Training Update: Week 10

I've already covered the key run of this past week in an earlier post. This was the monster, 10-mile, pain free, outdoor long run.

Key Swim: This was Sunday. Again, it was a set of 5X200 on the 3:15, and I felt aerobic and fast. Followed this with 5X100 on 1:45. Swam a 4000 total workout, a particularly long workout considering it was all swim (no kick). An infected abscess on the heel prevented me from wearing any fins for the kick sets.

Key Bike: Saturday. This was as painful as bike rides get for me. I always enjoy riding, so my description of this ride as 'painful' doesn't mean I wasn't having a blast. However, I was tired from a long week of work and training, and I headed right out Saturday morning under recovered. I started out feeling strong and fast, so I pushed the pace. My heart rate climbed above 130, but I was feeling good so I turned the heart rate alarm off to see what my body could do. About 50 miles in, I blew up.

It took everything I had to make it home, and I ended up with an 80 mile, 4.5 hour ride. I think my stomach shut down on me, too, which happens to me when I go to hard on the bike. I was burping up honey in the last 2 hours.

I usually hit an easy recovery run and weight session on saturday afternoon, after the ride. However, I went down for a nap and slept right through this. I even missed a planned dinner outing with a good friend because of the fatigue from that Saturday ride. I am happy that I blew up, however, for a few reasons. I am happy that I blew up physiologically and not biomechanically - that is, I didn't get an injury out of it and I just ended up tired and underfueled. I am glad I found my limit, too, as I have a tendency to cruise in my training comfort zone.

I headed over to the pool this morning, for I wanted to retest my 1500m time trial today. I got in the pool and couldn't even warmup, the body had nothing to give. So I scrapped this swim and will test next week.

I have been doing a 3 weeks on, 1 week off format for my training. However, I am feeling relatively tired after this past week, so I am going to jump right into a recovery week. That will give me 2 weeks on, and now this upcoming week off. I want to err on the side of too much recovery in this training block instead of overtraining. This is a good time to take it easy, for I am confident I would dig myself into a hole by continuing to push in this upcoming week.

Quote of the Week:
"What skills do you need for triathlon? If you wore arm floaties as a kid, had a paper route, and played capture the flag, you've got our skill set."
-Bob Babbitt

Tip of the Week:
Always take too much sports nutrition with you when biking. If you are only planning on eating 2 energy bars during your ride, carry four. You can always put them back in the box when you get home. On the other hand, it sucks to run out of food when you still have hours to get home.