So the week just past was my last week of my Christmas holiday & I made the most of it. I banked 5km in the pool, 244km on the bike & even a gentle 5km run (jog/walk), I’m still recovering from achilles tendinitis so my running is absent at the moment!
Pretty happy with week 17 of 2nd ironman training plan, possibly a little too much zone 3 work, but a little speed never hurt anyone right? I also squeezed in a couple of movies with the kids (Hotel Transylvania 2, That Sugar Film and a couple of others), some painting (I’m no artist, but its a nice stress relief), plenty of family fun, a late Christmas party, a hospital trip with K3 dislocating his elbow and now I’m back at work 😦 Oh to be good enough to turn pro and have my life revolve around training sessions & racing!
Toward the end of a couple of my sessions I was losing focus on the desired outcome for this session and found myself kilometer watching, desperate to hit a particular number or in particular just to round the session off to an even zero km number! Why? Reflecting, I’m not sure why I do it or did it. Perhaps it’s that little bit of obsessive compulsive behavior I have, liking everything to be round, whole and complete, perhaps it was simply a mindset of quantity over quality.
Looking at the data they are clearly generally low speed, meandering kilometers and only really add time to my session, quantity over quality! They are generally all at the end of a session, taking the extra left or right turn into side roads to add in a 1 or 2 km loop to just hit that round number of 60, 70 or 100km or just over, quantity over quality!
So are these kilometer worth the extra few minutes on the back end of my session just to satisfy my inner burning desire to hit a mark, or am I better off heading straight home happy in the knowledge I have achieved the session goals! I believe the answer is yes and no! No because I have already achieved my goals for the session, yes for my sanity, could I make it through the day knowing I had only ridden 29, 37, 49, 58km (ect…) instead of rounding it up and over the nearest 10, probably! Its a fine balance between quality and quantity.
So for the next week or two my focus will be on quality over quantity, setting a goal for the session and once achieved heading home, unless of course there is coffee & cake on offer! I’m trying a quality over quantity focus and see how this affects my training and mental state!
So remember your program or plan has been set and the goals are clear and you have complete the session, there is little benefit in going further or longer and adding quantity for no reason! More doesn’t always mean better. Quality over Quantity!
Till next time build consistency, keep smiling and live to Tri!
SO, YOU WANT TO BE AN IRONMAN? 