Weekly Training Report: 1/30/2006-2/5/2006

It was another good week, pretty much a repeat of last week, except for more intensity running, more reps in my strength workout, an FT watts test workout, and I negotiated with my coach to add a brick run on Saturday. I had a slight scare feeling like I was coming down with a cold, but I think it was glycogen depletion (imagine that???).

Today after I finished my workouts, one of the trainers at the Y asked me how I was doing as we were both headed out the door. I said, "HUNGRY!" He said, "I hear you!" And so we chatted for a few minutes about our respective target calorie intakes and body fat. It was nice to converse with someone else who is so conscientous about his health. For comparison sake, he weighs 175 at 6% body fat, and I am 112 at 11% body fat. I am needing about 3,500 calories a day, and he is about the same. There is the power of the cardio workouts! But we were both talking about how we have to work to get adequate calories to prevent further weight loss. Marty said, "Other people hate us, I know." I agreed, but pointed out that we work damn hard for those calories, and that we don't eat much junk, and hey, we look fantastic! And we both shared that we enjoyed being functionally strong, so that we could DO stuff, and that we don't just want to sit around looking pretty. While we both appreciate a stricly muscular physique, we agreed that unless you do something with it, it's pretty pointless.

Here are the details of the week that was:

Swim: 10,300 yards in 3.68 hours; 25% of weekly workout time
Bike: 4.63 hours; approx. 81 miles; 31% of weekly workout time
Run: 4.75 hours; approx. 30 miles; 32% of weekly workout time
Strength: 1.67 hours; 11% of weekly workout time
Total Hours: 14.73
Approx. Calories Burned by Exercise: 6,530
Average Sleep: 8.93 hours/night
Stretching: 2.15 hours
Goals from Last Week:

• Meet or beat my previous high FT watts (162) on my Tuesday test. Did not achieve this on Tuesday, but did on Thursday. New FT watts=165. Coach says he "wants to push me up over 175 watts by Ironman Brazil." Also, my new mantra on the bike is "ALWAYS BE PUSHING." I did that on Thursday, and also during my Saturday intervals. In 4 weeks my strength routines goes to maintenance mode--at that point, LOOK OUT! I will be one hugely strong cyclist!
• Meet or beat the speeds I hit this week on my Monday and Wednesday swims for 100’s and 200’s. DONE! I think the increase in volume is helping me to just push harder in every workout.
• Average at least 8 hours of sleep per night. DONE!
• Stretch at least 15’ per day. DONE!

Accomplishments This Week:

• Achieved higher FT watts on the bike.
• Regained some swim speed (more of that to come)
• Recovered from a slight crash on Tuesday, that I think was a glycogen depletion crash combined with fighting off some sort of cold. I felt the cold again yesterday, but stuck with my hydration and increased carb intake and felt fine during today's workouts.

Goals for Next Week:

• Average 8+ hours of sleep per night.
• Stretch 15' per day.
• Meet or beat 165 watts during all FT intervals.
• Meet or beat 100 and 200 speeds in all swim workouts.

Workouts Completed this Week
Monday: Swim 3,100 yards in 1:07; Strength :48; Run :50 including strides.
Tuesday: Strength :22; Bike 1:10 including 20' and 16' at "best" watts. I was unable to hit my previous FT watts--I just felt like I didn't have any power to give. But I didn't let it get me down.
Wednesday: Swim 3,300 yards in 1:11; Run 1:05 including :20 tempo
Thursday: Strength :30; Bike 1:13 including 2x20’ (2’) FT, watts=165, 165 (new FT established)
Friday: Swim 2,900 yards in 1:03; Run :40 including strides.
Saturday: Bike 2:15 including 20’ FT at watts=166. HIM watts were also up to 149 from 142 the week before; brick run 30' where I felt absofuckinglutely fantastic! I hadn't done a brick run in 5 weeks, and I wondered how this one would feel given I did FT time on the bike, but it went well.
Sunday: Run 1:40, including 20’ Upper-Steady and 15’ Tempo; Swim 1,000 yards in :20