A mix of tough sessions and rest days

A quick round up of last week's training:

Generally it felt more like a recovery week than a 'run/swim' focus and I actually took 3 rest days in total - Monday, Friday and Sunday. In between those rest days were some pretty good quality sessions.

On Tuesday I was on the track with some easy laps mixed up with 2x Tabata sets. For those not familiar with the so-called 'Tabata' set, it is only 4 minutes of training broken down as follows - 20 secs 100% and 10 secs of recovery - repeat 8 times. They are quite tough sets, 2-3 in any one sessions is probably more than enough.

On Wednesday I had a little spin back home on the Brommie (fold up bike), leaving the car at the office. This gave me the opportunity to have another crack at running into work on Thursday. It was a glorious morning when I began my long run. I opted to run to the bottom of the South Downs, power walk up to the top, and then run the rest of the way into the office, a total of 30km. All went generally as planned. The only slight issue was that as it was such a warm day I ran out of fluids with about 5-10km to go - not the best planning (ran with my small camelbak). A part from that, no major ill-effects from the run. My legs felt a little stiff but my Saturday swim flushed them out.

Other training included the normal club swim on Wednesday and some cycling on Saturday - to swimming pool and back plus 2x fast loops of Billingshurst with my old training partner and neighbour, Chris.

I probably could have squeezed in another run and a lake swim on Sunday but decided to take the rest and spend the time with my family. Over the last fortnight I have typically averaged 6-7 hours of sleep, so it was also nice to get in a couple of 8 hour sessions to top up the batteries.

This morning I cycled in to work, nice and easy but a bit of hill work (over Devils Dyke). There is a good chance I might go out with the young lads from the office at lunchtime and then I expect another easy commute home.

On Tuesday I will try to get in a sea swim and run thereafter, as a guest of Brighton Tri. In addition to a few other individual bike, run and swim sets I plan to log a decent brick session.

As always, all my training is logged on Strava:

http://www.strava.com/athletes/2773871