Week of Jan 19th
Swim-11,250 yds
Bike-6 hrs
Run-34 miles
After two lackluster training weeks of travel, last week was an improvement. My swim was a bit shy of my 14k goal as instead of my 4th session I hit a swim clinic with Kari Woodall. Kari has some great ideas and I look forward to working with her a bit in the near future to improve my stroke technique.
My riding was solid. We have been focusing on three key rides. A big gear strength workout hitting 30s hard and 90s recovery for several repeats, a long 3hr trainer ride with a bunch of time at steady, and a big gear workout done as 8 minutes in my tempo power zone and 2 mins easy repeated 6 times. I know if I can consistently hit these 3 workouts my cycling will be in a good spot come spring thaw (in Aug?).
Running has also been going well. I've almost gotten back up to my goal mileage of 40 miles. I've been really focusing on 2 solid runs a week, one done as 20min easy, 20mins steady, and 20 mins hard and the other a 90 minute long run. I've also been making sure to get in a workout or two with sets of 30s strides. My running just feels so much better when these strides are in place and hit consistently.
I'm looking forward to another solid week of training before I'm back on the road again.
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Quick Update
All is well. The last couple weeks have been low volume due to work travel and baby travel. My brother and his wife just had their first kid, Ella Mae. So that makes me Uncle Joshie. Pretty excited about that. I think it is so neat that Ella was born into the Obama era and lucky that she never got to know the frustration of the last eight years. I have a lot of hope for her and this next administration. I am almost starting to feel proud to be an American and not apologetic.
With the increased travel came increased eating and that combined with less volume lead to increased fat. I think that around 150-155lbs is a good racing weight for me and typically where my weight falls when eating well and training well during the summer (I am 5'10 for reference). If I was just running I would shoot for a lighter weight but I think that the swimming and biking and recovery tend to suffer if I drop too low on the weight scale. However, I'm hanging out right around 162 lbs so I really don't want to go much higher. I would like to come into camp on March 29th right around racing weight. That way I'm not carrying a bunch of extra weight on Kitts Peak, or Mount Lemmon trying to chase down Dr. J, KP, Gordo and JD.
Well, will post more on this week later on. I have another week after this one to put in some good training before the next week of travel.
Cheers
Sunday, January 11, 2009
Scheduling and Key Workouts
Week of Dec. 29th
Swim-11,600 yds
Bike-5.8 hrs
Run-32 miles
Solid week. A touch light on weekly swim goal of 14,000yds, right where I need to be on the bike this time of year and a good run week in my build back up to last years run volume.
Coach AC and I looked at my schedule and decided we could probably organize things a little better adding more rest around the key workouts just by moving some workouts around and scheduling things as 3 days on, 1 day ez, 2 days on, 1 day very light/off. I think that whether an athlete is self coached or coached, the athlete should know the goals of each of the workouts and especially know which of the workouts are key. Once that is accomplished it makes the task of execution of the workout much easier. For example, when I have a recovery day I err very much on the side of making the workout easy if not too easy. On the other hand, on the key days I give myself a bit more wiggle room to test my limits, within reason, and keeping in mind what I have on my plate for tomorrow. Another principle I live by when executing my basic week is the idea that we all have good days and bad days. Unfortunately, its pretty hard to judge when those days will occur. So, even though I have my schedule written out and strive to hit all the workouts as planned, I allow myself to back off when I'm feeling lousy and hit it a little harder if I'm feeling good. I guess I can sum this up as saying I try to give it the best I can each day and if my power is just not there or the run paces are a bit slower I try to just give it the best I had for the day. We are still in the process of developing my basic week and making sure this week in the context of life is doable but I'm confident in my coach and our ability to learn from past mistakes...mine not his ;)
Swim-11,600 yds
Bike-5.8 hrs
Run-32 miles
Solid week. A touch light on weekly swim goal of 14,000yds, right where I need to be on the bike this time of year and a good run week in my build back up to last years run volume.
Coach AC and I looked at my schedule and decided we could probably organize things a little better adding more rest around the key workouts just by moving some workouts around and scheduling things as 3 days on, 1 day ez, 2 days on, 1 day very light/off. I think that whether an athlete is self coached or coached, the athlete should know the goals of each of the workouts and especially know which of the workouts are key. Once that is accomplished it makes the task of execution of the workout much easier. For example, when I have a recovery day I err very much on the side of making the workout easy if not too easy. On the other hand, on the key days I give myself a bit more wiggle room to test my limits, within reason, and keeping in mind what I have on my plate for tomorrow. Another principle I live by when executing my basic week is the idea that we all have good days and bad days. Unfortunately, its pretty hard to judge when those days will occur. So, even though I have my schedule written out and strive to hit all the workouts as planned, I allow myself to back off when I'm feeling lousy and hit it a little harder if I'm feeling good. I guess I can sum this up as saying I try to give it the best I can each day and if my power is just not there or the run paces are a bit slower I try to just give it the best I had for the day. We are still in the process of developing my basic week and making sure this week in the context of life is doable but I'm confident in my coach and our ability to learn from past mistakes...mine not his ;)
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