For this past week training has been ON! I suppose the theory is that we have a couple of weeks to get some solid solid training in before we taper again so lets fit it all in. The weather in Victoria has been fantastico! Reaching temperatures as high as 31c! Not bad, not bad at all. The Highlights for the past week would have to be last Friday, Tuesday and Wednesday and yesterday.
But that is all for now,
The first hard day back from Austin was Friday. Wow. Don't know how we jammed it all into one day but the day went like this.
Swim in the am was 5.5km and the 2km main set consisted of a 400 Time Trial. Not a super fast time but the effort was certainly there due to the race only 4 days prior. 4.28 was the time. Directly after we got into a set of 8x200s build 1-4(getting down to 2.14) and Best average for 4-8(avg 2.17s) Not bad. I'll take it.
MOTO PACING!! You've got to love motor pacing. Basically 5 loops of the waddling dog loop. main set being 2x2laps. 2 laps with the scooter and 2 working with Aruss and Austin. There is something so fun about riding in a small pack when everyone is riding soooo smooth together. We were riding faster then the front pack of Austin tx yet was easier because of how smooth the pulls were. An absolute pleasure guys! On the way home Austin and I had some fun breaking off the front of the scooter and racing it home a bit.
Off to Beacon Hill park for a run. 4 'Harder than Hamish' Loops. Feeling the days workouts it made for a tough run but managed to have a solid workout. The day did catch up to me in the end but it's all money in the bank. Good running guys.
After some hard training on the weekend. Tuesday was almost a splitting image of Fridays training.
Excluding the 400 TT the swim was quite identical including the 8x200s again. Not as fast but again the effort was there.
No more than an hour later, we were on the wheel of the scooter. Shorter set but with the option of putting in attacks. 3 laps. Starting the final lap I made an attack, I realized that I had a pretty good gap and made the decision to just hold on. I chased after the cars along Lochside and held a strong pace. I stayed away for about 8km till the end of the set. Perhaps I went above the required effort but I figured, 'make hay while the sun is shining.'
Problem was we had 8x1km repeats in the afternoon to get ready for. With the extra effort on the bike in the morning I had to recover hard core for the afternoon. The km repeats went quite well with a bit of a slip at the end. On a 4.30 turn around and a slight down hill out and uphill back. Some strong running by the lot of us and another major day of training. 
Wednesday not to mention a swim and a run in the am, was the usual Criterium and this week we were up at Newton Heights. My favourite. Bloody hard but so much fun. Guaranteed to get a good workout. Shailie, Andrew and I rode out to the course in the heat of the day. Didn't take much to get warmed up. Not a massive pack but a fast group none the less. 25 laps for the "A"s and 20 for the "B"s It started out rather slow but built each hill repetition. The pack narrowed down to 5 of us. 
This 5 would remain together for the majority of the race. This included Tyler Trace, Craig Logan, Andrew Russell, Bruce Schlatter and I. It was one attack after another mainly on the hill to try and split up the pack, each of us trying to catch the other in a tough moment. (What a cruel sport) Andrew R struggled on a hill but not only caught up but came flying by for the hill. This started an acceleration that caught me in a weak moment. Andrew and I fell off the back and the two of us ended up individually time trialing to try and catch up. A couple of laps later I managed to bridge back up with 3 laps to go. My legs were on the Fritz but with 3 laps to go I knew I could at least finish with the break. On the Final lap I felt I set myself up nicely on the wheel of Bruce Schlatter and when the hilltop finish began Tyler put in a surge, Craig got on his wheel and I on his. As a gap formed I sprinted past Craig for a close finish between Tyler and I. Another Second place. Results can be found HERE.
This 5 would remain together for the majority of the race. This included Tyler Trace, Craig Logan, Andrew Russell, Bruce Schlatter and I. It was one attack after another mainly on the hill to try and split up the pack, each of us trying to catch the other in a tough moment. (What a cruel sport) Andrew R struggled on a hill but not only caught up but came flying by for the hill. This started an acceleration that caught me in a weak moment. Andrew and I fell off the back and the two of us ended up individually time trialing to try and catch up. A couple of laps later I managed to bridge back up with 3 laps to go. My legs were on the Fritz but with 3 laps to go I knew I could at least finish with the break. On the Final lap I felt I set myself up nicely on the wheel of Bruce Schlatter and when the hilltop finish began Tyler put in a surge, Craig got on his wheel and I on his. As a gap formed I sprinted past Craig for a close finish between Tyler and I. Another Second place. Results can be found HERE.
Training continued yesterday with a strong swim in the lake and a hard run on the trails of Cedar Hill Golf Course. The swim was a set of 6x400m(100m Start speed, 200m mid race pace and 100 easy) Some solid swimming and feeling efficient in the water. In the afternoon, Andrew Russell and I had a set of 5x the Cedar Hill loop which is about 3kms of hilly difficult running. 1 lap warm up, 3 laps build 1-3 and 1 lap warm down. I felt quite strong descending each, 13.35, 12.30 and 11.40. Legs in the ocean for the second time and home for a rest.
But that is all for now,Lets keep the ball rolling,
Andrew McCartney
No Cotton Wool.
No comments:
Post a Comment