300

I did my intervals on the way to work today instead of on the way home. It was a lot easier to do a controlled workout instead of trying to play the stop lights on the way home. I did a lengthy warmup (~50 minutes) and when I got to the canal, I did the set. Here's the workout on the way to work, notice how consistent the power output is compared to the rest of the ride.




I averaged over 300 watts (well, one was 299) for each interval and averaged ~240 for the set with the recovery included. It was a good workout and made for a morning ride of 30 miles and an evening ride of ~21.6 miles for the commute home. So it was 51.6 miles and roughly 3 hours for the day. Legs are tired tonight, but tomorrow morning I'll be back in the pool and on the treadmill for a 45 minute run. I may throw in an easy spin over lunch!

Killer Track Workout

Now that is what I'm talking about... that is the most anaerobic pain I've felt in a long time! My track workout was a 3K all out, 10 min recovery, 2K all out, 10 min recovery, and 1K all out. I broke my previous 3K best time by 25 seconds lowering it to a 10:23. Plus, coach kept splits for me, which was really nice. Here's how it broke down:

3K
lap 0.5 - 0:36
lap 1.5 - 1:19
lap 2.5 - 1:22
lap 3.5 - 1:23
lap 4.5 - 1:25
lap 5.5 - 1:27
lap 6.5 - 1:26
lap 7.5 - 1:25
10:23 (5:32/mile pace)

2K
lap 1 - 1:20
lap 2 - 1:27
lap 3 - 1:29
lap 4 - 1:27
lap 5 - 1:27
7:10 (5:44/mile pace)

1K
lap 1 - 1:21
lap 2 - 1:26
lap 2.5 - 0:41
3:28 (5:32/mile pace)

I started off pretty hard for the 3K and was just hanging on for dear life at the end. But as coach pointed out, if I had posted like a 1:20 lap at the end, it would've shown I was holding back something for the last lap. However, I clearly was not, so this is probably a better indication of my current speed. I took 25 seconds off my previous best, which is roughly a 0:13/mile pace improvement. Coach also told me he's never had anybody break 10 minutes. I think I could get there eventually - it's about 3-4 more seconds per lap and would add up to a 5:20/mile pace.

Smooth

This morning I did my swim and continued the grand experiment with breathing exclusively on my weak side. It is actually working out well. I wasn't as dizzy, didn't get quite as much water up my nose, and felt smoother and more streamlined in the water. I also noticed I was consistently hitting times that I had to work harder to reach when breathing strong side. For example, my main set today was 3x250 on 4:08, then 5x50 on 0:48, and then another 3x250 on 4:08. Normally, I'd struggle to hit 4 minutes on the 250 and on that second group, I'm sure I would've been a few seconds over. But this morning, I was doing 3:56-3:58 fairly easily and then on the second set of 250s I was hitting 4:00 on the last 2 and not putting in a huge amount of effort. It doesn't seem like my top-end speed has increased all that much, but I feel like I might be more efficient in that I can keep a decent pace for what feels like a longer time.

Tonight is a killer track workout and tomorrow is a commute to work day with hard intervals. Overall this week, is a good tough week and next week will probably be even harder. I am working to get 2 good weeks in and a decent, but short, taper in before Vineman, which is in 2.5 weeks! Can't wait for that race!

Weak-side breathing, take 2

Not too bad this morning! I did 2700 yards and did all my breathing to the right side (my weak side). It felt slightly more normal and was able to do the 4x250 on 4:08 set fairly easily as I was getting ~10 seconds of rest between each 250. It wasn't all that much effort, either and I was breathing fairly steadily. I was still getting more water up my nose, etc. than I normally do, so I've got to figure that out, but switching to the other side has done something for my form, I think. I still have some balance issues because I know I am dragging my hips/legs most of the time, but I think I'm starting to figure out the hand angle/drag issue. I may try to throw in an "extra" swim tomorrow since I missed Monday's completely. Since this is a recovery week and I have a relatively short "long" run in the morning, I may do some swim drills over lunch if I can get away.

Dizzy

I had another session in the pool with my coach last weekend and one of the things we decided to do is to have me breathe only to my weak side from now on... all the time.... at least for the next few weeks. It seems that I've developed some bad habits by breathing only to one side for the last few years that we need to try to undo. Then, after I've got that down, we'll get back to working on the timing issue I have with my reach/pull.

Today, I swam 2650 yds all breathing to my weak side and I have to say, it made me a little dizzy!! Otherwise, it wasn't that bad and ironically, for shorter distances I was a little faster with a little less effort, so I know it's doing something. However, for the longer sets (200s), I got tired and was a little slower and not breathing as well. I think that should improve fairly quickly, but we'll see.

I was also focusing, during my drills, on the other things he noticed: the way the water feels on my lead hand, i.e., what angle and what position in which it enters the water (I am creating unnecessary drag), my body position, and my kick being streamlined.

It was an interesting experiment. To be continued....

Alternating 400s

Last week was descending 400s and that was killer. This week was a little easier - alternating 400s. I warmed up for ~10 minutes (a lot shorter because this is a recovery week) and then went into alternating laps, one at 1:26 pace and one at 1:52 pace. My splits were:

1:25 (1:48 recovery)
1:27 (1:55 recovery)
1:23 (1:54 recovery)
1:26 (1:55 recovery)
1:25 (1:55 recovery)
1:25 (1:51 recovery)
1:26 (1:52 recovery)
1:27 (1:52 recovery)
1:24 (1:53 recovery)
1:24 (2:05 recovery)

It took me a little bit to get the pacing down, but I still couldn't hit 1:26 every single time, but still not too bad overall.

A Run-in With a Bike Trailer

Today was my long ride and a short run. My plan had 95 miles on it with a 6 mile run afterwards. I got up early and was on the road by 6:25. I headed out of Folsom up Green Valley into Rescue and then over to Shingle Springs, then back down into El Dorado Hills and Folsom. After that first loop, I then proceeded up into Newcastle and Auburn and back down towards Folsom. Once I got back to Folsom on the bike trail, I was getting ready to pass a guy pulling his kids in a trailer and yelling "on your left." I wasn't really even going THAT fast, but then all the sudden, the guy veers quickly to the left to pull over to the other side of the trail and I could not stop quick enough!!! I crashed right into him and his trailer and went flying over the top. I rolled to the ground with my bike and then made a quick assessment. I was worried about their kids, but they were just scared and not hurt. Then I was worried about my bike, but it appeared to be fine - all except for the rear-mount water bottle cages I have. The carbon mount was snapped. I was thinking to myself if that is the worst of it, then that's OK!! Everything else seemed fine and I even finished off my last 10 miles to get to 95. I have a couple of scrapes on my hands, elbow, and shoulder, but otherwise, nothing serious. I was lucky! That could've ended my season!

Overall the ride was great (except for the little mishap). I felt great physically and had energy the entire time. I even did the 6.1 or 6.2 miles afterwards in 45 minutes pretty easily. I averaged 191 watts and 18.3 mph and the ride had 5000' of climbing. Not bad for the day!