Back to the Track

Bonus!!! My work trip was canceled!!! Normal training for another week, which definitely makes me happy.

I've officially started my track workouts! Last night was a group workout with coach - I did about 5 miles warmup, partially with my wife, and then did some stretching, a few drills, and then 7x800 on 2:50. It was not entirely killer, but that pace is definitely uncomfortable for me, which, of course, is the point. It wasn't bad; I was hitting 2:48 or 2:49 for most, then hit 2:51 for #6 and back to 2:48 for #7. I was pretty consistent.

Then, today was a 1 hour easy spin on the trainer in the morning, but then intervals on the bike at noon. 3x7 minutes very hard intensity (roughly 40K pace) during a 1:15 ride. It actually was OK after the track the night before. My training is switching over to less lower body weights / power and gradually trying to turn that into sustained speed. So far so good, but I am anxious to see where I am at in an actual race. Auburn is only 7 weeks away.

Two Long Days

I was originally supposed to be traveling on business this coming week and leaving Sunday, so I re-arranged my training schedule. I put my 2 long days on Thursday and Friday. So on Thursday, I did an hour on the trainer followed by a 12 mile run in 90 minutes with big hills. I was tired, but it was a pretty strong run. I did all of that before work. Then, at lunch, I did my 3000 yd swim and decided to experiment with bilateral breathing. I have always been a one-side breather on every-other stroke (what can I say, I am not a "real" swimmer... I don't do flip-turns either). I decided to spend 400 of my drills doing bilateral breathing every 3rd stroke. Every single 100 of that set was 1:26. I have never seen 1:26 before; usually my 100s are around 1:30-1:34 or somewhere in that range depending on what else I'm doing. It was a good day.

Then on Friday, I took the day off work and since the in-laws are in town, I took advantage of the playmates for the kids and went off on my long training day. I went to the pool first thing and did 3000 yds again. Then, I get on my bike and headed out for my long ride. I was hoping the rain would die down, but the first 2 hours were pretty miserable. Fortunately, I was at least prepared with booties, two pairs of gloves, and my jacket. I was scheduled for 65 miles and about 1.5 hours in, I was about to cut it short because I was absolutely sick of the hard-driving rain. Then, it started clearing and my mood improved. I finished off the ride, with hills, in 3:45 or so. I got off the bike, changed quickly and headed our for my hour run. I didn't feel great, but I was still cruising along and ended up doing 7.9 miles in 58 minutes. So even on my runs after long rides, I was still hitting 7:20 per mile and I felt like I was going fairly slow. My running off the bike is definitely getting much stronger.

Now, I am not traveling for business this coming week, so I'm really looking forward to another good week of training.

Commuting

I did my first commute to work today. My plan had an hour easy ride in the AM and then a 90 minute ride in the PM with intervals. I did the ride home with the intervals and ended up averaging 16.8 mph and 232 watts on the way home with ~2000 feet of climbing. It took me about an hour and 24 minutes. I felt pretty good most of the way. The Serrano hill was tough at the end, but I still made it up OK. The total for the day was 44.5 miles and 2:35 of ride time. Finally a good quality ride during the week.

Tomorrow morning is an hour on the trainer followed by a 90 minute run. Hopefully it's not raining too hard!

Recovery

Today was an easy day - 2 hour ride followed by a 30 minute run. It was nice to sleep in a bit and still be back at a reasonable time. I covered 38 miles on the bike and about 4.2 miles running. My bike ride had ~1660 feet of vertical and I averaged 18.3 mph and 186 watts. It was a decent ride and I felt pretty good. Since it was a recovery ride, I decided to do the first test ride on my race wheels. It was a little hard getting air in them because the stems are a bit short, but otherwise, everything was great!! Can't wait to race on them and my first race is in less than 2 months!

My post-rdie un felt fairly fresh, too. I guess that's what a recovery week is about. This coming week, we start dialing down the weights and doing more on the bike. I'll have a longer ride on Wednesday and coach has thrown in a ride before my long run this week. I'm looking forward to it.