Three weeks of Training Post-Triathlon Season

Three weeks ago yesterday was the North Mankato Triathlon (my last race). My achilles was a little flared up leading into that race, so here's what I've been doing since to try to get ready for the TC 10 Mile (and the TC Loony Challenge). Oh, and you won't be seeing any swimming here because I stopped swimming after the North Mankato Tri to try to let my "Dad Elbow" heal.

THE FIRST WEEK was recovery and trying to see what shape my achilles was in. I had an easy ride Wednesday morning, and a longer ride that Sunday. I mentioned in this post last week that I'm trying to do rides over an hour as extra endurance training for the TC 10 Mile especially now that I'm not gaining any endurance by being in the pool. My A.R.T. Doc told me to try 3 miles on Thursday, 5 miles on Saturday, and then a few more on Monday. That's every-other-day of running (what I usually try to do) with then 2 days off after 3 runs. And as you can see from the calendar above, that's what I've stuck to so far (adding mileage as I go).

• 8/13: 3 miles EASY: a bit achy near the end, but OK.
• 8/15: 5 miles EASY: NO PAIN! Calf felt great.

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THE SECOND WEEK I tried to tack on miles. I did a moderate trainer ride on Wednesday (purple on the calendar), but didn't go too hard because my bum was a little sore. (Damn saddle sore from last month wasn't fully gone.) Then I had a WINDY long ride on Sunday where my 5 miles splits on the way out were around 16:30 (18.1 mph), and were around 12:30 on the way back (24.0 mph)!

• 8/17: 4 miles easy/moderate on a treadmill: OK, just a bit achy.
• 8/20: 3.8 miles easy, got a bit painful at the end. D'oh.
• 8/22: 6 miles with 1 mile building speed and 2 miles at "race pace." I posted about this here last weekend. Heel felt OK, and I cranked out the middle 3 miles in 6:13 pace. Definitely nothing super for me, but it felt good to be running HARDER again.

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THE THIRD WEEK had another longer trainer ride on Wednesday, but this one had a lot more effort. Then an easier/shorter spin yesterday as the boys napped. Here's how the runs went:

• 8/24: 5.2 miles that felt SLUGGISH and SLOW. A little tightness, but could have been in my head.
• 8/27: 5.2 miles at a little more MODERATE of a pace. Felt OK.
• 8/29: 7.1 miles with 1 mile building speed and 3 miles at "race pace." I had a little calf pain at the end of this. Last week's long run had the middle 3 miles with PERFECT half-mile descends: 3:19, 3:13, 3:05, 3:02, 3:01, and 2:59. This week it was MUCH LESS perfect. It might have just been the difference of adding on 1 more hard mile. The half-mile splits for the fast 4 miles were 3:16, 3:13, 3:08, 3:06, 3:06, 3:09, 3:14, and 3:10. Those faster miles were 6:20 pace on average.

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I did an easy 5.5 miles this morning, and things felt OK. So now, I have just less than 5 weeks to the big race weekend. My long run this past weekend was 7 miles. The plan RIGHT NOW (because it might change) is to keep upping the long run by a mile/week, but to not be adding as much to the other runs each week (that would end up being too much of an increase too quickly if I keep that up as I've been doing). If the trend is do-able, that would put me at an 11 mile long run the week before the race, which I'd LOVE to hit. (I'd try to move up the runs a bit so my last solid long run would be 9-10 days pre-race, and not just 7.) If I'm not able to get my long run up that far, that's OK, but I'd like to get as far as I can.

If my legs are feeling good, I'd LOVE to try some speed work on Thursday before 8 miles on Saturday. The most I would try would be something like 3x1 mile - I crave something anaerobic! Here's to hoping!