Swim 2.5km

Warm up
Approx. 8 x 100m at 1m/s on 25sec
Warm down
Aim was to do 200m intervals but falling off the pace at 100m
Trying to correct the right arm but really need to do more drill to hit this

Also, the police had to move someone who wouldn't get out of the fast lane! - he was swimming slowly but most of the time spread out at the end of the lane leisurely kicking his feet; no one could turn without getting kicked. When asked by the life guard to move he became aggressive and refused. Peckham - you either love it or hate it - guess it was good preparation for the ironman swim start.

Massage - fell asleep and missed most of it, apparently it was good. He said my right psoas was grisly - I didn't think you could get to that. Felt like it though.

Big part of day at Serpentine lido with Ella, George and Will. Rest of day spent giving roof another coat of bitumen.

Programme for tomorrow is;
180km aerobic easy spinning in the middle incorporate 3x30km at IMP on 7mins easy recovery, cadence 85-90rpm.
Run 15km off bike at estimated IMP run middle 5km at track to check speed.

That's the plan - hope to wake up with lots of energy.

Stuck to the programme to the letter;

(am) 60 min run easy aerobic
(pm) 50 min run as 20 min easy aerobic 30 min IMP
The evening run was hard to do on a hot Friday night on the Southbank but got it done

On annual leave today but went into work for the trainee talks and rest of day spent bitumen proofing the roof! - have been putting it off for a year, was obliged to do it with the weather being so good.

Tomorrow is meant to be a rest day, in preparation for the biggie on Sunday. Missed that swim yesterday so may do it tomorrow.

Had a brief look at the marathon course. Here it is;

Bikehike.co.uk says it is 40km but there are probably a few descrepancies with the exact off road bits. Similar to last year accept avoids going round and round the park. 

Plan was to swim as:

Warm up,
Set: 5x400m on 20sec rest at IMP with pull buoy (pull buoy simulates buoyancy of wet suit I think)
Warm down

But my swimming pool was flooded - only in Peckham!

Initial frustration quickly gave way to taking a fatalistic view. I have tried to develop an attitude of doing the right thing/putting the work in but handing over the results. There are some good studies on happiness that have shown that what you do often has little bearing on the results. It comes back to, control the controllables and don't worry about the rest, or as i've heard it put, row the boat but don't worry about the destination. Think I may be labouring this too much, but it's a lot like getting a puncture on the bike - virtually no one can just get on with it and see it for what it is "a puncture" and nothing else. Do the next thing that is needed and mend it.

So did Core at home and Stretching. Looked after Will, did some reading for work and Ella got some sleep.

Run 2hours

Paid the price running too fast yesterday - Managed the 2 hours but was definitely only easy "fall back" pace. It has reminded me to try and stick to the programme and not get carried away. This is what will happen if I am lucky enough to feel like blasting off the bike come the race. Much better to stick to the pace I think I can maintain - you can loose seriously large chunks of time shuffling round the second half of the marathon.

Nearly turned back a couple of times but ended up finishing feeling good - from that point of view it's good to experience that things can improve even when your having a shocker.

Turbo Run Brick

4hour turbo

Main set after warm up - 6x15km on 7mins recovery

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/39460821

Did this as 30mins at 225-210W (see discussion below)

8km run at IMP with 2km warm down off the bike

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/39460837

This was a hard session - mainly because tried to keep the aero position on the bike as much as possible. Whenever in it though my heart rate went up 5-6 bpm. So I reduced the watts on the last three intervals so the heart rate remained similar. This allowed me to stay in the position for ten minutes at a time before needing a break and having another go. 

So need to work out how many watts the position actually saves verses the watts lots due to the position. 

Ran well off the bike - was meant to do 10km with a 2km warm down - went way too fast though and slowed up at 8km as calf was a bit tight - this is a good reminder to stick to the plan. A 3.15marathon would be 4.38min/km pace not 4min/km that I was doing. 

See http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm - it's a great calculator to see what pace gives you what time for a variety of distances and what paces you should be training at. 

Also still chugging through the drink - good that I seem to be able to tolerate a lot more than before but means I need to make allowances for this.

Did a little bit of research about transitions - mine have always been poor
1. slow getting wetsuit off - apparently spray on cooking oil seems to work well - may try it
2. elastic bands to hold your bike shoes in place when getting on the bike - think this needs a bit of practice.

4 WEEKS TO GO

Swim 1hour approx 2.5km

Drills

Rest

Eating!

Plan for week

Mon: swim
Tue: cycle 130km with 6x15km at IMP on 5-7mins 90rpm, run off bike 12km (10km IMP 2km warmdown)
Wed: run 2hrs easy aerobic with last half hour IMP, swim recovery
Thur: swim: IMP
Fri: am: 1hr easy pm: 50mins as 20 min easy 30mins IMP
Sat: Rest
Sun: 180km cycle with 3x30km IMP on 7mins Run 15km with middle 5km at track at IMP