Open-house at 53x11 Cyclerie

Trial day on CompuTrainer at 53x11 Cyclerie training centre by the owner of Squad Cycles, Patrice Lemieux.

Training on CompuTrainer

Training on rollers

All pictures here!
Training data here!
...and Happy Halloween!

Recovery Run

Running during lunch time at work is a great pill against stress. When things are starting to get hectic at work during the morning, I am looking forward my run to unload all the accumulated stress. This is just like a second start of the day and allow me to be more effective in the afternoon as some ideas might come out of my head during the run.

This Friday run was a particulary slow one since I was running with my scrum master, a beginner runner (no offence). But it was still great to be outside, out of the franctic rythm of work. I was apprehensive as I had pain in my hip on my last run, a pain I never ever had before. All in check now!

Training at Olympic Stadium

One of the best shot ZEUS Triathlon tri club achieved so far is booking the Montreal Olympic Stadium Sports Centre for swim trainings! This place is so great and has the spirit of the 1976 Olympic Games. We swim in a 25-50 meters convertible pool (which is not the main pool visible in the picture below). Upon leaving work, I can grab something healthy to eat then take the metro to the pool and all the way back home after. Logistically, it is heaven for me!

Yesterday night I had one of my best swim sensation. I just felt great and fast in the water for whatever reason.

From the top of my head, it was :

Warm Up

400 Free

Main Set

200 (Torpedo push)

200 (no breathing 1st 5m)

200 (breathe 3-5-7)

Pyramid 100-200-300-200-100

Cool Down

Plank challenge is going well : con-sis-ten-cy! Small but repeatable gains. Rince & repeat! Have a great day!

Montreal Olympic Stadium where is located the Sports Centre

Main pool

1 Plank a Day Keeps the Doctor Away!

It's in the core!

Core strength is the core (!) of the game for a triathlete (or any endurance sport athlete). So... I challenged myself to succed in the 30 Day Plank Challenge. Doing a 60 seconds plank is not hard. What is hard it the mental part which consistently doing it EVERY DAY. And that is where a triathlete will or will not succeed : con-sis-ten-cy! You cannot compensate a lack of training by squeezing a 120 minutes run when you missed an entire week of training. The body doesn't work that way. See all the posts out there about injury...

Swim Workout

I took the opportunity of a day working from home to spend my lunch hour at the local pool. Not too many swimmers which I like. Just smooth swimming and some drilling. 

Another swim workout tomorrow night but with the tri club this time.

Beautiful Montreal & Mount Field

A walk outside around the office in order to store some sun during lunch time. A timelapse came out of it :

Things got serious once home. No dinner before TrainerRoad Mount Field training ride, that was my rule for the night! I did it with success... and a lot of sweat! I ended the ride cranking up the erg mode at 107% which means my FTP is probably higher than it was evaluated at. Good news!

Second bike workouts of 1st week done and still a LOT to come in the next 6 weeks. Follow my training journey and subscribe to receive my updates as soon as I post them (twitter subscribers get it later!) I call it a day!

Loss of Fitness Confirmed

I was expecting this result from my 2nd FTP test in more than a year. A crammed season followed by injuries and mental fatigue left me with a significant loss of fitness. Anyway, I did The Sufferfest Rubber Glove to assess my FTP (Functional Threshold Power) and 246W was the final answer. I used to train all summer with a 270W FTP. A huge drop!

So... next step is to work my way up the ladder with TrainerRoad Sweet Spot Base - Low Volume I training program. It consists of a 6 weeks foundation training plan.

My way back to the top starts with Mount Field tomorrow night if I feel fine. Fill the Follow by email  field on the right sidebar to find how much fitness I can recover in 6 weeks. Send me your comments/questions on triathlon @HUGUEStri on twitter (right sidebar).