Here we go, the ramp up is starting

So, as I sit and write this it is 123 days until Challenge Weymouth. Not an especially significant number you might think. It is not so much the number of days left that is significant, but rather the phase of the training I am about to enter.

The plan I am following is split out into distinct phases. These are the “Base” phase, followed by “Build 1”, “Build 2”, “Peak” and then finally the taper down to race day.

Base phase is exactly what it says on the tin, designed to increase your base level of fitness. In all honesty I have not put quite as many hours in as I would have liked due to wanting to be at home and help my wife through a challenging time with our kiddies. That being said, I am fairly confident that my “base” level of fitness is not too bad and so missing some training sessions during this phase has not phased me (see what I did there).

Next week starts the “Build 1” phase. This sees me increasing my training load, putting in extra time and distance in all three triathlon disciplines.

I am aiming towards the following:

Weekly training targets:

Cycling – 250 miles
Running – 50 miles
Swimming – 8 miles

If you prefer to think of this in time rather than distance, we are looking roughly like this

Cycling – 15 hours
Running – 8.5 hours
Swimming – 4 hours

You don’t need to be a mathematician to work out that this is around 27 hours training per week, which is a lot. It’s more than an entire day every week devoted to training.

This leads us nicely to the $64,000 question, “How the hell are you going to fit all this training in?”

Luckily there are a few things in my favour. It is only my intention to hit the mileage/distance targets about for the 3 or 4 weeks before tapering off ready for the event. This allows me to ramp up the training gradually.

Also my wife is being amazingly supportive. Despite the fact that our lovely 2 year old daughter seems to have morphed into a terrorist and our 12 week old baby is permanently attached to her, she is happy for me to train almost as much as I like.

Lastly I live a very convenient 20 miles away from work, meaning that I can cycle into and back from work fairly regularly. This is decent mileage and has relatively little impact on the family.

So all in all things are looking good. I am feeling strong, the training is going well, I am blessedly injury free and am starting to really look forward to the big event in September.

Below are a few pictures of Bushy and I on a recent bike ride just to prove that training is actually fun.

TTFN

Snooky