A Month Without Coach Jen

>> Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Coach Jen worked with me for 8 weeks leading up to the TC 10 Mile. She taught me so much, and then dropped me like a bad habit. ;) A few weeks after the race, I logged into TrainingPeaks (for the first time since the race), and I saw this depressing pop-up:



Anyway, I thought I'd take a look at my numbers from 1 month BEFORE working with Jen, the 2 months I worked with her, and then my first full month AFTER working with Jen. Here are the numbers:

• July: (PRE-JEN)
Swim: 18,559 Yd
Bike: 87.01 Mi (38:30 on the trainer)
Run: 54.58 Mi
Strength: 4:30

• August: (WITH JEN)
Swim: 25,817 Yd
Bike: 144.05 Mi (1:40 on the trainer)
Run: 108.34 Mi
Strength: 5:15

• September: (WITH JEN)
Swim: 19,820 Yd
Bike: 55.96 Mi (2:15 on the trainer, 1:15 MTB)
Run: 110.44 Mi
Strength: 3:15

• October: (POST-JEN)
Swim: 4,500 Yd
Bike: 71.80 Mi (1 hour on the trainer, 1:30 MTB)
Run: 77.11 Mi
Strength: 6:56

So my swimming has gone down the pooper. I got in the pool twice in October. I did a lot of OWSing in July and August, and that helped keep my numbers up. But I can only do so much in my 25 yard pool at the Y without going crazy. GOTTA work on that!

My biking got a little lighter after working with Jen. I went on a few nice rides last month, but I hit the trainer less. I REALLY want to hit the trainer hard this winter. Which is TOUGH.

I'm happiest with my running last month. Jen apparently taught me something about warming up and cooling down - that's where I've been adding in the miles. Sure, 77 miles is nowhere near the 108 and 110 months I did with Jen while training for the TC 10 Mile. But 77 miles is a lot for me when I'm not really training for anything. (In fact, there are only 2 non-Jen months where I've had higher mileage than 77 miles this year, and those were January [half marathon] and March [10 mile].) AND I've been injury-free! Yay!

Oh, and look how my strength time jumped back up last month. For the last few years, I've REALLY thought that building a solid muscle base (including core) over the off-season has helped me to be more injury-free. I'm going to keep that up over the winter.

One last note on my running: In the 4 months before I started working with Jen, my average pace for ALL my runs was 6:29 / mile. Working with Jen, my average pace dropped to 7:08 / mile for 2 months (7:16 in Aug; 6:59 in Sept). By having me SLOW DOWN and get in MORE MILES, I was able to bust out my fastest race ever: 59:05 in the TC 10 Mile. There's a lesson in there somewhere.....

8 comments:

Allison 2:24 PM, November 03, 2010  

How sad to be disconnected :(

I'm training with my coach now and just analyzed my workouts pre coach and with her.... such a change....

T 5:49 PM, November 03, 2010  

the last note is funny ... october was my highest running month total, well, ever and my average pace was barely slower than the month before (and was probably only due to a couple of super slow runs at the end of the month).

i thought it was progress if my average was staying about the same/getting faster with the increase in mileage.

then again, i'm totally winging everything i do, so who knows? ;)

GoBigGreen 9:24 PM, November 03, 2010  

Lemme know I am in the pool MWF:)

Shannon 10:20 PM, November 03, 2010  

This is not related but I saw this website and thought of you immediately:
http://thermajock.com/how-it-works.html
It's pretty funny!

D 7:19 AM, November 04, 2010  

Whoa! I never got that message when I logged into TP after breaking up with Harrison. Does that mean she's been spying on me this whole time?!? Hmmm...

TriEric 11:24 AM, November 04, 2010  

The lesson is that you can't beat the crap out of your body day after day with the same pace. Those slower miles allowed you to recover better and get stronger.

Now if you would only shave your legs you would get some more seconds off that race pace.

So how did that supposed beer mile factor into all of this? Hmmmm?

Jennifer Harrison 7:51 AM, November 05, 2010  

D: YEP! No, just an upgrade in TP since you! :)

Steve: I did not see this blog until this AM. I did not know that TP sent that pop up! Not nice, is it?

And, remember the training we did was ALL RUN focus. Trust me, you would be cycling and swimming and strength a TON more if you were training to PR in triathlon (as you know).

HOPE you miss me! HA! :)

Steve Stenzel 1:50 PM, November 05, 2010  

Yeah, that second to last paragraph of yours is what I was afraid of, Jen. ;) And I DO miss you!!!

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