My Daisey Dog

She loves the snow!!!

Monday Tuesday

Monday: short swim 1000yds, little warmup, dolphin kick drills, 1 arm butterfly drills. 4X25 butterfly, short cool down. This was just to loosen up my shoulder.


Tuesday: short swim 1500yds, 500swim, 4X100 dolphin kick with fins, 4X25 single arm fly drills, 4X25 fly, 400 cool down.



Run 11 miles on track, 1:32:23, HR 157, HR seemed a bit high for PE, felt OK. Shoulder and knee felt much better.

aaahhh!!!

I'm so banged up this morning, I'm thinking of canceling my swim today or maybe just cut it down to 2000yds instead of 3500yds of paddles.

Sunday training

Well it started with nice weather (45 deg F) so I actually got on my bike and rode outside today but on the way back I slipped on some wet pavement and went down. Just banged up a little, not much to speak of but the bike had some shifting problems. Anywho, real easy 12 miles in about 45 minutes HR 130, blue bike, pretty windy and patches of water in a lot of places.



Ran right after the bike, 5.1 miles, 43:20, HR 153, PE was high but the HR matched the pace pretty well. I'm still a little tired from hockey late last night.

Hockey night in Wayne

1:30:00 of hockey in Wayne tonight, Justin skated too. We both did pretty well. I did much better than I expected.

Saturday

What was I saying a couple of days ago about my lungs being stronger than my legs? Well it was apparent today too. Although today's run was not the key workout of the day, it didn't seem that easy.



After the swim I got taped with our underwater video camera, Ken and Jason pointed a few things out and then Jason helped me with my flip-turns.



Swim with FAST this morning, 4300yds total, this one guy leading our lane was killing us.

600yds warm up

100yds additional warm up

3X900yds (100 non-free, 200 pull, 300 swim, 200 pull catch-up, 100 kick)

4X100yds on 1:45

200yds cool down

300yds post cool down for camera



Easy run on Hines, 6 miles 54:18, HR 147, about 35 deg F outside. Still a bit chilly for me but better than running on the track at Ballys.

A lot of shtuff today

Started with a force swim, 3500yds 1:15:00


400 pre warm up

300 swim, 300 kick warm up

8X150 pull with paddles decending 1-8 :20 rest

8X100 pull with paddles decending 1-8 :15 rest

8X50 pull with paddles decending 1-8 :10 rest

100 cool down

I got my 150's down to 3:20, my 100's under 1:30 and my 50's to :40 at the end of each set. I'm normally slower overall with paddles but today I seemed to work really well with them. I still do some funky stuff with my arms on my flip-turns and the paddles really emphasized it. I seemed to have gotten my elbow bend back near what it should be and worked on my hand entries a lot.



Run 3.1 miles on Hines, 26:40, HR 151 to make up for yesterday's short run. Nice way to get in my 5th run.



Bike 19.4 miles, 1:00:00, HR 131, watched American Flyers for motivation. I was kind of shooting for a HR above 135 but that wasn't happening so I kept up the steady pace and was surprised with the result. I used program 54 on the Computrainer which is a continuous random course. It seemed pretty close to road riding. It was 35 deg F today and I allmost took the bike outside, then my senses came back.

oops I did it again

Only this time I forgot my watch, not the transmitter. I only had a short time to run so I paced behind a fast runner at bally's. 3 miles, 23:00

Wednesday's swim

4000yds, 1:25:00, started out kind of blah, blah but when I got about half way done I felt much better and faster. Thinking of changing up a bit by using paddles and doing a force workout for friday's swim. Probably still stick to 3000-3500yds.



500yd pre warm up

6X75 :20 rest, warm up



2X200 E2 :20 rest

100 moderate :20 rest

2X300 E2 :30 rest

100 moderate

2X400 E2 :40 rest

100 moderate



6X75 cool down (50 free, 25 non-free)

500yds post cool down, easy w/pull bouy

Monday Tuesday

I kind of wanted a day off on monday but didn't schedule it so I cut my swim down to 1500yds and got some extra rest. Jumping to 4000yd swims seems to be too big of a jump for me right now so I'm going to swim 2 4000's, a 3000 and a 1500 this week instead of 4 4000's. After a few weeks of building up to it I'll be up to 16000 a week. I don't hurt after the swims (ie shoulders) just generally tired.



Tuesday I forgot my HRM transmitter for my run and probably ran too fast but it was a good motivator for me. My plans were to run 8:30's to 8:45's for 5 miles and then drop about 5-10 sec from that average for the next 5 miles. Well the first 5 miles I averaged 8:15's and the last 5 miles I averaged 8:05's. Guessing at what the HR was I would probably say the first 5 were about 150-152 and the next 4 miles were 155-158. My last mile was a bit faster (7:53) and probably had a HR of 162-165. I tried to hold the PE in the 13-15 range while kicking it up for the end. Mostly a pace that I could hold a conversation with.



It seems to me that my breathing has improved much quicker than my legs have gotter stronger, although both have gotten so much better, I feel that my legs are a little behind and am thinking of adding some strength training for them. I guess it's possible that they are behind because of the lack of bike time which will increase as soon as this crappy weather subsides. :(



Anyhoo, the run was 10 miles, 1:21:48 (a PR for me) 8:11 miles, no HR info.

Friday Saturday Sunday

Friday swim was cut short cuz I was kind of tired. 1000yds, about 20 minutes.



Saturday - swam with FAST in the morning and added 400yds to bring me up to 4000yds, after that I ran at Bally's, 5 miles 41:23. HR was low 151, PE was pretty low too.



Sunday had just an easy run, 4 miles, 35:33, HR 148.



The easy week is done and back to 3 harder weeks of training. Tuesday I will probably do a run test again and I might do a swim test on friday. Provided the weather improves, I want to get the bike on the road again.

Thursday's run

Ran on Hines today, 27 deg F, 8 miles, 1:09:36, HR 150. Heart rate was low today as well as the PE. I enjoy running outside but this is still a little bit cold for me.

