Training

This was biggest training week so far with 12 hrs and 13 mins.

The one disappointment was an aborted attempt to do an open water swim in the ocean while I was in Florida for work. The water was really rough with a pretty strong current. A couple of coworkers and I swam about 500m along the shore and then turned around. That was the hard part. We must have swam for about 5 mins and got absolutely no where. We ended up just walking back to our starting point.

Most of the training this week was over the weekend. The weather cooperated and I was able to do my long ride outdoors in some really nice weather. Upper 60s F and sunny. Of course, it would be too much to ask for perfect weather so I had to deal with 20mph winds. Normally I tend to fixate on my speed, but since it was so windy, I decided to fixate on my power instead and not worry about how fast I was going into the headwinds. At many points I would be riding at 200W and only going 9-10mph. I ended the 3-hr ride with an average power of 144W for the entire ride and a new reported FTP of 167W

I also did my longest run of my training at 12 miles. As it turns out, this is also the first time I have run 12 miles or more since 2007…..the year I did all my marathon training. After my run my inner thighs were bruised from all the chafing. I have to start using BodyGlide on my long runs.

There was one workout my coach added for the Thursday. It was a last minute addition after I asked him how come he didn’t have any bike rides while I was in FL. But he added it so late and I already had a run and swim for that day that I didn’t bother to do it. If he had put it for the Wednesday I would have done it Wednesday morning, but he only added it to my plan Wednesday evening.

Week 16 is going to be another 12-hr week.

This week started off with some bad news. The swimming pool that I normally swim at will be closed the week of March 11 for maintenance. This led me to try and find an alternative pool to swim at. Using Swimmers Guide, I was able to find a 25yd pool that is about 5 mins further than my current pool and more expensive at $5 per day. Even though I bought an annual pass for my current pool, the drop-in rate is only $2 per day. I decided to give it a try for Tuesday’s swim. It worked out well and it was odd in that the time and swim just seemed easier. I don’t know if the change of scenery made a difference. Anyway, it’s a good back-up pool and I’ll swim there while my regular pool is closed. The other thing about this alternate pool is that the lap hours are 7-8pm instead of 8-9pm so it means I don’t get home and have go to bed right away

Running went well this week with my longest run yet at 11 miles. For that run, at about the 6-mile mark, I started to get some left-hip pain. I thought it was like the previous week where at mile 9.5, everything started to hurt. But, shortly after that, I moved on to some sidewalk that was cambered the opposite way and the pain stopped. I was running on the road when the pain started, on the left side so my left leg was lower than my right leg. I spent the rest of my run looking for roads and sidewalks that would allow me to run either level or with my left side higher than my right and it turned out well. I didn’t have any pain for the remainder of the run.

The weather did not cooperate this weekend and it was cold so I had to do my long ride indoors. My long ride was scheduled for 2 hrs and 15 mins. I managed to get through most of it by watching a movie, but even then I ended up stopping at 1 hr 50 mins. I will call that a win. It was a BRICK workout so I ran 3 miles after the ride. The run felt great and I barely had a jelly leg feeling. I was sure to start off at my slow pace and not let me legs take me a higher than normal pace.

I ended the week at 11 hrs of training time

This week was a recovery week, but it sure didn’t feel like it. Thursday was supposed to be an easy 1hr ride but I just felt so drained, I only managed 30 mins. That is typical of how my Thursday’s feel, but I didn’t expect that on a recovery week.

The good thing is by the weekend I had a couple good workouts. The Friday rest day really helped. I ran 10 miles on Saturday and felt great for 9.5 of those miles. For the last 5 mins or so, everything was hurting….hips, glutes etc. I picked up the pace slightly which helped engage different muscles and felt a little better. After the run, I was out whole day at my son’s Destination Imagination event, not getting home until around 9pm. The day involved a lot of walking which didn’t allow me to rest and recover as much as I would typically do on a weekend.

Sunday was a long day. I started off by doing some scuba diving in a pool. It wasn’t really strenuous, but I had to get up early and so didn’t get as much rest or sleep as I would on a weekend. I still did my 2:15 hr long ride and that too felt good. I took 3 gels with me but didn’t actually eat any of them. Not sure if that was good or bad, but I didn’t bonk or anything.

This weekend I thought I actually had 8 weeks left to my event, but after rechecking, I realize it’s only 7 weeks away. It is approaching FAST!