Saturday 9th July I have spent the previous week training a lot and putting in the hours towards my second half ironman distance event at the end of August. I also worked around 30 hours throughout the week so the progress of saving for a new bike is doing well! On Saturday the family travelled to London to witness the marriage of my oldest cousin Emily. It was a very good day and we had a lot of fun. We stayed the night with some family friends in Dulwich and then headed home on Sunday afternoon when I had enough time to fit in a quick gym session. Monday 11th-Friday 15th The majority of this week has been spent working however I’ve managed to focus almost all of my spare time on training involving cycling intervals on the rollers and some brick sessions. On Tuesday night I returned to Cirencester AC for the first time in a few weeks which was brilliant and really pushed me. I’m now becoming strongly aware of the threshold I need to be working at to see results and so all of my training sessions have been focused on forcing my body to be working at the optimal pace. On Friday Dad and I booked into a 1-2-1 endless pool session with Jason Tait of South West swim which involved video analysis of stroke and gave me some vital improvements focusing on the catch and water entry. He then followed up the session with a ‘competition’ that involved seeing how long you can swim for on the fastest setting (68seconds/100m) and I finished 4 seconds short of the record with a time of 1 minute 31 seconds. I gave up with thinking about my stroke and just tried to keep going while the jet of water burst out and made it really hard to breathe consistently. Saturday 16th Very early start for Dad and I, we arrived at the lake for 7am with a fellow triathlete and swam one of the two laps of the course that had been set out for the Ironman distance triathlon the following day where I focused a lot on hand entry and feeling the catch. We then drove to Swindon to complete the Parkrun at Lydiard Park as the one in Chippenham wasn’t on. The run started well, I was holding a good pace and my breathing was good however my legs were so heavy and felt very weak. Less than 1km in and I was 3rd with the two runners clearly ahead and only quickening their pace. The first lap was a drag and I was focusing on keeping going and then onto the second and I was lapping people who were less than 1km into the race. I motivate myself by encouraging the other runners and sailed through the final lap finishing in a time of 17:56 which I’m happy with considering the very humid conditions and the heavy legs. The first finisher won in a time of 16:16 so maybe I’ll try and keep up with him next time… Sunday 17th Another fairly early start and the day began with my first swim for the Flying Monk Triathlon Club who I had recently become a part of. The session was very high intensity with some long reps which I smashed my targets for and happily finished the session. One individual rep was a 400m effort which I comfortably completed in 6:10 meaning I should be able to nail a sub 5:30 in a race scenario. Similar to in the lake I focused on the technique and this really helped with my pace and speed making it much easier to hold. Many coaches have told me that I ‘have the engine but not the technique’ which really gives me something to work on knowing my times can be massively improved. I spent the rest of the day lifeguarding and then rather embarrassingly throwing up as an effect of heat stroke after not drinking nearly enough throughout the day. I was sent home and spent the evening huddled over the toilet or sleeping. Monday 18th As a result of being ill, I haven’t eaten anything and I’ve spent most of the day sleeping so I hope for a quick recovery as a result of this mistake. I now know for the future to cover up more and drink more as being ill is definitely not worth it. Looks like the next week will involve a lot of recovery and very little exercise. Tuesday 19th July The hottest day of the year. Even though I’m still recovering from minor heat stroke, I drove up to the lake to experience the “20 Degree water” which didn’t disappoint. Roughly 90% of the swimmers were without wetsuits and I joined them for an hour swim around the lake a few times. Confirmation has just come through for my next few competitions: 21st August- Cotswold 113 Half Ironman Triathlon http://113events.com/cotswold-113/ 4th September- Cotswold Sprint Triathlon http://www.tri247.com/article_14617_The+Cotswold+Triathlon%3A+4th+September.html?region_id=&category=triferris 10th September (my birthday)- Cotswold super-sprint team relay http://www.eventslogicsw.co.uk/event/cotswolds-team-relays/213 24th September- Lanzarote Half Ironman http://eu.ironman.com/triathlon/events/emea/ironman-70.3/lanzarote.aspx So I have a busy few month ahead that I need to train for, annoyingly all different distances however I’m sure I can work something out that will cater for each race.
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Luke CampbellHere will be a monthly review as well as occasional race updates Archives
April 2019
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