Wednesday

It hasn't seemed like an off week yet but the next two days only have one workout each.



Today had a 4000yd swim, 1:25



500yd pre warm up

warm up200S,2X(50S,100K,50S)

400,300,200,100 E2 :20 RI

300,200,100 neg split E2-3 :25 RI

200 Fast :30 RI

100 fast :30 RI

4X150 pull :20 RI

400 cool down



12 mile on CT 40 minutes 5 min warm up, 30 min at 135bpm, 5 min cd

Finish to the workout spins

Ok, after today I get back to the regular week's training schedule, still this is a down week so the running volume will be reduced but not the swimming. In fact, swim volume will increase this week but the intensity will drop a bit so I can get some time for recovery. I've allready started out the week with a bike ride and plan on two more sessions of about 30 minutes this week to get rolling back into the biking.


Today's swim was 4000yds, 1:24:00 A little more difficult for me than I though it would be, during the first 10 100's I didn't think that I would be able to hold the pace for the entire workout and then when I was near the 15th 100 I starting comming in on 1:38, go figure? I finished strong though and got a good feeling of riding the wave in front of me, maybe in a month or so I can drop 5 seconds off of that time.

500 easy swim warm up (about 9:10)

30X100 on 1:55 (comming in at 1:40)
500 easy cool down with pull bouy (about 9:50)



After the swim I went for an easy 4 mile run, 33:54 (8:29), HR 151. I got pretty tired about half way through the run and ate a gel so I wouldn't bonk and within 5 minutes I was feeling strong again.

Monday's workouts

Well I was so busy last night being funny that I didn't write down what I did :-P


So here it is:

Run 5 miles, 43:40, 149 bpm, easy run to make up for missing sunday



Bike 35 minutes, 5 min warm up, 5 min to get up to speed, 20 min at 140bpm, 5 min cool down. Program 55 on my CT. Just over 10 miles, ave HR for 20 min session was 135.

spin workouts around and around

Sunday's plans went awry when I decided to sleep in and put my run off untill later in the day...Big mistake. Well, I didn't get the run in but I did have a very productive day otherwise.



I worked as a timer for our club's swim meet that was held at Brighton High school. That was pretty fun, talking with friends, watching some amazing swimmers as well as many average ones. When I got up I found about 2 inches on snow on the ground, Sunday morning so not many plow trucks, and had a 35 mile drive to Brighton. Not too bad really but I hadn't eaten anything yet since I was out of milk and couldn't have a couple bowls of cereal. So I get to the High School earlier than expected and figured that I had some time to eat if only I could find a resturant. I found this nice little greek resturant and poitely imformed the waitress that I was "Pressed for time" and bang I had scrambled eggs, hash browns and toast in front of me in about 3 minutes. I scarfed down the food, paid for the meal, left a $2 tip for a $4 meal and made it back in time for the timers meeting. So everything went quite well.



After the meet there was a long drive to get Justin from his mom's house and then up in time for his hockey game.



As you can see there was no time for a run since I hadn't eaten since 11am and that was just pizza. So instead of trying to get home and rush through a workout I gave up and we just went out to dinner and ate something sensible.



Now the spin part, since this is an easy week anyway, I was going to take monday off, so I just said sunday was monday and monday was sunday and did my run day today. I was also going to swim today but the pool was closed so today's swim gets moved to tomorrow and tomorrows bike gets moved to today. Confused yet? For logging purposes, I logged today's run miles for last week, tommorow's bike for today and today's swim for tomorrow. Now I'm confused!!!

Friday and Saturday

Duh...?! What did I do on friday, oh yeh, swim 2700yds endurance speed workout



I've done this one before but I'm not sure if I wrote it out on the blog yet. I really like this workout.



800yds warm up, :20 sec rest after all intervals.

400 swim T+:03 (1:43 pace)

4X100 at T (1:40 pace)

300 T+:03

3X100 at T

200 T+:03

2X100 under T

200 cool down.



Saturday swim was with FAST again, I was a bit tired and didn't lead too much.

3600yds

8X50 kick

600yds warm up

3X(4X75 on 1:20, 4X50 on :55, 6X25 on :25)

10X25 any stroke except freestyle.

400 cool down.



After the swim I ran 6 miles at ballys, 48:34, HR 158. A little bit on the high end of a base run but still in the zone.

Thursday's run

Well, I got in the new shoes and I really smoked my fast miles on today's run.



5 miles 38:04 HR 168



1 mile warm up 8:24

3 miles fast 7:07,7:03,7:06

1 mile cool down 8:22

Wednesday's swim

Swam 2500 straight today, 45:00. Still kind of tired from being up late last night and the long run.

Monday and Tuesday

Monday I cut my swim short, mainly cuz I didn't feel like swimming that day. I got about 1000 yds in and called it a day. Not tired or anything, just not in the mood. Thinking of swimming a straight 3500 on wednesday or maybe 7X500 @ 8:50's to shake up the training a little. I really like swimming long sets, all of the 100's and 200's are good for speed and technique but I still have to enjoy the training too.


Tuesday's run was outside again on Hines drive. The weather channel said 48 but it felt more like 38. Hines was flooded at Middlebelt so I had to turn around and run west from there. It started to rain slightly as I got to the 7 mile mark so I turned around and headed home. Total distance of 9 miles in 1:19:41, HR was 155, a little high but he PE was normal so I went with it cuz it was an 8:51 pace which has been normal for me lately.



I got another pair of shoes today to start working with. Asics DS Trainer X's - I plan to use them for racing since they are much lighter than my Kayano X's. I'll start running in them for a little speedwork to break them in and to see how they will work for me. I still plan to do most of my runs in the Kayano's to save my feet and knees but I'm going to try everything that I feel may help my run times this year. I'll have more to say about them in a few days.

