Week Summary:
1850 yds swimming in :38 - 8% of total time
80.1 miles biking in 4:05 - 49%
35.9 miles running in 3:34 - 43%
2 Run workouts (Steady State on Tuesday and Tempo on Thursday) kept the intensity pretty high this week, at least for the run. The rest of the week was a mix of laziness and the weather not being so ideal. When the time change comes in the next couple of weeks, it will be time to start hitting the bike pretty hard at least once a week. I've also GOT to get to the pool more often. That lack of swim prep will KILL me before New Orleans 70.3 and any chance I have at qualifying for age group nationals at Festival of Flowers in June.
That being said, I feel very strong on the bike with pretty much exclusively base training so far...maybe one 'workout' in the books over the past 7 weeks in which I've averaged 160 miles on the bike per week.
First race is this coming Saturday, the Charlotte Long Course Duathlon out at the Whitewater Center just outside of Charlotte. I've been looking forward to this race for a long time, not because I think I'm going to do especially well but because I love to race! Duh. Plus, there are several people I know doing the race and it will be nice to see how much effect my training has had on my fitness. 4 mile run, 30 mile bike, 4 mile run. Should be awesome.
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Sunday, February 22, 2009
Sunday, February 15, 2009
2/15/09
71.1 miles on the bike in the bank today. Really, really solid pace on this larger (20ish people) group ride out west of Charlotte. I had one particular pull in the beginning that was a good effort (like, 20k TT effort) that hurt a bit and consequently kept my HR a little higher than what my RPE was the rest of the ride. Also had a similar pull later on in the ride at a slightly lower effort but with fatigued legs; that felt pretty good. It was nice to be able to push the pace even 50+ miles into a ride. I was thinking about a run after but I didn't fuel very well on the bike and my run mileage was right in line with the past 5 weeks already (read in between the lines: I was a wuss) so I decided to opt out of that. I did get in some tennis later in the afternoon though and was surprised by the amount of energy I had left. I didn't expect that.
Saturday, February 14, 2009
2/14/09
Yesterday and today were filled with two joyous 20 mile bike rides. Joyous might be too strong of an adjective actually. They were, however, nice.
Yesterday's was on the trainer; I watched the first episode of season one of "The Wire," a show I've been meaning to get into for a long time. I'm pretty excited as I have a bunch of seasons of what is supposed to be great television ahead of me. Not a bad deal.
Today's ride was outside...it was a tad bit chilly but I was semi-appropriately dressed so I was comfortable after about 10 minutes of riding. I kept it really easy - at times I looked down and my HR was at 120 going 22-24 mph (that depends on the terrain of course, but still) - with a nice high cadence so I was pleased with that active recovery effort. Next week I'll finally be able to get back to some swimming, once I take my stitches out, which is exciting. Big bike rides coming tomorrow and Monday (7.5-8 hours total, most likely).
Yesterday's was on the trainer; I watched the first episode of season one of "The Wire," a show I've been meaning to get into for a long time. I'm pretty excited as I have a bunch of seasons of what is supposed to be great television ahead of me. Not a bad deal.
Today's ride was outside...it was a tad bit chilly but I was semi-appropriately dressed so I was comfortable after about 10 minutes of riding. I kept it really easy - at times I looked down and my HR was at 120 going 22-24 mph (that depends on the terrain of course, but still) - with a nice high cadence so I was pleased with that active recovery effort. Next week I'll finally be able to get back to some swimming, once I take my stitches out, which is exciting. Big bike rides coming tomorrow and Monday (7.5-8 hours total, most likely).
Thursday, February 12, 2009
2/12/09
Yesterday I got to do a nice duathlon workout that consisted of an easy 5 mile run followed by a [very] easy 30 minute spin on the bike, followed by a 3.1 mile run with 3 hard strides. All of this was done at the Y so it wasn't the most exciting workout ever but I think it helped mentally because I felt pretty fresh throughout. Not surprising, however, given the low intensity of the workouts. I wanted to take it easy after a hard bike ride and moderately paced run on Tuesday.
Today was a nice tempo run on the booty loop. My goal was to do ~3-4 miles (4 if I felt good, 3 if not) at 170 bpm HR average. I was hoping it would be between 6:00 and 6:10 min/mi pace. I ended up doing 4.14 miles in 24:40 (5:59 pace) with exactly 170 bpm as my average. I felt pretty solid; my stomach was giving me problems throughout (I've been having bad stomach cramps all day and last night) but I gutted them out (pun intended) to get through the run. Only after ~3 miles did I really feel 'warmed up' and that if desired, I could really push the pace.
Next week I'm looking at doing a track workouts with a lot of shorter stuff in it to develop my turnover a bit, something I feel as though I've been lacking for the past couple of weeks. That and the tempo run again (maybe). We'll see how it goes.
Today was a nice tempo run on the booty loop. My goal was to do ~3-4 miles (4 if I felt good, 3 if not) at 170 bpm HR average. I was hoping it would be between 6:00 and 6:10 min/mi pace. I ended up doing 4.14 miles in 24:40 (5:59 pace) with exactly 170 bpm as my average. I felt pretty solid; my stomach was giving me problems throughout (I've been having bad stomach cramps all day and last night) but I gutted them out (pun intended) to get through the run. Only after ~3 miles did I really feel 'warmed up' and that if desired, I could really push the pace.
