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)

A good start to 2019 and a good training week. 760+ TSS, 11 hours of total training for the week – first such hard week for a long time.  Felt good. Missed one swim, but had two good swims and will work on the swim consistency.

1 week to go to Goa 113 (70.3 distance race) – it’s an unofficial race, and I’m treating it as a practice race or a tough training session. It is going to be tough – bike course has 900m of elevation gain and it’s rolling hills the entire way through. The run course is similarly hard – 22.5km run and it’ll be 33+ deg by the time I start my run. All of which constitutes great practice for Colombo and the Goa 70.3 in Oct. It’ll also help me do some race practice in the heat and give me a chance to work on my nutrition and hydration.

The coming week is going to be a tough one on the work front, so I’m hoping to just stay in touch with my training plan and keep something in the tank for a tough weekend of racing in Goa.

On to week 2.

A slightly harder week this time around – to coincide with many dinners, drinks, and other events. But it was a good week overall. Nearly 600TSS this week. Most importantly, I had 2 good swim sessions for the second straight week – which felt good.

Starting next week, I’m going to aim for 3 swims a week as per the plan. This will ensure good recovery as well, and better feel in the water. So it can only help.

I also did my first outdoor ride in 4 months (since Australia!) – all my training has been on the trainer. Outdoor rides in Bangalore are hard – there’s traffic, pollution, and terrible roads. And rides can only really be done very early on Sundays and on certain roads. The big goal for next year is to up the frequency of outdoor rides but to do it with groups and not by myself.

2 weeks to Goa 113. And another 5 weeks after that to Colombo. So (despite an inevitable spike in work activity in early 2019), I am aiming for a nice intense run-in to Colombo.

On to 2019.

A lighter week (with recovery from the HM last Sunday). One missed session. The focus moves on to swim and bike while maintaining the run fitness built up over the last couple of months. The first quarter of 2019 will be mostly focused on the swim – getting better on that front – while not compromising the run and bike as much as possible.

On to the last full week of 2018.

An excellent finish to the week! Ran a ‘run test’ half marathon on Sunday to end an 11-week run-focused training block since October 1. I managed to set the half marathon PB I hoped to, and got very close to my target time.

Goal time: 1:36:00 (4:33/km)
Race time: 1:36:50 (4:35/km)

In the process, I also set a 10km PB of 43:56. I suspect that I could do 42:xx in a stand-alone 10km. I’ll try this sometime post-March ’19.

The race itself was a little hillier than I anticipated (180m), but the conditions were near perfect otherwise. Closed road, 17 deg cool, and I had warmed up for the first time in years.

Now, it’s time to focus on: (1) losing a couple of kilos of flab before Feb (2) focusing on swim and bike for the next 10 weeks (3) not losing my run fitness.

On to the next week.