Sunday's run

I ran some intervals on the treadmill today and felt pretty good while running them. My HR was lower than expected at the end of each interval with the last one only getting up to 168 and that one was the highest. I guess this means that I didn't run them fast enough but I started out pretty conservative. I'm hoping these intervals will spark another jump in my training. The speed is comming



1 mile warm up 9:00

4X400 @ 7:00 pace, recover to 120bpm

4X400 @ 6:45 pace, recover to 120bpm

2X400 @ 6:30 pace, recover to 120bpm

1.5 mile cool down 8:20 pace (cuz it felt easy)



5 miles total, 49:30 total



I got on the bike for about 20 minutes after I got home but felt kind of drained and not in the mood for biking. Going to have to force myself to get on the bike this month.

Friday and Saturday

1500 straight on friday, going to start doing this swim for a good pace next week instead of junk yards.



Saturday, swim with FAST, 3600yds 1:20:00, not too hard but a little tired from a late hockey game for Justin the night before. Ran 6 easy miles on Hines, 53:18, HR 152.

Thursday's run

I departed a little from normal speed training and did a little bit more race specific training. Today's run was only 4 miles but my objective was to hold certain times on these miles and ran them back to back. After a few times of this I'm going to pick up to 5 and 6 miles with the middle miles being about 7:00.



Mile 1 obj 9:00 warm up actual 8:45

Mile 2 obj 8:00 act 7:50

Mile 3 obj 7:00 act 6:48

Mile 4 obj 8:30 act 8:20



These are obviously sandwiched between 10 to 15 minutes of stretching. It really helps me a lot.

Wednesday's swim

3200 yds



Still a little tired from the run on tuesday, normally I'm not tired from a base run but I was. I have also been reducing calories from my diet so that might be a reason. I'm down to 150lbs now, only 5 more to reach my goal. I also only had 6 hours of sleep last night cuz of Justin's hockey game.



800 warm up

3X300 decend (5:30,5:15,5:00)

200 kick

3X200 decend (3:45,3:30,3:20)

200 kick

3X100 decend (1:50,1:45,1:35)

200 cool down

Sunday Monday Tuesday

I took sunday off of training cuz I was tired and had a higher resting heart rate. It was gloomy outside too so I sat around and rested.



Monday: swim 3200 yds, E2, not too hard, just getting the laps in longer sets.



Tuesday: run 10 miles, 1:26:42, HR 153, Ballys track again cuz it is raining outside. Kept HR under 150 for first 5 miles and ran close to 8:50's, next 4 I let it go up to 154 and was in the low 8:40's then the last mile I ran kind of fast for me, 7:51. No particular reason, it just felt kind of fun.

Saturday's run

Ran 4 miles on Hines drive when I got home from work, 33 minutes. 1 mile warm up, 2 miles farklet, 1 mile cool down.



I took sunday off of training cuz I felt like taking a break, it was allmost warm enough to ride the bike outside and I tried but after a mile I rode back home.



Going to drop the wednesday run for a few weeks untill I get used to running outside again. The road is a lot different from the soft track I was running on and since it is so early in the training, I'm going to cut it back.

Friday and Saturday

Swim Friday during lunch 1500yds, 27 min, high zone 2 - low zone 3



Saturday swim with FAST was 3500yds

700 warm up (200S,200K,100non-Free,200S)



52X50 on 1:00 (swam :45's)


200 cool down



Felt really good througout the 50's. I lead 22 of them.



Going to run later today - I'm at work now.

Thursday's run

I had to move my short swim from Thursday at lunch to Friday cuz of a business lunch that I had but I still kept my run for Thursday afternoon.



6 miles on Hines, 53:06, HR 153. 35 degrees outside but still doable.



I have two 5 mile runs planned for the weekend that I'm thinking of shortening them to 3 or 4 miles cuz I'm thinking that this is too much running for this time of year. I still want to keep the frequency of five runs a week if I can but I feel that running 25-28 miles a week is ideal for right now.

Another good training day

Started with a swim that I thought was going to be too fast for how I was feeling but did it anyway. Once I warmed up I came right up to speed. This is an Endurance speed workout from my workout book.



The pace is set from my T-pace which is 1:40, all of the sets have a 20 second rest interval between them.



2700 yds



warm up 10X50 :15 RI, 300 pull (I forgot my pull bouy today)



400 @ T-pace+3

4X100 @ T-pace

300 @ T-pace+3

3X100 @ T-pace

200 @ T-pace+3

2X100 under T-pace



100 cool down



After the swim I did an easy 3 mile run, about 26 minutes, HR 149. This is an attempt to bring myself up to 5 runs a week. I'm not going to increase this run or change the intensity untill I bring my total milage up to 35 miles a week, which will be in a month or so.

Fun swim

The swim today was kind of fun. I hesitated a little before doing it cuz it looked hard but I like doing 500's so I went for it.



3000 yds, 1:05:00



400 swim - warm up



4X500 Decending 1-4, #4 at T-pace 1:00 rest

Times for 500's were 9:47, 9:15, 8:57, 8:22



16X25 Odds 12.5 fast/12.5 easy, evens fast, :40 swim interval



200 cool down



A little bit after dinner I put some miles on the bike

13 miles, 45:00, program 53 on CT.

Monday's dissapointment

I got to the pool today to find that it was closed for maintenance, Oh well, it was warmer today so since I didn't have my run stuff with me I decided to run outside.



8 miles, 1:10:50, HR 153. My first two and last two miles are just a tad long so it skews the time just a little, they're like 1.03 miles each. It is easy to use the markers on the road so I've allways just delt with the distances.



30 degrees F outside so it wasn't too bad, felt good but I had to rush a little to get home in time to pick Justin up from school. The last two miles I averaged 156-8 on the HR so I ended up a little fast.

The last of the screw around days

Tomorrow starts the new training cycle so today is the last day of screwing around with the swim and run to get more speed. It's time to get serious about structure and add in the bike times.


