Week 4/52

S: 16,400 yds
B: 216 mi
R: 45.8 mi

Time: 23.00 hrs

Well, as even the most casual of readers can observe, this week was a big one.  In terms of hours, it's the most I've ever logged since I started logging multi-sport way back when in 2008.  If this is what it takes to get better (and it is) then I'm going to do it, because that is how I roll.

There wasn't much remarkable about my swimming this week; I didn't have any spectacular workouts that stand out but I think the take-away from that is that even when I'm swimming very well (which I am) I no longer find it remarkable.  It no longer surprises me when I manage to hold 1:12-3's on 22 100s on a 1:25 base.  That has become the new standard.  Not once this week did I have to swim by myself, which obviously makes a humongous difference when it comes to being able to push oneself to swim fast.  I know a lot of people don't have the benefit of having the awesome workout buddies that I do and I feel sorry for them.  They should just move closer to Charlotte.

Obviously biking is where I spent the most time this week.  While 200+ miles in the saddle isn't remarkable in any particular way for me, it is remarkable that it is in January.  Most of the riding was at an aerobic/tempo effort although I did have one workout of 12x30secs max, 30 sec easy.  I haven't yet figured out how best to approach this workout but after a bit of discussion with Brian I have a new strategy that I will try and implement next Tuesday.   One thing I've noticed with this many miles on my road bike (as my P3 has yet to arrive) is that my hamstrings were a little sore after Sunday's ride.  Not in a sore-to-the-touch kind of way but I just noticed that I had hamstrings, which normally I do not.  I will definitely be stronger after this week, especially considering 4 of my 5 rides this week were Thursday/Friday/Saturday/Sunday.

Running was consistent this week, which is exactly what I should be looking for.  I had one long run and one light fartlek/interval workout and felt surprisingly good on my runs over the weekend, both of which followed (although  not immediately) 3+ hour bike rides.  In fact, on Saturday I felt so good I almost couldn't believe it as it was probably one of the best runs I've had this year.  Not for any one particular reason, but just because of all the combined reasons (not the least of which included the AMAZING weather this weekend).

Next week is likely to be more of the same goodness, although I am going to change the way I "log" swimming as up until this point I think it has slightly boosted my hourly totals.  For example, I've always logged a 3000 swim as 1 hr (2:00/100m), counting that "extra" as overall training time.  Unfortunately (or fortunately), however, I have not had a swim that was 2:00/100m in a very, very long time (even including rest time).  So from now on I'll just log actual time spent in the pool as in, look at the clock when I get in and look at the clock when I get out!  Simple enough, not sure why I've never done that before.