Training Week in Review

This was a recovery week and I found it difficult to cut back. I did take 2 days off, but kept the extra days of swimming and weight training. Even though my Saturday run had been cut back to 8 miles, I still pushed the pace and I'm pretty sure I was running sub-8 minute miles. Sunday's ride was supposed to be a 2 hour ride which meant about a 35 mile ride, but I hate driving almost an hour to only ride 35 miles. Instead I rode 3.5 hours and kept the power under control and used high cadence to keep it kind of easy. Surprisingly, I still managed a very good pace. I think the prior week's ride with some intervals thrown in helped. I think I'm going to try that again next week.

I keep working on my swim and I'm just not seeing any speed improvements. My technique is definitely better and I feel stronger, but it's not transferring to improvement on speed. It's possible that I'm just tired. I throw in weight training specifically to target muscles used in the swim and I can feel the soreness after the endurance swims. Maybe if I'm fresh I'll see the time difference.

Date	Day	Activity
07/18/11	Monday	Rest
07/19/11	Tuesday	Run - 7 Miles
07/20/11	Wednesday	Strength Training Swim - 700 Meters Spin - 1 Hour
07/21/11	Thursday	Rest
07/22/11	Friday	Swim- 2200 Meters
07/23/11	Saturday	Run - 8.4 Miles Swim - 2000 Meters OWS
07/24/11	Sunday	Bike - 62 Miles Brick - 30 Minutes

It also seems that several of my team mates and coaches think I'm doing an Ironman this year. I guess my improvement, dedication and consistent training has people thinking I'm up for the challenge. Makes me feel good, but I think I'd be working much harder and doing longer distances if I was doing an Ironman.

Training Week in Review

This was a high volume week. I got a lot of miles in. This is the first time I've ran 30 miles in 1 week. I was also able to get in 4 days of swimming. There are times when my swim feels like it's getting stronger and others when it feels quite the opposite. Monday's swim felt great. I felt more powerful and was leading my lane once we got done with kick drills. It was fast paced and I was keeping up with the pace. It was a great day. Wednesday I did my own endurance swim and focused on technique. Friday's endurance swim is when I started feeling slow. I think it had to do with the fact that the other swimmers were strong swimmers, really strong. Coach said my technique looked good and suggested some interval workouts to improve my speed. Saturday's open water swim didn't start well. There was no warmup and the pace took off quickly, I tried to keep up, but the pace was too fast and I started getting that panic feeling. I actually had to stop, regain my composure, get back into my head and focus on technique and my swim and not everyone else's. After that, it got much better. I still couldn't keep up, but by the end I was catching up and had closed the gap.

My running felt really strong this week. I took it easy early in the week because temp & humidity was so high. It improved greatly by the weekend. Saturday's 14 mile run felt great in cooler weather. I didn't push the pace. I ran at a comfortable pace and was able to hold a conversation. I'm feeling more confident on the run. I don't know that I'm improving on speed, but I can do the distance without too much fatigue.

Skipped the organized group ride and opted for a smaller group. Rode comfortably for the 1st 15 miles and then picked up the pace. I lost a water bottle on a bump and used that opportunity to work in some intervals to catch up with group. I got 60 miles in, I should've gotten 70-75, but I really worked on maintaining a fast speed on the last half. I was concerned about my legs getting tired and what that would do to my brick, so I maintained a good solid pace using high cadence so that I wouldn't burn out my legs for the run. The run felt a little sluggish as expected, but within a 1/4 mile my legs were starting to get comfortable. My pace picked up and I think I was averaging about 8:15 8:20 pace. When I finished my run, I was not spent, I could've run a lot longer. I felt I could run a half marathon.

Next week is a recovery week and based on this last week, I'm going to need it. I'm feeling a little drained today and not looking forward to swimming.  It'll be difficult to cut back so much after feeling so good about this past week.

Date	Day	Activity
07/11/11	Monday	Swim - 2500 Yards
07/12/11	Tuesday	Run - 7 Miles
07/13/11	Wednesday	Strength Training Swim - 1600 Meters Spin - 1 Hour
07/14/11	Thursday	Run - 7 Miles
07/15/11	Friday	Swim- 1800
07/16/11	Saturday	Run - 14 Miles Swim - 2200 Meters
07/17/11	Sunday	Bike - 61 Miles Run - 4 Miles

Training Week in Review

The week started off with the Peachtree Road Race. I had a tough weekend workout and I didn't expect any significant results on Monday's race. I didn't taper, I just trained through it and considered the 10k a tempo paced training run. My only goal was to finish under 50 minutes. I got 49:09, so I'm very happy with that.  I'm a little disappointed in myself for not getting more swim time in this week. I was planning on it and I got hung up with a project I was working on and was running 15 minutes late for practice. If they kept the pool open longer on Fridays, I would have gone and stayed longer, but I choose to skip it if I couldn't get a full hour in. Saturday's long run ended up being tough. I kept up with the fast group for 8 miles and then dialed it back down for 2 miles and then headed out on my own to get the additional 3. As the temperature rose and my energy level dropped, those last 3 miles proved harder than I expected. I'm going to have to learn to slow down and pace myself better. Sunday's ride was more of a recovery ride. My legs were still tired from Saturday's run, so I took it easy while trying to maintain consistency. I was able to do that, but I feel I could have pushed harder. I also experimented with my nutrition and I think I was at the bottom end of calorie intake. Only 135 calories/hour. I've been as high as 400 and have found that I need to be between 230-270. Maybe that contributed to my slow pace, but I didn't feel exhausted.