Today's training was a swim and a run. Swam easy 2600yds to finish out the 10,000 for the week, 1:00:00. My old favorite swim:

3X 600(200pull,200swim,100k,100 fast) plus warm up and cool down

Swam the 100's in 1:30



The run I felt a little tired on mainly cuz I ran pretty hard yesterday

5 miles, 43:00, HR 153.

Saturday's training

Due to unforeseen events I had to shift things around a bit and not train on friday. I also wasn't able to swim with FAST this morning so I had to swim by myself.



Today, I ran 6.2 miles, planned to run easy but I got running behind some guy at the gym and I just kept up the pace. I wound up at 46:57 for 10k which is a pr for me. I still want to drop 5 minutes off of that and I think it will be a long stretch for me to do so but I'm going to keep chipping away at that time. After the run I swam easy for 1500 yds in 28 minutes.



Next week starts my new training cycle with the intention of doing the Muncie Endurathon as my first A race. Goals for the race are :30 for the swim, 2:35 for the bike and 1:45 for the run. Those times plus transitions should get me under 5 hours. My first couple of base periods are going to be 4 weeks long, the last base will be 3 weeks as well as both of my build periods. Right now I have 2 weeks of peak scheduled but that's mainly just in case I get sick and fall back a week. I am seriously considering a running coach if I continue this plateau that I'm on. My next two cycles will dictate weather that happens or not.

Thursday run

Ran during lunch today cuz I'll be busy later



Easy 5 miles 43:51 ave HR 149



I missed yesterday's run cuz I was just too busy to get it in after the swim.

Wednesday

Swim 2900 yds Felt good, stayed in zone 2 for whole swim. Towel got stolen from locker room so I was a little upset afterwards.



6X75 warm up

500 :20 RI

400 :20 RI

300 :20 RI

200 :20 RI

2X300 Neg Split :30 RI

6X75 cool down (50 free 25 back)

Tuesday's run

9 miles 1:17:31 HR 159 8:37 min/mile. Ran at what I felt like was zone 2 but the HR was a little bit high.



Rode :30 min on CT easy

I got a little behind on the log, here is the updates

Friday swim 3300yds 1:10 E2



Saturday swim with FAST was cancelled so I swam at Ballys, 3200yds 1:10 E2, run 4 miles 34:38 at Bally's track



Sunday run test, 1 mile warm up, 4.07 miles 30 minutes, ave HR of the last 20 minutes was 174bpm, walk 5 min cool down. Just about what I expected. 7:22 min/miles



Monday 3000yds easy swim E1-2 1:04, am going to keep this swim as an easy swim so it's kind of like a recovery day



This week I'm adding another run on wednesday so I will be up to 5 runs a week. It will be about 3 miles and used just as extra miles and to get used to running more often.



This weeks Schedule



Monday Swim E2

Tuesday Run 9 miles, easy bike :30

Wednesday Swim E2, run 3 miles

Thursday Run 5 miles - 1 warmup, 3 tempo, 1cd, easy bike :30

Friday Swim (speed) 3000yds E2-3

Saturday Swim with FAST E2-4, run 6 miles

Sunday Run 5 miles treadmill track workout, easy bike 30 to 60 min

Thursday continued

After the run, I had some errands to do then got on the bike for 30 minutes. My son Justin got on my road bike on the CT and rode for 20 minutes. I'm really impressed with him taking the time to do exercise while the playstation is calling him from the bedroom.

Thursday's run

I forgot my watch today so I had to go by the clock on the wall and I don't have my HR data either. I ran what felt like a high zone 2 - low zone 3. Felt really good but kept the run short cuz this is a rollback week.



4 miles, 32:20, PE high E2

Wednesday's swim

I swam near 2000 yds. I quit early cuz the pool people were blasting cold water into the pool and it was screwing me up, so I'll make up the yardage on sunday. But anywho, 2000 yds in about 40 minutes, E2 workout.

Tuesday's run

After having yesterday off and feeling rested up I ran 9 miles today.



9 miles 1:14:11, HR 160, 8:15 min/miles



My goal was to run 8:30 for the whole run but I pushed the pace for the last 2 miles and ran the HR up somewhat. The last 2 miles were at 8:00m/m. I felt strong throughout the run and could have easily run 3 or more miles had the workout called for it. The next couple of runs will be a bit shorter cuz this week I'm pulling back a few miles. I should be at 20-22 for this week.

Day off

My first day off of training in 3 or 4 weeks and I was really bored.



First of all, I had the day off of work so after I got up at 6:30am (that's sleeping in for me during the week) I watched TV for a while and got my resting heart rate. Well I thought since yesterday had a hard run that it might be a little bit higher than normal and this rest day is what I needed, it was 46, that was an average of about 5 minutes with a low of 44, I was kind of expecting a 50 or 52.



After watching the shows about Hitler and Hussein I got off my butt and went to REI and browsed around a while and then off to the swimming store. I was looking for a 34 speedo and wouldn't you know it, my local swimming store that I waited around to open and passed by other stores just to go there doesn't have a 34 speedo. I was kind of pissed, I tried to support my local swimming store and everytime I go in there I either can't find anything or get ripped off with their high prices.



Sorry, I just had to bitch about that.



The rest of the day was uneventfull. I fought off the urges to swim and bike in favor of resting and even made out my training schedule for the next 2 weeks. I'll have more training stuff tomorrow.

Sunday's run

5 miles, 1 mile warm up, 8X400@6:45 to 7:00 min/mile, 2 miles of cool down, treadmill #1 for warmup and intervals, track for cool down.



Thought of going 2 more intervals but I was tight during stretching plus I was a little tired so I stuck with 8.

Saturday training

I think that Vince was trying to kill us today with the swim.



Swam with club today 3650yds, 1:30:00

600 warm up

8X50 kick with fins (I had some today)

4X (200IM,4X50pull,4X25IM order)

6X75 free on 1:20 (I lead 5 of these)

200 cool down



After the swim I ran at Bally's, 6 miles, 51:12, HR 157, pace 8:32.

