It was a pretty good weekend. The water was a bit "crisp" I have to say - and my recommended early morning "check the course out" swim did not feel like a great idea in the cold drizzling rain at 7:30am. In hind sight I think it was a good idea (when in the van with the heaters on full!). Some great racing, and I think even a good time was had by some. From my end, young Alex did well, but was probably not quite the race course for him. He probably wanted a better result than what he got - but he raced the best he could, and I don't think he could have done anything better. Horses for courses and all that. Bex had a great race - also for fourth - from a runner who could survive the swim and get through a bike to start running - to carving up the bike and pulling through strong on the run! The Dio Team also did fantastic - 2 wins and a 5th for the senior girls (few to many injured athletes!).
This week sees a new phase in the training for me. I have moved from school triathlon coach to school cycling coach. So two mornings per week on the bike for the next two terms. I have had the first week of training - which was a little better than expected after the training camp. I got a little lucky and ended up taking the better group of the senior riders. They know pretty much what they are doing and you just let them go to it and sort them selves out (at the moment anyway). There is also some healthy competition to get into the A team - so I think that will help motivation. I did end up being tail end charlie on the way home on the first ride, which was a little less fun - I am not sure how they manage to go so slow and not fall off their bikes! Add to that early morning Auckland commuter traffic and the last 2km takes about 15 minutes with a few sets of lights to negotiate...
The training implications are now that I have more cycling automatically added to the program, and less opportunity for swimming. This month (May), I need to move from recovery and introductory training (all pretty easy) into some more serious training. So the training is going to hopefully turn into something along these lines:
Swimming: Monday and Wednesday morning squads, and I need at least one other swim, preferably two, even if they are just an easy 2km plod. That is one of my challenges to sort out this month. Swimming is definitely going down with the very erratic and low amount of sessions being done. What I do get done is good - it is just not enough!
Cycling: I have two spin classes to take - so that is a hard ride and a reasonably easy one. Two early morning rides (most weeks) with the school girls. These will no doubt involve some solid efforts now and then (well - they better do!), but will be easy-ish overall. Long rides are sort of back underway for Sundays but these too are under threat from a few sources. There are a few early morning school team time trials to contend with on Sunday mornings - but I think I will just ride a little later. There is winter weather to cope with too. A little further down the track I also want to do a few long runs in the waitak's on a Sunday morning instead of long rides. I probably need to add in a steady/strength ride at least every second week at some stage for "my training", which might be tricky to fit in. That will also mean probably more cycling in a week than I have done in a very long time. I am sort of interested in what will happen in this regard!
Running: I have been doing stuff all! Friday morning run intervals and one or two other very short easy sessions. That was sort of the plan - get the strength training going and then slowly get into the running. Well the strength training has been sort of there (not perfect, but getting done), and now I think it is time to start running a little more. This year I do want to get some running form back. I have signed up for the cross country running season - which starts next weeks (eek!). I am sure the first few races will be very sorry affairs, but hopefully will build some form a little down the track! I think the first step is to get in at least 3 hours of running in a week and build that up to 4.5 to 5 hours in the next 4-5 weeks. The long run needs to get up to 1hr30min pretty quickly too. Then hopefully I can survive a Waitak's run or two.
Weights: have been doing them, and I am getting stronger, and I am still getting sore muscles after - darn it! I have missed a couple of sessions here and there and I think that is what is making the muscle soreness worse.
I do enjoy getting into a routine and ticking off the training and seeing the results that that usually gives. It can be easy for obsessive personalities to let training become the single focus in life - to the detriment of other things in their lives, and usually then their training too. Life often throws a few curve balls just to test you, and also opportunities pop up that may never pop up again. I have a few which can probably fall into the latter, coming up - as weddings. Young Woody is off up the Isle this weekend, and my dear friend Pete from Germany has just invited me over in June for his wedding.
