The plan called for a Rest/Recovery week, being the 3rd week in the Build Cycle .
My longest ever run and two good (fast) time-trials completed – alas not so successful with the planned long timed swim ;-(
Total 6h:12m 
3h:14m (52%) 
1h:13m (19%) 
1h:45m (28%)
Swim - two sessions in this week. One at Newtown Park Ave (2 * 500m at just under 10 mins each) and the other being the Thursday morning longer endurance set (12 mins and 3 * 6 mins and then some others) which i always find tough.
Bike – just the one session, but this was my time-trial session. Arrived at the phoenix park all ready to rock on the Friday evening, and off i went only to find out maybe 1/3 of the way around that there were detours in place! Bummer indeed – both because of fear of a puncture as the new route was slightly rough, but moreover because it would prevent an easy comparison with the last TT. Pleased to say however that this time around i completed 4 larger laps (than previous) and each lap included a section of weaving in-and-out of traffic cones, briefly and slowly onto grass, and other “challenges” at an average speed exactly the same as previous session.
Lap 1 15.04 mins 8.94 kms Avg=145 bpm Avg speed=33.2km
( this included at least a minute lost turning around to make a proper route!!)
Lap 2 14.36 mins 8.18 kms Avg=150 bpm Avg speed = 33.6km
Lap 3 14.33 mins 8.19 kms Avg=150 bpm Avg speed =33.7 km
Lap 4 14.42 mins 8,17 kms Avg=150 bpm Avg speed = 33.3 km
Total: 58.56 mins 32.88 kms Avg 148 bpm Avg speed = 33.5 km
As it was still bright that evening i went for a 14 mins easy run off the bike. 1 lap of the new Park Duathlon course. Previously i was completely wrecked when i completed the 3 lap session – so this must be an improvement – happy days!
In comparison to last TT (for 3 laps)
Total: 40.23 mins 22.56 kms no HRM Avg speed = 33.5 km
=> So exactly the same average speed, but for 18 odd minutes longer & also some detours included in the second session … and not as wrecked afterwards.
RUN – Main session in the week was a 9.2km time trial on Tuesday with my two running buddies from work who were happy to pace me around. Previous best for this route was a 42.45 from two weeks ago. My so called friends helped me around in 39.40 which i was very pleased about … strong and steady the whole way around, and faster splits at each section of the run compared to previous efforts. I had set off with a view to beating my previous record by one second if needs be, however the 2 lads had a different idea and were looking to help me shatter the previous best. Little time for chit-chat and a large pity that muggins had neither heart-rate monitor or footpod to record more details about this run — okay its not quite Roger Bannister’s first 4 minute mile, but it was a real breakthrough session for me and as my lead pace man had it … ” you now know you have it in you!”
And to top off a good week of running I completed relatively well my longest ever run …
A lovely sunny day and thankfully feeling okay after the night before’s bike time trial. Very pleased with the run – nice and steady and reasonable consistent times for the 3 laps. Yes i could have gone for longer… i hope… took on some gels but not the ones i prefer.
Longer than normal lap = 36.17 (avg 131bpm/max 141bpm)
2 minutes for drink
33.15 for normal lap (131/144) 2.38 for a drink
33.41 for normal lap (129/141) 1.35 for a drink
33.24 for normal lap (131/141) 44 secs for drink
Finish off with some 12.50 mins running (fastish!) around the pitches to make up the 2.5 hours of actual running (137/146).