I pushed the pace to 8:30's and tried to relax as much as I could. Debated on running another but the swim had really tired me out.

Friday's swim

I just swam today and blew off the bike ride. I didn't get much sleep last night and really don't feel like riding indoors. If it was outside it would be a different story.



1500 yds, 26:07, swam what felt like zone 2-3, could have definitely swam faster but that wasn't the goal, even though that's the fastest 1500 in the pool that I've swam.



I worked on making sure that I finished my stroke by clipping my thumb on my thigh. By doing that I have been taking almost 1 stroke per length off of my counts. I know this not by counting but cuz I hit the wall on the opposite arm that I normally would. The workouts I've been doing have really helped a lot. I just got a new swim drill book for all of the strokes and will start working on my breaststroke and butterfly next week.

Thursday's race pace run

5 miles, 40:15, Ave HR 160.



1 mile warmup (8:58)

3 miles hard (7:36,7:26,7:18)

1 mile cool down (8:57)



I really wanted to see what kind of speed I could hold for the three miles and am getting closer to my goal of 7:00 min/miles. My legs felt kind of heavy and that's probably cuz it's my third week in the cycle. Also, I noticed that my HR wasn't as high as the last test I did, the ave HR for the last mile was 173 and I expected it to be higher. Next week has a test again, I expect to see faster times than the last one and a slightly lower HR. Probably consistant 7:20's with an ave HR of 175, we'll see soon.



An easy run is scheduled for saturday and intervals on the treadmill for sunday. Since I have monday off of work I may do an easy run with the tri-club depending on the weather.

A little tougher swim that I thought

3200 Endurance Speed workout



600 warm up (300S,200K,100S)

4X(300 Moderate :20RI, 2X75 Fast :15RI)

:30 bonus rest after each repeat

400 kick (100Easy,200Moderate,100Easy)

100 cool down



Like the heading says, it was tougher that I thought. 1:02:00

9 mile run

Ran another 9 miles today on the track at the gym. Fairly uneventfull, the normal speedy people running their 2 miles at 8 min/mile and then stop cuz they are dying of exhaustion. There was one guy there running easy that has the right idea, he probably did about 4 miles, I hope he sticks with it and loses the weight he's trying to.



9 miles, 1:19:16, ave HR 152, 8:48 min/mile pace.



The new shoes are doing great, my knees and ankles feel good and I enjoy running in them, plus they look cool. I think they are one of the reasons I'm running faster, my steps are much smoother and very quiet like I'm not wasting any energy.

Monday's swim

3100 E2 workout. Felt a little tired but stuck to the workout. Rest day is on Wednesday.



500 warm up

8X150 DEC 2222 :20RI

1:00 bonus rest

8X100 DEC 2222 :15RI

1:00 bonus rest

8X50 DEC 2222 :10RI

200 cool down

Sunday Training

Today was a bike ride 35:00 on computrainer and 5 mile run. Generally felt kind of tired during both of them but I got it done. Tomorrow is an easy day with just an easy swim so I'll have time to recover. I'm going to do one more up week and then take an easy week.



I've gotten to my mid-winter goal of 10,000yds of swimming, 25 miles of running and 2 hrs of biking. I'm going to hold this through January and probably February untill my training plan catches up with it. Hopefully by the end of February it will be warm enough to bike outside at least once a week. So untill then, I'll stick to the 9.5 hour schedule, that seems like enough to keep me fit through the colder months.

A good start to weekend training

Swam with the club this morning, mostly freestyle sets 3500yds, 1:20:00. Lane 4 #3 and #4 in line. Had a good time, felt really strong. The underwater camera wasn't available today because of technical difficulties, maybe next week. A newspaper reporter was at the swim taking pictures to go with a story he was writing about triathlon training.



Had breakfast with the club at Charlies' Grill. I allways have a great time there being able to talk about training and learning new things. Still working on my schedule for the summer and may have found a different race in August. Some club members may go down to Arkansas for a Half IM and it may be fun to go with them. I'll have to research it and see.



Ran today at Bally's track, 5 miles 40:25 HR 163. 1 mile warm up, 3 miles race pace (ave 7:35), 1 mile cool down. Felt pretty good but I was definitely pushing the pace for me. I've been stretching a lot lately and have found that in the last 2-3 weeks I have been very flexible and it seems to be getting better every time. (I just thought that was interesting)

Friday's training

I swam 1500yds straight during lunch today, 26:50, mostly high zone 2, felt pretty good, pool wasn't busy and the temp was cooler than normal, probably about 79 which is getting close to perfect for swimming laps.



After work I rode the Computrainer for about 30 minutes, some spinups and big gear stuff to pass the time. 150 watts for 10 miles, HR 129. I moved the CT to the living room cuz it was getting too crowded in the bedroom and I kept banging my shins on it trying to get around it. Since the road bike was allready in there I set it up with the road bike.

Link to some training information

I found the link and I like some of his articles



http://www.physfarm.com/



Click on articles and then click on



December 2004 Testing 1-2-3: Figuring Out Your Training Levels



jaretj

Thursday run

Planned 6-8 miles at 9 min/mile and wound up running 9 miles cuz I felt pretty good. Got to Bally's early again and had a clear track to run on.



Todays run was 9 miles, 1:21:01, Ave HR 153 middle zone 2.



I did some reading and found an interesting article on pacing for base runs. It said to run at 125 to 135 percent of your LTHR run speed. That would put me at about 9:20 to 9:40 which I feel is too slow but I have been running 8:30's which I felt was too fast for a base run so I compromised with the 9 min/mile pace which felt pretty good and kept the HR about 155. That seemed about right for my level of percieved effort.

I'll post the link to the info when I find it again. This guy has been on Slowtwitch and has many interesting things to say. Seems to be an authority on the subject.

