on year.
