Friday Saturday Sunday

Friday
Run easy after work just getting in junk miles
30 minutes 3.65 miles

Swim 1000 meters afterwards, I still didn't feel like swimming

Saturday
Swim with FAST  4200 yards 1:25
Felt good and bad, then good, then bad...get the pattern.  Overall it was a decent swim.

Bike on Hines
1:27:57 27.2 miles easy junk miles followed by a run of 5.2 miles in about 43 minutes.

Sunday
Bike with a small group in the morning, it was chilly but not bad
Got some easy riding in with about 30 minutes of Tempo near the end. 36.3 miles in just under 2 hours.
Run 8.1 miles later that day in 1:08 easy running to finish out the week.

I was a little bit over on my point system and I'm feeling it.  Monday will be a planned easier day with just swimming on the schedule like normal.  It's supposed to rain anyway.  Hopefully Tuesday will be warm enough to get the brick in again.  I like the way I did it last week with a run to start then run 10K afterwards.  It was a good way to get my running started for the week.

Thursday short hills on the bike

Planned some short hill climbs today hoping to ride up six mile hill several times but there was just too much traffic there so I did the hill climbs on Hines between Northville road and 7 mile.

Entire workout (149 watts):
Duration: 1:38:52
Work: 876 kJ
TSS: 126.1 (intensity factor 0.877)
Norm Power: 175
VI: 1.18
Distance: 31.38 mi

About 30 minutes of warm up and 5X2 min climbs over 250 watts with 4 min recoveries then a little over 30 min of fun zone 3 riding on the way home.

Wednesday Swim and Run

I swam during lunch but only for a little bit. I'm still tired of swimming for the moment. I'll get a little bit in on Friday and swim with the team on Saturday, next week I'll get back into the groove again. Right now this week is about the bike with running comming in a close second.

Swim 1000 meters
SKIPS plus some more, just a little time in the water

Run long(er) on Hines drive. Very nice sunny day near 70 deg F.

12.3 miles 1:43:50 HR 143

Easy run trying to keep wear and tear down and just getting the work done.

Tuesday Run Bike Run

I decided not to try an FTP test today since I wasn't 100% and chose to get a little extra easy running and ride at what I feel will be near my HIM power.

The plan:
5K easy
1 hour bike at 170 to 180 watts
10K starting brisk for 5K then trying to get a 5 bpm spread for the second 5K

The first 5K went easy, about 26 minutes HR in the low 140's, just like I planned. 1 loop around Newburg Lake

Bike on Hines, Mark S stayed with me. I was shooting for 170 to 180 watts while not going over 215 on any of the small hills and holding at least 160 going downhill. I felt good.

Entire workout (167 watts):
Duration: 1:01:58
Work: 618 kJ
TSS: 77.7 (intensity factor 0.87)
Norm Power: 174
VI: 1.04
Distance: 21.877 mi

..............Min Max Avg
Power: 0 377 167 watts
Heart Rate: 14 161 147 bpm
Cadence: 32 103 89 rpm
Speed: 0 30.4 21.3 mph
Pace 1:58 0:00 2:49 min/mi
Hub Torque: 0 365 56 lb-in
Crank Torque: 0 341 166 lb-in

Run 10K in about 48 minutes, my watch screwed up but that is pretty close. First 5K HR 150 and the second 5K HR 156

Monday

Since it's been a while since I've been on the bike I wanted to get a little extra today. Tapering for the Masters meet gave me some rest time that I may or may not have needed for Tri training.

Bike on Hines end to end a couple times planning to ride 80 miles or 'till the sun went down. Goal for the ride was to go between 150 and 170 watts depending on how I felt and holding small hills to 215, larger hills to 250. I hooked up with Gary for a while and rode a little harder while I was with him.

I'm going to try and ride hard on Tuesday to get an idea of my FTP. I want to get an idea of where I'm at compared to my goals. I'd like to be near 210 watts by DATT, that would put me in a pretty good position to build from.

Entire workout (157 watts):
Duration: 3:24:48
Work: 1911 kJ
TSS: 232 (intensity factor 0.828)
Norm Power: 166
VI: 1.06
Distance: 68.902 mi

The rest of the state meet times

100 Free 1:08.04 --- Previous best was 108.97 from state meet last year.

500 Free 6:45 --- Really close to my seed time based of of my 400M time at Milford.

200 Free 2:28 --- 1 second better than my seed time and my best to date, 4 seconds better than last year.

50 Free 29.45 --- Best by about 1/2 second.

1000 Free 14:07 --- I was really tired since it was the last event of the meet and wasn't even close to my seed time of 13:51. It was still by best by seconds.

I don't even want to talk about my 50 back time.

Michigan Masters Friday night 1650 time

A very good swim for me...

1650 yards 23:06

Cruised for about 1000, then tried to pick it up for the rest.

Easy week so far

I really want to be rested for this weekend so I've taken it easy.

