Weekly Workout Totals 11/27/2006-12/03/2006

Swim: 7200 yards (4.09 miles) in 2.52 hours; 16% of weekly workout time; approx. 881 calories burned
Bike: Approx. 79.63 miles in 4.55 hours; 28% of weekly workout time; approx. 2363 calories burned
Run: Approx. 35.99 miles in 5.6 hours; 35% of weekly workout time; approx. 2548 calories burned
Strength: 3.37 hours; 21% of weekly workout time; approx. 843 calories burned
All Sports: Approx. 119.71 miles in 16.04 hours; approx. 6635 calories burned
Sleep: 8.86 hours avg./night
Stretching: 3.8 hours. Massage: 1.5 hours

Blogger appears to be fucked up, so excuse my formatting.

Can you tell I'm getting my STRETCH on? That's the most I've ever stretched during a week. It might be related to the amount of running I'm doing. I checked my 2005-2006 season totals to see how many weeks I ran 5+ hours. ELEVEN. The count so far this season is 4, and I've got 3 more up to and including Disney, putting me at 7. I think I am going to hit many more this season. Last season, I learned that in weeks when I am running a lot that it helps to stretch a lot.

Let me explain about my stretching sessions. They aren't just stretching--they also include trigger point work and yoga poses. I have an arsenal of body work tools that I use--a tp massage ball, 2 tp rollers, a Theracane, tubing, and the large size "The Stick." They all get used, but not all of them in every session. As far as I know, there are no studies that support the notion that stretching prevents injury, but that doesn't matter to me. What matters to me is that it feels good, and it seems to help me recover from workouts, and also helps me to prepare for an upcoming workout. I am by nature pretty flexible (used to be more flexible, but ah, then I began to run), but I've noticed that as I've aged, that my muscles seem to crave more stretching than they used to. Maybe it's because my lifestyle doesn't provide enough serendipitous stretching. If I was truly utilizing all my muscles in my daily activities, I wouldn't need to work out, either. So I stretch "cold," in the morning, sometimes, before I swim, and then I really like the post-workout stretching. It seems to remove kinks and such. My massage therapist tells me that based on the amount of training I do that theoretically I should get a massage every day, and I believe him. Look at professional athletes who workout several hours a day. I am pretty sure most of them get a daily massage, and massage can replace the need for stretching, provided it's sports massage which includes assisted stretching.

So just as like last winter when I began training for Goofy Challenge I committed to regular stretching, I've kept it up, and I like what it does for me. I can almost say that increased stretching allows me to train harder and longer. I can't prove it, but it seems that way, or maybe it's the reverse, who knows? I would definitely prefer to get a 1 hour massage every day, but I cannot afford the expense. Of course, I am looking for a partner who would do that!

I also looked at my running speed this fall/winter as compared to a year ago, and I am running faster. Right now my biking and swimming are taking a back seat to the running, but that all ends on 1/7/2007, so I can wait a month. But at least I was able to bring my biking back to "normal" levels, meaning I did 3 solid workouts with good amounts of FTP work. I was a bit worried there that either I had lost power, but this week it came back. Damn, those bike workouts are hard and they suck. I am still looking at increasing my FTP from 186 to 200 by March or so, but I know it will be hard work. I am constantly tickled that I just turned 50 and I am still getting faster.

I did not get to the James Bond flick last weekend or this weekend. Last weekend, I was too shelled from ramping my training back up after the 1/2 Ironman. This weekend, it was more of the same, including 2 hours of intense snow shoveling on Friday--we got a nice ice/snow storm, and I am a bit anal-retentive about a perfectly clean driveway (notice any correlation to triathlon???), and the snow was wet and icy, so I decided to power shovel on Friday morning. I ended up counting it as a strength workout, because it WAS, and since I had strength trained on Thursday, my body kind of went HEY WHAT THE FUCK TWO DAYS IN A ROW WORKING THE SAME MUSCLES??? and so I had really noticeable DOMS in my right mid- to lower-back and left arm Friday afternoon through Saturday evening. But I worked on those parts a lot on Saturday afternoon, and things came around for today's workouts.

I managed a 2-hour ride yesterday and shortly thereafter a 45-min. run. First brick workout since MiamiMan. My legs actually felt GREAT on the run as opposed to Friday afternoon's run, where I really wanted to just bag it, but instead held myself to easy Z1 running, knowing I'd come around the next day. After all that, I got a hair cut, did the grocery shopping, and went to a book store. I got a huge laugh when I got to the Psychology section (I like to browse Mystery, Fiction, Cooking, New Age, Spiritual/Religion, Psychology, Self-Help and Health/Fitness areas), and saw a book called "The OCD Workbook." I thought, hey this is right up my alley, and so I opened it, and what do you know, it was really a workbook for OCD sufferers! I almost bought it as a joke so I could take the tests, you know, to see how I would do. I checked out one page that had an exercise for someone who compulsively checks the locks on their doors and consequently takes a long time to get anywhere out of the house. The first stage was to lock the door once and then not leave the house for 10 minutes. And it progressed to locking the door once and leaving the house for 10 minutes, and then 30 minutes, and so on. I thought, gee, I could do this! I was laughing hysterically, and remembered that occasionally I leave the house and wonder if I really did lock the front door.

All in all, it was a great week of training, and I am looking forward to the coming week. Next weekend I am making my famous (at least to me and some friends/family) Prime Number Pizza, which is a deep-dish extravaganza that will take me about 2 days to fully make. I have all the ingredients, and I will begin preparations on Friday night, and the finished product will be unveiled next Sunday after a 2:15 long run (which should net me about 15 miles--shit, when I just typed that I realized that's the fastest I will ever have run 15 miles, but I know it is going to happen). If anyone wants the recipe, let me know, give me your email address and I will send it. Or maybe you want to wait for the photo. The thing will feed like 10 people, but in my case, it is for me and my dad, and we get to freeze the leftovers.

The Bears won, too, even though they played like sloppy crap for the first half, but then they got into gear. Of course, the Vikings weren't exactly on fire, but the Bears have won the division, so one step closer to a Super Bowl appearance. That would be the best.

Oh, and for those of you who are cat lovers, check out this website: http://stuffonmycat.com/ I miss my cats, but I know that when I move out of this house, I will be getting some new kitties.

I guess I should think about Christmas shopping, too. I'm thinking next winter that I will not be doing a marathon...