A SOLID Week of Training!!

I very often have a "normal" week with a few swims, bikes, and runs, but last week actually had some decent efforts too! Here's what it looked like:

My swims were the longest since hurting my shoulder in 2015 (because I started adding kick drills back in at the end, which adds 300). It may have been my biggest swim week since the end of tri season in Aug 2015. Both bike workouts were nice and long, leading to my biggest bike week of the year. My run total for the week was a little light, but the last workout was a super intense track workout.

Here are some workout details:

- MON: ladder swim. (And PT leg work.) My times weren't great (as they've been suffering lately), but I really kept the pace up in the 2nd half.

- TUES: easy run with both boys in the stroller. (And quick upper body.)

- WED: 3x5 mile interval ride. (And core.) This is sort of my "go to" interval bike workout, much like that 15+ mile loop is my "go to" tempo ride workout. This is the first time this year that I did this complete workout: 2 other times I did 2 or 2.5 intervals because I was running short on time. It was a perfectly calm morning when I did this ride, so wind really didn't affect my splits. I rode flat intervals of:

22.0 mph, 13:37
22.2 mph, 13:32
22.4 mph, 13:25

I was hoping to be around 23 mph, but I had no rationale for that. I was happy with these splits.

- THURS: long run (nearly 9 miles) with both boys in the stroller with 3 fast miles. (And upper body.) I posted this photo on twitter post-run:

This was around mile 2. Miles 3.5 - 6.5 were 6:33, 6:27, and 6:08 (for 19:08 over those 3 miles).

- FRI: swim of broken 400s and 200s. (And lots of leg exercises.) Nothing fancy about this workout, but had a good push. I was fried after the 400s going into the 200s.

- SAT: 12x200 on the track. (And some core.) My wife went on a run with her training buddy Megan, so I took the boys to the track with me:

Third run workout with the boys. Just not pushing them for this one.

It had been a LOOOOOONG time since I'd done a track workout. But this tweet of mine tells the reason why:

(More on this training and upcoming race shortly...)

Coach Jen Harrison gave me 4 workouts specific to 1-mile training leading up to the Midsummer Mile in 2013. I finished that race in 4:50, but it's a bit of a difficult course (2 small hills, 4 90-degree turns, and 2 meandering turns), so it might be an equivalent to something in the lower 4:40s on a track.

So I did her workout of 200s on Saturday: 12x200 with 45 sec walking between. I ran 0:34.4, 0:35.6, 0:34.9, 0:34.1, 0:34.0, 0:33.5, 0:33.9, 0:34.6, 0:34.1, 0:33.6, 0:34.0, 0:32.3 for a 0:34.4 average. Five years ago, I ran them with an average that was 1.7 seconds faster. I don't know if it's fair to make this comparison, but 1.7 x 8 = 13.6 seconds (there are 8 200s in a mile [plus 9 meters]). If I ran a 4:45 in 2013, then MAYBE this is saying I could run a 4:58.6 this year (4:45 + 13.6 seconds). I finished my last one, walked over to my phone, and snapped this SWEATY selfie (or a "swelfie"):

Oh hi there "vein of approval" in my forehead! It's been a while!
(And that's a lot of chest sweat.)


That night, I did some "dynamic stretches" for 90 mins as I weeded our flower garden.
This monarch caterpillar kept me company, as did the hen-and-checks bloom and sedum bloom.

- SUN: long ride. (And upper body.) I told myself it was OK to be around 19 mph just taking it easy because I was feeling tired after a good week of training, but I ended up being over 20 mph for all but the last 2 miles of my 33 miles.

These weekly distances aren't all that different than most recent weeks, but the intensity made last week AWESOME. Here's to another good week of training.