Taper/end of the off-season. Just two short swims, and ending the week with a 5k swimathon in open water in Goa.

The open water swim was interesting. No big waves, but a strong current towards the shore. And since the course was 1.25km straight out (perpendicular to the beach) and back, the way out was REALLY slow. Took over 40 mins each time on the way out, and about half the time coming back. Also, the sighting was a problem – there were only 2 buoys – one at 650m, and one at the 1.25km turnaround point. Both of these were not very visible from afar. So, I swam a total of about 5.5km even with frequent sighting. All in all, a good experience. It’s nice to have the confidence that I can swim for 2 hours in the sea… which makes my typical 1.9km HIM swim seem short by comparison.

The training for the swimathon (swims were the only part of my TP calendar that I followed in the last 3 weeks) gives me additional belief.

Now, a fresh season starts. A 12-week run-focussed block starting Monday.

Partial training after a 2-week break. The focus has been solely on swimming frequently and intensely in preparation for the Swimathon. Made sure I hit all four planned swim sessions (even if one or two of them were shorter than planned). Thanks to some work and other errands, I didn’t get much sleep this week, so skipped most of my other sessions on the bike and run.

Feeling good as far as the swim is concerned. The timing doesn’t show it, but I feel strong at the end of a 1500m or 2000m block, and am able to up the intensity just a little bit. I wasn’t able to do this a few months ago, so this is encouraging. A LOT more of this is required, of course.

Rest & recovery weeks 1 & 2 post-Colombo 70.3.

Took it really easy these two weeks. No upcoming races, and the first real break since September 2018. So, this felt good. I did feel a bit sluggish at the end of this 2-week period. I wasn’t too keen to get back to full training but did feel a loss of fitness creeping in. That said, it felt good to wake up later, have more time for the family and to have some weekend activities planned.

Race week in Colombo!

Had a great time racing with the coach and the rest of the Koa Sports team racing there – April, Jason, Chris, and Terry. Learned an incredible amount from them, and also had a ball training with them (OWS with April, a recce ride the day before, etc.).

The race went about as smoothly as I could’ve expected. It was a hot day, and my run suffered. But the bike was as good as I’d planned (33kmph+). The swim was also solid (<2000m in all, which meant I sighted well) at 41.30. A 5:30 finish was my target and I just about hit the target. So quite happy overall.

The week leading up to the race was good – and this is a first. My final taper week involved practice swims (open water and pool), a couple of rides, and no illnesses. This was a big reason for the performance, I’m sure.

After the last 6 months of training for Goa and Colombo, I’m taking a small “off-season” break. I’m going to focus on swimming so that I have some fitness for the Swimathon in March. But otherwise, it’s time to pause and take it easy for a month before I get back into the next solid training block.

Now, on to bigger and better things.

A good lead-in to race week taper. Not as heavy a load planned as last week, but hit most of the targets except Tuesday (Tuesday was a late night at work – past midnight, so slept in on Wednesday). The weekend block was good and finished with an outdoor ride after swapping cassettes on my wheels.

The keys to this taper week are:

1. Do all the sessions as planned. Don’t lose momentum.
2. Pack the bike safely (and preferably in advance – not waiting till Thursday morning)
3. Make sure the swim sessions, in particular, are done as planned. “Water-feel” is very important for me.

On to the next week.

Another rough week with illness. Didn’t feel too good early in the week – I suspect some kind of sinus infection (headaches and pain behind the cheekbone) all week. Felt low energy. On doc’s advice, I skipped all swims this week, but managed to do all the other sessions – even if not at my best. Also threw in a short ROTB at the end.

I am not happy with the lead-in to Colombo, but I need to make the most of it and try to taper well, with a good frequency of sessions. I’m hoping that the banked fitness from the last few months will help me get a PB. Post-Colombo, I have to work on a good strategy to make a marked improvement.

Two things I need to work on with my coach are:
1. How not to fall sick everytime I build some training momentum. Over the last 8-10 months, when I get to 650+ TSS weeks for a couple of weeks, I tend to fall sick.
2. The run-specific block late in 2018 helped a lot. 5:00 is the new normal for me, and it used to be 5:30. I want to do a similar reset for my bike (36kmph instead of 27-30) and swim (1:45 instead of 2:00 /100m in the pool).

Week Colombo –  1 coming up. Focus on the swim to make up for last week, and build confidence.

A reasonable week until Saturday afternoon. Then, I fell sick (as did everyone else in the household). I had planned to go join a bunch of other folks on a bike-run ITT. That didn’t happen… and I ended up feeling quite tired through all of Sunday and much of Monday. That and a missed swim midweek turned a 750+ TSS week into a 530 TSS week.

The coming week is the biggest before Colombo, so I need to make it count.

First proper training week since Goa. Mid-week slump due to work travel (couldn’t do any training on Thursday evening and Friday). Tried to make up for it over the weekend. Didn’t have time to go get my bike fixed at the bike shop so had to do a trainer long ride on Sunday, but it’s definitely getting fixed this week. The ROTB was a bit harder than I’d have liked – it wasn’t really hot, but my HR was quite high.

On to the next week. The goal this week is to try and hit all the training sessions.

Recovery week post-race. Monday was spend driving (14 hours!). And felt a bit sick on Tuesday & Wednesday, so ended up not doing those sessions. Picked up the training during the second half of the week – focusing on getting each of the sessions done… every session felt labored and slow.

The next 4 weeks (+ 1-week taper) are vital to a good race in Colombo – so I’m going to try hard to keep the intensity up.

On to the last training block before Colombo.

‘B’ Race week. Goa 113 Tri. Finished 3rd overall (and got some prize money! :-)).

Swim – slower than anticipated. Sighting was a problem – goggles fogged up, buoys were not prominent, and the sun shone straight into my eyes on the return leg. Swam nearly 2200m. Can cut that by a bit, and also swim a bit faster. 48m swim was too slow.

Bike – was a good leg. Took my spare bike, and managed to average >30kmph. Need to up this to 32kmph in the next 5 weeks to do a 2:50 bike leg. Stayed aero for stretches so that was good.

Run – hot, so didn’t attempt to stick to the 5 min/km plan. I couldn’t have done it anyway. Aimed to do 5.30/km. Was ahead in the first half, and slightly behind on the second half. Averaged just about 5.30 for a 22.3km run.

Overall 5:47 with transitions. Could’ve done about 5:42. In the next 4-5 weeks, need to raise the intensity particularly on the bike and swim.

What I learned:

1. Make sure the taper week plan is executed – this is critical to a good race.
2. Get better goggles, use anti-fog and practice well with them.
3. Work more on sighting in the next 4 weeks (without losing momentum)
4. Work on juggling nutrition an hydration while on the bike without losing time.

On to week 3 (recovery week)