Next week I'm looking at doing a track workouts with a lot of shorter stuff in it to develop my turnover a bit, something I feel as though I've been lacking for the past couple of weeks. That and the tempo run again (maybe). We'll see how it goes.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
2/10/09
So my sweet blog was suspected of being a spam blog and was consequently taking off-line for several days, which led to a dearth in posts. I'm sure that is not a problem for most people.
Over the past 3 days I've biked 150 miles, which has felt pretty nice. Today was a good, hard workout on the bike of 2 hours with some threshold pushes up hills and in big gears followed by an easy 3.5 mile transition run. The run felt ok; stride was off for a bit but then warmed up and smoothed out after a little over a mile.
Over the past 3 days I've biked 150 miles, which has felt pretty nice. Today was a good, hard workout on the bike of 2 hours with some threshold pushes up hills and in big gears followed by an easy 3.5 mile transition run. The run felt ok; stride was off for a bit but then warmed up and smoothed out after a little over a mile.
Wednesday, February 4, 2009
2/4/09
AM:
Well I woke up this morning just the same as always. Took a shower like always; starting eating breakfast like always. This day, however, construction staff didn't work due to snow so I was up and ready to go at 7am with no work to do! I decided that it was a sign I should put in some good time at the gym.
Swam 2000 yds (including a 1000 yd continuous swim, which was a huge breakthrough for me using this newfangled stroke, I was pretty excited), biked ~30 (1.5 hrs on the spin bike including a spin class) and an easy 2 mile run.
Well I woke up this morning just the same as always. Took a shower like always; starting eating breakfast like always. This day, however, construction staff didn't work due to snow so I was up and ready to go at 7am with no work to do! I decided that it was a sign I should put in some good time at the gym.
Swam 2000 yds (including a 1000 yd continuous swim, which was a huge breakthrough for me using this newfangled stroke, I was pretty excited), biked ~30 (1.5 hrs on the spin bike including a spin class) and an easy 2 mile run.
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
2/3/09
PM:
My knee hurt when I woke up this morning - gradually feeling fine after a bit - so I decided to stick to biking and swimming today. Easy 1000 yds in the pool then a spin class. Pretty laid back, but I expect a very hard run on Thursday and a long ride on Sunday so hopefully I'll feel nice and prepared for both.
In terms of monthly plans, I'd like to continue to average around 14 hours a week (rather go over than under) of swimming, biking and running; the main focus for now being biking and running.
Lately I've been averaging ~175 miles on the bike, ~25 on the run, and ~2000yds in the pool (per week). The pool numbers are pathetic, but I've been really focusing on the bike in January and just (mostly) maintaining the run endurance while adding a little stamina/speed.
I'll likely bring the bike miles down a bit to ~150/week and bring the run up to 30-35/week. We'll see how it all works out as first race is on the 28th, so that's less than 4 weeks away! Exciting!
My knee hurt when I woke up this morning - gradually feeling fine after a bit - so I decided to stick to biking and swimming today. Easy 1000 yds in the pool then a spin class. Pretty laid back, but I expect a very hard run on Thursday and a long ride on Sunday so hopefully I'll feel nice and prepared for both.
In terms of monthly plans, I'd like to continue to average around 14 hours a week (rather go over than under) of swimming, biking and running; the main focus for now being biking and running.
Lately I've been averaging ~175 miles on the bike, ~25 on the run, and ~2000yds in the pool (per week). The pool numbers are pathetic, but I've been really focusing on the bike in January and just (mostly) maintaining the run endurance while adding a little stamina/speed.
I'll likely bring the bike miles down a bit to ~150/week and bring the run up to 30-35/week. We'll see how it all works out as first race is on the 28th, so that's less than 4 weeks away! Exciting!
Monday, February 2, 2009
2/2/09
PM:
Got in from some vacay just in time for swim lesson with Lance. It went pretty well. The technique changes I've made/need-to-make are fairly obvious/standard so now it's just about swimming a lot more and creating muscle memory to build on and repeat.
Also rode my bike on the booty loop for about 1:45. Nothing was particularly notable about it; just a bunch of loops riding pretty easy. At one point there was a guy riding around me and he was doing this workout that basically involved standing up out of his saddle a lot, at which point I noticed (multiple times, unfortunately) that he had two rather unfortunately placed holes worn into his shorts. That was bad news.
I ran 10 miles off the bike with a big crowd, which was nice. The weather, unfortunately, was not nice as it started to rain about 3 miles into the run. It was a light rain but I was quite cold by the end.
Got in from some vacay just in time for swim lesson with Lance. It went pretty well. The technique changes I've made/need-to-make are fairly obvious/standard so now it's just about swimming a lot more and creating muscle memory to build on and repeat.
Also rode my bike on the booty loop for about 1:45. Nothing was particularly notable about it; just a bunch of loops riding pretty easy. At one point there was a guy riding around me and he was doing this workout that basically involved standing up out of his saddle a lot, at which point I noticed (multiple times, unfortunately) that he had two rather unfortunately placed holes worn into his shorts. That was bad news.
I ran 10 miles off the bike with a big crowd, which was nice. The weather, unfortunately, was not nice as it started to rain about 3 miles into the run. It was a light rain but I was quite cold by the end.