Monday
Run 5 miles moderate. I felt tired, normally it's just a swim day but I was teaching a Tri 101 clinic that evening and didn't have time to go to the pool

Tue
Swim during lunch at Lifetime
1500 meters
600 warm up SKIPS (Swim, Kick, IM, Pull, Swim)
8X100 on 1:40 pull with paddles
100 cool down

Bike
Amy C's brick
1:01:00 22.1 miles 159 watts 170 NP 144 bpm
Run 5K afterwards around 25 minutes

Wed
Swim 1700 yards with LALA
250 Mixed strokes
250 kick
200 easy IM (as if I could really go hard :P)
200 Mixed strokes
4X25 sprints on :30
4X50 on 1:00
4X100 hard on 2:00 comming in under 1:20
100 cool down

Training Thoughts

Another hard week with just over 18 hours and that has historically been a lot for me. I knew I would be getting a break this week with the swim meet this weekend so I kept up the training volume.

A breakdown of the last 3 weeks reveals that I've hit my time goals for the Bike which in my opinion are the most important right now. Here are the times and percentages for all three disciplines

Swim......%.......Bike.....TSS...%.......Run......%......Total
4:45:00 30.5% 5:46:00 298.9 37.1% 5:02:51 32.4% 15:33:51

3:30:00 20.4% 8:24:00 485.5 49.0% 5:14:30 30.6% 17:08:30

4:25:00 24.5% 8:24:50 504.8 46.7% 5:11:15 28.8% 18:01:05

Last week's bike time saw a lot on the Computrainer, when I was on it I was doing short hill repeats looking to hold over 250 for the short intervals and 200 for the longer intervals.

The only intensity on the run was from sunday when I ran 45 min of Tempo on the second run of the day. Everything else was easy as I missed my short run on thursday that I normally run fairly hard.

This week will have less volume since I want to be rested for the weekend. I'm looking at a schedule something like this:

Mon Swim 2000M or less
Tue Hard bike, moderate run
Wed Swim 2000M or less, run easy
Thu Bike easy, run easy (optional)
Fri Swim 1650 Free
Sat Swim 100 Free, 50 Back, 500 Free
Sun Swim 200 Free, 50 Free, 1000 Free

Edit: Looks like I'll be adding 4 relays to that :)
2 Medley relays that I'll be swimming Backstroke and 2 Free relays.

Sunday finish to a long week

Run on Hines Drive 45 minutes 5.4 miles HR 135

Bike on Computrainer 1:30:30 130 watts 122 bpm

Run on Hines Drive again 45 minutes 5.7 miles HR 146

Not a hard day just steady. Second run was obviously much faster than the first.

Saturday

Kind of a long day

Swim 3500
Warm-up: 1000 SKIPS (Swim, Kick, IM, Pull, Swim)
12 x 50 @ 1:05 (25-no breath, 25 six beat kick)
6 x 150 @2:40 (50 free/50 no-free/ 50 free)
4 x 25 @ :45 (odds- build, evens- 12 ½ sprint)
10 x 50 @ 1:05 @ 500 pace
Warm-down: 400

Bike on Computrainer 1:21:40 138 watts 126 bpm

Run on Hines 5.1 42:40 HR 135

Friday outta work early

With heavy rain storms comming this evening and all weekend my boss let me go early so I could get some good bike time in.

It was 70 degrees and sunny, I even got a little bit of a sunburn too.

Anywhoo, a good bike ride on Hines drive to Dearborn then to Northville, back to Dearborn then home.

52.5 miles 2:40 150 watts NP 157 HR 139

After showering and a hair cut I swam with LALA so I could work on starts.

Swim 3150 yards
10X125 warm up (100 swim 25 back)
12X75 1...25 kick, 25 drill, 25 swim, 2...back stroke
8X100 from blocks 75 build kick 20 build stroke
8X25 sprints from blocks
Swim around a little for cool down

Thursday bike

Nasty weather outside forced me inside again. I did some short hill climbs and picked a course on the computrainer that I felt was right. It turned out that the hill climbs were only about 40 seconds long so they were a little too short but I finished the bike ride with that course. I was targeting over 250 watts for the climbs which is 50 watts over my FTP of 200.

1:20 on Computrainer, a little more than the 2 loops of the Alien crop circles 9.6 course. About 20 minutes of warm up, 12 hills and then cool down.

Entire workout was 135 watts NP 159 watts 120 bpm TSS 84.5

Thursday

I signed up for Michigan Masters State Meet today, here are the events and seed times:

Friday night
Event #1 1650 Free 24:12

Saturday morning
Event #3 100 Free 1:09

Saturday afternoon
Event #15 50 back :45
Event #21 500 Free 6:48

Sunday morning
Event #23 200 Free 2:29

Sunday afternoon
Event #35 50 Free 29.7
Event #43 1000 Free 13:51

Wednesday

Swim in the morning before work.

2200 meters in about 45 minutes

Run on Hines drive and 2 loops around Newburg Lake
14.3 miles 2:03:23 HR 132

I had a hard time getting going. At 3 miles I stopped cuz I was tired. I ate 2 gels then felt better, since I had 2 more I decided to keep running. I wound up getting the full 2 hours in and only ate 1 more gel. I was a little slower today but still within my planned paces. Looking for more rest tonight.

