Week 4

So this is my fourth week of Ironman training, only 26 to go!

Week 4 is a recovery week, which has fitted in well with the way I was feeling at the end of Week 3. Monday's rest day is very welcome indeed.

Pool still cold on Tuesday morning, but at least it was at the normal level and had increased in temperature by a degree or two. The main set was a testing 4 x 125m, 4 x 175m, 4 x 125m; all in all including warm up drills and cool down a solid 3km of swimming.

Took the easy option and avoided the hills on my 30 minute run and was rewarded with my fastest run of the year, with a pace of 5:05 kilometres. Which is none too shabby for a Z2 run.

Another indoor brick session on Wednesday morning, this was followed by a strength and core session. The weights session hurt this morning, which I guess is the objective, but it didn't make it particularly enjoyable.

Hurrah, the pool was back to normal temperature on Thusday morning, so the swim was much more pleasurable. The main set was 16 x 25m; 1 x 400m; 16 x 25m. A nice solid swim, which I could feel across my back, arms and shoulders later in the day.

Span out a 30 minute Z1 session, nice and easy - if only all training was this easy.

Mixed up the planned sessions this week and did the 'long' run on Friday morning. A 60 minute 11.1km run that took in 110m of climbing.

Another busy Saturday, meant it was another early morning turbo session. but the benefit being that I'd spend the afternoon watching rugby and having a beer or three.

The beers didn't seem like a good idea when I woke up for Sunday's cross country, and the Jagerbomb even less so. But, it's only 4 miles so how bad can it be. Very is the answer to that particular question. Cold, wind, mud and hills do not mix well with a hangover.

I think I took about 32 minutes but I'm not sure as I forgot to switch off my watch. I guess I'll have to wait for the results to see my time.

A summary of my training is shown below

Summary of Week 4

Activity	Actual Time	Planned Time	Variance +/-	Percentage
Swim	2:25	2:00	+0:25	31%
Bike	2:30	2:30	+0.00	32%
Run	2:18	2:30	-0:12	29%
Other	0:41	0:45	-0:04	9%
Total	7:54	7:45	+0:09

I gave the sessions a bit of a shuffle, but still got them all ticked off.

Cumulative Summary

Activity	Actual Time	Planned Time	Variance +/-	Percentage
Swim	8:51	8:00	+0:51	27%
Bike	10:01	10:00	+0.01	30%
Run	9:54	10:00	-0:06	30%
Other	4:15	3:00	+1:15	13%
Total	33:01	31:00	+2:01

Over 2 hours up on the plan, but not in the areas that I need to see some gains, i.e. bike and run