Getting race fit and ready

My first big race since Powerman UK is going to be on this Sunday the 3^rd of August in Geel, where I’ll be racing at Powerman Belgium.

I have been training intensely for the past month now and will be using this race as a final run-in to the Elite European Duathlon Champs in Austria on the 24^th of August.

My summer so far has been fraught with a few injuries that have caused me to miss a few blocks of training. However the last three weeks of training have progressed very well and I have been looking forward to this week as I am winding down my training as I get closer to the race allowing me to rest more and catch up on very important T.V viewing like Home and Away and Coronation Street!

During the months of January to April, getting up at 5am in the mornings to run was a tough task. During those months it was pitch dark so I had to wear a head torch so that I could see where I was going on the road. Usually, by the time I had finished my session and was running home, dawn was breaking and it was great motivation for the day ahead.

Running

Most days I train twice a day, alternating between running and biking sessions.

A typical week of running would be: (for those interested)

·         Sunday: Long run. (14-16 miles)

·         Monday: Easy run. (40 minutes, 7 miles)

·         Tuesday: 3 mile warm-up, 10 Hill reps followed by 3 mile warm-down (10 miles in total)

·         Wednesday: Recovery run. (40 minutes, 7 miles)

·         Thursday: 50 minutes, 8 miles followed by strides

·         Friday Speed session on the track ( 3 mile warm-up, 8 by 400mtrs, 3 mile warm-down)

·         Saturday Recovery run. (30 minutes, 4.5 miles)

Cycling

My training on the bike has changed to spending specific amounts of time doing particular intervals (or efforts in race speak!) in order to become race ready. This has allowed me to really focus the time and effort I spend on the bike so that I can maximise my workouts whilst also avoiding those pesky motorists (that’s a whole other post for a whole other day!!!). As my biking sessions change more often than my running I will post some of the sessions I do in another post.

I also try to get to the gym once a week and have recently started swimming so will post more about it as I hopefully improve.

It is always important to have a goal for your training so that you know what you are training for and nothing focusses the mind better than a race. A race gives you a deadline and means that if you want to hit a certain time or position in the race then you have to commit to the training.

I’ll post again once I’m home from Powerman Belgium.

Fingers crossed that everything goes ok,

Cathal