Knock on wood I am still feeling fantastic. Tuesday I woke up with a soar throat and thought that the hard training was getting me, I contacted Scott, took out a hard bike and hard run on Wednesday and replace it with an hour light ride, got rest, vitamins and water, and Thursday i was back on track and feeling really good again. This weekend I felt literally the best I have ever felt physically during training. My Saturday swim I would even describe as magical. I can’t remember the last time I felt that fluid and strong in the water. To top that off I had the best run of my life on Sunday running 14 miles in an hour and a half, and that is with 15 minutes almost jogging. The workout was supposed to be 30 minutes at 7:15/mile, 30 minutes at 6:45/mile, 15 minutes at 6:15/mile then 15 light. I am a terrible judge of actual pace and ended up more like 6:50, 6:20, 6:00, but my hr zones were all in line. Bottom line GREAT RUN! Thanks Chrisfor running that with me. We followed that up with a 2 hour ride out to sauvie and a bit of work there then back for me, while Chris stayed to do some more hard efforts.
This week I have some traveling to do, with one hard day of training on Tuesday with some light stuff the rest of the week in prep for a sprint race on Saturday.
Week Summary:
17 hours 15 minutes
13700 yards (4 swims)
157 miles (5 rides)
37 miles (4 runs)
Very solid week of training! Still feeling great although my legs were a bit tired today as I packed my son up the stairs. The focused shifted this week from swim to run, with a couple high intesity days and some long days. I am pleased with my run progression! My heart rate seems to be going down at all intesities. I also am still getting faster in the pool as is evident by a 6:20 500 at end-steady pace, and a set of 200’s held below 2:25 at Mod/Hard pace. This weeks looks to be almost identical as last, with a bit more yardage in the pool. Hopefully it goes just as well.
Summary:
17.5 hours
12,500 yards/ 4 swims
153 miles/ 5 rides
42.5 miles/ 5 runs
14 Ironheads toed the line at what turned out to be the worst conditions in the short history of the race. Apparently the winds were nasty on the bike, and the temps hit 102 degrees on the run course! Miserable!
Ciaverella absolutely crushed it going 9:32, good for 27th overall and 2nd in his age group! Garren and Bill also battled the tough conditions and put together great races as well.
Kelly Mclean and Kelly Hovland also hit the podium in there age group and Erin Perkin rounded out the top ten in the same AG!
Congrats to all of you!
I had a fantastic training week, and am feeling very good! I had a pretty intensive swim week and was really feeling it at the end of the week.
I finished the week off with the Spring Classic Duathlon on Saturday, my first attempt a Duathlon, andwas quite pleased with how it turned out. I finished 4th overall, and 1st in my new AG! My legs felt very strong for this time of year especially considering I just started adding speed work. On Sunday I road 50 miles of rolling hills with Jake and felt great!
This week steps up even more so we’ll see if I am feeling this chipper in a week!
Week training summary:
17 hours:
Swim: 18,100 yards in 4 sessions
Bike: 150 miles (4 rides and a race)
Run: 21.25 miles (3 runs and a race)
I had a good recovery week last week after Cali, but still had some solid workouts. My body recovered quickly from the race which is good. It was my birthday last week, which meant I ate out 4 nights in a row to celebrate with different freinds and family, so my nutrition was sub par at best. Oh well you need to do that every once in a while, or so I keep telling myself.
April is going to be a tough month for me, my training intesity picks up immensly, and the hours stay pretty much the same. I don’t have a day off from training until May 5th, but scott asures me that there are plenty of light days for recovery. I also start traveling again for work this week, which is going to make training slightly more challenging, but more imortantly it puts a strain on my family which is just added stress.
My keys for this month are to keep a healthy balance of family, training, and work and keep it all in perspective.
I will be racing in the spring classic duathlon this Saturday which should be interesting, after that my next race is the Hawthorne Farms Sprint on May 3rd.
This Sunday I have a bunch of friends and teammates racing IMAZ, so good luck to all of you! I will be watching and tracking!
Aleck
