LSD is the choice of the month!

The LSD I am referring to is not the little piece of paper or pill you skip under your tongue to send you into some weird world, no, this is Long, Slow, Distance, and was prescribed by Rollo for the month of January. This past weeks sessions have certainly been all about LSD, and as usual, I loved it! Its really back to the basics which Rollo started us all off with, low Heart Rate, low intensity and slow! Its really hard to train like this for me, asss I tend to find myself pushing hard, or pushing the maximum zone for the session and of course, and I think what most people would struggle with and that is training slow and to low threshholds does improve your efficiency and actually speed! Let me assure you, Rollos programs do work, and they are based on the above methods. Its awesome! Rollo is also a fantastic coach, he does not just set a program for the week, and leave you to it, but actively reviews all the session stats I send through to him. I got questioned this week about some efforts I did around centennial park on Wednesday, the session was supposed to be 3 to 4hrs light and easy, which for the most part I did, but I threw some higher intensity laps in there with Matt for a change, and he picked up on that and queried me...how good is that to have him follow up on each session! Sensational stuff really! That session on wednesday ended up being 100km in a touch over 3hrs.....good fun.
Jase and I have also trained a fair bit with Matt this past week. In all 3 disciplines as well. Matt is so down to earth, happy to go slow with Jase and I, and like most people I have met in the triahtlon community, so down to earth, willing to help and advise! He is also going to do Port in March, he should smoke it.....probably around the 9.30hrs mark I would guess, he is an animal on the bike and can run pretty fast to!
Jase and Matt rode yesterday so I was on my own for the 2 hour run I had. I managed 23kms in 2hrs keeping my HR in the 130's which I think is where it needs to be. It was good fun running that distance, and even better feeling so comfortable throughout. Today was a 140 - 150km ride, so i set out on my own at 5.20isham. I thought I was a lunatic at that time, but I met up with a bloke 30mins in who had been on the go from 4.45am, he was heading the same was I was so we rode together for the next 40km. When he turned back, I continued on through my friend 'Bobbin Head' and then back up the highway to hook up with Tim, who is just getting back into training following Busso. Anyway, I ended up riding 143km in about 5.20hrs with the HR in the 130's again, which was good. That is the longest ride I have ever completed, and it was a breakthrough for me mentally as I was not sure what it felt like to ride that distance and time. I also tested pretty much my nutrition plan for the race, and the result was spot on. I basically went through 6litres of fluid, a sandwhich, a Go Bar, piklets, banana, red bull, 2 GU's (need more of these) and small bottle of Endura Gel. I actually think maybe a little more solids would be good, but I finished up the ride feeling pretty good considering. I was however really hot, as it was 30'c when I got home at 11am! Riding with Tim was great. He went through his Busso experience with me, and it was really good to listen to him talk about how much he learnt about himself, and everything he had done to somehow get to that finish line. He is very strong mentally, pretty much the same as Andrew M, who is an animal as well! These guys certainly know how to open the Pain Locker! Andrew is in the UK at the moment, getting up in the freezing conditions and going for runs.....he is on holiday and still giving it a crack, and has entered a 16km race next week.....hope he can run in those snow shoes...knowing him, he would and could!

So, to summerise this week :
Swim : 8.5km (3hrs)
Run : 75km (6hoursish)
Ride : 250km + 1hr TT (9.5hours)
Total : 18.5hours (ish)

A really solid week for me (and Jase and Matt I would think), and I loved it. The long bike today was the highlight....so happy to have been so close to the full Iron Man ride distance and still felt pretty good. It has improved my confidence a lot I must say, because before I was not sure if I could handle that time on the bike.

I am looking forward to continuing this sort of effort over the coming weeks, its probably around 8 weeks to go with of solid training, which in the scheme of things is not long! Bring it on Rollo, and Matt, Jase, Andrew and Skinny Wiggle, Jeffinator, keep up the good work boys....we will be there at the starting line soon! Phew!