Big Training Week!

Last week was a sort of trifecta that led to some good training: it was spring break from my classes so I had more time, my wife worked the weekend so I could get in a bigger Saturday workout (with less guilt), and it was my birthday week which led to a longer ride. Here's how it looked on paper:

RUN: 23.85 miles
BIKE: 16.26 miles on my MTB
TRAINER TIME: 5 hours and 50 mins
STRENGTH TIME: 13 hours and 31 mins

Total saddle time: 7:04:55

Total workout time: 23:32:16

(That "total workout time" number is very random, much like "intensity minutes" that Garmin will give users. It's a metric that my new training log shows at the end of each week. It's not worth much, but it is another interesting number to glance at... for example, in Dec, I had 2 small weeks of 16 and 17 hours, but the other 3 were between 20 and 22 hours. They were all small in January. This week in March was nice!)

Running was fine... pretty normal overall mileage. My long run was a bit longer than average, but the "pace miles" in the middle of my long run were just OK (6 miles averaging 6:18 pace). I skipped a track workout for an easy run on Friday as it was icy and windy.

Strength time was pretty amazing! Over 13.5 hours is big! Got in all decent workouts! Thursday's was less "amazing," but that's because I was making time for a long ride...

Biking was GREAT last week! Getting in OVER 7 HOURS of time in the saddle is huge. Tuesday was a bit on my mountain bike before getting home and doing another 65 mins on the trainer (throwing in 2 efforts, but nothing crazy). Thursday was my birthday ride where I hit the trainer for 2 hours and 45 mins, which is probably in the top-3 longest trainer rides I've ever done! And then I got in another 2 hours on Saturday with a 5x10 min effort workout, which was solid!

The last few weeks have had solid "intensity minutes," as March is usually a solid month for me historically:

These 4 weeks are all decent! (Last week under the arrow.)


Only FOUR weeks bigger than last week! Three here in the last year,
and one more just off the graph in early March 2025.

And notice the last 7 weeks have been decent (going back to our trip to Costa Rica). That lower dip 6 weeks ago (not the BIG dip 8 weeks ago) was just a simple week with a lot less trainer time: just over 4 hours in the saddle instead of the 7+ last week!

This week is going to be a really random week (weird family things, big days in my classes, meeting with students outside of class time to prep for a student exhibition, etc, etc), so I expect it to be a bit smaller. But I'm OK with a "back off" week after a good one last week!