Thursday Friday

I was pretty tired on thursday so I took it easy on the swim. It was colder and windy so I bagged the bike ride.

Thursday
Swim 1500 meters about 30 minutes.

Friday
Bike MTB
43.6 miles 3:12:24 HR 144
My longest ride of the year and it was on the mountain bike :)

Swim 2200 with LALA
A lot of stroke work

Wednesday long run

Run on Hines
15.2 miles 2:07:53 HR 137

Kind of cool compared to yesterday and monday. I held the pace down on purpose so I would be fresher for tomorrow. I'll see if it works.

Tuesday

Run during lunch
6.5 miles 53:16 HR 141
Hilly route near work

Swim after work
I need to work on my short stuff, this was out of "Workouts in a Binder", one of the Anerobic workouts
3150 meters 1:00
Warm up
900 meters (300S,300K,300P)
600 meters (200S,200K,200P)
Main set
6X75 fast on 2:00
300 pull
6X50 fast on 1:10
100 kick
6X50 sprint on 1:30
200 cool down

Monday

A record high today so I moved my swim to tomorrow while it's supposed to rain and got some quality bike time in today.

Hilly Run during lunch
6.5 miles 53:03 HR 144

Bike after work
41.8 miles 2:02:2 HR 149

Entire workout (179 watts):
Duration: 2:02:02
Work: 1302 kJ
TSS: 169.8 (intensity factor 0.916)
Norm Power: 192
VI: 1.08
Distance: 41.827 mi
-----------------Min Max Avg
Power: --------0 585 179 watts
Heart Rate: --53 185 149 bpm
Cadence: -----37 108 88 rpm
Speed: -------0 34.8 20.7 mph
Pace ------1:43 0:00 2:54 min/mi
Hub Torque: ---0 416 63 lb-in
Crank Torque: -0 688 183 lb-in

Friday Saturday Sunday

Friday
Bike18 miles 54 minutes HR 134 (to Dearborn)
Run 5.1 miles 38.36 HR 145 (a faster run)
Swim about 2500 yards with LALA with a lot of off-stroke work

Saturday
Swim 3800 yards with FAST
warm up
150 swim
150 kick
150 IM (fly/free,back/free, breast/free)
150 pull
150 swim
Set 1
8X50 on 1:10
6X50 on 1:05
4X50 on 100
2X50 on :55
Set 2
500X6 as follows (I only did 4 sets)
--4X25 on :30
--3X50 on :55
--2X75 on 1:20
--100 on 1:45
200 cool down

Run 8 miles 1:05:xx HR 137

Sunday
Bike 1:56:xx 35 miles HR 128 146 watts
Run 6 miles about 50 minutes HR 136

Thursday bike ride

Bike
2:04:xx 39.3 miles HR 138 156 watts

I've been sacrificing a swim to get a bike ride in since I feel I am behind on my biking. The weather was very nice and I really felt like riding. It was a bit windy going out and I saw a lot of 200 watts, which is high for me, so the speed was down in the beginning. I decided to ride up 5 mile hill (.6 miles at 5-6% grade) at 300 watts. I was a bit gassed at the top but still held on to that effort. HR went up in the high 160's for that effort.

The first 19 miles I averaged just over 170 watts (I turned around then) and was well on my way to staying that high. Around 30 miles in I hooked up with Roman and Shawn and road easy for a while, somewhere around 120 watts so that brought the average down a bit but was nice to talk to friends and get some inspiration from them.

Overall a good day, had fun and got done with training early. I still desperately need to clean my bike though.

Wednesday Long Run

Really a long run for me

The weather started out crappy today, cold. Then at lunch time I checked outside and it was raining and cold, I said "Oh well, looks like a treadmill day." Then I got off work, walked to my car and said "Holy Shxt, it's nice out here, I'm running outside." I got on the road and all it did was get warmer, started at 45 and finished at 48, what a pleasant surprise.

15.2 miles 2:04:36 HR 143
8:12 average with the last 4 miles just under 8 min/miles. I felt great and hope I didn't run too fast. I did put down the gels though, one at 4 and 8 miles each, at 9 miles I felt crappy so I put another down. After that I felt like superman, since I had one more with me and wanted to finish strong I ate a fourth one at 12.5 miles.

