Creating Change That Matters

Train, recover, adapt, and repeat. The essence of training is to stimulate and simulate physical stress on the body. With adequate rest and sleep, the body gets a chance to heal. Upset the rest/recovery equation, and the body may succumb to the stress with fatigue or an over-trained state. Over-arching has its risk for it must be systematically applied, or it consumes the body’s ability to recuperate.

Our body has coping mechanisms for stress, be it from disease, fatigue, temperature regulation, or physical work. At its extreme, our body falls ill as its immunity system is compromised; as such, full healing is crucial before resuming intense training. At least 6 hours of sleep is required to begin the repair process for damage tissues. Nutrition is also a critical key for tested muscles to heal themselves through assimilation of high quality proteins and complex carbohydrates.

Coach has prescribed me a tough first week of triathlon training; this comes after a few weeks of conditioning, mainly from racing in long distance running. It has been a week since I completed the Singapore Marathon when I was convalescing from the flu. Fox has offered a flexible program for me, since he is aware that I am a time-crunched athlete who has more time on the weekend to invest in longer distances.

This morning I was supposed to swim 3K (through specific sets) and run for 70 minutes. I swapped it around and did my run yesterday, which comprised four sets of 4 minutes each at Moderate/Hard pace. Prior to that, my runs sets comprised 40 minutes of Easy and Moderate paced running. I will do a 90-minute strength/power set when I ride outdoors shortly. Every training set is deliberately designed to purposefully activate and enervate a certain aspect of my fitness. There is little use for ‘junk miles’. A well-deserved and long overdue deep-tissue massage follows it, as I am very tight in my legs after a heavy season of racing.

Ironman Sweden/Kalmar is the latest installation in the M-Dot series. The bike course passes the former home of IKEA founder, Ingvar Kamprad.

Finally, a treat for us! The video for the Ironman World Championships has been released. Enjoy your day!