A REAL Nice Week of Training

Here's what last week looked like in my training log:

- MON: 12 miles on the treadmill (6.5 "at pace" in the middle), and leg exercises.
- TUES: 5-6 sets for upper body, and 82 mins of not-too-hard spinning.
- WED: 5.4 easy miles on the treadmill, and long core workout and leg exercises.
- THURS: 4 sets for upper body (but all with more reps), and 100 min ride with 4x10 min efforts.
- FRI: 7 miles outside (as 2x2 mile intervals posted here) and long core and legs.
- SAT: 8x upper body circuits, and moderate spin of 76 mins (with some 3 min efforts).
- SUN: an hour of core.

To break this down a bit...

9 hours and 40 mins of strength time is the most since the week after my fat bike race a month ago. That week was only 15 minutes more than last week, but that week a month ago was so big because I skipped core the day before that week started and did double duty (core and legs) on Monday. Otherwise, this past week is possibly my biggest "normal" week of strength work ever. It wasn't one day... it's just that most days were a bit longer than normal, and that added up.

24.42 miles of running is my biggest normal week since my half marathon in November (when I logged 28.84 miles). And before that, it was my biggest "normal" week* in 4.5 years! The week before the the inaugural Halloween Half Marathon in 2017 held 3 runs for me that totaled 25.59 miles.

And 4 hours and 18 minutes on the trainer is my 4th biggest week in years (maybe ever), with the first 3 coming about in the last 2 months as I prepped for the City of Lakes Fat Bike race. And of those 3 previous bigger trainer weeks, 2 of them had 3 miles less running for the week with 30-40 mins less strength work than this past week, and the 3rd had 2 miles less running and an hour less of strength work.

So my point is that I had a really good week for running, cycling, AND strength time that ended up in the same week! They would have been nice on their own, but it's extra special that they all overlapped in a fantastic week.

*I've had bigger running weeks in my training log this past year, but except for the week of the half marathon in November, they were all because I did my normal long run on Sunday instead of the usual day (on Monday). I normally run M, W, and F, and my training log starts its week on Monday, so I occasionally have an extra run in a week when I do my weekly long run on Sunday. (And then the following week is extra small because that just contains a Wed and Fri run.) So in 2021, I had 4 weeks like that around 30-35 miles: the weeks of Oct 25th (the Monday was going to be full helping at my boys' school), Sept 27th (TC 10 Mile), May 3rd (camping), and March 22nd (trip up north with my boys). So that's what I mean about last week being a long "normal" week, because it was 24.42 miles over my normal 3 runs, whereas these other weeks are long because they contain an extra run "stolen" (or "borrowed") from the following week.