New basic week

Anyone that knows me knows that I'm not a great runner, OK but not great. I've made big strides (pun intended) in the running this year but I'm not sure if I'll be able to do the same for next year. I've gone from 8:30's to 7:30's this season for my 10K pace which to me was what I planned, but didn't really expect.



My performance for HIM's didn't fair as well for a couple of reasons. The first time I was sick to my stomach from the course gatorade and the second was cuz I went too hard on the bike. Pacing got better at the end of the season but I didn't do what I planned and the run suffered because of it. I also started to lose respect for the Half-Marathon distance since I've done it in training so much, I figured I had it mastered. The Half-Marathon distance this season was like the 10K distance in 2004 to me. I was strong enough to do it, but not as well as I thought I could.



Swimming on the other hand was a pleasant surprise. I was just unable to hold the volume that I swam over the winter when I started riding and had to cut it down. While doing so, I changed my approach from swimming yards and building endurance to making every yard that I swam count. This included a long open water swim, Muscular Endurance, Anerobic Endurance, Force and Speed workouts. During the pool workouts I was limited to about 40 minutes of training time a day so I normally got about 2200yds in for a total of near 8000yds a week. That was much lower than the 12K to 16K I was doing in the spring. I was very surprised to see that after 4 weeks of doing that, I got a lot faster in the water. Since it was working, I stuck with it and finished the season with a 29 min HIM swim. (wetsuit).



My goals for 2006 are to run my Oly under a 7:00 pace and my HIM runs near an 8:15 pace. I want to come out of the water in the top 15% so I don't get bashed around at the swim start and can take it a little easier on the bike. I obviously want to be faster on the bike next season but I can see the most gains on the run so my approach to the bike will be the same but if I stick to my plan better, I know I will be stronger than this year.


I've just about made up my mind on which races I'm going to train for next season and an Ironman isn't one of them. Tenatively I'm looking at the following races:



Martian Marathon in April

The Desoto Triple T in late May

Ann Arbor

Muskoka long course or Big Fish oly (local)

Muncie HIM (maybe)

Steelhead HIM

Sylvania oly

Mid East Regional champs

Stony Creek oly or Great Lake Escape oly



Through the winter months my basic week will be just swimming and running with a bike ride when I feel like it. Through November I'll be running 4 to 5 times while holding about 30 miles a week, December I would like to be a 6 runs a week with the same volume, January I want to run 30 times in 30 days and then have a look at where I'm at to make further plans. I will use a 4 week cycle for running and swimming, my swimming cycle will be something like this.



Week 1 16K

Week 2 20K

Week 3 16K

Week 4 12K



My basic week during the winter will be something like this:



Mon Swim 4K

Tue Run 1 HR (aprox 7 miles)

Wed Swim 4K

Thu Swim 3K Run 1 HR

Fri Swim 2K Run 1 HR

Sat Swim 4K Masters

Sun Run 1.5 HR