Tour of Sufferlandria day four

A Very Dark Place ... Today was a nice reprieve from the longer efforts, only a 5 x 4 minute main set. I'm taking today as an off day for everything else, tomorrow will be full: Angels in the AM, swim at lunch, then group run at night.

Tour of Sufferlandria (day three)

A double workout this morning (Extra Shot + Fight Club), and given the intended purpose of Extra Shot as an addition to your workouts, i.e. done after another workout, there's basically nothing in the way of warmup. This means that the first 10 minutes of the video meant struggling to pedal squares at 230 watts while my legs gradually came alive. The last half of the video was comparatively easy, then into Fight Club.

This workout is 5 x 6 minute intervals more or less all done at FTP, with attacks sprinkled throughout the intervals (increasing in number as you progress through the set). Ouch.

Oh, and just for kicks I did a strength workout + 30 minute run at lunch. I'm trying to get three runs, two swims, and two strength sets in.

Tomorrow is A Very Dark Place (5 x 4 minute efforts), and is a rest day for everything else.

Week 18 summary + Day 1 and 2 of Tour of Sufferlandria

915 TSS on 9.83 hours of training

I took the running a little easier this week, partly because it was was really really cold outside in the mornings (close to -20C with wind chill) and partly because the Tour of Sufferlandria (ToS) was starting up (the most prestigious virtual tour of an imaginary country EVER!).

The first two stages of the tour have gone pretty well, I'm using my Computrainer in erg mode, which means that the trainer sets my resistance according to the whims of the video's author. They tend to be in the range of 50-140% of my FTP. I'm scaling the first few days to 90%, then the middle to 95%, and going the last two stages at 100%.

Swimming is coming along well, I'm pleased (which probably means I need to raise my standards). After this week of the bike volume bump, I need to start getting some more race pace sets into my long runs. There's two weeks until the Fridge, that'll be, er, "instructive", as to how things actually are.

Week 17 Summary

692.5 TSS on 9 hours ...

Felt like a "light" week, though I got the frequency of runs, if not the volume I was hoping. My knee started bugging me slightly on Tuesday evening, though minor, so I've been careful about it. An injury now would be bad...

I've started the strength program again, not so much for any triathlon benefit, but I was getting strains in my back, and was just feeling unbalanced, I guess.

Targeted the upcoming Refridgee-eighter 8mile, at < 55 minutes. Hopefully I can carry that into the Chilly Half to hit my sub 1:30 goal.

Did a CSS swim test, threshold speed is faster at 1:38min/100m.

The end of next week is the start of the Tour of Sufferlandria, so that'll be a nice bike volume bump.

Week 16 Summary

A whopping 963TSS on 11.5h training!

This was a big week, and the first that I've gotten all of my scheduled run training in. Yay me :) I had a good long swim on Friday, but have been tip toeing around my back this week (cramping feeling in lower right back when straightening up, it's been getting better the last day or two).

I was starting to feel concerned about my goal for the season, to run < 1:30 in the Chilly. It doesn't seem attainable right now. I should talk to Steve this week. I have 7 weeks, what do I need to hit in advance to have a chance?