Training

It is getting to that point where I guess I better get exercising again.

Yesterday I got back to town and today I have been settling back into normal life and so tomorrow I think it is time to take the next logical step and get back into exercise. It has been a nice little break from physical activity, but I have never been able to sit still for long and I don't intend to start now.

The main motivation to get back into exercise (other than being fit and healthy) is that I have a paddle race planned for the 6th of August. This is actually a race I would like to do pretty well in, but doing so will mean being as fast as I can be, which means I have 7 weeks in which to build strength and fitness as much as possible. Also 7 weeks on which to work on technique and form. 7 weeks is plenty of time to do both of those things, but not if I dilly dally around. Which means it is time to get back into the habit of exercise tomorrow. Given the quiet couple of weeks of I have had on the exercise front, I will need to build back into the training a little gradually. However every journey is started with the first step and so that is what I will be doing. I know plenty of triathletes who are just starting to think of the same thing.

The intention with the training will be to build back to the sort of training I was doing about 6 weeks ago. A couple of sessions a day if I can manage it with some longer miles on the weekends. The focus will be on both building fitness, increasing anaerobic threshold and strength. This sort of race requires both cardiovascular endurance and muscular endurance, so both of those things are important. This will mean long steady sessions with some strength endurance work and also longer tempo sessions. I also want to get quicker so getting in some threshold work will also be key. Throw in some recovery work, a bit of cross training for fitness and some land based strength work and the week starts to fill up pretty quickly. Hopefully all these sessions will help me get as ready as possible for 90 minutes of solid effort.

The program is slightly different to what I would put together for a triathlete, but it has lots of similarities. In the end the two programs are aiming to achieve the same thing, and the physiology doesn't change. You drive physical adaption in the same way. The planned program also shows why it is important to come into this sort of training with a plan, it is very hard to fit in the necessary work without one.

Now that the plan is made I am quite looking forward to it. Keen to be back.