Tuesday

I got the bike on Hines Drive, OH IT WAS SO COLD!!!!
I wore so much clothing I don't know how I could pedal.
Normal shorts
Leg warmers
Cycling pants
Thick socks
Shoe covers
Under Armor Cold Gear top
Cycling jersey
Cycling jacket
Bright yellow vest
Full hat (Blacava?)
Knit gloves under full Gloves
Helmet with vents taped off

I actually had to open my coat cuz I was too warm. I should have left the cycling jersey at home.

Bike 17.8 miles 54 minutes HR 133 154 watts, it was kind of breezy.

Run right after bike ride
8.1 miles 1:04:30 HR 143 but I was pushing 150 at the end
This is the first time I've run 8 miles under 8 min/mile comfortably. It just seems so much easier to run 7:30's than ever before.

I saw Jon L on his bike just riding comfortably, I swear he must be part Eskimo

Monday

Run
3.5 miles 30 minutes HR 133
I got bored on the treadmill and just couldn't take it any more.

Swim 3500 meters
700 warm up
300 stroke drills
200 more warm up
400 free moderate
4X100 on 1:55
300 free
3X100 on 1:50
200 free
2X100 on 1:45
100 moderate
100 fast
200 cool down

ATP

Well it's getting important that I balance out my training with biking as well as running and swimming. I wouldn't mind comments about this if anyone has any, I'm still learing how to do this and would welcome constructive critizism. This is just a plan for the long stuff, I will continue with running 45 mpw and around 10,000 yards of swimming but now adding more cycling to the mix.

Here is my plan:

Friday Saturday Sunday

Friday
I had to work on my car so I missed my run for that day

Swim
3000 yards
Don't remember the whole workout. It had a lot of off-stroke stuff though :P

Saturday
Swim 3800yards
650 warm up
4X225 on 3:45
8X50 kick
8X100 last 25 non free
250 pull
12X50 rotating IM
200 cool down

Run 8.3 miles 1:06:20 HR 144
I picked it up in the last 2 miles and felt pretty good. In the last 3/4 mile I wanted to know what I could do so I went pretty hard and finished at a 6:40 pace. I was surprised that I could run that fast and feel that good, yes I was going pretty hard but still not that uncomfortable like it would have been last year. This route is Hines Drive out to Newburg Rd without taking the loop through the park (it's flooded) and then running down to Plymouth road to pick up the extra .4 miles to finish over 8.

Sunday
Run 2 miles on the treadmill to get warmed up. I decided not to go further and work on some flexability instead.

Bike spin class 60 minutes HR 133

Run 8.3 miles 1:06:35 HR 143
Same route as saturday but I ran the miles evenly this time and without the fast ending. Felt pretty good again and ran a lot of miles under 8 min/mile which has seemed to be a roadblock for the last few years in training. I feel the reason I'm running faster is because of the quicker turnover I have now, the lower HR is something that's still a mystery to me. Maybe the lower HR is from my legs pumping blood from the quicker turnover, just a thought.

Thursday

While hitting it hard on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, it seems like reducing training stress on Thursday is the right thing to do. I had to work over yesterday cuz of our audit at work (TS16949) so I missed my short swim.

Bike Spin class 60 minutes HR 127.
I found it difficult to get my HR up over 130, my friends said I looked tired but I still felt perky and ready to go. It would be nice if the spin bikes had power meters on them to see if I had a low HR that day or just couldn't produce the power.

Training Thoughts

It's looking like running over the winter is helping me out quite a bit. Looking over last years' running I'm noticing that my HR is about 15 beats lower and I'm running 20 to 30 seconds per mile faster. I'm also 7 to 9 lbs lighter than this time last year.

