Monday 29 September 2008

the last swim


one of my first posts on this blog was The First Swim, now, here we are, at the Last Swim (i'm so quasi dramatic)

it's six days until the triathlon and i've got one more run and one more bike up my sleeve, then that's it!

so, the final swim, how did she go? my time for 400m was 7 mins 36 seconds - very happy. if i can get under eight mins on sunday, i'll be stoked!

let's re-cap how my training has been for the last week:

monday: 1/2 hr cycle, 20 min run, 1/2 hour swim
tuesday: rest
wednes: 1/2 hour cycle followed by 6 min run
thursda:
20 min cycle followed by 10 min run, 10 minute cycle followed by 5 min run, 1/2 hour swim
friday: rest (well, sick actually, but who's counting?)
saturda: 25 min swim, clocked time of 7 min 36.
sunday: 2 hour cycle, around london - so not fast

have managed to stick pretty well to my aim of training 5 days out of 7 - which actually was a lot easier than what i had imagined. because i've had shorter training sessions (usually max. 1 hour at a time) - i've been able to slot the training easily into my routine.

as a result - i don't believe i'm going to perform much faster than what i could have achieved nine weeks ago, but i do definately feel more prepared, physically, for the tole on my body. hell, i'm actually looking forward to it!

so time wise, i'm still expecting much the same as i did when i started this blog:

swim (400m): this one's a bit easier to anticipate thanks to trusty stopwatch! - 7 mins 40 secs
bike (23kms): no idea, probably about the same as everyone else - 56 mins?!
run (5kms): still expect to be hitting the 30 min mark, which will place me right at the back!

i've definately focused more on cycling and swimming these past nine weeks, as i knew my running would need more than nine weeks to get better (like try a decade) - but this is also a tester triathlon for me, and being the end of the tri season - it's also an indicator of whether i want to continue training over the winter and compete in next year's season.

in the meantime, six days remaining...!!


3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Al,

Almost there, as you said just six days to go and this is the fun part - you are allowed to taper (=rest) this week without feeling bad.

Have a great race this weekend and try to enjoy it all so we can follow your progress over the winter and into the next season.

Thomas

Anonymous said...

T minus 115 hours !!

Have you got your elastic laces at the ready !!!

Looking forward to it. Weeeeeeeee

Rob Bane said...

Hi,

I've really enjoyed and been inspired by your musings over the past 9 weeks. I hope you have got what you'd hoped for from training and that Saturday is the cherry on top you deserve. Try to enjoy it, even the run if you can!