Wednesday's swim

I knew I would be crunched for time but I got 2400 yds in anyway. E2 workout that was cut short. Pool wasn't that crowded cuz I got there early. Water was cool too, probably about 79 degrees, pretty close to perfect for me.

Tuesday's training

Ran outside today cuz it's 36 deg and I didn't want to deal with the "Resolutionaries" at the health club. 6 miles 51:35 HR 157 kind of uneventfull.


A little bit after dinner I rode 20 miles on the computrainer. 176 watts for 1:02:00, felt kind of tired but OK. The course was a flat 20 miles and set the computer to 170.

Monday swim

I swam today because I might not be able to swim on Wednesday. Today was 3000yds Endurance workout #2. I seemed to be keeping my elbows bent during the pull phase more today like I was told to by the person that reviewed my underwater video tape. The force workout that I did last week seems to have helped that somewhat, I kept my elbows bent then to reduce the load on my shoulders, it must have stuck with me.



Pool was full of "New Year's Resolution" people and nobody would share a lane. They just paddled down the center of them. I can't wait untill they all give up, which will probably be sometime in February. Nasty people won't even take a shower before getting into the hot-tub or the pool after they work out. The chlorine is so strong right now that it's killing my swim suit. I know if I buy one now it will be ruined in 2 weeks so I'll hold off for a while.

Lighter training for sunday

Swam 1500yds straight 27:00, ran 4 miles 33:26, HR 158.

I really wanted to go up to 4 runs a week so I ran a short one today to get my body used to it. I'm not planning on killing myself for the 4th run, I just think that it is necessary for me to improve. My run speeds have allready seen big results, I can run 8:40's with no difficulty at all, that speed would have been difficult last summer. Hopefully I can get another minute out of that by springtime, if I could do that it would bring me ahead of my origional planning, then I could spend more time polishing the run instead of building it.

Saturday swim and run

Swam a force workout today. It's the first time I've ever swam a whole workout with my paddles. Right now I'm just following a short plan that's in my swim workout book. The new training plan should be a couple of weeks away.



3100 yds

600 warm up

8X150 Pull (DESC 1-8) :20RI

8X100 Pull (DESC 1-8) :15RI

8X50 Pull (DESC 1-8) :10RI

100 cool down



4.25 miles on treadmill #7, Ave HR 147, 37:21

PE seemed high so I took it easy. I want to try and run 4 miles tomorrow and get 1500yds in the pool to get my 10,000yds for the week.

Friday morning hockey in Plymouth

Without anyone going to work and nobody to kick us off of the ice we skated about 2 hours before I gave up, the few remaining people finished just behind me. I actually felt pretty good throughout the whole skate and played pretty hard. I knew we had been on the ice for a while cuz I had to wet the palms of my gloves again and ran out of water. I skated 3 or 4 shifts without a drink and that was it.



Because of the long skate, I pushed my swim to saturday, it's a force workout.

Thursday's run

7 miles, 1:00:25, HR 159, Bally's track. It was probably warm enough to run outside today but it was so wet and I've got the new shoes so I ran inside. I started on the treadmill but the stench of the "Holiday people" got to me in about 2 minutes so I moved upstairs.

An hour on the computrainer

1:00:00, 17.4 miles, 134bpm, 163 watts.



Started riding the Orange County Triathlon ride and just went for 1 hr. There was a lot of climbing in the first 10 or so miles. I set the computer to ride at 160 and just tried to ride close to him. I had to slow down a lot cuz I rode away going up the hills. Next time I'll bump him up to 170 watts.



Next week I'm going to try to get some HR vs Watts data on some flat roads so I can track improvement over the next few months.

Wednesday's swim

I got the book "Workouts in a Binder" by Gale Bernhardt and did the first Endurance workout it in. This book is so cool cuz it is waterproof and you can have it right on the pool deck during your workout. It is very easy to follow and it has a section with all of the codes in it so if you don't understand what to do you can look it up. The only thing that it doesn't have is the other strokes that real swimmers use (Butterfly, Back stroke, Breast stroke). I'm going to do one short workout a week concentrating on them so I can keep up with the people at my swim club. Here is a link to the book



http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1931382204/ref=ase_trainingbible-20/102-9062289-2471362?v=glance&s=books



You can also click on the header for the link.



Today was 3200 yds. I was a little sore from yesterday's TT so I swam mostly in zone 2 but kept true to the workout.

600 warm up

400,300,200,100 moderate :20RI

300,200,100 neg split :25RI

200 fast :30RI

100 fast :20RI

4X150 Pull :20RI

100 cool down

Tuesday's run 30 min Time Trial

I had debated on running the time trial today and decided to do it. The reason I considered putting it off untill thursday was the fact that I did a swim TT yesterday and thought I wouldn't be ready for it. I did a resting HR this morning and came up with a 52, which is normal for me so I went for it.



1 mile warm up

30 min TT as fast as I can run a consistant speed and take the average of the last 20 min.

4 miles (7:34,7:33,7:28,7:25) last 20 min ave of 179bpm. This is a little above what I expected but I'm not surprised at all since sunday's run gave me similar numbers.

1 mile cool down.



I had been suspecting that my LT had gone up but had not tested it since last May at which time I had a LT of 168. This directly falls in line with my PE for all of my recent runs, comfirming what I felt to be the right training zones for me.



Now armed with this new information I can continue with training for more speed. I guess all I have to do now is the bike test but it is so cold outside and I haven't been riding much at all so testing on the bike wouldn't be of much use.

Ride on Computrainer

First real ride on the computrainer today.



Easy 10 mile course, 180 watts, 20.4 mph, had computer set on 150 and beat him be about 1 minute. I didn't record the HR but most of the time it was near 145. I'm going to do a test later this week with it.

Swim Time Trial

Monday's swim included a 1000 yd time trial.



2200yds



600 warm up

6X50 on 1:00

1000yds

300 cool down



1000 yds in 16:44 (500 splits 8:27,8:17) which sets a new T-pace of 1:40

The last real test that I did was last February done at 17:41. I was allmost a minute faster today.

