End of September / Q3 Report

Race season is basically finished now. I still have a couple of fun races to do. The Kings Aquathon still counts for Club Championship points and hopefully I will manage to get to one or more of the North District Cross-Country League races in. 

I should be at 99 swim miles, 1596 bike miles and 625 run miles. Or if I am pushing on towards the stretch targets 113.9, 1915 and 706

I should also have logged at least 39 each of weights, core and stretching sessions and 20 hours of yoga. 

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Swim

Swimming has been a bit poor for the quarter. Only 29 miles for the quarter, but against a target of 26 I should probably be happy. This is the midst of race season though and if I had been sticking to Monday Club nights and a midweek swim then races should have put me well in to the 35’s. Only 8 miles in August was particularly poor. I am still smashing previous years and have surpassed any other annual total with 3 months still to go. The stretch target is starting to look like it might actually be a stretch though.

Here are the graphical versions, for Q3 and then for Year to Date. The green line is actuals red and dotted red are target and stretch target. 

Previous end-of-year totals are already left well behind. 

Bike

The bike continues to be way above plan as well. I was meant to be doing less on the bike in Q1 as I focused on Bratislava, that went a bit wrong through Q2 as I used the bike as the default for an 'easy' commute rather than taking the train and getting a more complete recovery. That has resulted in being over miles but under-rested and my bike performance is erratic at best.

My 10-mile TT PB at Drumoak in May was a good sign, but then I missed my last shot at a 10-TT once I had the new disc wheel. I did manage to smash my 25-TT target. Also biking to work for 16 days straight and riding 25 days and 325 miles in September has pulled me right back up to my stretch bike target for the year.

Prior to May I was aiming for  30 miles / week and a stretch target of 36. Since May I have been aiming for 56 miles per week with a stretch target of 67.2! Despite that big jump in targets I am still managing to chase the numbers, although partly by sacrificing run miles in September.

Run 

Running I have started to lag a little as I have run out of gas through a long race season and I have given more time to the bike. 

I am still well on course for a record year but it is built almost entirely on plodding along. I am going to finish out this year on the big numbers to build a big fitness base but next year I absolutely must be smarter about it. Volume is meaningless if it is all this slow. When I moved from the track I only counted miles that averaged faster than 8 minute pace. If I was to apply that rule to this year's numbers I would be counting less than 100 miles rather than 673. 

The graph shows how much I am running. The steep blue line is from marathon year and can be ignored. So I am above target, just behind my stretch target now and way above any other previous year.

24 weights and 29 core sessions puts me about on schedule. Well behind on both targets now. One weights and two core in the quarter is an appalling record. 

I am at just over 22 hours of yoga. This is starting to fall behind and I only logged 5 hours in Q3. 

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As it is end-of-Quarter I also am due for a check in against other targets. 

Targets by numbers

Represent GBR age-group at an international event. - ETU Aquathon Bratislava.

Take part in a GBR age-group qualifying race for the 2018 European or World Sprint Champs. – I have gone for an orange as I did the Aquathon qualifier instead as I just couldn’t fit my calendar and travel arrangements around the others. There is going to be one more qualifier at the start of 2018 which I will try to race if I can. And I have been offered a job as a support official at the ETU sprint if I don't manage to qualify.

Swim 124 miles. - Not yet, but well on target., and already way past any previous end-of-year swim total.

Swim under 6:15 minutes for 400m. - 6:38 mid-session training.  6:30 at Westhill Aquathlon. 6:29 at Alford Novice triathlon.*

Swim under 12:00 minutes for 750m. - 12:04 for 760m at Turriff.  12:04  again at Loch Lomond.*

Swim under 26:00 minutes for 1,500m. - 26:26 during a 30-min training swim. 26:35 (pool PB) for my only race swim this year.*

*I still feel like I have all of those within my capacity on a good swim day. I have only one official race left but if I can find the time and a clear lane I will make solo attempts at all of these. 

Ride 2,332 miles. - Not yet, but on target. 

Ride a 10-mile TT in under 26 minutes. - 26:23 (PB) at Drumoak.
Ride a 25-mile TT in under 1 hour 14 mins. – 1:10:58*

*possibly 0.3 miles short, 1:11:49 pro-rata adjustment.

Run 802 miles. - Not yet, but well on target.

Run a 5k in under 19:10 or 10k in under 41 mins. - Moray 10k in 39:58.

Run another 5k in under 19:20 or 10k in under 42 mins.  - 19:31 5k at North Champs is still my closest second run attempt so far.

80 Yoga sessions - Not yet, but on target

52 & 52 Core & weights sessions.- Not yet, and falling behind target. 

I have left the stretch targets off for now. They are increasingly looking to be slipping out of range, which is actually a good sign as they were too heavy.