Originally written in German. Translated to English by AI — please excuse any awkward phrasing.
Last week started Monday morning with a one-hour swim that got harder toward the end than originally planned. Not surprising — I was nowhere near fully recovered from the efforts of the day before.
On Tuesday I tried a run format I’d never done before: 100 minutes split into 10 blocks of 10 minutes each. Every block consisted of an easy portion and a tempo run segment, with the duration varying throughout. I started with 9 minutes easy and 1 minute at tempo, the second block was 8 minutes easy and 2 minutes tempo… all the way to the final block: 1 minute easy and 9 minutes at tempo. That was pretty brutal toward the end, due in part to the weather. The last 30 minutes I got absolutely drenched and arrived home soaked through. The 1.5-hour bike ride later that day was doable in dry conditions — more of a recovery spin.
Wednesday brought very race-specific training again: 4 hours on the bike with 8x20min at race pace, followed by a 1.5-hour brick run with a hard finish. I already had no legs on the bike and really had to fight from the 5th interval onward to hit the prescribed watt targets. On the run it continued the same way. I could hold a 4:30/km pace without too much trouble, but unfortunately the final push wasn’t much faster…
Thursday was a well-deserved rest day, with a 30-minute swim for recovery.
Friday was strength training followed by the long 2.5-hour run, which went smoothly and without incident.
Saturday’s motto was “gone with the wind.” We had really strong winds, sometimes quite gusty — staying on the bike wasn’t always straightforward. The plan was 5 hours GA1 with a 75-minute easy brick run afterward. I really wanted to ride the Kalmit again, so I headed out to the Palatinate Forest. The first hour with a crosswind was still somewhat manageable, but from Speyer onward it was a direct headwind for over an hour. At times I was doing under 20 km/h on flat ground — averaging 25 km/h at 230 watts, which would normally get me 40 km/h on flat roads. The Kalmit climb itself was great as always, though the descent got a bit cold. On the way home: tailwind! That was amazing — barely above recovery watts and 50 km/h on the flat. If I could order that for Ironman… The brick run afterward was relaxed and uneventful.
Sunday was a planned 75-minute swim with a few quality GA2 intervals mixed in.