Monday Tuesday

Using Monday as a reduced training day really helped out. I had planned on doing 6X500 but I was just too tired and unmotivated.

Monday
Swim 3300 meters
800 warm up
300 pull
4X500 as 100 hard, 100 easy, 100 hard, 100 easy, 100 hard alternated with 500 pull
200 cool down

Tuesday feeling really strong
Run Hilly route from work
6.5 miles 55:12 HR 137

Bike with friends on Hines drive
1:32 28.5 miles 144 watts HR 135

Training Thoughts 4-6

Well 2 solid weeks of good training have gone by but I can't help but think that It's too much for me. I have devised a way of tracking my training stress for all 3 disciplines, I won't explain it in detail but I will say I'm using WKO for the bike and have arbitrarily assigned numbers to the swim and run. I'm doing this so I know where my limits are. I'm 40 years old and need to be healthy for work and family too.



The last 2 weeks have seen more time mainly cuz of the extra bike riding where I got 5.5 hours and 8.5 hours in respectively. I've limited my running to near 35 miles per week and feel that is enough to slightly improve my run while giving me enough recovery time to ride more. I'm feeling that my bike abilities are behind where I want it to be right now and want to remedy that. Fortunately the weather has been better so I've been able to get more outside riding done :)



I've come up with a basic week that seems to work well with 2 easier days...it goes like this:

Mon Swim

Tue Bike, Run some type of speed or hill intervals

Wed Swim in morning, Run long

Thu Bike some type of intervals, easy 30 min run

Fri Swim

Sat Swim with Masters, Bike long, 30 min run.

Sun Run, Bike Run varying distances to how I feel.



So I've really have 2 easier days on monday and friday which help recover from the weekend and midweek training. Plus I like to go out with friends on friday night so that works too :)



Upcomming events:



I've got Michigan Masters State Meet comming up in 2 weeks. I'll be swimming all of the free events plus one more that I haven't decided on yet. That would be the 1650, 1000, 500, 200, 100 and 50. I'll be going a little easier next week to prep for the meet so I guess life will give me the break in tri training that I will probably need.



Triple T camp is the first weekend of May. I'll be going down to Portsmouth OH to ride and run the race courses for the DATT. We went last year and had a lot of fun re-learning the courses, there was a lot of bumps I didn't remember. I really feel it kick-started my bike training.



IronKamp is the following week in Boyne Michigan. That camp has been going on for quite some times and it will be my first time doing it. It's a bunch of friends getting out and swim, bike and running a lot over the weekend.



DATT is 2 weeks later, I really want to do well there and not struggle on the final run. I want to have better bike strength but still ride about the same as last year so my running will be better.



So I have a very busy month of May comming up and want to be prepared for it the best I can. That should carry me into this seasons' racing with a lot of endurance to build upon though Steelhead.

Friday Saturday and Sunday

Well another good week has gone by, that will be addressed in training thoughts.

Friday
Swim 3400 meters
800 warm up
300 pull
5X300 Hard with 1 min rec
4X50 sprints :20 rec
12X25 kick
300 cool down

Saturday
Swim 3500 yards
A bunch of hard 75's and 50's

Bike out to Island Lake
62 miles in 3:26 142 watts

Run on Hines Drive Moderate
30 minutes 3.75 miles HR 141

Sunday 3 part brick
Run 45 minutes 5.3 miles HR 136
Bike Hines drive end to end + 5 mile hill 39.2 miles 143 watts HR 135
Run 45 minutes 5.8 miles HR 150

Thursday

I got out of work a little early to get some biking in :)

Bike on Hines Drive
1:52 HR 35 miles 137 watts HR 131
A little chilly but OK for me so I got nearly 2 hours of easy riding in.

Run on Hines a short while after.
30 minutes 3.7 miles HR 137
A little quick but comfortable run

Mon Tues Wed

I've been busy in the evenings so I got a little behind.

Monday - good hard swim
Swim 3000 meters
800 warm up
300 pull
8X100 on 1:45 Base Intervals
8X100 Hard with 1:00 rest (2:30 total)
300 cool down

I helped with a Tri 101 clinic that evening. It went really well

Tuesday
Run after work on Treadmill, it was not so nice outside
5.3 miles HR 137 (junk miles)

Bike easy on Computrainer, I didn't feel strong
1 Hour 129 watts HR 119

Wednesday
Swim in Morning but I was tired and didn't have my partner to keep me going
1000 meters - just warm up and 200 more.

Long Run on Hines Drive
1:59:30 14.2 miles HR 142
Nice day, sunny and not much wind. I kept the pace down even at the end so I wouldn't have an extended recovery time. I feel pretty good this morning.

Looks like the weather may allow me to ride this afternoon since it will be near 50 F (10 C). I'm going to try to get 2 hours in and a short run afterwards if time permits.

This weekend looks good too with both days over 50 :)