The end of August also means that winter is done & dusted for 2016. This month I had a marathon as my goal and for followers, you would have already read about my success and satisfaction with my results. I am about to head up to Mooloolaba to watch the 70.3 Ironman world championships, immersing myself in the atmosphere without the pressure of racing will be a very novel experience that I am totally looking forward to. I have even volunteered during the race on Sunday and am manning a water aid station out on the run, so I get to experience the other side of the fence. Sometimes its about giving back to a sport that has given me so much over the years! Stay tuned, I may even blog about my experience as a volunteer!
So here comes my August training review. In August I trained on 20 out of 31 days, training for a touch over 28 hours for the month of August, which is finally increasing after a couple of quite months, the goal for September will be to hit over 42 hours of training for the month. During August I entered (and attempted to finish) the following Strava challenges:
Running:
- August Distance Challenge – complete 173km finishing 22,586th of 147,280 participants
- August 10k Race – Complete 4 times, my best average pace was 4:55min/km, finishing 23,739th of 152,757 participants
- August Half Marathon Race – Complete twice, my best average pace was 4:55min/km, finishing 5,306th of 80,416 participants.
Cycling:
- August Gran Fondo – 90km was my longest ride (not qualifying for the GF badge) and finishing 102,499th of 176,271 participants
- August Distance Challenge – complete 358km finishing 131,007th of 246,417 participants.
The following is a summary of activities for August:
The following little chart is from my excel spreadsheet I use to track volumes & hours, it helps me stay on track for my annual goals, also providing a good summary of the monthly totals:
Winter is now behind me and the weather will start to warm up over the coming weeks, the sun shines a little longer and training times become easier to manage and stay motivated. I have no races booked in for September, a few small things that are on my radar, but nothing confirmed. So the focus in on Noosa Triathlon and Challenge Shepparton, both in November! For those who are interested, over winter I complete 2 running races, the Jetty 2 Jetty half marathon and the Sunshine Coast full marathon. I was very pleased with the results of both events and my results can be viewed at the following links:
Jetty 2 Jetty Half Marathon – 1:41:34
Jetty 2 Jetty – Strava Activity
Jetty 2 Jetty – Garmin Connect Activity
Sunshine Coast Marathon – 3:29:17 (placing 82nd/456)
Sunshine Coast Marathon – 2016 Results
Sunshine Coast Marathon – Strava Activity
Sunshine Coast Marathon – Garmin Connect Activity
So all in all a pretty quite winter. In the scheme of things I probably didn’t do enough to really elicit any great instant improvement, however I hope it was enough to maintain the gains from last summer! Only time will tell.
If you’re not active at the moment & need some inspiration, follow me on Strava, Instagram and like my facebook page and let’s get back out there swim, bike or running. The biggest regret we can have in life is to not TRI!
Till next time build consistency, keep smiling and live to Tri!
SO, YOU WANT TO BE AN IRONMAN? 