Date	Day	Activity
07/04/11	Monday	Race - Peachtree Road Race 10k
07/05/11	Tuesday	Recovery
07/06/11	Wednesday	Spin - 1 Hour
07/07/11	Thursday	Swim - 2200 Meters
07/08/11	Friday	Recovery
07/09/11	Saturday	Run - 13 Miles
07/10/11	Sunday	Bike - 63 Miles

Training Week in Review

As the previous post pointed out, I did not have a great swim last Monday. I decided to get back into the pool a couple times a week and to incorporate some resistance training that targeted muscles specific to swimming.  Probably not a good idea to work out your upper body and then swim afterwards. It was slow and tiring, but I got a good workout in. On Friday I showed up for our endurance swim. Turnout was low and 4 of us got one on one time with our coach. He viewed my form and technique and was able to correct it. It took me about 100 meters to get comfortable with the change, but I could immediately feel the difference. By the end of the swim, I had muscles tired that I had never worked out before (may have been a combination of the upper body workout 2 days before since I was still a bit sore). I could tell that I was swimming more efficiently and slightly faster. It hard to explain, but my reach was too long. My arms were going into the water too far in front. I needed to shorten my reach and then use my delts & lats to pull my arm through the water. It feels awkward at first. It also helped with my hip rotation and allowed me to breath easier on my left side.

I ran a pretty good pace on Saturday. I didn't concentrate on pace, just HR and rate of perceived exertion (RPE).  I was happy to see my pace just under 8:25 /mile over 12 miles. Sunday's ride started out really well, but the second loop really messed with me mentally. I started feeling sluggish and I was uncomfortable. First of all, I rode in my Pearl Izumi bike shorts. They are more padded than my tri shorts, but they were uncomfortable in the aero position. I also had a bit of pain behind my right knee. It's probably a result of raising my saddle 2 weeks ago. Although I didn't have a problem when I rode right after I made the adjustment. I also rode the 2nd loop by myself. 32 miles by yourself when you've already ridden 32, can be difficult. I had no one to pace off of, in front or behind. I also didn't want to blow up. I knew I could do the distance, so I just slowed my pace down a bit and pushed through. My average speed dropped, but I'm okay with that. Sunday was just a day to do the distance and not so much about speed. I needed to save my legs for Monday morning's Peachtree Road Race.

Date	Day	Activity
06/27/11	Monday	Swim - 2600 Meters
06/28/11	Tuesday	Run - 7 Miles
06/29/11	Wednesday	Resistance Training Swim - 1800 Meters
06/30/11	Thursday	Run - 7 Miles
07/01/11	Friday	Swim - 2200 Meters
07/02/11	Saturday	Run - 12 Miles
07/03/11	Sunday	Bike - 63 Miles

Swim Training- Technique & Form

I didn't have a great swim this past Monday at practice. I slowed down considerably towards the last couple of sets. I also didn't feel as fast or strong as I had in previous weeks. Since last week was a recovery week, I shouldn't have felt that way. I do know that I haven't been in the pool as much as I had been before my Gulf Coast race and thought I needed to get back and start working on my technique.  Monday's practice confirmed my thoughts.

I haven't done any weight/resistance training at all this year. I decided to hit the weights and work on muscles specific to swimming. Primarily my upper body concentrating on my triceps, deltoids and lats. I also brought a video camera to record portions of my swim for analysis once I got back home.


I guess one way to look at it is that there's room for improvement. It took me a couple times and to view it frame by frame to see what I was doing wrong. Here's what I noticed and will be focusing on during my next training sessions.

1. I need to keep my fingers close together. My fingers are relaxed in the video and water is just flowing through them. Keeping fingers close together, but relaxed will allow me to pull more water through.
2. My hands keep crossing to the center line. They need to extend straight forward as they enter the water into the catch phase of the stroke.
3. It seems that at times my right arm swings outward in an arc. My left arm seems straighter, but both should bend at the elbow and continue through the recovery phase giving me high elbows out of the water.

There are probably more things wrong with my technique, but I'm only going to focus on these 3. I'll record my swim again at a later date and will try other angles. I can't tell from underwater how well my body is rotating and if I'm getting high elbows on the surface.

I think this was a great exercise in helping me recognize and correct the mistakes I'm making. I'm sure an experienced swim coach would catch a lot more. Getting the opinion from my swim coach is not out of the question, but I want to work on the things I know I can see and fix and them move into more specific items that I may be missing.