Weekly Workout Totals: 3/27/2006-4/2/2006 and Great Training Week

Thanks to some great weather in South Carolina and great hosts, Regina and Forrest Fowler, I got in a solid 22 hour week last week, and I got through it feeling just fine.

Shelley and I headed down to Travelers Rest, SC, to stay and train with Regina and Forrest. Shelley knew them from a previous trip; I had met Forrest 2 years ago at Ironman Canada. The plan was to bike, bike, bike, do some running and some recovery swimming.

As you may recall, I have not been seriously outdoors on my bike since last October, so I looked forward to some serious riding time and seeing how my bike strength was. Unfortunately, I had some glitches with the SRM, so I didn't ride with power, but hey, I JFR'ed, and it was great.

I arrived in SC on Thursday afternoon. Shelley McKee also came in from Canada. For some reason, there was some confusion with our names and home areas. I was accused of being Canadian several times, but no matter! Around 4:30PM I got in a nice run with Forrest, and then we had a nice swim at Furman University, where Regina works as a nurse.

On Friday morning, Forrest and I took off for a run from his house. The weather was beautiful, and we ended the run with some striders in a pasture. Then a bunch of us went riding up into the mountains, heading to Saluda and back. I really do enjoy climbing, and it sure was interesting doing it not having ridden outdoors in months.

On Saturday morning, I figured I'd run before the bike, since we were waiting on Brett to arrive from Raleigh. I went out by myself and found a nice route that wasn't too scary (scary as in number of loose dogs, assorted vermin and rednecks). There are rollers right out Forrest's door, and it seemed my legs were beginning to get used to them. Also, it is interesting that I really haven't run outdoors much since the Goofy Challenge, but the hills didn't bother me too much. Once all the parties arrived (there was me, Shelley, Brett, Forrest, Regina, Christina, Lee, Rose, Susan), we took off and again rode to Saluda, but Forrest took me and Brett the "back" way up Saluda Grade. First we got to enjoy a nice, curvy downhill, but I knew that meant some serious climbing, which we did, and it was great. Hard-ish, but great. We met up with the rest of the gang in Saluda and did the remainder of the same ride we did on Friday. Afterwards, Brett was supposed to do a brick run, and he had convinced me while riding to go with him. I mean, how can I say no to someone I'm coaching and just met in person? So we ran the same route I did in the morning, and we nailed it in about the same time plus or minus 10 seconds, which was awesome! Brett rode really well (even Forrest, one of the strongest riders, commented on that), and he ran well with me, too. Brett's going to have a fantastic first 1/2 Ironman race in about a month. Me--I got in like 9 miles of running and 3:45 of riding in Saturday!

On Sunday, it was just girls riding--Shelley, me, Rose and Susan. Forrest had to go back to work in Florida, and Regina didn't need to ride again. The girls went after rollers rather than mountains, and we had a great day to ride in. Shelley got a flat on the road next to Table Rock, but we pressed on and got in about 4:40 of riding. There were several breakaways during the ride (that Shelley does like to hammer!). Of course, I ran off the bike (I was supposed to run before, but didn't have time because I wanted my sleep), and felt pretty good doing it, too, so I got in about :35. I got my bike apart and then we headed to the pool (the first photo is Shelley and me in our matching skeleton suits), and I got in 2,000 yards. So Sunday was a big day. A big group of us went to have sushi for dinner, and nobody could believe how much food I ordered for myself. Well, I ate it all (second photo above; plus I had miso soup, a bowl of seaweed salad, a bunch of edamame (soy beans) and 2 large beers), and my bill was $68.44. Just for me! And then we went to a coffee shop and had dessert. I had carrot cake. What the heck, I hadn't eaten lunch, so I knew I needed to pack it in.

Yesterday it was raining in the morning, and I needed to do a long run, so we went to Furman University again. I got in a 1:45 run on the treadmill. During the last :25, I was admonished by Dr. Scott Murr (someone the Fowler's know--he runs the FIRST run training program which I read about and it's great--look here) that there was a :30 limit, and I told him that I was watching to see if there were people waiting, and there weren't. For shits and grins, I mentioned I was from Chicago. You know--just to let him know that HE was not going to intimidate ME! After the run, I jumped in the pool for a quick 1500 pull, and then had lunch with Regina and Shelley, and off to the airport.

My plane was delayed about 2.5 hours, so I didn't get home until about 10:30PM last night. Oh well, I slept like a baby and tallied everything up for the week:

Swim: 8,400 yards in 2.9 hours (not as much as I wanted to do, but enough); 13% of weekly workout time
Bike: 11.87 hours (not sure of mileage, but it really doesn't matter especially with all the climbing); 54% of weekly workout time
Run: 6.02 hours (about 38 miles); 27% of weekly workout time
Strength: 1.23 hours (missed out on my second core workout, oh well); 6% of weekly workout time Total: 22.02 hours
Approx. Calories Burned by Exercise: 9,775
Average Sleep: 8.82 hours/night
Stretching: 2.4 hours

Goals from Last Week:

• Average 8+ hours of sleep per night. DONE.
• Stretch 15' per day. DONE.
• Monitor training stress to make it through the heavy week. DONE.

Accomplishments This Week:

• Hit highest weekly training hours so far this season.
• I ran 7 days in a row--from last Tuesday through yesterday, in the midst of all the biking. My running legs feel fairly strong at this point.
• Got my legs, butt, aero position and everything else used to some solid time on the bike.

Goals for Next Week:

• Average 8+ hours of sleep per night.
• Stretch 15' per day.
• Recover, recover, recover!
  
  

Today is a rest day, but I think I'm going to swim and lift weights, and I have a massage this evening.

HUGE thanks to Forrest and Regina for hosting me and what a great way for me to kick off the final build to Ironman Brazil!