Weekly Reflection 15/07 - 21/07

Favourite session of the week: Wow, what a week it was! Not only was I trying to fit in some decent amount of training, I was also juggling with work and mentoring a group of yr10 students who had work experience at my firm. I had two sessions which I enjoyed this week:
1) Friday Swim - this was my first (and only) session of swimming for the week due to being under the weather and not being able to get enough sleep during the week. I didn't have a program to do but from my squad friends, they did close to 3km. So after work on the Friday, I decided to do a swim session knowing that I wouldn't be riding on Saturday morning. The set (which I made up) consisted of:

200m warm up (freestyle)
6 x 500m - 1st - pb & band, 2nd - pb, band and paddles, 3rd - fins (single arms), 4th - fins and paddles @ T4, 5th - pb & band, 6th - pb, band and paddles. I really enjoyed the swim as I was in my zone and comfortably completed the set with minimal interruptions as it was a Friday evening at MSAC.

2) My half marathon on Sunday 21st. More on this here...(I will do a race report soon)

Least favourite session of the week: Because Melbourne decided to have a tantrum on Thursday, the run sessions were cancelled on Thursday evening. I wasn't planning on doing a run TT as per my last post but I was just going to do a 30min or so run around the lake. When plans changed, I still wanted to test how my legs were going and so I did a treadmill run at MSAC on Thursday evening.

I haven't ran on a treadmill in about....4 years and it was just terrible. The gym (in general) is way too warm and I was already sweating during my 5km/h warmup. The treadmill also had a 20min limit (where it just stops whatever you are doing and goes into cool down mode) which was very annoying! I ended up doing 2 x 20min sets at about 10-11km/h which I think covered around 6.5km...it was hard to gauge on real running conditions. Luckily the legs (especially the calves) were ok but it was a session which I didn't enjoy, I rather be outside.

What I also found to be funny was that people were reading magazines whilst they were on the cycling machines and treadmills....so monotonous....I wonder if they ever step back at each one of their training sessions and asked themselves - what do you want to get out of this session?

I know that I will be back on the treadmill if I am injured again but it is not due to the love of it....

Advice of the week: Keep moving!! Even when you are injured or sick, keep the body moving. I learnt this a few weeks before my Ironman and also the last few weeks when my body is not 100%. When I was not able to follow the program due to injuries or being ill, I did the following:

• Water running when I developed shin splints prior to Ironman Melbourne
• Walked or used the elliptical trainer when my calves were sore
• Ran on the treadmill when it was (stupidly) raining and I was not 100% (as I still run in the rain other times)
• Did my own riding/swimming when I wasn't feeling 100% and knew that I couldn't follow the program/group

The intensity of the sessions were not high, I am careful about that. Keeping active also stopped me from feeling depressed that I couldn't do any training when I was sick or injured.

What I’m looking forward to next week: I have a few appointments/sessions this week which I am looking forward to:
1) My 2nd appointment with my sports dietitian - this will be a follow up appointment to see how I am travelling with my nutrition.
2) We have a coaches meeting/up-skilling session on Saturday.