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.