Training Update: Week 18

Week 18 was another rest week, so nothing too incredible in the training update. I just kept all sessions at about 60% of the volume of a hard week.

Key Bike: Saturday AM. I accidently slept in until 8:30am, which is pretty damn late for the Frey Bird. But, I got out there and biked a nice 60 miler. I rode with a new pair of shoes that felt absolutely incredible. They are the Shimano R220E's. Here's the link:

http://www.bikesomewhere.com/bikesomewhere.cfm/product/18/2462/19392

The full carbon sole is awesome - it feels like the whole sole of the shoe is one big solid pedal and it's glued directly to the spindle and the crankarm. I was having trouble with my sidi's. Those devoted fans of the blog know I struggle with pronation. I found that even with the orthotics in the sidi's, my left foot would roll in slightly on my down stroke. These shimano's seem to have completely flattened and smoothed my stroke. Plus, the power transfer seems incredible.

One complaint is that the buckle sucks. It broke in like 5 seconds on one shoe, and 10 seconds on the other. I subbed in a strap and a buckle from an old pair of sidi's, and this works much better.

Key Run: Thursday PM. 9 miles around the dog park at Lake Ida Park. It was in the mid 80's with full sun. In short, perfect Frey weather.

Key Swim: Saturday PM. After the long ride in the morning, the main set here was a 6x50m all out on the 1:00 swim. The rest was just warm up and cooldown. This looks easy on paper compared to the 5000m practices I've done. It was killer. When I was asked how it felt, I replied that it hurt my heart.

Key Frey: Easy 2 mile run, 2500m swim, 2 mile run.

Key Brick: Easy 90 min ride followed by 30 min run with some atlantic ave. bridge repeats.

This next 3 week build block is the final 3 hard weeks of the program. After this, it's a 3 week taper up to the 70.3 race.

Quote of the Week:
"Everyone wants to know what I'm on. What am I on? I'm on my bike busting my ass six hours a day. What are you on?"
-Lance Armstrong