by Todd C Tue Mar 09, 2010 5:13 am
I had a recovery week last week (1-7 March) that coincided with a work conference in Cairns. I planned to do some running and swimming while there. Well bugger me it is hot up there. I couldn't run more than 4km without melting. Luckily it was 4km from the hotel to the pool so I managed that twice and also 'stop / started' through a 10km run. Got back to Port Mac on Saturday afternoon and decided to do the local club champs (Oly Dist) on Sunday - but with a twist.
The race is held at Wauchope and I decided that I would run to the start - 21km. So I got up at 4:30 and was out the door at 4:50am with the plan to sit on IM pace of around 5:30/km. I got out there in around 1:53 from memory which was a bit quicker than planned but I felt great the whole way despite 75% of it being in the dark.
Target race pace for the Oly was 'solid'. I wanted to ease into each discipline with the real focus on the 10km run. The swim was uneventful. 26:30 wasn't quick enough to avoid being lapped by Adam Holborrow on the 3rd of 4 laps. I had the slowest T1 in the race, but I wasn't really in a hurry. 4 lap bike course and again it was a case of trying not to get overtaken by Adam (tough assignment). I turned at the end of 3 laps about 200m in front of Adam (very poor mission accomplished). Got off the 42km bike in around 1:20 so not lightening quick but good enough to ensure the legs where tired heading into the run.
The run started out well enough and the target pace was 'a bit quicker than IM'. I settled in at 5:10/km and pretty much stayed there for the entire run (4 laps again). After 2 laps my knee started to give me some grief and I stopped briefly to shake it out. 3rd lap was the slowest at around 5:20 pace and then I pushed it home over the last 1km or so for a 5:10 pace final lap. All up around 50mins for the 9.5km run (according to Mr Garmin). That was probably a fair bit quicker than target IM pace, but after 30km of running for the day I was happy with the session. I'm pretty sure I was DFL in B Grade
So ended up with about 10hours for the week of which about half was on Sunday.
Last big week this week before a 2 week taper.