Training Review - Week 6 - Feb 1 to 7

I felt a bit better by the time I got home from work felt a bit happier so I got on with the turbo session I had planned. I even decided to spin out an extra 10 minutes on the bike to minimise the losses from previous weeks. Then I had dinner, cuddled Dexter for a while and then went to swimming. 

Last week the pool was roasting to the point that it was dehydrating people and causing cramps. This week we were warned that the Engineers had been in twice to fix it and had instead broken the heating completely so the water was cold. After dropping out of Sunday from the cold that was definitely not what I needed. The first couple of lengths of the warm-up was bad as I struggled to breathe against the cold-shock, and by lap 3 I had to stop at the end to catch my breath and let a guy who had been moved up a lane pass me. I tried another couple of lengths at a slower pace to see if I could control my breathing that way, but that didn’t work either and just left me snaking along twisting to get my head completely out of the water on each breath. I took a minute to evaluate my options, even to the point of considering sending someone out to the car to fetch my wetsuit, but that wasn’t a viable option for the planned session. I wasn’t going to gain anything from swimming so badly, that would just reinforce bad technique, so I quit and went home. By the time I got to the car I was almost in tears and I realise now that last week’s mood issues are actually another bout of depression. 

I couldn’t manage my yoga session in that state and then couldn’t sleep either. 

I am not really enjoying group swim or bike training now. The bits I am doing are mostly out of habit or because I have made commitments. I just don’t have the motivation to do everything on my own either. Doing bits here and there on my own is fine but there is no way I am getting through my plan by doing everything as a solo, and the solo sections that I do are rarely at the same intensity as group sessions. 5 weeks into the year and I am already considering writing off my whole racing season. I know a lot of that is because of the depression but that is a big hurdle. If I can’t get over the first hurdle the other 9 don’t really matter. 

If I can’t find a way to train properly within the next couple of weeks then the losses will quickly mount up to the point that there is no way to recover form or fitness for this season. I am already crossing off February and March test races from my plan and wondering where the value is in the April races and the knock on effect of that is that I get to the first Tri of the season with no race practice, and my ‘peak’ event suddenly becomes only my third race of the year. 


Midweek was a bit of a blur. Tuesday I did a run round Westhill before going to the Energy Institute presentation. Wednesday I did a run to the pool and a steady swim. Thursday I did another run round Westhill before going to see about wedding invitations. 
Friday I was too tired to do my planned turbo session so I went for a rest day. Just before bed I did the next yoga session, having slacked off all week. When it got to the shoulder massage I realised what a horrible state some of my muscles were in and followed up with a stretching and rollering session.

Saturday I was dragged out for a run to ASV and then did a set in the pool. And Sunday I went out for a ride but decided it was much too windy and headed home and did the last hour on the turbo instead.  

Having recovered my swimming numbers for the week after Monday I am pretty happy with that. And running 20 miles in a week was good as well. Biking I scraped towards the numbers but since I expected to do a lot more that was still disappointing. 

So the numbers look fairly good for the week but I have hated almost every minute of it. 



Target totals - Swim 1.9 miles. Bike 45.5 miles. Run 15.3 miles. 1 short core, 1 short light weights and 0 short stretching sessions. 60 mins of yoga.

Monday - Turbo 40 mins ~10.0 miles.
Swim with TPT 150m in 6 mins.

Tuesday - Run at Westhill 3.7 miles in 32 mins.

Wednesday - Run to pool 4.7 miles in 40 mins.
Steady swim 1,650m in 30 mins. 

Thursday - Run 5.0 miles in 40 mins.

Friday -  Rest day.
Yoga session 17 mins.
Stretching session.

Saturday - Run to ASV 6.7 miles in 1 hr.
Swim at ASV 2,100m in 48 mins.

Sunday - Bike 19.7 miles in 1 hr 26 mins.
Turbo 15 miles in 1 hr.

Actuals - Swim 2.4 miles (3,900 m). Bike 44.7 miles. Run 20.1 miles. 0 short core, 0 short light weights and 1 short stretching sessions. 17 mins of yoga.

Cumulative (Cumulative target) [Cumulative Stretch target]
S 11.2  (9.6)  [11.0],
B 192.6  (227.7)  [284.7],
R 98.3  (83.0) [93.8].