KONA 2017 RACE PREPARATION BLOG
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WEEK 10
I'm able to make a really interesting observation this week. I've included my PMC chart from my preparation for my qualifying race at Taiwan in October 2016.
Taiwan was all about one thing, qualifying, so to that end it was a success. But it was far from an ideal preparation. Running was tightly managed, and life as a parent of an infant was denying any ability to recover and sleep. No doubt, there are some kids that struggle to sleep, but my daughter (for those that know us well) was an Olympic Gold Medallist. Sleeping 3-4 broken hours a night for 16 weeks of an ironman preparation just doesn't allow satisfactory performance in training. The volume was still there, but I was never able to push myself too hard. I just didn't have the energy! My IF* in sessions were only in the .6/.7 area. Would I change a thing? Of course not, but you can't bury your head in the sand and just expect things to be normal. Following the 2:46 marathon, the wheels just fell off a little and I limped through the remainder of the prep. Again, I qualified, so nothing lost.
A stinking hot day in Taiwan probably favoured me in the end, as I didn't carry much pace into the race, so it hobbled the field.
Why am I looking back? My Peak CTL for Taiwan was 164. At 9 weeks of Kona preparation I'm at the same level. So what's in a number?
Not much, but someone asked me how I was going the other day, and I said I was probably as 'fit' now as I was at my peak for Taiwan (which prompted me to go back and have a look). So I've got roughly 10 weeks to go, and it's fair to say, this fills me with much confidence.
Over the 8 weeks prior to 'officially' commencing this Kona prep, I put in a huge strength block, so that I could give myself a chance to stand up to what lay ahead, and so far, so good. You could argue the 8 weeks makes this a 28 week prep, but that would have the 'grey zone' pundits in a feeding frenzy.
1347 of 1342 TSS points for the week and cracked through 10,000 points. Just gotta keep on keeping on.
This week was compressed due to Monday and Tuesday becoming Daddy day care, it's made the last 5 days relatively compressed, and I've just scraped through. Quads are destroyed. Woohooo!
TOTAL FORECAST TSS 10,555
ACTUAL TSS 10,776
NET TSS +221
@ 102%
