Statistics – looking back

From late Janaury until race day when i was officially training:

• Total hours = 206 hours 30 minutes
• Average per week = 8 hours 36 minutes
• Break down per sport = Run 36%, Bike 43%, Swim 20%

I’m a bit surprised at the actual numbers per week – its lower than i thought, and way lower than my beloved wife would have the world believe. According to herself I’m training morning noon and night – however these facts would challenge that theory!

As to the individual breakdown, the swim is higher than a Coach would suggest … the ideal being to split them according to time in the actual race itself. However for me the swim was a problem (both physically and mentally) and so i needed to put in the extra efforts to bring my swimming and confidence up to an acceptable level. It would seem that my cycling did suffer, and instead of being strong on the bike i went backwards (particualrly with respect to my team-mates) in this sport. I didn’t put the work / time in on two wheels – simple ;-(

Next year will be different … how I’m not quite sure, that’ll come out in the coming weeks when i build my IML09 plans and strategies.

• Please click here to see a graphic showing weeky training –>  weekly-totals
• Click here to see how this is broken down by sport —>  weeklly-log-imde08

The data has been “retrieved” from my online logbook – I use www.triblogs.com. I doubt very much that I have logged all the training i’ve done in the half year leading up to the Race itself, however I’m sure I’ve captured most. Note – these numbers don’t include such activities as cycling to work.

What follows here in this entry is a general commentary on how the year progressed.

January Total = 36h:27m

Week 1: Total 9h:30m 51m (8%) 6h:59m (73%) 50m (8%) 50m (8%)

Week 2: Total 7h:43m 2h:43m (35%) 4h (51%) 1h (12%)

Week 3: Total 6h:01m 2h:16m (37%) 2h (33%) 1h:45m (29%)

Week 4: Total 10h:13m 2h:53m (28%) 4h:20m (42%) 3h (29%)

Officially from the 4th week of the year I was working towards an actual plan – with  Base|Build|Peak|Taper etc for 24 weeks .  Anything else prior to this was just “exercise”   and keeping the body in some sort of shape.

February Total = 31h:22m

Week 5: Total 7h:04m 3h:34m (50%) 40m (9%) 2h:50m (40%)

Week 6: Total 7h:16m 2h:01m (27%) 3h:15m (44%) 2h (27%)

Week 7: Total 4h:26m 2h:26m (54%) 2h (45%)

And so into the first month – the Base1 period- and i’m down to an average of 7 hours a week, with no bike to show for week 7 at all. Looking back that week was the fourth in the base period, and so would have been a ‘Rest/Recovery’ week, however as i referred to in the blog that this type of week ended up being a “wrecked-do” nothing type of week. So i was in trouble from the very first month!

Week 8: Total 9h:35m 2h:25m (25%) 5h:10m (53%) 2h (20%)

March-Total = 24h:56m

Now stepping up the volume and time, however after two quite good weeks with 10 hours or so, spread well across the three disciplines I hit both a virtual wall and a real car. Between a bad dose of a virus and a young lady not looking both ways at a junction my training really fell away – no swimming at all due to a weak wrist! This bad spell coincided with St Patricks & Easter holiday periods when i would have been hopeful of making up some longer sessions. Not to be … Lots of feeling sorry for myself at this time

Week 9: Total 11h:21m 3h:32m (31%) 5h:49m (51%) 2h (17%)

Week 10 :Total 5h:19m 3h:16m (61%) 1h:03m (19%) 1h (18%)

Week 11: Total 1h:14m 44m (59%) 30m (40%)     [Sick, very sick]

Week 12 : Total 2h:26m 2h:26m (100%)           [Still sick]

Week 13: Total 10h:52m 3h:08m (28%) 7h:09m (65%) 35m (5%)

April -Total = 38h:31m

Base was completed in early April, and BUILD where the intensities are meant to be increased as the body is somewhat accustomed and used to the strain of regular training. Also changed at this time from a 4-week cycle to a 3-week cycle as my fourth weeks were turning out to be too wrecked / lazy. Looking back no noticeable change in timing durations – on examination of the output of my logs, no large change in intensities noted either ;-(

Week 14: Total 9h:07m 3h:53m (42%) 4h:10m (45%) 1h:04m (11%)

Week 15: Total 6h:12m 1h:05m (17%) 3h:52m (62%) 1h:15m (20%) – this was the 3rd week of the cycle, nominally the time-trial week.

Week 16: Total 8h:41m 4h:41m (53%) 2h (23%) 2h (23%)

Week 17: Total 13h:42m 3h:57m (28%) 7h (51%) 2h:45m (20%) – best week of the year to date. 10 weeks remaiing to race-day. Starting to have more intense sessions and introdcued the brick sessions. Mojo was back on form at this stage.

May-Total = 59h:54m

Build1 completed. Bank Holidays allowed me more time on the week with the bike.

Week 18: Total 6h:12m 3h:14m (52%) 1h:13m (19%) 1h:45m (28%) – 3rd week of the cycle, time-trial week

Week 19: Total 12h:59m 2h:39m (20%) 10h:20m (79%)

Week 20: Total 8h:19m 6h:19m (75%) 2h (24%)

Week 21: Total 23h:21m 5h:20m (22%) 15h:41m (67%) 2h:20m (9%)    Lanzarote – a great week with lots of time logged on the bike. No real BLOGGING done that week due to a broken laptop. 4 good cycles – four runs (2 long) – three open water swims.

Week 22: Total 10h:27m 52m (8%) 7h:09m (68%) 2h:25m (23%) Lanza home + TriAthy. One full day of bike training then home and rest up until TriAthy.

June- Total = 23h:42m

Week 23: Total 9h:09m 2h:31m (27%) 6h:09m (67%) 29m (5%)       Away with work for 2.5 days blew some of this, but still some good training to show.

Week 24: Total 3h:34m 1h:55m (53%) 39m (18%) 1h (28%)   Family holidays in Spain from Thursday of this week – so this would have been the last of the real weeks training, and after this was taper mode, but ended up a very poor week’s work.

Week 25: Total 5h:28m 1h:56m (35%) 1h:12m (21%) 2h:20m (42%)   Still in Salou

Week 26: Total 5h:01m 2h:01m (40%) 2h:30m (49%) 30m (9%) home on Thursday

July One week only – Total = 14:32m

Last minute spins, keep it nice & easy … rest up for the big day

Week 27: Total 14h:32m 5h:05m (35%) 7h:06m (48%) 2h:19m (16%)  [RACE - Sunday]