Rob Eakin Triathlete

Training Update

It should be said when things are going well, it's a lot easier to write about than when things are tough. The last couple of weeks have seen me put in some weekly hours beyond what I'm used to and thus have spent some extra time laying around trying to recover for a 2nd or 3rd workout of the day. But I'm writing now...

After a weekend of struggling on the bike (so much so I was convinced there had to be something wrong with my bike) I spent Monday recovering and then Tuesday was an easy morning swim and run. Still not feeling right on the bike I opted out of the Tuesday night crit and relaxed in the sun while watching Martina and Alan duke it out instead.

Wednesday morning we were at the track as usual but for a combo bike-run workout. We even got a few pictures this time around. My only complaint is that it looks more like noon than 5:30 in the morning. We'll have to take some in the winter when it's pitch black out and the sun still isn't up when we're done.

The workout itself went well with three overpace (40 sec) 200's after a bike and then three pace (3:40) km's after a bike. Unlike the bike, the run had been feeling pretty good and the 3:40 pace felt, dare I say it, almost easy.

Then came Wednesday night's 16km bike club time trial. After the weekend I expected very little of myself and simply hoped to beat my time of 25:04 from the spring as I had, at the start of the year, set a goal of 25 minutes by the end of the season (last year my best time was 28 minutes).

Turns out there might not be anything wrong with my bike. I ended up hammering out a time of 23:13, nearly two minutes faster than in the spring and put a bit of fear into Alan that I'm going to catch him soon as I was less than 30 seconds behind him. Overall, a definite confidence booster going into Nationals next weekend.

Yesterday I had a solid morning swim, an easy spin on the bike in the afternoon and then a good track workout in the early evening (to hopefully get used to running in the heat before Kelowna) with five 1 km pieces at pace. Again, at the faster than normal pace (3:40) I felt strong even after the tough workouts the day before. More good news for next weekend.

So today has me doing a swim and then an easy run in afternoon but not before I finish watching the opening ceremonies of the olympics this morning. Yes, nearly three weeks of sports morning, noon, and night (well, mostly night). I don't think it gets much better than that. And thanks to the internet and cbcsports.ca with as many as 9 feeds you can watch pretty much every event from start to finish. What could be better than round of 64 action in badminton or the 10 m pistol finals? But for tonight...

Rob's Event Pick of the Night: Men's Cycling Road Race