Getting back on track

Penultimate week of the OS LTHR period. I'm quite excited about picking up the powertap this weekend, and seeing if I can get it to talk to anything -- serial connection, what's that?

Bike this morning was good, though I was in and out of my target HR. I would shoot way high if I got out of the saddle, and trying to time trial it was okay, but my HR would fall pretty quickly (as per usual) if I let up at all.

Run at lunch was a quicky ... a couple km easy out, 5x30s strides uphill, then slightly faster back to work. TSS++, er, ++.

Sunday's Run

Not pretty, but in the books. Week 7 arrives.

Woot. powermeter next week.

The cold is engaging in a fighting withdrawal

Didn't get the bike done yesterday ... two things prevent me from training in the morning: the boy and his stochastic sleeping "patterns", and illness. I can affect these two things to a small degree, but am more or less at the mercy of them. I'm OK with that, I guess.

Ick

Sleeping vs. training rears its ugly head again. Accompanied by its best friend, the minor cold. Scrubbed the bike this morning.
Joined EN using my $200 PSA at work.

Finishing up week 4

Noticing speed improvements on the run... Did the BP:E run today, wasn't pushing it, just cruising, and was running 4:45-4:50 with little effort.

Swim this morning was tough ... 9 x 100, I was coming in around 1:30, then a bunch of IM, then 5 x 100 at the same pace. Gasping by the last one. I think I slipped to 1:33 or so on the last one.

Running Frequency

Getting in 6 runs per week is going to require some logistical planning (as mentioned in my last post). I think I will have to get the MWF runs done at lunch... I was stressing about finding a place to shower at RIM (apparently there are showers though), and was going to have to wander through RIM 3, 4 or 10 in my running gear, sweaty and smelly, asking random ppl which way the showers were (which I suspect 0.5% of the population actually uses).

Then on the way back from my BP:M (which ended up being about a k over what it was supposed to be), I had an epiphany: The PAC. PAC is the Physical Activities Complex, and as an alumni, I can scoot in there and use the change rooms/showers what have you. Truth be told, I suspect anyone carrying a gym bag and looking like they're allowed to be there could use the change room. So now I can go over there at lunch put my gear in a locker, and run out of there. Nice.

And some days it is ...

This morning felt good. Hard hard work, lots of pain in the legs, but that pain you know is just your muscles complaining.

I'm going to try and meld BarryP's 1:2:3 program into the OS plan. I think it can be done -- Mon, Wed are  medium #1 and #2 runs, done from work, Tues is easy #1 as part of the brick in the morning, Thursday off, Friday is easy #2 from work, Saturday is easy #3 as part of the brick in the morning, and Sunday is the long.

The plan is to stick to the EN main set intervals, and then finish out the time/distance required by the 1:2:3 structure (if any additional is).  The volume that is being added is a medium run on Monday, and an easy recovery on Friday. I plan to remove a little volume from the longer brick sets (they call for some strides and longer intervals as the weeks go on) to compensate.

And some days, it's just not there ...

2 x 10 @z4, 2 x 15 @z3 ... just wasn't hitting z4 with anything, and turned 2 x 15 into 1 x 20. Went for a short run with dog,  ate some leftover Halloween candy. Will try again Tuesday.

To glide, or not to glide?

I'm sure this is a common triathlete story:

I was okay in the water when I started triathlon; I don't remember not being able to swim, but I was never competitive. So I looked around for ways to improve my freestyle, as I was going to be racing, and found TI, which stresses wringing every last bit of distance per stroke you can get out, along with good rotation, balance, etc. This is good for swimming and not drowning (a favourite approach of mine in the water).

However. You eventually start running into problems like the huge dead spot before you start your catch as you're gliding, and the lack of oxygen from waiting so long between strokes to breathe. So I'm going to try and bump up my stroke rate with some of the articles from these guys.

Run training with pace

Last night's run was based on speed, rather than heart rate. So my 800x3, 2x1600 were at pace z4 (4:10-3:55/km), rather than 158-168bpm. Turns out that those two are pretty close to each other. I like the speed zone because it takes my heart rate a while to climb up to the required zone in between intervals (my HR drops pretty quickly once I stop exercising).

I can see some drawbacks with pace, especially bringing hills and headwinds into the picture.

Week three of the OS plan

Core muscles are sore and stiff, ironically from yesterday's yoga class. Might get to make up my missed brick from this morning, or at least the bike portion. Boy was up in the middle of the night again with a cough... 40 minutes in the bathroom with the shower running seemed to help.

Probably not going to be able to make it up.