Blood Sweat and Gears Training Update: Weeks 4 and 5

I steal wireless internet from my neighbors, and they've encrypted their network. That means that for the past week and a half, I've been without internet at my house. Damnit.

While this has hurt my blogging production, my training has been phenomenal!

Week 4

This was a recovery week. Mon-Thurs were very easy days, with no more than an hour or two of easy cycling and swimming. I begrudgingly skipped Aquacrest's Tuesday and Thursday anaerobic sessions, for, although I like the challenge of these Olympic-quality training sessions, I knew the rest would do me good in the long run. I came back for Saturday's 20 x 100m sprint session, and I did a 2-hour powercrank ride on Sunday.

Week 5

With the recovery week behind me, I was anxious to hit another week of solid training.

I did three anaerobic swims at Aquacrest. Tuesday was a 5 x 400m sprint session, and I averaged 5:39. Thursday was a 40 x 50m sprint session, and I average a 30.97. Saturday was a tough session, with 6 x 50m all out, from a dive, on a 1:00 interval. I averaged a 31.63, almost had a heart-attack, and the junior team's phenomal 12-year-old superstar threw down an unbelievable 31.21 average. I am thrilled with th eprogress of my swimming. I am only 4-weeks into my comeback, and I am swimming better than I ever have in my life.

Cycling is going well. During the week, I do three, easy, 1.5 hour cycle session before I go to work. I cycle the A1A from 5-6:30am, then get myself to work by 7:15, while others are complaining about being tired. I do two weekend rides. One is after Saturday morning's anaerobic swim. I'll cycle easily, as a cool down, for around an hour, mainly enjoying the beautiful coastal morning. Sunday in the money day for my bike training.

Today, at the end of week 5, I did a 66 mile, 20mph Powercrank ride in Jacksonville, FL. Check out the following link to see the course:



This was one of my most challenging rides ever. It took a big physical effort to make the distance. It was a nutritional challenge, too, as I needed to take in big amounts of water, calories, electrolytes to keep my big body from bonking.

It is my intention to progress to a powercrank century ride before I do to Blood Sweat and Gears.

Weight sessions are in Joe Friel's Maximum Strength phase, meaning that core lifts are in the 4-6 rep range with near-maximal weights.