I had a pretty good week, but I knew the weekend would be critical, in terms of posting up a solid long run and ride, since this week I need to shuffle things around in order to race on Sunday.
I had 2 solid weekday bike workouts, and this is what they were (it's been awhile since I wrote actual workouts here, but what the hell, right?):
Warmup: 15' easy, 3' spinups, 3x(2' 85-90%, 1'CD)
Main Set: 4x(6' @FT, 2' @105-110%, 3' easy), 10x30/30
Pool time was good, more work with the paddles and pull buoy. One of the guards, who gives me tips occasionally, asked me about my paddles! For the record, they are TYR Catalyst, and mine are like 8 years old and I still love them. Mine are black, but now they are made in different colors for different sizes.
I had that good track workout on Wednesday, and running was feeling great. On Friday morning, I headed to the Y where I first did chinups and dips, then I ran for 25', then I swam 3,000. My interval times were a bit slow from the additional weight I'd unloaded from the assisted chin/dip machine, but at least I knew that's why I was swimming a bit slower.
A few hours later at home, it was time to finish up my strength training for the week and do squats and calf raises. I am a firm believer that calf raises have something to do with me never experiencing calf cramps in racing or training (except if I run or bike right before), so I continue doing them.
For squats, I supersetted air squats (4x15), barbell squats (2x15) and dumbbell squats (2x8). I added a few small plates to my barbell, and in retrospect, I shouldn't have done so many reps with the new weight! Oh well, it's not like I was racing this week, so no matter. I've decided I am going to buy a squat rack for downstairs once I get the remodeling done. No sense getting it now, since it will just be something else to relocate while construction proceeds.
After the squats and calf raises, I did my knee stability exercises on the floor with the ankle weights on. I do some basically isometric things for my VMO and adductors that seem to help keep my knees happy, but they felt a little tough after all the squats.
I got a massage after work, and it was much needed! I hadn't had deep tissue in 3 weeks, and when I wait that long, it can sometimes result in some soreness the next day. Indeed, when I woke up Saturday morning, I had some slight all over soreness, but my adductors were screaming! But that was from the squats, not the massage. I was pleased, though, that my glutes were just fine. Oh--my massage therapist commented on how my glutes are developing! I now have a big ass! That's what a full year of more squats will do to you!
I had to do a 2:30 ride on Saturday, and was really wondering how I'd fare in terms of power output with the sore legs. But I've surprised myself many times, so I just hopped on at about 8:30 (I got my grocery shopping done first). Warmup was fine (30'), then popped into the big chainring to go at 80% for 30', and that felt fine. The last 90' was done as 3x(17' 85-90%, 6' FT, 2x30/30, 5' easy) and the first interval went well, hit watts just fine, although I was on the low end of my FT for the 6' part. For the second 30' stretch, I went a little harder, and the third 30' interval was the best of all!
I got off the bike and put on my running shoes. I was not looking forward to running off the ride I'd just done. It's been ages since I did this, what with Ultraman training where there was no need for me to do brick workouts, and then basically a year off racing. So I let myself run super slow, just to remember how it feels. My legs were fine, actually, but that old familiar sensation in my stomach of wanting to puke was front and center! I really enjoy all the different sensations I get to experience in training and racing--things that if you've never done triathlon training, you would never get to experience. I know that sounds weird, like why would you want to feel like you are going to puke, but it has meaning! The meaning it has is that I rode hard (53.5 miles for 2.5 hours, not bad with an easy warmup!), and that made it all worthwhile.
I only ran for 20', since that's all I needed to do, and predictably, even though I knew I needed a ton of calories (I'd worked out on only Gatorade plus some peanut butter/cheese crackers), I wasn't hungry right away. But I drank a big glass of water, quickly showered, grabbed a bottle of Endurox R4 out of the fridge, and headed to Subway. I decided to get Subway so I had a pre-made sandwich ready for Sunday that I could take to the Y to eat right after my workouts, since I was going to do a presentation for a triathlon class immediately after my workouts.
Sometimes it can be difficult, in a way that is funny to me, to hide my feelings of hunger when I am waiting for food to be delivered to me. I would like to see video of myself trying to be patient while a very nice young man is patiently making my sandwiches! When he finished, as is the usual, he asked if I wanted cookies or chips, and I said no, paid, and drove home quickly, and laid into 6" of beefy goodness plus 1/4 of the foot long turkey breast. Then I had a beer while I stretched, ran some more errands in a haze, including stopping in at a nearby triathlon shop just to see what they had (even though I don't need A SINGLE THING right now), then went home and got my shit organized for Sunday, ate dinner around 5:30 and was asleep by 8:00 (don't ask--my sleep schedule is way off kilter, but it will right itself once we go back on DST, I'm sure).
