Weekly Training Log – 02/20/2011

Week #6 was a “recovery” week, but with travel from Wednesday to Friday, there wasn’t a whole lot of recovery for me.  The week started with a typically tough workout session with Olivier – my legs were fried.  Tuesday was another long swim with the group – we ended up doing more than 3,000 and half of it was with the kick board.  I realize I need more kick strength, but wow… almost a mile of kicking blows.  Tuesday night brought some new Spinerval DVDs that I gave a shot – made for a tough bike workout, but it was only 45 minutes which was shorter than I needed.  Wednesday morning was 6 miles of running with 8 hill sprints in the middle; followed up with my trip out to Cincinnati in the afternoon.  Wednesday night was a great dinner with some of my co-workers, so no workout for me… but it was a late night of eating and preparing for meetings.  Up early on Thursday morning to do a brutally boring (and sweaty) ride on the stationary bike in my hotel’s gym.  Thursday night was actually a really good time-trial swim. I did a mile in 30 minutes which is pretty good for me.  Friday morning was a great 6-mile run along the river in Cincinnati (sad, I have no clue what the river is?!) – but it is kind of like the Esplanade in Boston.

My long weekend workouts were both good and bad.  Saturday was a relatively short brick workout with Ryan. We did 40 miles on the bike followed up with a 4-mile run.  The bike was AWFUL.  Actually, it wasn’t that bad, but Ryan absolutely humiliated me (he’s getting me back for killing him in the swim and run… ).  But my gosh – it was like I wasn’t even moving.  So I clearly have identified the area for improvement… looks like no more cutting workouts short – I will be doing the full bike workouts (and then some) from here on out.

Sunday’s run was good. We did just over 8 miles on the single-track trails in Umstead.  We averaged about 8-minute miles which is actually really fast when you consider the rough terrain and the steep hills.  Olivier kicked my butt which I would expect… but I kicked Ryan and Michael’s which is damn fun.

This upcoming week is back to preparing for a longer weekend.  I will be doing a 3.5 hour ride on Saturday and then a 1.5 hour run on Sunday.  Good times. I am supposed to travel on Thursday which will complicate things a bit, but it’s a day trip so I think I can fit all the workouts in.

Tags: 30 minutes, 4-mile run, 45 minutes, 8-minute miles, 90 miles, Bike Run Strength, boring, Boston, cincinnati, clue, co workers, cutting workouts, damn, esplanade, Friday morning, good time, good time-trial swim, good times, gosh, great dinner, hotel, hr 11.75 hrs, humiliated, kick board, kicking, late night, long swim, long weekend workouts, longer weekend, Michaels, Mile, miles weekly training, new spinerval dvds, Physical exercise, pretty good, rough terrain, Ryan, short brick workout, single-track trails, spinerval, Sports, stationary bike, steep hills, sweaty, swim bike run, Thursday morning, Thursday night, time trial, Total Time, tough bike workout, tough workout session, triathlon, trip, Tuesday night, umstead, Wednesday morning, Wednesday night, Weekly Training Log, whole lot, workout, workouts
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Weekly Training Log – 01/30/2011

Week #3 is done and this was one of the best weeks of training I have had in a long long time.    I typically judge the week by reflecting on my long weekend workouts … so I am obviously happy with those, but more on that in a bit.  My workouts during the week were average at best.  I should have been on the bike for 3:40 during the week, but I was only able to get on for 1:50 – not quite enough but a long shot.  My swim sessions were as good as always – Olivier makes us do more yardage  than the plan ever says, so I am never short-changed in the water.   My time-trial swim session for the week had me finishing a mile in about 31 minutes – not fast by most people’s standards, but an improvement for me.

This week’s brick was supposed to be an hour on the bike followed by a 20-minute run.  I got the time on the bike, but only about 15 minute of running… had to run to a meeting for work.  Regardless, the run felt fine which is the point I guess.

Saturday was my long bike ride.  I was supposed to do 2:30 but ended up going 3 hours to make up for some of my shortened workouts earlier in the week.  I headed out through the hills north of Raleigh and ended up going 52 miles.  Not a super-fast pace, but with several steep hills and lots of rolling terrain, I was pretty happy with it.  Sunday was my long run – if you remember last week, I had thoroughly kicked Olivier’s butt and he wanted to “race” for real.  So Oliver, Ryan, Chris and I headed out on what’s known as “Z-Big Loop” in Umstead (9.5 miles… horse trails… lots of brutal hills).  We started out easy and stayed together for the first mile.  But then Olivier and Chris pressed forward, leaving Ryan and I behind.  That lasted for a few minutes before I split off from Ryan and caught up to Chris… and then set my sites on Olivier.  It took about a mile and a half to catch up to Olivier – turns out he struggles up the hills which I find surprising since he weighs about 20 lbs.  But he does struggle and by the second big hill, I was past him.  By the third big hill I had a few hundred yards on him and he was sufficiently demoralized.   Anyway – long story short, I ended up beating him by about 3 minutes and Ryan by 4.    Olivier is officially my bitch (on the run).     USA! USA!  USA!

My watch ran out of batteries, so I am not sure what my official pace was, but Ryan’s said 7:30 which means my pace was somewhere around 7:10.  I am VERY happy with that – especially when you look at the terrain we were dealing with.   But what I am even more happy about is that I had that strong of a run after having a solid long ride the day before.  To me that’s saying my body is dealing with the strain of the increased training very well and not getting too fatigued.  I realize it’s early to say that – I still have 21 weeks to go – but still… I am happy.

Tags: 20-minute run, 31 minutes, Anyway, big hill, bike ride, Bike Run Strength, bitch, brick, brutal hills, butt, Chris, Cycling, few minutes, fine, finishing, forward, Happy, hills, horse trails, Hospitality Recreation, judge, leaving Ryan and I behind, long bike ride, long long time, long run, long shot, long time, long weekend workouts, Mile, miles weekly training, mountain bike, official pace, olivier, pace, Physical exercise, Raleigh, rolling, Ryan, ryan chris, Ryan's, sessions, shortened workouts, solid long ride, Sports, standards, steep hills, struggle, super-fast pace, swim session, terrain, Time 3.0 hrs, time trial, time-trial swim session, trails, training log, United States, USA, weekend, workouts, Z-Big Loop
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Weekly Training Log – 07/05/2010

Another week with travel and thus another ”recovery week” for me.  But this time, there was a nice reward at the end.  We were up in State College, PA for the annual Art Fest and I had an amazing brick workout through the hills of Happy Valley on Sunday.  I did 32 miles on the bike through the rolling hills without hardly ever seeing a car and then did a 6.2 mile run on a packed gravel travel trail that led me right to Joe Paterno’s house.  The ride was rough… of the 90 minutes on the bike, I spent a good 30 minutes of it off of the saddle, pumping up very steep hills.  But it was SO nice to be riding in cool/dry weather that I could have easily gone another 30.  The run was just as good, if not better.  6.2 miles felt easy and it took me 49 minutes which I am happy with.  Again, I could have easily continued on for much further.  I think I was just totally energized from the cool weather – I don’t think I realized how oppressive the heat is here in NC.  The good thing about all that is that the Timberman is up in NH, so it should be cool there as well.  That’s a good thing.

The other good news about this past week is that my new saddle showed up (ISM Adamo Breakaway) and it is SOOO comfortable.  No pain, no soreness, no numbness.  Perfect. Moving on…

Next week should be much tougher for me.   Should have many more hours on the bike and back to the normal core/strength routines.

Tags: Adamo, art fest, pain, steep hills, training log
Category Weekly Training Logs |