Polar Performance Report: May

Well, May was certainly an interesting training month. I did not log the run mileage I normally do simply because I took almost three weeks completely off to heal up my shin. It is certainly much better and I am cautiously putting a load back on it. I am pleased that I didn’t run it into the ground like I would have in the past. Believe it or not, I am actually getting wiser in my old age.

So what did May look like for training?

SPORTS TRACKED: Cycling, Running, Swimming, Strength, Mountain biking

RUN STATS: 158.8 KM

Run Elevation: 612 M

Run Hours: 21

Rest Days: 2

Longest Run: 40 KM leg in Happy Mutant

Shortest Run: 3.0 KM brick run

Most enjoyable training run: None really stick out in my mind – which is why it is probably best that I took a break! Best training in general was the May long weekend trip to Muskoka where I sampled the race course.

New/interesting places I trained: Ottumwa, Iowa, USA; Muskoka, ON

Swim: 20,620 m

Cycling KM: 474.9

Mountain Biking KM: 445.3

Strength workouts: 4. Solid once a week average. Could improve but still 4 x better than last month!

Cross Training: 2 hours. One hour of hot yoga and one hour of bouldering.

RACES

Sporting Life 10 KM – New PR – 38:08

 

Happy Mutant – 500+ KM, 72 HR. Race report coming as soon as I have all the video footage.

TOTALS

Thoughts:

I dialled back on the training a bit this month to heal up my shin and I was grateful to see results. It is hard not to run. But sometimes, an extended break is necessary and it certainly was the case here. I really focused hard on cycling and almost doubled my mileage on the bike. To be honest, without running, I was in a bad head space right after the Sporting Life 10 KM and had a week of bad workouts where everything seemed to go wrong. There was rain, I hated that I was biking and not running and to be honest, I think I was just plain old tired. I just kept going, knowing that workout funks happen and tried my best to increase with a little extra TLC in sports recovery and sleep.

My biggest breakthrough was in the pool. My coach took some time to work on my stroke and I am now swimming slightly faster with 1/4 of the effort. Things seem to be coming together which is great considering the IRONMAN is next month…

My second biggest breakthrough was in mountain biking. I did almost 500 KM on the bike with about 100 KM of it on technical terrain and about 300 of it on hills. I am getting stronger and more confident on the mountain bike and although I have a long way to go, I wouldn’t consider myself a novice anymore.

I used the Polar V800 to track all of my track work, outdoor cycles and runs this month. I used the Polar cadence sensor to help with my indoor training ride. I used the Polar A360 to track all my strength workouts.

I am a Performance Project athlete under the coaching of Dave Galloway.

For June:

It is the final push to the 70.3. From conversations with my coach and a glimpse at my training schedule, it is going to be a high volume push to the finish line. I am headed to a training camp this weekend in Lake Placid, doing a long course triathlon as a race simulation and doing multiple 4 hour rides and 1/2 marathon distance training runs. I will be perfecting my transition times, grabbing food while on the bike and getting comfortable in my wetsuit in open water. In other words, I am going MIA socially and jumping head long into a month long dress rehearsal for Muskoka. I never do anything half way and this is my first real triathlon so I want to do it WELL.

I am bringing back running, but cautiously. I am feeling good and even won an impromptu race last weekend so the tempo speed is there. I just need to focus on not doing too much too soon.

June will be mostly triathlon training sprinkled with some strength, paddling and mountain bike work outs as a nod to a big fall adventure race and an exciting expedition I am doing in November.

Let’s DO this!

You can follow my training sessions on strava.