Today signalled the end of my first proper week of tri training for my middle distance race in August.  I was slightly apprehensive at the start of the week, because even right from Day 1 it looked like quite a high training load for me.  Anyway, all that was for it was to start it and see what happened.  The plan works on the basis of Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE), such that the intensity of each session is based on RPE.  Of course RPE will differ from person to person, but the important bit to note here is that most of the sessions in the first few weeks are set at fairly low RPE, i.e. a level of intensity that would allow you to hold a conversation with someone if you were running or cycling along.  Not sure how you converse in the pool, but there you go.

So with that as a starting point, I embarked on the week.  I’ve loaded all the training sessions onto a program called Training Peaks, which allows me to track progress.  By uploading the sessions on first, it shows me what’s coming up from day-to-day, but crucially, when I finish a session that’s been recorded on my Garmin, and upload it to TP, it will automatically fill in the ‘completed’ part of the ‘planned’ session.  So completing upwards of 80% of the planned sessions will highlight them in green, less than 80% in amber, and anything below 50% or not completed at all shows in red.  Traffic lights of success!  This week I achieved 7 greens and 2 ambers.  The latter because my long swim wasn’t as long as it should have been, and my long ride today was a bit short too.  I’m not worried about those though.  This is week one, and it’s more exercise in a week than I’ve done in years, and that is NOT an exaggeration.  Keeping the RPE low has helped me get through it. I’m not counting chickens though, there are a lot of weeks to come, and inevitably I’ll get more fatigued as I continue to train.  The plan has one rest day a week scheduled in on a Saturday, but I will try to re-jig things when I can to include 2 rest days.  This week I switched it to Thursday rather than Saturday, and it was absolutely the right decision.  So the scores on the doors for this week are as follows:

Distances covered were:

• Swim: 4525m
• Bike: 12.04 miles (mostly completed on indoor spin bike, so no distance for that)
• Run: 9.3mi

Next week the plan is similar to this week, and it’s all just about getting it done.  In terms of the swim, the training plan I’m using gives the swim set in distance, and puts an estimated time with it.  However, I think the timings assume you’re part dolphin, and for the long swim, if I completed the suggested distance, it would take me nearly 80 mins I reckon, rather than the 40 they estimate.  So for the long swim i’m capping it at 1 hour.  As I improve, the distance I can cover in an hour should increase, so that suits me.  While triathlon is all about the bike, since the bike is the biggest portion of the race, I do need to improve on my swimming.  I want to be able to get out of the water in a good time (for me), and not be totally bolloxed.  Also i’m actually enjoying the swimming of late, so long may that continue.  When I think back to when I was training for the Ironman, I did bugger all swimming, and doubt I EVER swam 4.5K in a week.  It’s not wonder I sucked at IM, haha!!

Anyway, it’s been a good week, and the important thing is I’m enjoying the training, and i’m back out on the road bike which is a miracle in and of itself.  I just need to keep on it.

Happy Easter folks 🙂