Have I made my winter running goals? Of course I have but I still want more and don't plan on cutting running down at all. I want to stay at 45 miles per week if time and health allows. It is much easier to run under 8 min/mile pace now where that allways seemed like a barrier to me before. In fact the last 2.4 miles of my long run on wednesday were at a 8:01, 7:52 and a 7:48 pace while HRs were 143, 147 and 146, still much lower than my cap of 148 that I figured I should stay below while base building. I've paid a bit more attention to HR this winter, not running to it much but still guaging my efforts from it. Running in the low 140 most of the time has kept the stress down and allowed me to run longer.

Weekly running during the off season starting with the week ending Oct 8
29.5 miles, 29.3 miles, 30.3 miles, 30.5 miles
40.2 miles, 40.5 miles, 45.6 miles, 45.8 miles
45.2 miles, 53.5 miles, 46.2 miles, 45.3 miles
38.5 miles, 46.2 miles, 33.6 miles, 34.0 miles
3.3 sick, 50.7 miles, 27.6 swim meet, 46.7 miles
43.0 miles, 30.5 swim meet, 50.4 Last week

I really need to focus on biking now, as much as I have on the running. Whenever it's warm enough I'll be on the bike. 3 two hour bike rides plus 1 more hour is where I'll try to start while working one of those rides to 3.5 hours by mid-April. I have to start thinking about interval planning but that should be a week or two away.

Swimming will start to take a back seat but not forgotten. I want to work on shorter faster stuff since that is where I am the weakest. Pulling with paddles has historically been very benificial to me so I will continue it, just have to be carefull not to hurt my shoulders like I did last November. Looking to get 9 to 12 K a week in 3 to 4 swims.

Monday Tuesday Wednesday

Monday
Still a bit tired from the weekend, the run felt terrible.

Run 5 miles 44:05 HR 132

Swim 4000 meters
Swim with IMMoo group at Canton. Everyone seemed to like the workout, I got there early and got the extra laps in while waiting for the others

600 warm up
2X200 pull extra
500 more warm up extra
3X450 as
--50 kick
--100 swim
--150 pull
--100 swim
--50 non-free
6X75 :15 rest
6X50 sprints :45 rest
200 cool down
200 more cool down extra

Tuesday
Bike on Hines drive, nice to be on the road
1:56:00 38.5 miles HR 135 156 watts

Run right after the bike ride. Karen rode while I ran and kept me company. If she wasn't there I probably would have turned around at 2 or 3 miles. Felt a little sick to my stomach for the first 4 miles then it cleared up :)
8 miles 1:05:26 HR 145

Wednesday
Long run, still nicer weather and ran on Hines drive again
2:00:00 14.4 miles HR 140
I did my best to hold down the pace going out. (7 miles 58:44) and then ran comfortable on the way back (7 miles 57:58) When I hit 14 miles I just ran around the apartments untill I got to 2 hours. Felt pretty good after 5 miles, sure does seem like it's taking longer and longer to warm up.

Saturday and Sunday

The weather has been so nice that I'm able to get outside and train

Saturday
Swim with FAST
4100 yards 1:20
I haven't done a long swim in a while so I was tuckered out at the end.

Bike on Hines Drive
23 miles 1:14 HR 137 152 watts
Very nice to get on the road again. The tri bike is much twitcher than the spin bikes :)

Run on Hines Drive
6 miles about 50 minutes HR 141
Felt kind of tired, origionally planned on 8 but cut it short

Sunday
Bike spin class (should have waited and rode outside)
60 minutes HR 129

Run on Hines Drive
8 miles 1:05 HR 142
Nice and warm near 50 degrees F. Saw Jon L and yakked for a minute.

Ended up with running 50 miles for the week, a little more than planned but I've done it before so I suppose it's no big deal.

Thursday and Friday

I was a bit tired on thursday so I listened to myself and took it easy.

Thursday
Swim 1500m 30 minutes
Bike on trainer 30 minutes.

Friday
Run on Hines Drive
8 miles 1:03:54 HR 146
I just ran brisk and was turning out miles under 8 min, I tried to slow down but it seemed too easy. Looking like running all winter on the treadmill is paying off. I'm so much further ahead of last year at this time. I still have to be carefull not to hurt myself and go too far.

