End of Week 5 - 23 weeks to go

This week was a Recovery Week.  Those occur usually every 4 weeks.  Frequency of workouts remain the same, but the volume is reduced.  The saying is, "You don't get stronger or faster during the workouts, you get stronger and faster in Recovery".  You do a lot of physical damage to your body that it needs time to heal and adapt.  Even though the first 4 weeks were light, it's good to get a Recovery week for mental rest and to keep the routine of 4 weeks on, 1 week Recovery.  This next week will start the Base Phase 2 part of training.  After Base 2, we'll start to get a lot higher intensity, volume, and duration as we head into the Build period leading into the race.  I'll be racing IM Texas on 4/26, and CapTexTri here in Austin on 5/25 so racing begins in 3.5 months.

This week I did miss a cycle workout on Wednesday b/c I had coworker friends from Dallas in town and met them for dinner.  Whenever a workout is missed, it's missed.  There's no making it up.  It is what it is.  Was able to get my weekend run and ride done outside which was nice.  It was the first time I have ridden with my new Power Meter so it was interesting to see power numbers out on the road.  Since it was a recovery week, I wanted to keep my ride in zone 2 (very aerobic)......that's zone 2 on the flats, on this hills, into the wind. Keep it constant.  The first thing I noticed was on the hills and wind where I would normally increase the power to get up the hill or to battle the wind, today I kept it in zone 2.  I felt less tired at the end of my ride.  This is going to be such a great asset in my IM bike.

This week's numbers:

Mon - AM - Swim 3281 yards              PM - 1 mile run warmup, legs/lats/abs lifting
Tues - AM - Bike Trainer 45 mins        PM - 4.33 mile run
Wed - AM - Swim 2242 yards              PM - (dinner with friends)
Thur - AM - Sleep in                             PM - 4 mile run, Lift - Chest
Frid -  AM - Swim 2953 yards              PM - 1 mile run warmup, legs/lats/abs lifting
Sat -   AM - 6.45 easy run
Sun -  AM - Bike 32 miles                    PM - Tris lifting

Weekly Totals for Recovery week:

SWIM = 8476 yards
BIKE = 2:37 hours, 32 miles on Sunday ride
RUN = 16.9 miles

End of Week 4 - 24 weeks to go

Major accomplishment this week was performing an FTP (Functional Threshold Power) test on the bike.  New this year to me is training and racing with Power Meter on my bike.  The PM measures the force you apply to the peddles.  When you know your FTP (the power you can put out for an hour), then you can use that power metric to determine power zones to train in, and ultimately race in.  The goal, knowing the Power range that I will race in that will give me the maximum output and bike time that will give me my best marathon.  This is so much better than using HR or using perceived effort Power is just that, Power....no matter the terrain, the conditions, etc.  HR and perceived effort has so many factors.  If say I determine that my power in the Ironman is 215, then whether I'm on a flat road, going up a hill, or into the wind, if I maintain power at 215, then I'm good

The FTP test is warming up for around 45 mins, then going all out for 30 minutes.  The average power number is my FTP.  And now I have my power zones 1 - 5 that I'll do different workouts in.  This week's volume was still pretty light, and I missed a run due to hardwoods being installed and had to miss a run to get everything back into place after they were done. This next week will be a slight recovery week (every 4 weeks), then the volume will start to increase.  This week's numbers:

Mon = AM Swim 2734 yards,  PM Run 2 miles, 45 mins of legs/lats/abs lifting
Tue =  AM Bike Trainer, PM Run 5 miles
Wed = AM Swim 2242 yards
Thur = PM Bike FTP Test, 1:21 hours
Fri = AM Swim 2953 yards, PM 1 mile warmup run, 1 hour legs/lats/abs lifting
Sat = AM Run 6.5 miles
Sun = AM Bike Trainer 2 hours

SWIM = 7929 yards
BIKE = 4:06 hours (no outside miles, cold)
RUN = 14.5 miles (missed a run)

End of Week 3 - 25 weeks to go

This week was NYE week.  The schedule is still a little non-routine with the holiday week, but  managed to stick to the training schedule for this week.  NYE was low key so was able to get my NY day workouts vs the normal NY day of needing to recover.  Finally got over a nasty cold and should be picking up the training volume in the next coming weeks.  Also, I finally was able to get an outdoor long ride on Saturday.  Riding a bike on an indoor trainer is great for short, high intense workouts (~1 hour), but horrible for long, steady pace rides like weekend long rides.  I hate the cold so usually won't ride if it's below 50 degrees outside.

This weeks total volumes were:

Mon - AM Swim 2000 meters,      PM 1.64 mile warm up with leg/lat lifting
Tues - AM Bike Trainer 45 mins, PM Run
Wed - AM Swim 2500 meters,     PM Bike Trainer 1 hour
Thur -                                            PM Run 4.35 miles
Fri - AM Swim 1900 meters,        PM 1.03 mile warmup with leg lifting
Sat - Long Bike 36 miles (2200 feet climbing)
Sun - Long Run 8.13 miles

Swim = 7000 yards
Bike = 3:52 hours (not tracking mileage yet)
Run = 20.1 miles

Total 12 hours training.

