Motivation - Duathlon & TTs

In line with the regrouping theme, I found these pics from 2014: a lovely 100 mile TT and a standard distance duathlon to remember.

Re-grouping. . . . .Again

Well, 2018 will be the 10-year anniversary of this Blog. In recent years I have not kept it up to date as much as I would have liked. The idea has always to focus on my Tri-Life and keep other aspects away. It is kind of impossible to split this Tri-life from my everyday life - one impacts/affects the other constantly. This has been the case in 2017 and there has not been much Tri-Life to report! It has made me sad, frustrated, angry, upset. . . . And so it goes on. So as the 10-year Blog milestone arrives, I am going to re-group (no matter what hits me!!) and sustai this Blog better - no doubt there will be good and bad periods through 2018. But let's see what can be achieved. I simply cannot plan anything right now. So an aspiration to race more than I did in 2017 is as far as it goes! Structured training started today with a decent turbo set: Warm up of 5 min spin. 7 min of 30 sec efforts with descending recovery intervals (RI) Main set: 3 x 8 min continuous increasing power whilst decreasing cadence, 200W/100rpm, 220W/90rpm, 240W/80rpm, 260W/70rpm 5 min spin 20 min sweetspot with 10 sec sprint every 3 min A decent set completed and a baseline to build.

Conditioning Paying Off?

It's been over 4 months since I started conditioning sessions in earnest. The progress has been steady and almost stealthy! I am now nearing the point where I am approaching 90% of bodyweight for cleans. This is significant for a a triathlete of... Senior years! I really feel the need to maintain the strength work as the old age threat looms! Yesterday completed a 2 hour hilly ride. That's nothing significant but I have not ridden over an hour for some time and most rides have been spins to work. My health has not been great so I have kept the effort low but consistently maintained conditioning. The conditioning sessions are always preceded by a turbo set of 40 - 45 mins consisting of various efforts to 105% of ftp. I then mix treadmill 1k tempo runs with the weights and core exercises. So a session looks something like thus: Turbo efforts Run to gym Conditioning as: Squats/cleans Box jumps Treadmill 1k Core Upper body press exercise Repeat This is a great session that has the specificity of bike and run, but focuses on strength using mumti-joint exercises that are dynamic. I may hit my peak at age 60.

Yet again time has piped by and my blogs have been few and far between. My domestic situation continues to make any consistent training difficult and I am ticking over at best with no real fitness or goals to focus on. That said I have been consistent with conditioning and my cleans are getting better. Hopefully, I will carry some strength into 2018 and actually get a few races completed. Not knowing what my work pattern will be means I cannot commit to a big event like an Ironman. I don't even know if I will be in the UK as recent job applications have turned to positions in Saudi Arabia. The weather has been pants recently too and I have been banished to the turbo shed - as then pics show. Most sessions have been early morning with no real effort. However, the weekend has seen some sweetspot efforts and I may building to an hour of sweetspot constent. I could do with an ftp test but can't face the poor result that would show a dismal power!