Another good day in the books. An easy 60 minute run on the dirt roads by the house in perfect weather was very good. My calves were a bit sore today which made me focus on running with better form and relaxation. I followed that in the evening with a solid 3000 yd swim workout. I was getting a bit tired toward the end, but still managed a 1:22 for my last 100. Pretty decent speed for just coming back to the pool.
Yesterday was a good day on the workout front. Starting with an easy aerobic run in the early afternoon and followed it up with 1:45 on the rollers. The run itself and my run on the whole is getting much better. I'm just more comfortable in my stride and keeping my posture. The ride was tough but fun. With a main set that was 60 minutes it really kept my mind off the clock and focused on the work at hand. Excellent ride, about 28 miles.
Today I popped. Big time. The day was one where the idea of when to train and what not just wasn't going to happen. Things just kept popping up, so I ended up getting in my run late in the day. I had just uploaded some new tunes to the mp3 player and enjoyed having that motivational tool with me. 35 minutes into my 50 minute run I inserted 4 strides lasting 15 seconds each. These were nice as they gave me an opportunity to get my legs turning over at a different rate. I went straight from my run to the pool for a scheduled 3800 yards. I knew it was going to be a tough workout and I was too right. I popped. About 2600 yds in, I was done. I convinced myself to keep going and got 3000 in, but that was all I had. I think I'll have to try that workout again later this week. Some food and a good sleep and I'll be ready for tomorrow.
My weekend got a little messed up schedule wise, but I still managed a 3 hour ride. Even if it was all on the rollers. That is truly mind and body numbing. I watched a movie and some playoff football while rolling along for 51.4 miles. I'm not looking forward to doing that again. My Sunday long run was replaced with driving to my brother's for a small birthday party and then turning around and driving to College Station to deliver a package for my mom. Mark's parcel service ruled the day. Oh well, I needed a rest day anyway and it's important to maintain a life outside of training and work. I'd do it again tomorrow if needed.
A great day in the books today. First, it was absolutely beautiful, not that I got to see that much of it! Today was designed to see how my heart rate reacts to a transition run. In order to do that, I set up the rollers and cruised easy for 45 minutes. The focus was just to ride a steady pace and keep the heart rate under 145. For the most part I was riding along at 135 bpm. At the end of 45 minutes, I made a quick transition to run and popped out a steady 2.2 miles in 20 minutes. This is the same route I've been running on my "frequency" days so the turn around came right on time. I did note that my heart rate was running about 5 bpm higher than when I normally do this run. Information to ponder on for now.
This evening I hit the pool a little tired but with workout in hand:
3 x 100 swim
100 kick on back
2 x 100 swim
100 kick on back
4 x 50 on 60 descend
100 kick choice
main set
4 x 400 on 30 sec rest. slightly descend all the way through. be conservative on the front so that you don't tire out. count strokes on every 4th length to make sure they are even for the entire workout.
200 kick choice
16 x 25 stroke, reverse IM order on 5-10 sec rest, just keep it rolling 400, every 4th choice very easy as cool down
A pretty tough workout and my longest one yet. The 400's were tough, I wasn't able to descend them, my swim endurance just hasn't come back yet. But, I did the next best thing, I finished them. Right now the distance is wasting me much more than the speed. I'm swimming at a fairly easy pace, generally 1:30-1:35 per 100 yd. It's coming back, but it's still got a way to go.
Well today was supposed to be a 25 minute aerobic run and a 90 minute roller ride. All of that added up to an actual 60 minutes on the rollers. It was a good ride. The economy of riding on the rollers is returning. I can feel my pedal stroke getting smoother, my hip flexors are letting me know that they are working a tad more. These are all good things, I just need to stay as true to the schedule as possible. The idea isn't to "do what I can." The idea is to push the limits a bit and "see what I can do." Enough ego bashing, you can't fix yesterday, just make today better.
The two a days continue.... a cruise of a 52 minute run. I used a slightly different route today and covered 5.3 miles. It was an interesting run because the weather was just starting to change. The wind was up, the clouds were out and every animal in a three county area was on the prowl. I had a huge family unit of deer cross the old road in front of me. They were pretty impressive clearing 5 foot fences on both sides of the road once they spotted me. All this while rolling along to Tom Petty on my new mp3 player that Santa delivered this week.
The evening swim on the schedule didn't really look that difficult, but for some reason I just didn't want to go. I got myself out to the car and drove over to the local pool and forced myself in. Of course, as soon as I hit the water, the motivation was there and it was a great swim. Part of the main set was 6x100's on a 1:45 shooting for 15 secs of rest. It was tough, but I made the long rest on all but the last two. Not bad considering I'm still not sure if my left arm will ever remember that it is useful.
Tuesday is one of my favorite workout days. I do a 20 minute easy aerobic run to just keep the daily frequency up. My legs are really starting to adjust to being runners and not just holding me vertical. That's a nice departure. In the evening I rode the rollers while watching a DVD. 90 minutes of easy effort concentrating on making pretty little circles with my feet and keeping a constant pressure on the pedals. These rides are great for teaching me not to freewheel and burn speed and effort when out on the road. Another good day in the books.
Monday was a 50 minute run and a scheduled 3150 yd swim. The run was good, easy effort keeping the heartrate moderate trying to get some numbers to go by. It seems that I can cruise for a pretty good while reading 154 until the road turns up. The nice thing was that after the crest of the hill my hr recovered quickly, less than two minutes with continuous movement.
I got a little bit of a late start at the pool and paid for it by not being able to complete the last set. I got in 2650 yds of good effort. My swim is really starting to come back and experience a few lengths per swim that feel very familiar. It's good to know it's still in there.
It's a little early in the year for epic bike rides, but..........
