Weekly Review

The fatigue is really starting to settle in now. By Thursday, I was tired and really looking forward to the Friday rest day,

I did have a few niggles this week. On Thursday, my left hamstring was feeling really tight and sore. I think it came from the strength/core workout on the Tuesday. At the end, it called for some stretching including touching my toes for 1 min. Normally, if I try and touch my toes, I can’t and I’m typically about 2″ away. But on Tuesday, with my muscles being warm and just hanging there and letting the stretch settle in, I gradually sunk further and further. By the end, I was able to go past my toes and touch the floor. I have a feeling that I overstretched my hamstrings. It is still currently sore, but very, very slightly. Even when sore earlier in the week, it didn’t cause any issues with my workouts.

The other issue I had was on the run from my BRICK sessions. I was getting some cramping in my left quad just a couple inches above my knee. I had to stop to massage and stretch it a few times. I’m wondering if this is due to being dehydrated. For my 8-mile long run, I happened to weigh before and after and I found that I had a net loss of 3.5lbs due to sweat. I don’t know if I did actually replace all of that fluid by Sunday. I will try and monitor that more closely next weekend.

The last issue I had was my high heart rate during my long run. Based on the pace I was running and my breathing (conversation pace), I would typically be at a HR in the 130’s, but for some reason, my HR was measuring high throughout the entire run. By the end, my average was about 151. Again, I have to wonder if I’m dehydrated.

I’ll be in Florida this week. I’m looking forward to being able to do another ocean swim. I hope I can make that happen.

This was the first week following the workouts and plan from my new coach. Overall, I think it went well. The most noticeable difference from my previous weeks is that the intensity was higher.

For my swimming, I had previously discussed with him that I didn’t really want to be doing complicated drill sets. I don’t think I have a lot of room for improving my speed and I was quite happy with my current pace. So in that vein, he only scheduled one workout with some speed work and the other two were my normal continuous swims.

For the speed workout, he wanted me to split it into three 500m sets with the first one easy, the next one a bit harder and the third even harder. The first set went well and for the second set, I did go faster, but it was tough and so the third set was done easy. The disappointing part though is that when I got home and looked at my times, for the second set even though I think I worked much harder, it was only about 30 seconds faster than the first 500m. That really only managed to cement in my mind that I should just accept my current swim speed especially since it’s more than fast enough to get me through the swim comfortably. In retrospect, I think the issue is that in trying to swim faster, I was losing what ever current technique I have.

On the bike, the mid-week workouts were quite complex with all sorts of intervals. I actually liked that though. I created custom workouts in Zwift and since I was constantly doing various sets and having to switch it up every 1-2 mins, it actually made the workouts on the indoor trainer much easier to tolerate. For the longer ride, the weather was very nice over the weekend so I was able to do it outdoors….always nice for longer rides.

The hardest run workout was a hill workout which I had to do on the treadmill. I hate running on the treadmill and when you combine that with a hill workout at 8-10%, it was not enjoyable.

My coach threw in a strength/core workout and I was feeling the effects of the crunches many days later.

I ended the week at just under 10 hrs.

This was a recovery week….the end of the base phase. I still ended up doing 9 hrs in a rather uneventful week.

I did decide to hire a triathlon coach though for the remainder of my training. I think I could have gotten by without one, but it would be nice to have a coach that can tweak my plan as I go along. So rather than simply following a plan, if things are going great, he can up the intensity, or if I’m too tired, back off a bit. Those adjustments are not something I’m comfortable doing at this point on my own.

I’m using Ryan Falkenrath from Set The Pace Triathlon.

I don’t know as yet if I’ll use him for my full Ironman. It will all depend on how well the next 12 weeks goes…it’s hard to believe my Ironman 70.3 is only 12 weeks away

The highlight of this week was swimming in the ocean in FL on Thursday.  This was my first open water swim.  I was nervous before as I didn’t know what to expect and especially since the ocean isn’t smooth like a lake.  I wasn’t sure how I would handle the waves and swells.  In the end, it actually went really well.  I did the swim with a couple co-workers and so it wasn’t my planned 2000m.  We ended up doing 1000 yds.  We are already planning another ocean swim when I’m back in FL.  I hope we can do 1500m the next time.

The disappointing workout of the week had to be the planned 2hr 15 min ride.  For that duration, I couldn’t fathom doing it indoors so I ventured outdoors in about 48F temperature and windy.  It did not go well.  I managed about 30 mins and called it a day.  I was numb!  I can’t wait for some nicer weather so I can ride long outdoors.

Unlike my previous weeks, I have two orange workouts.  The short ocean swim, which I don’t mind, and the abbreviated outdoor ride.

This coming week is a recovery week.