Wednesday long run

Hopefully this will be my last longer run on the treadmill for quite some time. With warmer weather moving in I'll be moving outside.

Run 2 hours 14.2 miles HR 141

The only reason I ran that far is cuz I felt it would probably be my last one. I origionally planned on 1:45, hoping to get to 1:30 but I felt good and motivated, when I got to 1:45 I bumped the time to 1:50. After that I just figured I might as well run the full 2 hours. Sounds like a Forrest Gump story :]

I'm a little bit ahead on running this week so far and I like that. Now I don't have the pressure of running X amount of miles by sunday. Today is my day off from running so I'll have 3 days to get in 17 miles, looks like I'll be a bit over this week :)

Tuesday lunch run plus evening bike

Run 6.15 miles in 50 minutes HR 139

Ran at Daniels M pace which is 8:00 min/mile after 2 miles of warm up at 8:35 and 8:20.

HR seemed low for this pace, felt it should have been near 145-148. It seems as I warm up and my cadence gets up over 180 my HR goes back down a few beats, don't know why that is, it seems strange.

Bike in the evening
Spin class 60 minutes HR 132
HR was kind of flakey so 132 is just a guess.

Monday

Since I was short on just about everything last week I opened this week with just over 3 hours. No gels or bars, just Gatorade, I had plenty of energy.

Run 8 mile 1:08:11 HR 141
Treadmill run really easy

Swim with Amy and Amy
3000 meters 1:05:00 - shortend set of 300's
They seemed to like the workout.

Bike Spin class 60 minutes HR 136
Anerobic Intervals - I actually felt pretty good for this class

Weekend

I took Saturday off from training so I could be rested for a swim meet on Sunday. It was a pretty good meet for me with 2 of my best times that really matter.

Sunday
1650 yard Free 25:03.79 9 seconds better than my 1500m free (1640yd) from a few weeks ago.
Went fairly well. Started a little harder than usual and then maintained pace through the middle 1000 yards. I finished strong but still slower than my goal of 25:00. I think I can go under 25:00 at state meet in about 6 weeks.

200 yard Free 2:38 1 second faster than my best.
I was put in a heat with a lot faster swimmers and they took off from me really quick. I stuck to my plan of swimming the first 100 quick, the next 50 as hard as I could and then the last 50 with whatever I had left.

100 yard Free 1:11
I totally blew the last turn, allmost hit the wall with my head. Don't know how I missed it and probably spent a second and a half on the wall :(

100 yard Back 1:38
Just for fun cuz I didn't want to swim the 50 free. It was between the 100 and the 500 so I didn't put much emphasis on it.

500 yard free 7:16
Just off my best time of 7:15 but it was the last event of the day and felt pretty good. Blew a couple of turns in the beginning but oh well. Karen swam next to me and was really fast.

Lunch run

Run 5.7 miles 45 minutes HR 144

Thursday

Very tired today, I'm going to have to replan thursdays if I'm going to do my long run on wednesday.
I didn't run on monday cuz I wanted a cut on my heel to get better so I had to run today.  I hate missing the run on monday, I feel like I'm playing catchup all week.

Swim
2000 meters 40 minutes easier to get in some laps but wanted to not stress my legs.
200 warm up
4X400
--200 pull
--200 pull w/paddles
200 cool down

Run
47 minutes 5.5 miles HR 137

Bike
Spin class 60 minutes HR 133
I allmost bagged the spin class but I made myself do it.  After I got going I noticed the instructor was playing a bunch of 80's and 90's music, that was cool and kept me interested.  I also had some friends there to help pass the time and get me motivated.

Mon Tue Wed

Monday
Swim with friends at LTF Canton
3100 meters in about 1:10
Bike
Spin class immediatly after swim HR 135

Tuesday
Run during lunch with a fire drill so I only got 1.5 miles in about 13 minutes
Run after work 45 minutes 5.3 miles HR 138
Bike spin class after run 60 minutes HR 135

Wednesday
Long run 1:42:30 12.5 miles HR 144
Run on Hines, it was a bit cold for me at 38 degrees and a slight drizzle. It was nice to get on the road again