Last week, in my IRONMAN – SEASON 3 PART 5 post, I missed the long endurance ride after a mechanical. I have now ordered a new chain for the Boardman bike but will be using the race bike (Giant Propel) for the time being.

As mentioned last week, I need to get on top of the bike training, it has fallen away in recent weeks. I am planning on spending more time in the saddle this week and then building that up over the coming weeks.

This week is easy week, a time to let the body recover and prepare for some tougher sessions to come.

From this week onwards my daugther will be back in nursery Wed – Fri which will give me a little more time to do some training either on my lunch break or just before collecting her.

Monday:

Today was a rest day, bringing the 48 day run streak to an end. I was really tempted to just go out and run 3 or 4 miles to keep the streak going but then what would be the point in that? I wouldn’t gain anything so I enjoyed the lunchtime sun with my daugther and painted a few more fence panels.

Tuesday:

Easing back into things with a 55 min strength building ride on Zwift.

The evening was hot, still 25’c at 8pm but it is tempo Tuesday and we are working on speed so the show must go on, that said, I just wasn’t feeling it, motivation felt low and I could have easily stayed at home, it is easy week afterall.

I went out and got it done though. 1.5 mile warm up and cool down sandwiching 10 x 400m reps @ max effort. These ranged from 76sec – 79sec, not sure whether that is any good or not as I haven’t ran 400m flat out since high school and tonight was on the road with a slight uphill gradient on every other rep (the slower ones).

I nearly packed it in after 6 reps, it was feeling hard, running flat out with the heart racing and struggling to catch your breath makes you want to quit. The body was screaming no more. I got a stich on the 7th rep, the 8th was grim, the 9th was my fastest, no idea how but i’ll take it then the 10th just got done, no point giving up on the last rep.

I felt pretty good about getting this session done, it was a battle from the get go, before I had left the house. Going into a session with that kind of mindset already has you feeling negative about it. Sometimes you just have to just through and get it done.

Wednesday:

First day back at nursery for my daughter. Have to admit, we were a little anxoius about sending her back in, but she has a big few months ahead of her before moving to primary school in September. She was really excited about going back and loved it.

Training wise, I kicked off with an hour easy spin on Zwift, should have been @ 180w but TrainingPeaks wasn’t linking through to Zwift and as with every easy run or ride, I ended up going a bit too hard averaging 198w, not massively over but still.

Lunchtime running is back!! 7 mile easy paced run averaging 8:16/mi @ 130bpm. Felt great running today, the sun has gone and the temperature has dropped 14’c today, just felt like I was coasting around.

Finished the day off with a 90minute endurance ride on Zwift with 6 x 90 sec @ 400w sprints thrown in there to spice things up.

Thursday:

Still building up the bike mileage this week, I started off with a Virtual Commute. As I can’t ride into the office I am missing the 60 mile round trip and that time in the saddle, although I don’t miss cycling into work with the big backpack weighing me down.

Today’s virtual commute was “only” 27 miles, but a good solid workout. 71 minutes of free riding around Zwift averaging a steady 246w.

Lunch time saw the return of the Tempo Run. This being the third installment. 1.2 mile warm up and cool down with 6 miles at goal (standalone) marathon pace of 6:50/mi. I run this session every other week and increase the miles at marathon pace by one each time.

Things felt sluggish to start off with, just scrapping the first mile at 6:49/mi, once I found the pace and rythym things felt good, the next 5 miles ranged from 6:41 – 6:44. Too fast, but I can get away with that when it’s just 6 miles. Need to work on being more disciplined and hold closer to the target pace otherwise race day will end up in me going off too fast and blowing up.

Finished up today with 75 mins on the bike getting some 70.3 pace into the legs. 2 x 20min @ 260w, 5min @ 300w. The legs weren’t feeling happy about this one, I had only left a few hours between the tempo run and this bike session. They ached from the start and managed to get through but it took it out of me.

Friday:

6 mile easy run, setting out at 5:50am. Another week of early wake ups and yesterday’s tough sessions made this easy run feel anything but easy. I slowed the pace to keep the heart rate down but the legs felt heavy.

Same route as Wednesday’s 7 mile easy run, same average heart rate @ 130bpm, but the pace was 8:51/mi today. A sign the body is feeling it.

I swapped out a tempo ride at lunch and just spent an hour on Zwift just spinning the legs at 180w.

Saturday:

Today should have started with a 1 mile time trial but it was pouring down and the wind blowing around 20mph so I scrapped that idea, I will try again during the next easy week in four weeks time.

I jumped on the bike for 2 and half hours of endurance work in the dry but very cold garage. Felt good and strong on this session, the legs felt much better and I held the power throughout with no issues.

• 5 min warm up
• 60 min @ 245w
• 5 min recovery @ 180w
• 30 min @ 260w
• 5 min recovery @ 180w
• 40 min @ 245w
• 5 min cool down

Rather than totally skip the run I went out for another 6 mile easy run, nothing too taxing just some active recovery.

Sunday:

Woke up early today to get my 15 mile long run done before 9am but it was pouring down. Motivation completely went then so I jumped on the bike in the garage for the easy hour on Zwift with the plan of doing the long run after lunch when hopefully it was dry or at least, less wet.

To be honest, I didn’t really want to do the run today, after lunch I kept putting it back, hoping it would rain to give me the excuse to not go. I could justify it as it’s easy week. In the end I went out, I thought I could get 10 miles done and would be happy.

As with every time I feel like I just can’t be bothered with a run, once I got going it was good. Having that head space to just switch off and run is great and once again I was enjoying the run. So much so, I didn’t run the 10 miles, didn’t run the 15 mile that were on the plan. I ran 15.5 miles to give me a round 50 miles for the week. A good end to the week and a positve to pick up on tomorrow as week 6 starts.

Weekly Stats:

• Swim – 0 yrds, 0hr 0min
• Bike – 226.8 Miles, 10hr 12min
• Run – 50.0 Miles, 6hr 36min
• Strength – 3hr 0min

I wanted to get some more miles and time on the bike this week and I did that. Over 10 hours in the saddle and some good sessions banked as well as some steady time spinning the wheels. Running was solid as ever, speed and endurance sessions went well and the long run was good once I got going.

Roll on week 6 AND for now, 13 weeks until Ironman Wales.