Week Four: 1.21-1.27
Still keeping up with the daily ... though the cardio/HIIT days make me reconsider sometimes ...
1.21
This was the first super disappointing day I've run into so far. I had an all out hard run on my schedule - super short; either a 1.37 mile out-and-back near the house or an equivalent loop in the park. However ... we've been getting a lot of snow and therefore, everything was stupid fucking icy. So I was freaking out about how I was going to get this done.
I ended up walking the half mile to the Cherry Creek Trail and just did an out-and-back on the trail. It was shit, and way harder than I would have liked, and just terrible.
Later that afternoon was the Troy recovery set ... and it was also shit. The fucking warm up about destroyed me. The WARM UP.
Terrible, terrible day.
1.22
The one thing that made me not completely wallow after the shit day previous was the fact that I had my favorite pyramid set in the pool on the schedule for today. And, thank you pyramid set, it went so well. Perfect thing to help move my brain about.
1.23
I woke up so stiff that I added in bonus yoga about two minutes after getting out of bed. It was glorious.
The main workout was a steady run which felt surprisingly good.
1.24
My drill swim of the week, with a main set of 2x400 which I descended. By a lot. It was a little crazy.
The ride ... was on the trainer. As (spoiler) every ride this week was. And most likely every ride next week. *sigh*
So much of this. So so sosososososo much of this.
1.25
Simple run today - the easy/harder/easy. Definitely succeeded with that; also overheated (dressed too warmly). And struggled to breathe. Stupid running.
1.26
As it turned out, all my long workouts ended up being on the weekend. I had my last week (for pretty much until after IMoo) with my long swim being 2000 ... and it ended up being the fastest 2k I've swum this month, so that was exciting.
(It's not like I won't still have 2k swims ... they just won't be the longest swim of the week anymore.)
The ride was another 30 miles on the trainer and I changed up my food strategy to drinking every 5 minutes and eating every 15 and I think that worked a lot better. I also gave up and bought a fan this week and that was a lifesaver. Fan, you are my new BFF.
1.27
Nothing much but a simple five miles, which actually felt pretty nice. Slightly frustrating at times (hello, running for the past three years), but nice.
*****
It's still obviously really early, but I feel like I'm settling into everything quite nicely. I also went and looked back at my training numbers in the months of the past two IM years - 2013 and 2016 - and I did more this week than I did in January 2013. Of when I also slowly started base-building for IMAZ.
Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 5200m, 1:55:14
Bike: 55.28 mi, 3:30:47
Run: 11.81 mi, 2:12:09
Strength: 1:08
Other: :16
Week Three: 1.14-1.20
Still keeping up with the daily.
Starting to not sleep through the night - I keep waking up or just don't get solid sleep. Not sure if that's related to the training, or if we finally need to get a new mattress.
1.14
What I didn't mention on my last ride last week (Troy on the trainer) ... was that I had a flat before I started that ride. I decided to just pump up my tire and do the workout and it was fine. But, alas, it was flat. B changed that for me over the weekend (because he's awesome) ... but I decided to stay inside for the ride on this day due to lingering snow and ice on the trails as well as debris. We need to stockpile tubes again.
Forget how I got through this trainer ride (45 minutes), but it was kind of bleh.
1.15
Double day. Standard easy-harder-easy run (with a sub-10 middle mile! yay!) ... and the easy parts were made a lot easier thanks to a lot of ice that I walked over. Our friend Ann shattered her ankle on an icy run a few years back and it's haunted me ever since.
I also got in the pool ... and since Brandon was there and doing a shorter swim ... I made him take pictures.
It's so rare I get pictures of me in the water.
Of note: I also actually officially registered for IM Wisconsin today.
1.16
Back to the recovery/technique set. Dropped my chain (only me, I swear) and had issues getting my cadence sensor to read at the outset. Some days, man ...
1.17
Another double day. I don't have too many of these (if I so choose) with the way I'm doing things on the three run weeks.
I officially bumped up my long run to five miles (hooray).
The day's swim was also drill day ... and I added in kick drills. Those didn't go quite as terribly as I would have thought, so that's a plus.
1.18
Long ride day. And, due to weather (it was snowing) ... it was indoors. And I also bumped things up to 30 miles. Friends, my crotch was not ready for 30 miles on the trainer (because it can handle these things outside better than it can inside). I mostly used this time to check out the "Titan Games" which I had DVRed, doing intervals during the ... activities? challenges? ... competitions.
Stupid winter.
1.19
Only a simple little treadmill run this day yet I procrastinated it SO HARD. 2.5 miles (-ish. depends on whether you want to listen to the treadmill or the Garmin) that I kept adding speed to. Progression, kind of?
1.20
Long swim day ... but I changed it up. Instead of doing 40x50 or 20x100, I did 2x100 w/u and cd with a 4x400 main set ... and I descended the 400s. Aw yiss.
*****
So except for the sleep thing (and the general body aches that settle in), this week felt ... dare I say ... easy? Or at least comfortable.
Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 5100m, 2:00:17
Bike: 49.66 mi, 3:14:34
Run: 10.52 mi, 2:03:07
Strength: 1:08
Week Two: 1.7-1.13
Back home in the 303 and back to dealing with colder temps. Yay.
(still keeping up with the TIU daily. one day, I forget which, had all the squats and lunges and my ass hurt for like three days. it was awesome.)
1.7
We finished up our drive home this day which took a lot longer than expected thanks to super shitty weather at the tunnel, but we got home with enough daylight to go get in a steady two miles. I had some weird right leg discomfort (not my achilles but almost the sides of my lower leg?), but I'm pretty sure it was from sitting in the car and driving.
1.8
Swim and a ride on tap. The swim was simple - 15x100 - and the ride was 45 minutes on the trainer. Have to get used to my old friend Skippy again.
1.9
So one of the runs I'm having me do is an easy, harder, easy. Right now, it's three miles as first and third miles easy with the middle mile taken at a harder pace. All of it is including walking right now (bleh), but they look like 12:something, 10:something, 12:something for me right now. Or in the 13s for the easy miles because I was doing it with Brandon and it was cold. But still, success!
1.10
This was my long day of the week. 2000 in the pool (done as 40x50) and then 20 miles on the bike.
I bribed myself with Skratch every 5 50s which helped break up the swim nicely and I needed a lot less self-talk to get through it than last week.
The ride, since it was about 50 out, I did outside.
Selfie from the Instagrams. Totally underdressed and I ended up chasing daylight, but it was awesome to get outside.
1.11
See how nice the weather was on the 10th? Well, the 11th was my long run day (4 miles) and the conditions were drastically different.
Jumping post-run.
I was a little grumbly about it, but I ended up enjoying myself quite a bit. New HR ranges worked a lot better, too, I think.
1.12
Relatively easy day today - just a simple trainer ride. Pulled out some ol' Coach Troy Spinervals and did the recovery and technique set (Spinervals 23.0 Time Saver I Workout A). I'll be doing this off and on, as well as some more structured trainer work, as much as I may hate it.
1.13
Life in the gym. Pulled out pool toys for the first time in a while because I did drills for the first time in a while. Hoo boy were those a bit rough. Definitely evident I haven't done drill work in like six months.
I also popped on the treadmill for two miles (which was either done in 20ish minutes or 22ish minutes, depending on whether you believe the indoor run setting on the Garmin or just go by what the treadmill says). Wanting to add in the tiniest bit of speed work and the treadmill is the easiest place to do so right now.
*****
Completed everything this week, which I'm very happy about. Fatigue hit at one point - oh god even microwaving leftovers is so much energy - but I know that's just me adapting to the load. Hopefully that will go away soon ...
Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 5300m, 2:04:59
Bike: 40.38 mi, 2:54
Run: 11.01 mi, 2:15:35
Strength: 1:11
Week One: 12.31-1.6
I started off the week in Las Vegas. Brandon had an overnight there on New Year's Eve and we were planning on being back there for a few days later that week ... so I just drove out and made a home base for a little while.
(all days I'm doing the TIU daily workout for now for simple, consistent strength. I may not mention that I do it, but it gets done.)
12.31
Nothing much this day; just my daily workout and a swim. There are several 24s in the Las Vegas area ... but not many that aren't Super Sports (above my membership level). Swimmers Guide had an active with a pool that was in theory 25m ... so I went there. I thought I was going to get kicked out as there was a class supposedly starting 20 minutes after I got in, but thankfully that didn't happen.
What was terrible is that since they do swim lessons out of that pool, it's kept at 86 degrees. Gross. So warm.
1.1
Woke up right around sunrise (it was terrible) to get in a run. It was windy AF, but a great way to start off the year.
From the Instagrams. Most of the run was done off Strip, but we were back on by this point.
1.2
All without Brandon. Swim and a bike on the schedule.
The swim was the longest I'd done in a while and required a lot of self-talk to get through. Mostly because, as I figured out later, I was super hungry. Well, that, and it's just a shit pool.
The bike was a few miles shorter than planned since the trail I found was garbage. I was not cycling on Vegas streets if at all possible (ugh, drivers) ... but the fail meant I needed to find a much better trail for the next day.
1.3
Yay, Brandon back! Run and bike on tap for the day.
I didn't run at my original planned location due to timing fail, but found a nice park close to the airport (so close I was able to see his plane on its final descent) to get in a slow AF 4 miles (attempting HR only for long runs. but I really need to change the zones in my Garmin).
Rode the I-215 Beltway trail which was a much better option than the previous day ... but still quite a few stops for lights. Reminded me of the 36 or 470 trails here.
1.4
Originally had a swim planned ... but swapped that to Sunday thanks to the pool being DUMB. Closed from 5-9am for cleaning and then a 9am class so the earliest we could have gotten in was 10am ... and that didn't work with what we wanted to do.
