Weekly Workout Totals: 2/27/2006-3/5/2006

What can I say? Another HARDER, FASTER, TOUGHER, LONGER week for the Crackhead. And I got through it with flying colors. I just have to share my weekend festivities, because they were rather intense.

Saturday was a 2:30 trainer ride with a :40 brick run (race pace). The data from the ride is above (click on the picture to see it full-size). You can see the target intensities, watts, and time in the first 4 columns. The rest of the information you might not understand unless you have a powermeter and use CyclingPeaks software. Trust me, though, IT’S ALL GOOD NEWS! Frankly, I had a little trepidation going into this ride, because the HIM time increased from 1:00 last week to 1:20 this week, with :30 right at the end. But, the point was for this to be like a HIM race simulation ride, which normally I would do 1 or 2 of those prior to a HIM race. Considering it’s still snowing here, though, I’m still on the trainer. Even so, I know from the character of my long rides for the past 6 weeks that they are hard, physically and mentally. And this ride promised to put the hurt down. Not only that, but since my FT watts tested out 6 watts higher than before, guess what? I get to go harder.

I had a 2005 TDF tape in (the TTT was on), and every now and then I would actually look up at all the pretty bikes with disk wheels and nice asses (sorry, can’t help it) on them. But as is usually the case with my trainer time of late, I never did focus on what was on the TV, since I had a job to do, and the job was not to watch TV.

The :30 warmup was nice. And then it got hard, and pretty much stayed hard, but I knew it would. The intensity guidelines were given really to represent normalized power (NP) for each interval, but since the SRM (neither does PowerTap) doesn’t show you that number, I try and maintain my average watts within the range, which generally results in at least that much for NP (you can look at both columns if you like to see this). Believe it or not, the FT intervals weren’t as bad as the HIM intervals, just because they were short and sweet. It’s a lot harder to focus for :30 or :50 straight at a decent intensity (and I can pretty much cook on the bike in a HIM) than it is to focus for a measly :10.

The REALLY hard part was the last :30, not just because it was at HIM watts, but because I knew I needed to ride hard and then get off and run, and I KNOW what that feels like, and this was how it was supposed to feel, so let’s get it ON!

I started the run out easy for :10 and then quickly moved up to my target HIM pace. Now it felt like a race! I was on a treadmill, but too bad, I had to make some moaning sounds and the look on my face was not pretty. My legs felt fine, but if you’ve done a HIM and gone hard on the bike, you know the feeling—you are fighting yourself because it just doesn’t feel right to run, your stomach is doing flip-flops (I don’t care how careful your nutrition is—the sheer faster pace of a HIM just speeds up the stomach discomfort during the run), and it’s going to be a mental struggle to hold pace. But I did, and I ended up needing to explain to a woman next to me why I was moaning. I told her I was 3:15 into a workout—her eyes rolled back and all she said was, “That must be why you look the way you do,” as she looked me up and down. To which I replied, “Yes, this is exactly why.”

After I finished, I promptly began sucking down my Endurox R4, and I even managed to stretch another :16 (I had stretched :35 before I began the session). Once I got home, I literally spent the next 4 hours eating, a little at a time. First it was leftovers from dinner the night before (a small piece of broiled tuna, a decent amount of vegetables with butter sauce and some mashed potatoes), then it was a whole pile of Pringles, then it was some string cheese, then it was some jelly beans, then it was 3 eggs scrambled in butter with an English muffin buttered and jammed, then it was one lonely beer, and finally a Pria bar. In the process, too, I drank a whole bunch of water.

I know that sounds like a lot of food, but it really wasn’t enough, even though I hydrated well during the workout with Gatorade and Mountain Dew, had a can of Ultra Violence before I kicked it all off, a Power Bar and banana for breakfast. During last night, I woke up a few times and felt pretty hungry, but just drank water because I didn’t want to turn lights on to go get more food.

This morning my stomach was settled down and I didn’t feel like I needed to eat the entire refrigerator. I had my usual Power Bar Triple Threat for breakfast and about 32 oz. of water to chase my coffee. And I shot an Espresso Love Gu and headed to the Y to run and swim, after stretching for :15.

Other than feeling just slightly tired, I was amazed at how “not bad” I felt. But we would need to wait and see until I began running. On Friday, when I saw I was supposed to run for 1:00, I figured Rich had made a mistake—why would he increase my Friday run AND my Saturday run AND my Sunday run? I was going to ask him about it, but then I thought, “Nah, I am freaking CRACKHEAD, I can do this.” So here comes a 1:50 run on the heels of a race-pace brick workout and an extended run on Friday. That's 3:30 of running in 3 days, for those of you playing at home.

