Stepping it up!

Last week started well with some strength work / high cadence session on turbo, a 2-hour ride on Tuesday and a 5km timed run test on Wednesday (no PB, still recording around 21mins 30secs). I even got a run in during a business trip to Leeds - an easy run along the Aire Valley towpath. Unfortunately I did not follow through as much as I would have liked over the weekend. I enjoyed the Saturday morning club swim, the chance to use all the toys - paddles, fins and pull-buoy, but turned down the opportunity to ride with the boys later in the day (when the weather was nice) as I had a few jobs to do at home. The plan was to get at least 2 hours in on Sunday morning but for a number of reasons - weather, ferrying the kids around etc. I only managed a feable 30 mins - 3x loops of village at varying pace.

Sunday evening I logged onto Training Peaks and was playing around with the 'Annual Training Plan' tool, entering my key races for 2013 and committing to 500-600 hours of training for the year ahead. As a result I need to step the training up from the current 5-8 hours per week to 8-12 over the coming weeks. This will involve some double daily sessions (more time in the 'Cave of Pain') and also an increase in the longer rides / runs. There is a slight bias to running up to March (Brighton marathon - 'A' race in April) and cycling thereafter (Vachery 70.3 event - next 'A' race in July 2013).

This week is looking as follows:

Mon: Strength-Run set around Preston Park (0:45) / Turbo - high cadence set + free weights (0:45)
Tue: Run - 50% in Z2 (1:00)
Wed: Run - intervals 14x 30sec fast + 30sec recovery (0:45) / Club swim (1:30)
Thu: Bike - Brighton Commute (interval set in morning / easy return) (2:00)
Fri: Run - HR in Z1-3 (0:45) / strength work and free weights (0:30)
Sat: Club swim (1:00)
Sun: Bike - long easy ride or MTB (2:30)

Totals: Strength (1:00), Run (3:15), Bike (4:45) and Swim (2:30) - 11:30. A big increase from recent weeks - I know I can do it but will the 'scores on the door' at the end of the week confirm it, or not?