Training Update: Week 16

There was no training update in week 15. Week 15 was a recovery week, so all training was about 70% of the volume of a work-week.

Week 16 has been gigantic. I had no job in week 16; I was a teacher on spring break. All I had to do was train (and, I didn't "have" to do that, either), recover, and eat. It's amazing how my training capacity goes through the roof when I have no outside responsibility. I feel like I could throw any level of volume or intensity at my body, and it would happily absorb it.

Key Race: I raced my own olympic distance triathlon on Sunday. It was basically just an olympic time trial. I swam 1500m at Aquacrest, jumped right on the bike into a 40km course I planned out, then transitioned at my house to a 10km run. This was a definite shock to the system, as it's hardest I've pushed myself in the program. I was happy with the results. My time was 2:32, with a 22 min swim, a 1hr 10min bike, then a 58 min run.

The swim and bike splits were exceptional. The bike course involved my slowing at a few lights, and it involved 5 u-turns. Without these slowdowns, I might have hit 1hr even. Considering I have no aerobars and wasn't at all tapered, that's pro level. The run split was so slow it's almost embarrassing. However, I am making a point to keep my running conservative, as I've injured myself in the past when I've tried to push the pace. I think I will retest myself at this distance at the end of week 19.

Key Run: This was a comfortable, 2 hr, 13 mile outing. The running is really feeling aerobic, which is nice.

Key swim: I have had 2 key swims this week. Both have been anaerobic, sprint workouts that my masters coach has talked me into. The first was a 40 x 50m on 2:00 mainset on Wednesday, the second was a 20 x 100m on 3:40 mainset done on Saturday am. In both sets, I pushed the pace of each swim. I went as hard as I could so that the first 50 or 100 was as fast as the last 50 or 100. I was happy with my speed.

Key Bike: This was Saturday pm - after the morning swim sprints. I have started alternating weeks of long bikes and long runs. This week was a long run week, and a moderately long bike week - and next week will switch. So this week, I biked just 3 hours, and followed it with a 30 minute run. I got caught in a huge monsoon on this ride, and it was fun. Here's what the radar looked like when I was riding:



Key Brick: Tuesday. I biked a 2hour ride, then followed it with a 30min run. The run was a hill run, as I did 4 intervals over the atlantic ave. bridge to build run strength.


Quote of the Week:

"No trip can kill me, I live on."

Mike Maxim. This was after flying to Chicago from Detroit, having his connecting flight canceled, jamming his 7 foot body into a miniature rental car for 3 hours of snow driving, crashing into a ditch on the side of the highway, getting towed out, and driving home to Detroit from Chicago on the same snowy highway until 2am.