Week 18 preview

This is the week we'll be in Toronto for boy's CI surgery, and there's a workshop Tues/Wed, so this is going to shape up to be a very light week. Probably for the best, I can shake this cold, and go into the Chilly not feeling like death.

Week 17 Review

I did my 5k test on Wed, but had to stop half way through and then dial the pace back for the remainder because of knee pain. I've spent a lot more quality time with The Stick this week since that happened.

The week was more of the usual, save Sunday, which was the first Big Day of 2012. Details as follows.

Time	Nutrition	Details
5:45am - 6:30am	1 package crunchy granola bars	travel to pool
6:30am - 7:30am		swim
7:30am - 8:00am		travel to home
8:00am - 11:00am	2 x 350kcal bottles + water as needed	bike
11:00am - 11:15am		change to run clothes
11:15am - 12:15pm	gel midway	run
12:15pm - 1:00pm	bottle recoverite	shower
1:00pm	big lunch

Swim

T-Pace Test WU: 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 swim, 100 kick, 100 swim.
MS: Swim 1000 yards/meters at a constant pace and good effort—as if racing. Record your average pace per 100.
3 x 50 f/s desc, 500 pull, 3 x 50 f/s desc.
CD: 100
Total: 2600yds/m

Bike

MS: 30' @ 65-70%/z1-2/Easy
1 hour at goal Half Ironman race effort, approximately 80% / z3 / Upper-Steady
10' Easy
45' at goal Half Ironman race effort, approximately 85% / z3+ / Upper Steady, as you aim for a negative split.

Run

MS: 30' @ LRP / z1 Very easy run to start, wrap your head around one more hour to go today!
30' at MP / z2 (or as close as you can) Working towards a negative split if possible.

Estimated kcals:  in: 200 + 700 + 100 + 200 = 1200 out: 525 + 1750 + 800 = 3075

Results

Swim: as expected
Bike: 250kcal/hour was slightly high. I’ll try it again and see if I adapt. It was OK at 80%, but 85% was too much. Didn’t make my target watts in either hour: 195 vs 200 , and 195 vs 212. So the low wattage is bad, but also missed the negative split. Target was too high?
Run: 5:14min/km out LRP, 148BPM, 4:57min/km back MP, 158BPM


Recovery went well, but today, Monday, I feel like crap with a bad cough. I'm not sure if that was in the mail anyways, but the 5 hours of exertion probably didn't help.

Week 16: Rest 'n Test

The aim is to lower the total hours, and keep the intensity (the testing part) high, as well as the same number of sessions.

Biking is sort of a wash so far, but I'm actually getting firm numbers now, as opposed to the hand-wavy estimates I had before: CP5 = 286, CP20 = 243.

I don't really have a test planned for the run, should probably think about a 5k effort somehow. I missed a chance to run an 8k race last weekend, that would have been good. Maybe an abbreviated brick on Sunday, with a 5k test.

Swim test puts me exactly where I was a month ago. I know if sounds clichéd, but I feel faster than that. To be honest, the 400 felt mentally easier in comparison to all the 500s I've been swimming for the last month.

Going to start merging in the EN workouts, as they tend to be more muscular endurance focused, as I get closer to the races.

Feeling like I'm on the edge of a cold, going to scrub Sunday's brick -- the holiday Monday is going to be a long run (2.5hr), then a 16k Sunday, then it's the Chilly the following Sunday!

Week 15 review

Things that went well:

1. Fuelling during and after the long run on Thursday.
2. I feel like I'm starting to get my head around the hard intervals on the bike. Pacing myself with music seems to help with keeping the effort up on longer (>5min) efforts.

Things that went not-so-well:

1. Tempo run on Tues. Had to bail at 6km (of 8). Head and legs were not in it. 
2. Need to take better care of my legs -- massage on Sunday night is full of pain.

Fuel more!

Ran 28k last night, longest run this season... Pace was unremarkable (5:10min/km average), the run was more about getting the kms in and making sure the fuel was there (see lesson two). I took one crunchy peanut butter granola bar pack, and a bottle with 72g (275kcal) malto + half scoop lemon/lime gatorade for taste (it's a small scoop). So let's call that 200kcal solid + 300kcal liquid over 2.5hours => 200kcal/hr.

I brushed up against the start of stomach ickyness a couple times, but it was pretty minor. This seems like a good place to stay at for a while, at least for the longer runs and slower paces (4:45-5:00).

I felt pretty hangry after the run while I was walking dog but after sucking back a full strength bottle of gatorade + soy protein isolate (it's as tasty as it sounds) and a hot shower + 30 minutes of waiting, I felt more or less human again. Then had a regular dinner. This is a big change, last year I would feel like crap for the rest of the day, I would get hot and cold spells, just feel awful.

Today the quads are a little achy, the run was a lot of up and down, I'll have to run that a few more times in prep for ATB.

Hulk smash

Erm, well, after reading all kinds of things about muscle loss related to aging (1-2% of muscle after mid-30's per year), I thought I should start adding some weights to the program.

I'm starting off with the baby weights program :

3 x {
  60s front plank,
  30s L/R side plank,
  12 x L/R hip abductor raises (AKA "Jane Fondas"),
  3 x 10s L/R single leg glute bridges
} three times a week.

So there's no weights at all really, just moving my body mass around.

Week 14 Review

660TSS on 9:20 on training: scrubbed Monday's interval workout, was up all night again with boy.

Weight seems to be holding steady around 160, could stand to drop another 5, 150 would be nice for TripleT/Peterborough.

Time of day seems to make a large difference in my workouts, I had to shift a bike and a run this week to afternoon slots, and I was pushing more watts, and running faster at the same RPE.

Also took in ~250kcal/hour on Sat long ride, felt a little queasy after, not sure if it was just the volume (also had a bottle of water).