April 2017- Polar Performance Report

I normally don’t post on Saturday’s but I had a bit of a crazy week at work that took up my evenings which is when I do most of my blog work. All that to say, today, I am relaxing and doing some catch-up work as I do a mini taper day for the Mississauga half marathon tomorrow.

I am watching Breaking 2 for some inspiration. I have had weeks of consistent training although my taper week did not really go as planned. It was an extremely stressful work week and your body cannot tell the difference between life stress and training stress. I am not making excuses though and I am feeling excited to go out there tomorrow and see what I can do on a fast course and awesome location.

Let’s look at the month leading up to the race.

April Training

Distance covered: 1046 KM

Training hours: 61

SWIMMING: 6.5 hrs.

RUNNING:

I bumped up my run mileage this month to prepare for the half. It is pretty exciting for me to be going into my first half marathon of the season with consistent and injury-free training. I only have added some speed work in the past month but I am working off a good foundation. I really enjoy multi-sport training but running will always be my first love and is my strongest discipline of the three.

CYCLING:

My cycling mileage has increased this month as well because I can finally get outside! I have some seriously long rides ahead of me as I get ready for the ironman. I have been doing some hard work on the trainer on my pedalling form, staying relaxed when I am working hard and doing max effort work to become a stronger cyclist. My favourite rides though have been the long rides outside on the weekends with friends.

New/Interesting Places That I Trained

Some of my favourite training sessions were along the Niagara escarpment and an adventure racing training camp.

Races

Raid the Rib

This is my favourite race in the Don’t Get Lost Series. This was a rainy race day and we cleared the 30 KM course and took top coed team on Easter weekend. It was a really fun way to get my long run in.

Gear/Training

I used the Polar V800 to track all of my track work, outdoor cycles and runs this month.  On my bike, I use the  Keo Power Bluetooth Smart Pedals and the heart rate strap to get accurate feedback for my work on the rides.

I have retired my New Balance 860s. I noticed some niggles and that the shoe was well over 500 KM so I switched to doing tempo work with my  Vazee which are the shoes I am doing my half marathon in tomorrow.

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

I have been using TrainerRoad software on the bike. For the longer rides though, I do prefer to be outside. I am planning on using them for my interval work over the summer.

Thoughts

PHYSICALLY

This month hammered home the importance of ensuring you keep your shoes fresh. I started getting a few unsuspecting niggles and upped my foam rolling and checked the mileage on my shoes. As I mentioned above, it was much higher than it should have been so I retired them and rotated another pair into the mix as my new main pair and the small little issues cleared up in a week. There have been a few high volume weeks which lead to some fatigue but it has been a solid month of consistent, happy training.

MENTAL

Happy and strong. I am not saying every workout has been perfect. In fact, there may have been a tear or two in the last couple km of a brick run after a long ride but I was able to mentally separate the struggle from the performance and hold pace. The more I train, the more I am realising how much further I can push than I realise and it makes me excited for what else I can do as I continue to learn how to better master the mental side in the future.

FOR MAY

I have joined a Masters swim training program which sees me swimming three times a week with a coach and peers. I am dedicated to improving my technique and the biggest thing I want to change is my stroke volume.Let’s just say, I can certainly minimise the number of strokes per metre.

Running will be racing and recovering around the Mississauga half marathon. I MAY be competing in another half this month, but that is to be determined. My main focus is to stay healthy and consistent.

Cycling will be focused on increasing my outdoor riding and building towards some high volume weeks at the end of the month as well as some upcoming training camps.

Have an amazing May!