Over the past few months I have been fielding requests for coaching through my website. YES, I am going to take on new athletes for 2009. The intake will be NOVEMBER as I use this as the transition/build a program month. It takes some time to develop a program for an athlete and some tweaking so I find starting programs in Nov/Dec is the only option for my athletes. If you are interested in being coached by me please contact me through the site. I will let you know fees etc when I get back to you. I am hoping to put together a team of athletes I coach so hopefully my sponsorship plan will work out as well!
As for training, this past weekend kicked butt. My butt that is….
I started with three days off after Tahoe to try to recover but I really find it tough to find my legs coming down from altitude. I did a steady-hard treadmill run on Thursday for 90 minutes and although I would have been absolutely stoked to have run 20km in 90 minutes a year ago in a base run, it wasn’t what I am looking for now. I felt crappy. I took Friday off and then Saturday crushed the Hour of Power intervals. I did five laps. The first one was a world record despite a hike a bike due to a fallen tree (which I have since learned to ride over but didn’t that day) but my last one fell off the pace by a LOT so I was still tired. I ran off the bike as planned with 15 minutes of 9.5 and 10mph pace and then shut it down. Sunday morning came really, really early. I was running the 8km as part of the Royal Victoria Marathon weekend so at 6:30am I was driving towards downtown and shortly after warming up.
It is so peaceful at 7:30am with 10,000 of your favorite training partners out for a run. What a cool event! I ran well for how hard my weekend was shaping up to be. I went out with the lead women but as we approached 5km I faded, just like the bike intervals the day before. I still ran 29:44 but the leaders ran 28:40 so bummer that I dropped off the pace but with some rest that is what I know I can run. I then went out with the boys and rode the most incredible and amazing trail ever that I have never seen before. At the beginning of the ride Ross was kicking the crap out of me since my legs were kind of sore from the run but by the three hour mark the tables turned. He still beat me in BOTH sprints though. How is that possible?
So today I am going to do my last five hour training ride before Worlds and then I have two more key workouts and full taper begins. Hoping my swimming will come around because it is a bit crap right now with all the sore legs time. That said, if I bike and run the way I can right now, who gives a care about the swim?
Just over a week to go!