Duh, I forgot about the swim

Swam 2600 yds today to finish up my 10,000 for the week. Nothing too hard cuz I swam after the run. I swam some 500's working on reaching and bending my elbow a little bit more. On one of the 500's I worked on sweeping my hand in the catch. I didn't wear a watch so I don't know if it is any faster. The swim was about 50 minutes in zone 2.

Sunday run and swim

Ran tempo today and felt pretty loose, 6 miles 50:30 ave HR 164. The HR went really high today but I ran to PE which felt like the top of zone 2 and the last 2 miles felt like zone 4.



The ave HR for the last 2 miles was 175. Using that for lactate thresh hold, it puts my training zones right in line where my PE has been for the last 2 weeks. I think the speed training is changing my training zones drastically. This week will have testing for run and swim, I'm expecting to see a swim T-pace near 1:42 and a run LT of 175.

Friday swim

Did a normal swim for me 3700 yds 1:20:00

600 warm up

4X600(200pull,200moderate,100kick,100fast)

10X50 odds non-free

200 cool down



All of my fast 100 were about 1:28's, normally I have been 1:35 to 1:40

Thursday's run

Well, I broke down and bought another pair of shoes. The 1090's seemed good in the beginning but I still had a knee problem and everything I have been reading has pointed to the shoes. My intention was to get a pair of Asics 2100's, I had them picked out and ready to go but I wanted to try on a pair of Kayano's too. After putting them on and jogging around with them for a few minutes it was clear that the Kayano X was the shoe for me. I know they were more money but after running on them today I feel it's well worth it. The shoe guy I see pointed out an issue with my 1090's. On the right shoe, inside arch, you can see that the shoe is starting to break down allready. There are only 51 miles on them.



Today's run was a tempo run, 5 miles treadmill #5

mile 1 9:30 warm up

mile 2 8:00

mile 3 8:00

mile 4 7:30

mile 5 9:00 cool down



Ave HR was 151 but that was from the warm up and cool downs, the middle miles were about 162 to 165. While I was running I wasn't breathing hard but I think I was on the edge of it. I think I can to 7:30's next time without any problems.



One special note on today's run was while stretching before and after, I was very flexable, even more so afterwards.

Wednesday's swim

I did sets of 500 today



500 warm up (200S,100K,200S)

500 easy with paddles to work on hand entry

500 moderate pull

1000 Swim (17:35) I decided to swim it straight since I felt pretty good

500 easy with paddles again

500 moderate pull

200 cool down



3700yds



The 1000 I kind of did as a pre-TT that I'm going to do next week, I just wanted to see what I could do. I really could have gone harder. First 500 was 8:57 and the second 500 was 8:37. That is the fasted 1000 I have done to this day, I think I can get near 17:00 on test day.

Tuesday's run

6 miles of a base run on treadmill #3. 56 minutes, HR 151, the last 4 miles were at 154.

Weekend training

Saturday swim was with the club. A short 2000 yd swim, 600 yd warm up, 1400yds of freestyle (sets were not importand), then some fun relays



200 yds freestyle - 8 swimmers

200 yds medley - 8 swimmers

200 yds with santa hat - 8 swimmers

100 yds with hockey puck at bottom of pool



Fun time with some real swimmers and triathlon teammates



I took monday off as a rest day

Friday's stuff

Played 70 minutes of hockey in the morning, felt pretty good, got new stick.



Ran intervals later in the afternoon on treadmill #5.

1 mile warm up

8X1/4 mile @ 1:40 to 1:45

1 mile cool down



Felt pretty good, I started easy because I didn't know what to expect. I haven't done intervals in a long time and didn't want to start off too hard. I probably could have gone harder and definitely could have done 3 or 4 more reps.

Thursday's swim

3500yds


600 warm up

3X750 (100kick,150pull,250 free,100kick,150pull)

9X50 hypoxic (breath 1:2strokes, 2:3strokes, 3:4strokes...9:10strokes)

200 cool down



Felt a little flat at first but warmed up after the first 750



This is the same workout I did on 12-2

Wednesday's run

Ran on the treadmill 6 miles, 56:30, HR 151. 1st mile 10:00, 2nd 9:30, 3rd-6th 9:15. Ran speed up untill I was at the top of zone 2 (154) and kept it there for the last 4 miles. Felt pretty good, getting ready for more speedwork.

Ironman Florida Pictures

Starting from the bottom



My dad (Norman), he made sure I had everything I needed for the race. He drove me around everywhere, dropped me off, picked me up, discussed strategies, took pictures, got food, generally everything. All I had to do was concentrate on the race. Without him there I would have had a hard time, Thank you very much.



Bill Terski: A new friend I met a month or so before the race, great guy. Check out the surf behind him, that was thursday morning's Gatorade swim. We were a bit worried. Waves were rolling 4 to 5 feet but after we got past the breaking waves it wasn't too bad.



Bill and Roman were goofing around taking pictures to kill the time before the race.



Me just after airing up the tires. It was pretty chilly that morning.



Me putting on an extra bottle cage. I took it off the day before but decied to put it back on that morning. It was a good thing because I broke the right rear cage at the beginning of the bike leg.



Race morning, Bill and I getting wetsuits on.



Thursday or friday morning Gatorade swim. (I think thursday)



Me on the bike somewhere after the special needs station. I could have gone much harder on the bike than I did. Look, I can ride in a straight line.



Me at the beginning of the run. I slammed down a half a bottle of Gatorade in the last 5 miles of the bike and was really full for the beginning of the run. I think I skipped a couple of aid stations because of that.



Just after the turn-around on the first loop. I felt pretty good.



Just after the turn-around on the second loop. My knee was starting to bother me by then but other than that I felt good.



Me at the finish. I walked for about 4 miles but I wanted to run accross the finish line.



A bunch of Michigan guys at one of the morning swims, we were missing Bill. (I think friday morning)



Dinner thursday night. Sorry I couldn't remember Heather's mom's name.