Sometimes we make seemingly small tactical route decisions that result in epic rides. Well, Saturday, I did just that. I'm scouting out some newer routes because I know over the coming months I will be putting in some huge bike miles. So, members of the strong cycling community around me had suggested a route that included some mileage on state highway 36. It was further noted that this was a good road to ride on. For me to get to Hwy. 36 from my house requires some riding down to Bellville. I know the Bellville road, I really don't like it. It's mostly chip seal, and mostly in disrepair. But, I figured 8 miles of the stuff to get to Bellville and hwy 36 was a small price to pay. Something to make me stronger. I cruise on down to Bellville, teeth chattering the whole way. In my mind I'm going over all the bolts and nuts that are going to need tightening when I get home from this ride. It really is pretty rough and there's too much traffic to ride in the first groove of the car traffic. I get to Bellville, thankful that I'm going to be rolling on the "pristine" 36. In fact, I passed a perfectly good farm road to ride on it. I turn onto 36 and what do I see? Miles and miles of chip seal. Broken chip seal. And the road sign, Sealy 14 miles. Surely it can't be this bad the whole way, maybe it's only right here near town. I head off, noting that I'm now riding more into the wind on a crummier road than I was just on. I spent the next hour cursing my "friends" that recommended the piece of crap road. I spent so much time focused on the road and traffic, that I really wasn't paying attention to where the road was taking me. I roll into the metropolis of Sealy, and realize to my chagrin that I am 2 hours plus into my ride and further from home than at any point in the ride. My ride was scheduled to be between 3 and 4 hours, closer to 3 in my mind. Here I am in Sealy with at least 2 hours to go and realizing that a headwind was going to be my friend I set about to finding the way home without retracing my ride over the crappy road. I turn towards the little town of Brookshire and just rolled along until I hit a farm road that is on my usual route. I was so excited to see that road that it dawn on me until later that at that intersection I only had 26 miles to go. My longest ride in the past 6 months has been 42 miles. I've already ridden 47. This is going to get ugly. I just kept plugging along and fueling as I could. The one saving grace was that the weather gods were smiling benevolently on me. The temperature topped out at about 70 degrees. It was never hot, but once I turned into the north wind to head home it was difficult to stay warm. I made it to the next little store to refill my water bottles and by now I'm completely familiar with my route and know I have a mere 15 miles to go. After 3 and a half hours, 15 miles can seem like a long way yet to go. And it was. I finally rolled into the drive after 73 miles and 4 hours and 32 minutes. Not as epic as some folks rides, but definitely epic for me at this point. Here's to a great day and strong legs.
It's a strange world I'm stepping in. Today ended up being an easy day, that is just a run because the pool was closed for a local swim meet. So all I had available to me was my 5 mile out and back run for the day. And it was an awesome run. The legs were a little hesitant to get started, but about 15 minutes in, everything just opened up. My breathing evened out, my stride started to float (as much as it ever does) and I just had it rolling. I never pushed the pace; I just tried to keep it steady and smooth. A great run in a little over 45 minutes. Nice. Tomorrow should be a treat, my first long ride in a long time.
I missed my swim last night, got it in tonight. Someone decided to put a 200 IM in late in the workout. That someone needs a punch in the mouth. That hurt. A lot. The swimming is actually going pretty well. The pool is short course yards. Tonight's workout was 2800 of those. My 100's are staying under 1:35, which is actually fairly slow, but not bad for not swimming for such a long time. The first couple of the night, nice and relaxed, stroking good came in at 1:23.
I missed my swim workout last night. The change in weather forced some extra work on the farm and put me too late to make it to the pool. This morning it was a bit chilly for the 20 minute easy run on the plan, but it was an excellent run. I took a little bit of a long lunch break and rode the rollers for 90 minutes. That long on the rollers can be a bit boring, but I had a good movie in. Plenty of sweat, glad I'm going to be replacing the carpet.
Another hot and humid day in Houston, I shouldn't complain, but I will. It was freaking muggy, sweat like a pig, hot for January. Anyway I plugged away at 5 miles through Memorial Park. My legs are a bit dead coming off of last night's roller ride, but that is the key to training for an ironman. Swimming on the plan for later tonight.
I worked from home today which allowed me the opportunity to get the scheduled workouts in. I did an easy aerobic run (20 min). This is an effort to increase my run frequency. In the evening, I rode the rollers for 90 minutes. That was a bit tough, but it was a good workout. I swear you just don't sweat like that anywhere but inside. The main set on the rollers was alternating 3 minutes high cadence/3 minutes low cadence for 30 minutes. That was interesting and by the 4th repeat it was difficult to stay over 95 for the duration. All in all a good day, looking forward to tomorrow.
First swim in a long time. Longer than I care to admit. But, the first day back is always a tough one. I had a sweet workout written up and I was damn sure gonna do it all. The workout may have been a little over the top, but I managed all of it even if I did have to extend the rest interval a couple of times. As I figure it, it was straight up 3000 scy. By far the longest I've swam in over a year and I loved every second of it.
The time to start preparing for Lake Placid is now. With that in mind I rode 41 miles with a new buddy this weekend. He is much faster than me, but I believe I will learn a lot from him. His steady state riding is remarkable. If I let up to drink or fuel or whatever, I quickly found myself dropping off the pace. Something for me to work on for sure. It was a pretty windy day and the out of our out and back was dead into it for a while. The overall time wasn't all that fast, but it was a solid ride to kick off the new year.
Today I've already put in an easy 5 miles at lunch time. It's hard to complain about living in Houston when it was 83 degrees outside today. The wind was up a bit, and it was warmer than expected making it a bit tough, but I got through it no worries. I'm off to swim in a bit, that should be a treat, I haven't been in the water in sometime. I'll report back how it goes.
Good training to you all.