It’s Thursday evening and I’m the train on the way home from a pretty full day at work. It’s often hard from me to remind myself that I’ve got a hugely important race coming up in 2 days.... I always feel a bit annoyed really as I know I should really be at home resting and getting everything sorted for it; as it stands I’ve not been able to anything done yet.
The good news is that Sigma (my main equipment sponsor) has agreed to replace the bike I had broken last year until mine can hopefully be fixed. This is great news as the course on Sunday REALLY doesn't suit my aluminum TT bike. The super lightweight carbon "Nemesis" will be perfect for those nasty hills!
Training has....well just be moving along I guess. I just don't seam to be able to hit a peak though. I feel solid and fairly fit but I just feel like I’ve not got any zip... I'm having to trust that this will come on Sunday morning and that it’s just a case of the taper leaving me a little sluggish. I'm looking forward to the race though as I’m anticipating feeling this zip and being able to REALLY race, and execute the race properly this time too.
I'm still working on my swimming with Alex and there are definitely improvements. I have a length or 2 that feel great. The first few on Tuesday felt really good, but thereafter my lack of real swim strength with proper technique takes over and my stroke gets sloppy. I can feel it physically and also in the speed and efficiency that I swim but it just becomes so hard to keep it. However, it’s encouraging to know that it IS there. I just need to keep working at it. I've not been consistently swimming longer harder sessions more recently and I’m confident that when I do my technique and strength will improve in line with the work I’ve been doing. 6 weeks is the next target. I've entered London Triathlon Elite. It’s likely to have a lot of the top guys from around the world there due to the prize money and I’m desperate to be able to swim well enough to feel its worth racing too. 20mins is the goal. Right now I recon I’m at about 21.... It might not sound like much but trust me that minute is HUGE! In both effort to improve enough to go that fast and also the difference it makes to my race.
I've decided that whilst I’ll have an easy week next week after this weekends' race, the swimming HAS to be maintained.... If not upped! I heard one former world champion the other day say that he was swimming up to 30 miles a week when he won his title..... That's probably about 6miles a day (whilst biking and running too) if u allow for a rest day.... To help you grasp that, it’s nearly 10,000m a day or 400lengths of your local pool!....each day....consistently day after day week after week.... Looks like I’m going to REALLY start smelling of chlorine :-))
That's all for now...trying to keep this one more about training that anything going on in my head... I'm sure my last little rant was enough of that!
