A pleasant start to the morning

A pleasant start to the morning - it certainly appears to be getting significantly lighter in the mornings, albeit it is still a little fresh.

So I have actually been training now for around 10 weeks (where has the time gone!). My program over the following few weeks will start to become more specific to my main 'A' race - IM Austria. The switch from the more steady 'Base' training to the 'Build' phase will be incorporated into my new bespoke training program, design by my recently appointed Coach - Mark Tickner (Coach4Tri).

I have already completed 3 sessions from the new program and have approx 11-12 hours in total this week. A summary of the activities is as follows:

Mon - 45min strength / 1hr cycle
Tue - 45min run
Wed - 30min run / 1.5hr Club swim
Thu - 1hr cycle
Fri - 45min run
Sat - 1hr Club swim / 1hr cycle
Sun - 3.5hr cycle

The big difference is that each session has very specific instructions from the Coach - I normally have to read the details a few times so I fully understand the objective. So whereas my previous program listed a 1 hour cycle in zone 2 (not that I properly knew my zones anyway) a similar activity from my Coach may list a warm up, cadence, power and HR targets, sets of speed work or big chain ring / force rep work, together with technique recommendations.

My strength work, which I completed yesterday morning, incorporated lunges, squats, step-ups (including weights). This was a BT (Break-Through) session, which I was informed was important or key to my training and follows neatly on from my fitness test, when my hip strength was confirmed as a weakness.

After an easy zone 1 turbo spinning session last night I was running this morning focusing on good form with a high cadence (88+ RPM) and flat footstrike with weight toward ball of foot (not on toes), all in a target heart rate zone - lot to think about!

So I am now off to record the details and report back to my Coach via the Training Peaks software / website.