Four Workouts in a Day--When 2 or 3 Just Isn't Enough

So I'm pretty used to 2 workouts per day. Right now, I am biking 3 times, running 5 times, and swimming 4 times per week. Soon enough I will add a 6th run. My weekly pattern for this is:

Monday: AM swim, PM (mid-day usually) run
Tuesday: Quality bike and brick run
Wednesday: AM swim, PM tempo run
Thursday: Long run, optional (if time) recovery swim
Friday: AM swim, PM run
Saturday: Long bike #1, brick run, recovery swim if time/energy
Sunday: Long bike #2

Saturdays and Sundays will get switched often depending on whether there are available group rides going on (usually Sundays) and I want to ride longer than is on my plan. I can always ride more; it may not be extra hard stuff, but TITS (time in the saddle) is paramount!

On top of this, I have to somehow fit in strength training. Yes, I HAVE to. It is part of what keeps me sound so that I can do so much of the other stuff. I am lucky that I can fit it in here and there because I have all the weights and such at home, in my office. So there's no excuse for me to not do it, and I can get in 10' here, etc.

On top of this, I have escalated this other stuff I've been doing since late February when I decided I needed to lose some weight. I started out with rather modest daily goals (20 pushups, 5 chinups, 50 crunches and 5' of jump rope), but the stuff just got easier, so what was I to do but up the ante?

In the midst of this, I did a few races, won them and started to feel really strong, and my training volume has really picked up. I always ask myself can I do more, and I guess I can! But now with where my training volume is, the optional "other stuff" which I fondly call crap is going to become completely optional. Especially in June when the outdoor pool opens and ride my bike to and from it, not only for the extra bike mileage, but also it's a good thing to do for the environment and saves me some money.

I will always execute my core S/B/R and strength training, and then whatever extra stuff I do will be gravy. When the baseline is 17+ hours, I don't really need to do any more, do I?

Today was a good day, though. I hadn't done any extra stuff since Sunday and felt like I should go ahead and get some in. I was up early enough anyway.

So before I swam, I did 30 or 40 chinups on the assisted station so I could play around with different grips, and then I did 3 rounds of 15 hanging leg raises, 20 pushups, 5 dead bugs 10" hold, 10 regular crunches and 10 bicycle crunches. I yakked with a friend I ran into for a few minutes, then I went and jumped rope for 5' alternating 30" easy jumps with 30" of hard, continuous jumps on one of the wooden basketball courts, because they are nice and cushy.

Right after this I went and swam 3100 yards this workout:
Warmup: 400s, 200kick
Main Set: 8x50 25 rt/lt, 25 build 20"RI
1' bonus rest
1x500 @T-pace+6" 15"RI
2x250 @T-pace+2" 15"RI
1x500 @T-pace+5" 15"RI
5x100 @T-pace 15"RI
cd:100

I didn't do it exactly as prescribed, but I kept up a good intensity and I used the paddles for 1500 of the main set. The pool was nice and cool and I had a parade of characters sharing my lane with me. A friend who is an awesome swimmer was in the adjacent lane, but we didn't get much chat time, which was fine.

At noon I had a meeting scheduled which was me listening in and watching a presentation. I thought, huh, I can do some strength training while this rolls, so I got in about 20' of solid work, chest, back, tris and a few bis and delts.

I thought the meeting would go longer than it did, but surprise, it finished in 40', so I figured I better go and run so I could eat lunch finally! I went and ran the same route I did last Wednesday, only today it felt easier, so I suppose my heartrate was down from last week. At least the hills didn't feel bad at all. Same time as last week, though, which isn't bad considering I really rode pretty yesterday (1:45 for TSS of 127).

So it wasn't 4 BIG workouts, but it was still 4, and now I'm going to get a massage. Well needed, I might add, because I missed out on one last week.

Things will keep changing and I'll keep mixing it up, but bottom line is now I'm signed up for 18+ hours of training per week between now and Triple T, and then well, I'll just keep going at that rate through IMLP. After that, I'm not entirely sure!

But I need to stay healthy and no more dieting or silliness like that. In fact, I've put Twinkies onto my grocery list this week, and it's only a matter of time before Cheetos make an appearance in my house. All good!