So, we rode instead. Found the Union Pacific Railroad Trail which connected to some other trail high above Boulder City (south(?) of Henderson). Slow going out, and Brandon had some mental issues, so I ended up leaving him so as to get in my 20 miles.
Also from the Instagrams. At the turnaround.
While I still think I have marginal PTSD regarding cycling around Henderson thanks to Silverman in 2015 ... I did actually enjoy this ride the further I got into it.
1.5
Another run. Went back to the same park as the third. Quite a bit of walking, but completed as scheduled. Score.
1.6
Sooooo I had been feeling kind of icky for a day and a half and ended up puking Saturday afternoon (B thinks I had a touch of food poisoning). As a result, I still felt like ass on Sunday morning. And I apparently burst a blood vessel in my eye while vomiting ... maybe because I hadn't puked in 6ish years? ... so our hoped swim before leaving town? Didn't happen. I felt just too terrible and I wasn't so sure about suctioning an already sore eyeball into goggles.
*****
One week down and only one missed workout. I'm not happy about missing that swim - believe me - but I think it was ultimately for the best.
Weekly Numbers:
Swim: 3500m, 1:22:19
Bike: 38.03 mi, 2:43:52
Run: 9.34 mi, 1:50:30
Strength: 1:06
I'll be honest - I almost didn't want to write one of these 2019 goal posts this year.
This is mostly because, unlike past years, I'm not setting specific "crack xx:xx in the x" goals. If this is a subconscious thing so as to not set myself up for (more) failure ... well, I guess we'll never know for sure.
I've mentioned that this is the first racing season I've had in a while that terrifies me. This holds true. So, what are my goals?
- To stick to the training plan I've written. I'm going back to self-coaching this year, and am not even following a plan in a book. In 2013, we combined a plan from Triathlete magazine and a PDF plan we got from a friend. In 2016, we tried a coach. This year, I'm attempting to come up with something myself, mostly because I'm starting base-building as well as half-marathon training now. I also have a 70.3 in June, the full 140.6 in September ... and a hopeful massive swim a week after the 70.3 for my birthday. All of this combined does not fit in well with a cookie-cutter plan. I also know that right now, I'm not "coachable," so that leaves one option - me.
(and no I'm not setting myself up to get into coaching. that would be terrible.)
- To finish out the year healthy and happy. Because if I don't, none of this will have been worth it.
- To complete a 10k swim on my birthday. Well, 10,100 to be precise. I'm not going to do the standard 100x100. But, since I love pyramid swim sets, I'm going to expand a staple 1700m pyramid into a massive pyramid of DOOOOOOM. 50-100-200-300-400-500-600-700-800-900-1000-900-800-700-600-500-400-300-200-100-50. Plus a whole shit ton of swimming should hopefully help my swim times so there's that potential perk ...
- To enjoy the process. While I do have set destination races, a lot of the training this year will truly be about the journey.
- To document the path. Yep, expect to see more updates to this space. I have a lot of my publishing schedule already sketched out (save for race reports since that schedule hasn't been finalized yet), so I should in theory be successful with this.
I might have more, but this is the first year in a while I haven't scribbled my goals for the next year down in like, November, so I'm kind of thinking of these on the fly while sitting here in a hotel room in Las Vegas. Maybe I'll think of more once I'm out on my bike ride.
See you next Wednesday, when I tell you how the first week of training went!
Well, as you probably inferred from my previous post, December wasn't the greatest of months for me. No matter what I do, I somehow just turn into a pumpkin mid-month and have no motivation for ANYTHING. I may just have to accept this and plan for it in the future. Stupid, I know, but if that's what the ol' gray matter is going to want ...
... anyway, numbers!
Swimming: 10300m (6.4 mi)
Cycling: 76.79 mi
Running: 20.08 mi
Lifting: 16 sessions (3:51)
Other: one hike (:55), one stepmill session (:05), two walks (1:30)
Swimming ended up being an okay month. Obviously I was hoping for a bigger month (obviously), but I'll take this. Cycling ... I just didn't want to get on my trainer. And then it got cold. Really cold. Which, if I wasn't going to get on my trainer, obviously meant I wasn't going to ride.
Running was the real disappointment of the month, with barely 20 miles. I don't know what happened.
As far as 2018, I pretty much failed at all of my goals. My big word goal was consistency (also known as base building), and that, at least, I felt like I was mostly successful at. Particularly the latter. I don't feel super behind going into 2019, and I think that was the best thing I could have hoped for. Running is still a garbage fire, and it might be stuck in that form, but I'm hoping not.
(Okay really the only thing I was successful at was doing a blog redesign. Which is a big thing, so I'll take the small victory there.)
I learned that I needed a large mental break this year. I learned that I need time in the mountains, which I'll give myself this summer. I'll make it somehow work and fit with IM training, because it needs to. I continued to have fun at races with friends, because sometimes, it's not all about the numbers.
Although I failed at all my number goals, I believe that failure was necessary. And (spoiler) I'm probably not going to make any of those for next year.
