Well it's hard to believe that 3 weeks have passed since my last post and that I am now 7 weeks away from race day and just 3 weeks away from jetting off to Hawaii. Given the timeframe it was no surprise when heat acclimatisation training appeared on my programme - the aim of this is to increase my core body temperature by 1 degree during selected sessions.As it is quite hard to do this in the pool the focus between now and when I leave will be during cycle and run sessions. Having had to do this before World Champs in Holland last year I have a fair idea of how many extra layers I need to wear during different sessions to achieve the increase in core temperature as this is dependent on the type, length and location of the session and also the time of the day. Indoor cycle sessions are easiest to target to achieve this increase with a couple of thermal polyprop tops and a beanie! Last year I discovered that the spare bedroom was a perfect area to heat acclimatise in - relatively small with long thermal curtains it doesn't take long for it to get steamy in there! Hannah managed to take a sneaky picture of my first heat acclimatisation session on my indoor cycle trainer (attached).
I've had a few key sessions thrown into the last 3 weeks - a 2 hour cycle time trial, 2 swim time trials and another more extended visit up the concrete monster.
The 2 hour cycle time trial was an outdoor course and I managed to get through this without any technical hitches i.e. no brake locked on my back wheel! It was a windy day so my power output was higher than I would have liked and it was also pretty lonely out on the course once the one hour mark was reached. There were 2 options for the time trial - 1 and 2 hours - and we all got set off together, although on the line up there were a fair few riders numbered for the 2 hour time trial many of them succumbed to the conditions and pulled out after an hour. This made it difficult to pace and led to a few rather 'dark' moments at the hour mark when riders numbered for the 2 hours who I had paced myself against at a pretty solid effort pulled out - bit of a sinking feeling when you realise that you are on your own for the next hour!
My visit up the concrete monster in this block was slightly extended as I had to do an extra loop at the top to get extra kilometres into my legs. I pushed out a solid 3 hour run on the course and was pleased to feel that my legs recovered quickly to push out a solid session the following day. I imagine that there will be one more visit to the monster before I leave :-)
Well my bed is calling me as the alarm clock is set for 0430 ready to take on what looks like on paper a killer week! Apologies for the silence over the last 3 weeks - I promise weekly updates for here on in!!
Cheerio!
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