End of Week 2 - 26 weeks to go

Ending the second and finally getting over a severe cold but luckily never ran a fever.  Workouts were hard b/c I felt drained since Christmas Eve.  Took Christmas day off, and finally felt better today.  Now the holidays are over, real start focusing on cleaning up my diet......ate great, but terrible in a good way.

Ended the week with a 2 hour cycle trainer ride on Saturday AM, weights Saturday PM, and a 6.5 mile run today.  Wanted to hit the gym/weights again tonight, but still drained from this cold.  Hopefully start this next week feeling 100%.

The Monring after Xmas

Christmas was a good day to take a rest day.  I had a run planned, but w/ early morning wakeup, big meal in the afternoon, some wine, and this nasty allergy or cold that's hit me, decided to just enjoy a day off.  Back at it today although still feeling a little "off".  Will do a swim this morning, but taking the day off of work so there was no need to get up early.....was nice to sleep in.

I'll start posting these on a weekly basis (Sundays)......essentially, a recap of the weeks event around the training.

Day Before Xmas Eve

Yesterday was a swim test to gather data that will be used to set my intervals for upcoming swim workouts.  After a couple of months, I'll do the test again and see what my improvements are.  The test consisted of a warmup, then an all our 400 meter swim, fully recover, and then a full out 200 meter.  The 400 was done in 7:23, and the 200 done in 3:09.  That was done in the Morning, and then I did some strength training in the afternoon (warm up run, legs, and lats).

Today was an early morning cycle for about 45 minutes just concentrating on a high cadence.  Working on an efficient pedal stroke.  This afternoon was a short interval run of a 15 min warm up, 1 mile @ half marathon pace, two 800 meter @ 10k pace, and two 400 meter @ 5k pace.  All w/ about 2 min jog in between.

Actually starting to feel like I'm coming down with something.  Could be that I'm starting to get dehydrated.  Once training starts, I have to consciously increase my hydration during the day.  We'll see how I feel tomorrow.  It's xmas eve, so might be a good day to take off :) 

1st Weekend

This weekend consisted of an aerobic threshold run test on Saturday.  Basically after a warmup, I ran 3 miles holding a certain HR to set a baseline for later workouts.  I was able to manage a 160 HR for 3 miles at 8:00 min miles.  I'll do another test later in training to see how my aerobic base is coming along.  Today, Sunday, I did a 2 hr 15 min cycle trainer workout.  Also, did a weight workout this evening (bis and tris).  Sat in the sauna to get some blood flowing to the tired muscles.  This is the end of the first week.  It's very easy load right now.....concentrating in developing an aerobic base and building leg strength in the gym.

It's the holidays so it's hard not to be gaining weight.  But I have a long way to go, so I'm going to indulge this coming week.  Plenty of time to work it off :)  Tomorrow is a big swim test.......determining a baseline for swim fitness that upcoming swim workouts will be based on.

Friday 12/19

Still getting use to early morning wakeups.  After going into offseason mode in mid October, I have been sleeping in.  One of the mental breaks I can take.  But now it's time to get back to getting up early and getting the workout in.  Usually the AM workouts are a necessity but my current client is 3 miles from my gym so I have the luxury of working out at lunch if need to.  But I don't want to start relying on that b/c anything can come up at work and I could miss the workout.  So it's best to get it done first thing in the morning......b/c I usually have a PM workout as well.  Fridays will usually consist of an AM swim w/ strength training in the PM......and is usually a recovery day.  These will become crucial in later part of the training when intensity during the week increases.  Today consisted of:

2700 meter swim in the AM
1.5 mile warmup and some leg and lat strength training.

Thursday 12/18

Today was a little recovery day after the strength session on the legs yesterday.  Just 1 workout today.....a 6 mile recovery run done in zone 2 (easy enough that you could hold a conversation w/ someone).  Even w/ just 3 days into Training, I can already tell how I'm going to need to up my calorie intake to sustain training.  And this is low intensity.  Later in training, I'll detail a days nutrition.

Cycle / Strength Day

Woke up at 5:30am for a 1:10 cycle trainer workout.  During this base period, will focus on developing aerobic endurance.  The cycle workout was done in an aerobic heart rate Zone 3.  Trainer workouts are typically hard to do b/c its no better than running on a treadmill (boring), but I'm watching Dexter on Netflix.  Once these workouts get into more intense heart rate zones, it'll be hard to watch TV.  Then it'll turn to itunes for some heart pumping workout music.

Then after work I did a 1.5 mile warm up on the treadmill, and then hit some leg, lat, and abs strength training at the gym.  Feels good to be back focused on a race.  The goal of this first week is just get back into my training routine.  My cycling pain cave below:

Day 1

12/16 - Today marks the first day of training for IM CDA.  After a nice weekend trip to Vail to cap off my off-season that started late October that consisted of light workouts, nothing structured, and gaining a few pounds, it's time to get to work for IM CDA on June 27, 2015.  Today's workout consisted of a 3.5 mile run with hill repeats in the AM, a 1800 meter swim at lunch, and a 50 minute cycle on an indoor trainer.   The updates will be on a weekly basis, but wanted to get an entry in to mark the start of the Journey.