Let the big weekends begin...

As the preliminary push to Silverman 2010 is approaching I am shooting for a bigger base coming into the training. I will be racing Ragnar next week so I had to get on that bike. That bike sure did get some work. I had a 71 mile weekend. 65 mile on the bike, 6 mile run. Here is how the week went.

Tuesday-Pushed a run secondary to knee soreness.

Wednesday-Cycling hill repeats. About 5 mile warm-up then about 3 miles of repeats (X 5) followed by 5ish miles home. 14.12 miles total. Ave HR of 143 bpm and max of 172 bpm, which ave 77% of max or zone 3. At the peak of each repeat HR went up to about 80-89% of max.

Thursday-two a day, recovery run in am and long swim at night. 4 m run and 1500 m swim . Recovery run. 3.74 mile run in 37:17, 9:58 pace, and ave HR of 156 bpm and a max of 168 bpm. Awfully high for a recovery run. Sore and tired showed I suppose. Slow but considering I had very sore knee from pitching (1000 lunges) a few days before. Just nice and easy. One thing I discovered on this run, its harder to go slower. I prefer how my body feels after a faster run than a slower run. Now I know that I can use my watch to swim at the gym but I forgot. So I have regular workout data. 250 m increments: 6:05, 6:30, 6:44, 6:43, 6:39, and 6:47, ave 6:35, total 39:30. Slight L shoulder pain. I wonder if the push-up challenge is interfering with my swimming. It was lats. Interesting.

Friday-REST

Saturday-Bike/Run BRICK. 25 mile bike and 6 mile run. I wanted to have a race pace type bike and then have an easy T1, then a 1st mile at 9 min pace then hold on as best I could. Emphasize the bike. 25.47 miles, with 17.1 mph ave, in 1:32:19. Ave HR 149 bpm and max HR of 166 bpm. 81% of max on the average. When I was riding I swear my speed was faster. I just have to climb faster. Hill repeats need to get faster. T1 of 7 min. Run 6 miles. 8:56, 11:17, 10:47, 12:29, 10:19, and 11:14 total 1:05. I got my 9 min first mile then pooped after that. didnt hold on too tight. I am trying to teach myself that push when I am tired. My ave HR and my max was 154 bpm and 172 bmp. Ave 83% of max and zone 4. Funny thing is all my walks were when my HR got to zone 5. Zone 5 then walk, recover, up/up zone 5 walk. Funny thing my watch does too in multi-sport mode is that it automatically ave mile pace vs the speed I am going. It took a few miles and some disappointment to figure that out. Then I was cool. Overall, hard effort type workout.

Sunday-Long bike ride. 39.4 miles around the River Mountain loop trail. No wind, not hot. Just gorgeous. I went with my sister and brother in law and it was an easy effort type ride. Took long and waited a lot. No biggy it was nice out and had a blast. Ave HR 122, max 162. ave 66% of max. Zone 2. Had some butt soreness. Overall, no trouble.

I have to learn more about this HR thing. I will be reading more and more and modifying my training to match. One thing I have to do better is recover. I am still staying up way too late. Here I am at 10:15 and I am still up. I took the deepest nap today which made me realize that I am not recovering enough. The interesting thing is that I lost the most weight when I slept more. With a 24 hour race coming up I am sure sleep going in will be crucial. I hope to sleep a lot more to prepare for friday.

“Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is enlightenment.”

Lao Tzu

I sure hope this HR monitor will enlighten me.