Week 1 / 10

Here we go again... The first week of specific training for the Seville Marathon on the 19th of February is under my belt. I say "specific training" but I've been doing a fair bit of swimming and cycling too, in preparation for the Half Ironman in Marbella. Even though it is "just" a half, I'm finding the extra hours of training to be a bit of a problem already. To give you some idea, the second swim session since the Ironman was over 2,000 meters!

On the running front, I'm quite happy with my speed. I did a 40 minute session at CCM (medium intensity) on the treadmill at a speed of 15km/h (that's to say a 40 minute 10k on the treadmill - not bad). Thanks to my fans (of the ventilatory kind) I was able to complete the session without too much problems, although the temperature rose by a couple of degrees in the time I was running. I did another fast treadmill workout on Sunday: 3 lots of 15 minutes progressing from CCM to UAN (anaerobic threshold) which I did as 5 minutes at 15km/h, 5 at 16km/h and 5 at 17km/h. The good thing about it was that it made running at 15km/h seem like a doddle. I've definitely noticed an improvement here. I'm not sure whether it is due to my fitness, the temperature or my mental toughness.

I also took out my trusty road bike for a spin on Saturday although it turned out to be a very windy day. Nearly got pushed off the road by a car invading the bus lane I was riding in (without looking or signalling of course). I've also been trying to pedal at least half an hour a day on the triathlon bike on the indoor turbo trainer to get used to the position. I ended up having to buy a new turbo trainer because the old one got stuck in the highest resistance for which a triathlon bike is not at all appropriate. Instead I'll take the old turbo trainer to Asturias for use with my Mountain bike on rainy days (of which there are many).