I slept really soundly Saturday night, and when I woke up, I noticed my adductors were still a bit sore, but now also my quads! Fuck yeah! But I was still way better off than 2 weeks ago after my stair climbing festival. I got my swim and run stuff ready, loaded a small cooler with one can of Coke, 48 oz. of Gatorade, a bottle of Endurox R4 and my sandwich, packed up my laptop and headed to the Y.
I swam first, although I prefer to do my short weekend swim AFTER I run, because the triathlon class would be occupying the pool from 10-11. A woman I know was in the water, and I've given her some swim tips, and since I had about 10 minutes before I absolutely had to be swimming, I spent some time with her, showing her one drill and how to do planks on deck. Then I swam 1500, and it sure felt nice to swim with my legs being a bit crunchy. I stretched my upper body for about 5' in the sauna, then suited up to run.
On tap was a 1:45 run, and while I thought I would try and put some tempo work in there, it was just not to be, as my legs were not up for it. Still, I got in 11.5 miles, including about 5' of track work where I was able to knock out 2 1/3 mile repeats at sub-5K pace after already running for 1:30, so that was good! After I finished, I stretched for 10', headed to the locker room to shower and get dressed, then I took all my crap to the conference room where I'd be giving a presentation.
I started pounding down the Endurox R4 and setting up my laptop when Jessica (the class instructor) came in all breathless telling me they had about 10' more of biking to do and then they would be up in the conference room and that she brought chocolate chip cookies in case I was hungry and it was fun for me to listen to her talking really fast and all excited which must be just how I sound when I am in that state!
Luckily I had my cooler with me, as I used it to prop the projector up so my slides would be large enough for easy viewing from the back of the room. There were about 15 people who attended my presentation called "Triathlon Nutrition 101." I had a blast giving it, as I am very comfortable delivering presentations, and have given some for 500+ people in my professional life. I know my content, which frees me from constantly looking at the slides and I can inject my usual energy and animation into the show, and yesterday was no exception. While I've read numerous books on nutrition and have, of course, experimented on myself to find what works best for me and observed other athletes and their successes and mistakes in the nutrition department, my presentation was about boiling it down to "best practices," to use a business cliche. The students are training for a super sprint triathlon, and I am sure many of them will move on to bigger and better races, and while I am pretty geeked out about many things to do with triathlon, when it comes to nutrition, I try and keep it simple, and this is what I wanted to convey to these people. I didn't have time to get into details about meal timing and which carbs are better at what times, etc., but I covered the basics of hydration and nutrient intake.
I got one interesting statement from a young man afterward that long distance triathlon is not healthy. I wanted to hear his point of view, and I just smiled and said that I believe some people are just wired to pursue this stuff, and that it is still healthier than sitting on a couch and becoming fat! It was interesting to hear this from a person who says he is swimming 2 hours a day, though!
When I got home after all that, I ate the remaining 6" of Subway, as I was starving. I did not partake of the cookies during the presentation as I didn't really want one at that point, plus I knew I was going to be baking my own later on.
I baked a dozen muffins for my breakfast, about 5 dozen awesome oatmeal/coconut cookies, all but 3 of which will be winging their way to Afghanistan today, then chopped onion and minced garlic for my dinner stir fry. I got most of the dishes washed as I was baking, and all of this by 4:45PM. Some days I don't know how I squeeze all these things in.
Next up I loaded the rice cooker with jasmine rice (I know--it's white, but it's SO good), and turned on the Super Bowl, but since kickoff wasn't going to be until 5:30, I went ahead and cooked up my stir fry of thinly sliced flank steak (that had been marinated in sherry overnight), chopped onion, lots of garlic, tons of snow peas, some baby corn, bamboo shoots and water chestnuts, all in a light sauce of chicken broth and sambal oelek (I can't get enough of that stuff!) thickened with cornstarch. The rice finished cooking just ahead of the stir fry, and then I piled a plate with about 1.25 cups of rice, and scooped a bunch of the stir fry on top, and then settled in for a little Sunday newspaper reading and Super Bowl watching.
The food was awesome, and once I finished, it was lay on the couch with legs propped up, and hang out until Madonna was on for the half time show, which I really enjoyed, and then off to bed for a little reading (I am rereading "Born to Run"), and then to sleep.
This morning my legs feel pretty good, which is good since I have to fit in 2 1:30 hard bike rides, a 1:40 run, 3 swims, 3 more runs, and about 1:30 of strength training between today and the end of Friday! Then I have another little race on Sunday.
So I have to say that this week it begins--it is this sort of training that begins to test my ability to string together a bunch of serious workouts that are designed to whip me into some semblance of speedy shape because I only have about 2 months of this before I start piling on the volume again to get ready for Triple T and Ironman Canada.
Have I ever said how much I love this stuff?
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