Training Thoughts

I haven't written these down in a while and I probably should so I don't forget them.

These are my plans for this winter, to prepare for the spring, to prepare for summer, to prepare more IMMoo.

Right now I consider myself in my prep phase of training with most of my workouts being very easy. I'm going to do something very different than last season and not use Daniel's cookie cutter plans. Instead I'm going to run much easier and focus on running time instead of running miles. My miles will be in the neighborhood of 35 to 40 on the highest weeks with easy running mixed with some short fast intervals here and there. This should take about 5 to 6 hours of running. I want to do this to reduce the amount of training stress on my body and not hurt myself like I did last spring.

Inspiration for this easy type of training came from here:
http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/2006/10/early-season-training.html

I like to read Gordo's stuff, there is a wealth of information there. If you want further reading here is the link to his entire blog:
http://www.gordoworld.com/gblog/

Looking for about 25 minutes of fast interval type of running and about 30 to 40 minutes of tempo speed running. The rest will be easy paced which should be under 150 bpm and around 8:30 to 8:50 miles. I'm going to try to do the HR pacing on the treadmill at the gym and see how that goes. Something I haven't figured out is how to fit in some hill runs, maybe once every 2 weeks to start and no more than 30 minutes. That gives me about 90 minutes of higher intensity to choose from but I don't plan to start that untill the middle of November.

Swimming has started well. This week I was over 15K and am well on my way to making it up to 20K by the holidays. I also feel pretty strong in the pool during the FAST workouts but I still need to figure out how to do that stupid frog kick. Maddy and I had a strong swim on saturday, I should have led some laps and gave her a break. We had some new faces in lane 5 and that was nice, different people to swim with, one of which is a real cutie :)

Most of my swimming is now in a 25 meter pool and that's got my timing screwed up. I calculate it takes me 10 seconds longer per 100 than in a 25 yard pool but I'll go back to swimming on PE and getting the recommended rest untill I figure out the real times again. That 10 seconds will serve as a guide. I like to do longer sets right now with pull sets on friday's, I like pull/paddle sets, they are fun and help me with arm positioning. It's funny cuz most people think paddles are harder on their shoulders where they remind me to keep my arms bent correctly so my shoulders don't hurt.

Biking has taken an interesting twist. With the new health club offering spin classes I feel I will be actually biking 2 times a week during the winter. I find them tolorable but much better than riding on my own. I plan on using them all through the winter untill it gets warm enough to ride outside again. Probably around 2 times a week untill Jan/Feb where I should increase to 3 or 4 times a week. I really wish I could get a friend to do them with me as well as running on the treadmill to make it less boring.

So for now I'm looking at 5 to 6 hours of running, 5 to 6 hours of swimming and 2 hours of biking by december. I suppose that makes 12 to 14 hours of training. Not much of an off season is it :)

jaretj