When I started, my heart rate was totally in the dumpster, and my legs felt tremendous. All floaty-like and loose. There really is something to how it feels to be at low body fat and also be stretching a lot. It’s pretty amazing. EVERYONE should try it at some point in their life. All I can say is WOW. I feel AWESOME. The run starts out with :25 easy and :30 steady. That went by rather quickly, and I did have to pee, but I held on and figured I would do my :20 upper steady before getting off. Man, the upper steady felt totally easy. I kept thinking when will my HR go up into range? But I didn’t care; I am super fit, so I’m not obsessing about it. It’s just a number.

Made a quick pit-stop and hopped back on for the remainder: :05 steady, 2x12’ (2’) tempo, and then end with 4’ easy. Gosh, it just didn’t feel that hard. WTF??? There you go, I’ve done MORE than a HIM in 2 days. All I have to do in 2 weeks is do it all in one day. I almost ran a full ½ mary today.

I topped it all off with 1,000 yards pull in the pool. You know, it’s funny, but I was almost swimming at a normal pace. I was smiling, playing YOU SUCK with the woman next to me, especially since I’m thinking I ran almost 13 miles right before I did this!

Well next week I get to do this weekend gig all over again. I sure hope it goes as well as it did this time. Simply amazing that my last 7 weeks of training hours have been 13.05, 14.34, 14.73, 14.79, 15.04, 13.11 and 15.33 hours, respectively. I guess 13 hours is a "rest week" for me. Normally, 13-15 hours per week doesn’t feel like that much to me, but this season these weeks have been really loaded with intensity, so they seem to count for more effort. Whatever. I am way more fit (except for a temporary lack of bike endurance) than I’ve ever been in my life. That alone is very satisfying, and no matter how the rest of my 2006 races go, I cannot be disappointed in my training achievements. I do love training. It seems I do a lot more training than racing :)

As I finish writing this, I have to say I am tired. Not like I didn't expect it, and nothing that a solid 8-10 hours of sleep can't fix!

Here are the details from the week that was:
Swim: 9,750 yards in 3.45 hours; 23% of weekly workout time
Bike: 5.00 hours; approx. 88 miles; 33% of weekly workout time
Run: 5.25 hours; approx. 33.7 miles; 34% of weekly workout time
Strength: 1.63 hours; 11% of weekly workout time
Total Hours: 15.33
Approx. Calories Burned by Exercise: 7,010
Average Sleep: 8.57 hours/night
Stretching: 3.11 hours <--MOST EVER

Goals from Last Week:

• Average 8+ hours of sleep per night. DONE
• Stretch 15' per day. DONE
• HIT 170 watts as new FT in Tuesday’s workout. BEAT IT BY 1!!
• Keep the momentum and mental focus going. YEAH, BABY!!! This week was harder than last week—long run increased by 10’, brick run increased by 10’, long ride intensity bumped way up. Strength is now in maintenance mode, and I could really feel it while swimming—my upper body just didn’t have any excess fatigue. I also naturally spent some more time stretching, which contributed to feeling great and not buckling under a good amount of work stress. I also feel like I’m at an all-time low of bodyfat, judging from my appearance, and I’m working extra hard to ensure I stay adequately hydrated and fed.

Accomplishments This Week:

• Met all goals.
• Assimilated a new Collective member, Scott. He really has it going on, mentally and physically. That's what the Collective is all about. GO SCOTT!
• Got an “AWESOME” from my coach. I tell you, there is nothing like that. He doesn’t coddle me in the least, so when I get a virtual high five from him, it is truly meaningful to me.
  

Goals for Next Week:

• Average 8+ hours of sleep per night.
• Stretch 15' per day.
• Hang tough. Believe it or not, I’ve got one bike workout on Tuesday that is harder than ever (stay tuned). The rest of the week is a repeat of this past week, except I get a day off on Thursday due to business travel. So I just need to stay with it, hold my fitness steady, and then I get to taper down for Ralph’s.
  

Workouts Completed this Week

Monday: Swim 3,300 yards in 1:12; Strength 1:08; Run :50 including strides

Tuesday: Bike 1:15 including 2x20’ FT test—new FT=171 (sorry, I just have to say FUCKIN A’ here)

Wednesday: Swim 2,650 yards in :57; Run :55 including :25 tempo

Thursday: Strength :30; Bike 1:15 including 2x15’ @95-100%FT, watts=168, 168, and 8’@105%FT watts=183 (actually 107%!!)

Friday: Swim 2,800 yards in :58; Run 1:00 easy to steady

Saturday: Bike 2:30; brick run 40’.
Sunday: Run 1:50, including 20’ Upper-Steady and 2x12’ Tempo; Swim 1,000 yards in :20