Seven Weeks In

It's 7 weeks since I officially began training--training like I do over the winter in preparation for an Ironman. I've got meds now that seem to be helping my lungs with whatever is going on there. I'm not wheezing when I wake up in the morning, and I'm starting to feel like I can breathe a lot better while working out. I'll know I'm 100% on the lung front when I can sing while running in Zone 3!

It's been tough going from arbitrary run and bike workouts to full out gonzo training. Here are last week's workouts:

I skipped the Tuesday ride because I crashed after having been on Prednisone for 5 days, but I did go for a walk and lifted that day. I extended the Thursday and Saturday rides by :30, so I almost made up for the miss.

During Wednesday's track workout, I told myself it would be OK if I toned it down a little, but I ended up going faster than all the prior weeks. Instead of coughing up a lung after the intervals, I just breathed more deeply! That is progress!

I seem to be nailing all my swims now. I am still not fast, but coach said I look like "I'm just swimming and not trying" now. All the things I've done to correct my stroke have worked! I haven't gotten too much faster, but we'll see what happens over the next 12 weeks or so. If nothing else, I should be more efficient.

I had some good running results last fall, but my running has suffered as I picked up the hard, focused bike workouts, although all my track workouts have been awesome. I felt pretty rough on Friday, but ran easy (as I was supposed to!), and enjoyed running outside.

Saturday I did a bunch of chores and didn't start biking until 10:30. Since I'd still be rolling through a normal lunch hour, I chowed down some leftover pasta about 1/2 hour before I started. This had the bonus effect of keeping my effort easy for the first hour. I was a bit concerned I would have shit for watts the entire time, but once I started ISLAGIATT, I'd burned off the pasta, felt great, and had good power. But I didn't expect to be able to run for shit off a ride like that. It was decent out, so I took a little over 5 minutes to towel off and change and headed outdoors. I ran by feel, so super easy, but right off the bat I was running maybe 9:45/mile, which would be just perfect (actually too fast) for an IM marathon. My legs actually didn't feel too bad, and I picked it up on the way back and ended up averaging 9:32/mile. Not too shabby!

A friend came over for dinner Saturday night and we got takeout Caribbean. YUM! Fried plantains, rice with pigeon peas, slow roasted pork and beef. I made a taco out of some of it, and felt I really carbed up well, but had no clue how I'd feel Sunday.

My legs were predictably a bit sore Sunday morning, but I loaded up 1/2 bottle of Infinit, a Coke, and some Gatorade and headed to the Y to run there on the treadmill (I don't like doing my long runs in my house) and then swim after. Happily, my legs felt just fine running, and I got in about 12.2 miles in 2 hours, which was just fine, and the best I've felt during a long run since November. I swam 1350 after (it made me nuts to end on not a multiple of 100!) super easy. After 500, some lady was sitting with her feet on the ledge in my lane! She was talking to someone in the adjacent lane, and I was like I don't want your gnarly feet in my face! I told her to, "Get your feet out of my lane, PLEASE!" She acted perturbed, but WTF, right?

I stretched some in the sauna and then finished up at home while cooking (for FIVE HOURS STRAIGHT) and then some more after I finally ate dinner. All told, I put in just over 17 hours last week, and a bit more the week prior. I have increased my weights and reps over the last 5 weeks, and that has had an impact on everything, but it appears I am adapting to all this and feel rather great now.

This week is a bit of a step down (only 14.5 hours of training) in preparation for beginning Tour of Sufferlandria on Saturday, although I am doing the 2014 route since I didn't buy all the new videos. Then the Tour continues the week after with very light running (I learned my lesson from 2014 that you can't run much during this!), featuring 9 hours of biking! The week after I have my first race of 2015--an indoor supersprint!

Yikes! Good thing I'm adapting to this otherwise I would be a complete mess! But it's totally fun. I'm used to the cycle of fatigue/soreness/invincibility. That is how it goes when you keep up aggressive strength training at the same time you are doing a lot of intensity work.

Today I have the day off from work, and I've got a swim threshold test and an easy :45 run is all! I will get all the dishes done from my cooking festival, work on the dress I'm making for my friend's wedding, and that will be that for today!

Oh, and I just discovered that I need to get a TUE (Therapeutic User Exception) by WADA because I take raloxifene HCL for osteoporosis treatment. The odds of me being drug tested are probably small--still, I want to be 100% legitimate!

Have an awesome week!