Dinner thursday night, right to left, Roman, Amy, Heather, Heather's mom, Me, Norman (my dad) 

A bunch of Michigan guys at one of the Gatorade swims 

Finally finished 

Near 20 miles on the run 

Near 7 miles on the run 

Starting the run. I over drank on the bike near the end and I was a bit bloated. 

On the bike somewhere just after the special needs station. 

Thursday morning Gatorade swim. Look at the waves!!! 

Getting wetsuits on 

Putting on my bottle cage 

Mr Bill Terski showing off, check out the surf behind him. 

My bike rack 

Me getting my bike ready race morning 

My dad making sure I've got everything that I need for the race 

Monday's training

Swam 3600 yds 1:20:00

500 warm up (200S,100K,200pull)

4x600 (200 pull catchup,200 swim moderate,100 Kick,100 IM)

10X50 odds non-free.

200 cd



The IM's are getting better, I am down to 1:56 per 100 consistantly. I have taken the advise of a friend at the Master's club and relaxed more on my butterfly and I feel stronger for the rest of the set. The breast stroke is getting better because of the kick timing too. The left side breathing for freestyle is becomming more and more natural, I swim that way all of the time now, sometimes when I'm not paying attention during catchup or drills, I breath every 5 strokes instead of 3.



A few hours later I did some easy miles on the bike trainer. 0:50:00, HR 127 I felt better than normal for a trainer ride. I am working with a new saddle, a San Marco Azoto. I set the height with my knee angle at 155 degrees. I'm not sure if the saddle is wide enough for me and if I will be able to sit on the nose of it. I'll give it a couple hundred miles to see.



15 min warm up

2X10 min (3:00 spin 55X19,3:00 spin 55X13@65rpm,3:00 spin 55X19,1:00 stand)

15 min cool down.

Sunday's run

I ran kind of fast today for me. 5 miles 43:14, HR 163, about an 8:40 min/mile on the track at Bally's. Looking for speed on the run still. The HR seemed high for how I felt, I figured it was a high zone 3 run but the HR was in zone 4, I wasn't even breathing hard. The next run should be an easy pace run near 6 miles then a couple of faster sessions after that.

Saturday swim with the club

Long hard workout today, especially for the tail end of a cold. This one had a lot of IM in it, a new person has started writing the workouts and have changed the format somewhat. I struggled with this one a bit, I didn't do the butterfly on all of the IM's.



450 warm up (200S,100K,150S)

3X300@5:30 (middle 300 pull)

6X75@1:20

6X50 Kick

4X200 (4X25 IM order, 100 IM)

300 easy pull

4X75@1:15

200 cool down (choice)



3700 yds

Friday's run

Ran 4 miles on the treadmill today, 1 mile warm up, 2 miles with 1/4 at 8 min/mile then 1/4 at 10 min/mile over and over, then 1 mile cool down. Felt really good but it's different not having any wind in my face like running outside. Total time 38:00, HR 151.

Light training

Been sick for the last couple of days, just a cold, not sure how I got it, maybe transitioning from 12 hrs of sleep a day to 7 hrs a day did it. I'm feeling better now and might either swim or ride the trainer for a half hour today.



Monday I ran 2 miles, lifted for 45 minutes and then ran 1 more mile. Knee was still a little bothersome but not bad. Tuesday I swam for a half hour and dicided to get out of the pool cuz I felt too week to swim 3500yds effectivly. That evening my ears got really hot which is a signal that I've got a head cold and I went to bed early. I even stayed home from work yesterday which is very unusual for me. Depending on how I feel I may swim or ride the trainer for a half hour today.

Weekend training

A good weekend despite the shorter training hours.



Saturday swim with the club, kind of short but hard:

600 warm up

3X225 pull @ 4:00



5X100 sprints

My times 1:25 1:26 1:26 1:26 1:25



That's about 5 seconds faster that I have ever sprinted, maybe next time I will get under 1:20



Also, I got my stroke video taped on saturday morning. One guy from the club critiqued my stroke, there were 2 things he noticed. 1: My arms were only bent about 45 degrees during the pull and 2: I was pulling some air that had stuck to my left hand on the entry. Honestly I was looking for more problems with that cuz I wanted an easy way to get faster, Oh well, I'll work on those two things untill I can get taped again.



Saturday night we had our club Christmas party at Madonna University. Got a cool T-shirt, the hors d'oeuvre were great and met Sheila Taormina. She had a motivational speech for us and stayed after to answer questions and to say hello to everyone. She is a real class act, everything that I expected of her.



Sunday I ran for 6 miles, about 57 minutes, HR 148, knee started to hurt again, don't really know why. I'll give it a few days off again.

Hockey morning in Plymouth

Well, I'm getting faster and have much better control. My skates are feeling more and more natural, still I need to get better. I tried much harder today and got some decent results. I got gassed about 50 min into the skate but it was just about over by then anyway. Things are looking up and the anerobic workout may help my speed in other sports. I only got about 5 hrs of sleep last night so I guess I couldn't expect too much today.

Thursday swim and run

Felt a little tired during the swim untill I got about half way through it.



3500yds, mostly zone 2

600 warm up

3X750 (100kick,150pull,250 free,100kick,150pull)

9X50 hypoxic (breath 1:2strokes, 2:3strokes, 3:4strokes...9:10strokes)

200 cool down



3 mile run on treadmill, zone 1 - low zone 2, 28:40, HR 143

Wednesday's workouts

Swam 1500yds during lunch, about 28 min zone 2-3. The Bilateral breathing is still going well. I started to count strokes and I'm at 22-23 which is pretty close to where I was when I was breathing on the right. I'm going to do some drills to try to get that down but it's not a big concern of mine.



Run 6 miles, 58 min, ave hr 150, mid zone 2, new shoes still feel really good. Normal route on Hines but I ran on the road cuz the trail was flooded in some places.