Training

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. ...

The week started Monday with an easy swim — legs and arms were still pretty beat from Challenge Kraichgau. In hindsight I could have saved myself the trip, since I lost my swim cap, goggles, and swim watch at the pool. The first two I can live with — I have more than enough swim caps and the goggles were already well-worn… but the good swim watch, that really wasn’t necessary. ...

… Home again ‘cross the sea I am sailing stormy waters … That was the theme of today’s bike session. So much wind, me and my TT bike = an absolute blast!!! If anyone was wondering who was riding back and forth between Dielheim and Balzfeld five times — that was me. I would have happily done it more, but the session was only supposed to be 1.5 hours. Why did I do it? Because I wanted to sail… ...

55 days to Ironman Frankfurt, and the training is getting harder… Training Week 9 was the last in a three-week loading block that pushed the intensity pretty hard at times. Lots of race pace and above — which is brutal, but also incredibly satisfying. The week started with a rest day on Monday. Tuesday morning brought a one-hour run with short sprints, hill repeats, and tempo intervals, followed by a 75-minute bike ride in the evening — fairly easy with a few small intervals. ...

During today’s session I was involuntarily forced to test my new bike’s off-road capabilities. On the way back from the Kraichgau, there was a massive construction site right on my planned route, making it completely impassable. Unfortunately the signs only appeared very close by — otherwise I would have rerouted much earlier. So there I stood, already past the planned session duration, thinking through my options: Option 1: Push through the construction site and risk getting tar on the bike and tires? Option 2: Take a 30-minute detour and make an already hard session even harder? Option 3: Cut through the forest and across fields to bypass the construction site? ...

Last week only had 17.5 training hours, but with other obligations and very little sleep it was right at the edge of what’s manageable. I really needed today’s rest day. Tuesday I kicked things off with an easy run and a short bike session. Wednesday featured one of my favorite sessions: 3.5 hours on the bike with 4x30min at threshold, followed by a 1.5-hour brick run with a hard finish in the last 30 minutes. I’d definitely earned Thursday’s recovery day with a swim session. ...