Summary for Week of 1/21 to 1/28

Very solid bike week, I spent a lot of time on the bike in various permutations. Spinning classes, trainer and mountain biking all week, I ended up with 145 miles total and 8 hours. The mileage is a bit off since I plug in a formula for trainer and spin time, but it should represent effort fairly well.

I had my longest ride on the trainer on Saturday, spending 2 1/2 hours spinning in the basement. Not a lot of fun, but overall I was pleased with how I felt. I had to stop more from boredom than from lack of energy so that was a good sign. It was a struggle to stay in the aerobars however, so I suspect my neck will be sore the first few times out on the road.

Mountain biking was also a bit of a breakthrough for me this week as well, although I crashed pretty hard again. I've gotten to the point where I can spin up the hills pretty well and my legs can handle most of the inclines. Big rocks, or tough lines cause me to have to stop or pull off, but I feel like my legs can handle it. I'm really enjoying the rides too, which helps to get in the extra time without feeling like a burden. Although not entirely specific to triathlon training, I think it's been a really good part of my routine.

Good week, and I'm approaching 40 hours of training for the month of January... I'll post the monthly totals later this week.

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Goals for Week of January 21 - 28

Recovery week!!

My first recovery week on the plan, and I'm looking forward to it. It's good to feel like I'm on target so far, and following a solid plan. Recovery weeks are focused on allowing your body to "internalize" the training you have done over the last 3 weeks. As I build the hours of endurance training it will take more to allow my body to really make the gains I need to survive a 14-17 hour endurance event.

The week consists of similar repetitions, but stepping back the volume. Key workouts are reduced in length, and a focus is more on form and recovery than getting miles in. I've also scheduled a massage for this week... hope it helps :)

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Summary for Week of 1/14 to 1/20

Solid week, but I feel beat today. I needed to take yesterday off completely, and I'm still feeling sore today. The focus on running really paid off I think, I had a breakthrough run on Friday night. Part of that was due to the sun starting to go down, and being a ways from home but I was also in the right place mentally to really push. The run was 7 miles, not my longest, but I was running hard the whole time.

That followed up with a long day mountain biking on Saturday was enough to make my legs feel pretty rough for a day or two. While I didn't get the quantity in that I wanted I did manage to get 3 quality run days in, which I think is more important in the long run. Hopefully I will recover a bit more from Yoga today so that I can get in a solid bike week before my recovery week next week.

Consistency and effort are improving... I'm feeling good!

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Saturday at Case

What a blast mountain biking today!

Myself, Matt, Josh and Bruce went over to Case Mountain for a nice long ride in the snow. We had gotten an inch or so this week, and I hoped much of it had melted off to allow for decent traction. There were some spots that were melted, but it was pretty slick for the most part. We took the blue/yellow trail in, which has some tough single track with a lot of tough little sections. One area has a pretty good drop and then a sharp turn at the bottom where we all took turns crashing. Bruce got his foot stuck as he went over the bars nicely and rolled with the bike. Matt got the "clean" award since as he was thrown over the bars he jumped clear of the bike and managed to roll nicely.

After a bit more riding, the fun began. First, Bruce wrapped the rear derailleur around his wheel, so we ended up converting his bike to a single speed. Unfortunately, the chain was so twisted that it kept riding down the cogs and then falling off. The only alternative at that point was to put the chain all the way to the right... or the toughest gear. Bruce went to work on his power :) Then Josh's crank arm fell off, so he practiced 1 legged drills for a while. We managed to reattach it, but it would stay on for shorter and shorter periods of time until we finally had to leave it off. Then of course we got a bit lost coming back and took the long way. Finally, to cap off the day, Bruce got a flat tire as we headed down the fire road to the truck!

All in all though, we had a great time and enjoyed the beef stew provided by Heather when we got home!

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Goals for Week January 21 to 28

Back to a Bike focus, as I have the big volume week before my first recovery week of the session. I need to try and hit 2 longer bike rides this week, of 1 hour plus each in duration. The current week is going well with the run focus, and I need to try and apply the same push for the bike.

Key Workouts
1 hour swim
2:15 bike + second long ride over an hour
1:15 run

I have the bike trainer all set up in the basement, and I need to get used to riding it for longer periods. Most of my long rides have been on the mountain bike up to this point this fall. Good for cross training, but I'm going to need tri-bike specificity for the spring.

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Summary for Week of 1/7 to 1/13

Pretty good week overall, I met my key workout targets, and got some pretty good volume in. Overall, just over 10 1/2 hours of training, with the majority of that spent on the bike.

I also started yoga classes this week, as the winter session at the gym kicked in. I have 3 classes per week scheduled, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Thursday is a power yoga class with a new teacher, and I'm looking forward to a bit more rigorous practice. The first class was mostly just getting familiar with the routines, and so was a bit slow but I'm hopeful that will pick up.

I also talked to Jon, the master's swim coach I've been trying to get in touch with. I've signed up for U.S. Master's swimming for the year which will cover the insurance stuff for him, and once I get my membership card I will try to get over to the pool on a Saturday and see how it goes. He's hoping to start a twice a week swim session, unfortunately not in the mornings as I had hoped.

Overall, a good week and I feel good to go for this week!

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Goals for Week of January 14 - 20

Prep Phase - Week 2 of 6

The focus for this week is running, I will be running five days which will also boost my mileage a bit. A couple of these runs will be part of a brick workout where I bike first and so won't be a long run, but the frequency is important I think. I'm hoping to start the Saturday long brick as well, which will be a short run after the long bike and eventually evolve into the race simulation brick.

Key Workouts
Swim - 1 mile or 45 minutes continuous.
Bike - 2:15 ride, trying to stay consistent at this duration for the prep period
Run - 1:30 + increased frequency

In addition to the key workouts, I need to stay focused on getting in a workout at least 6 days a week to increase my consistency. I've noticed that on the days I workout, I also eat better.

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Summary for Week of 12/31 to 1/6

I didn't post a set of goals for this week, as it was prior to the first post but I will mention that I did get in my long run (7.5) miles and my long swim (0:45 minutes) . Still a holiday week, so my other workouts weren't entirely consistent, and I was unable to complete the bike ride. I had planned to ride the trainer for the first time on Saturday, and thus my wife planned to leave in the morning for an appointment. When I tried, I realized that the old trainer I had borrowed would not work with my bike. Thus I had to scrap the ride, and we headed up to MA for a brief outing with my family for the weekend, so I couldn't reschedule. Oh well, I've ordered a new trainer and hope to try it out this weekend.

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Goals for Week of January 8 - 14

I'm starting a new "feature" this week in hopes that it will be more informative for my weekly training and progress. Each week, I will post my goals for the coming week, and Key workouts that I'm hoping to hit. Then, at the conclusion of the week I will report on how/if I made the goals, and perhaps a few thoughts on how the week went. Here's the first post, and a shot at goals for next week.

Key Workouts
Swim - 45 minutes continuous/1 mile plus swim
Bike - 2 hrs
Run - 1:15 hr

This is a typical base building week, I'll be working on extending my long swims/bikes/runs in aerobic zone. I'm also hoping to hit 2 or more other workouts in each sport with a particular focus on the bike and swim this week.

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December and Year End Totals

Fun time of year, I get to check out how much work I did over the past 12 months.... it has been a good year, and is trending upwards.

December 2006

• Swim - 5,500 - 2.5 hours
• Bike - 350 mi - 20.5 hours
• Run - 42 mi - 9.5 hours

Biking was a good month for me, much of it on a mountain bike as I spent a lot of time on Soapstone mountain with my brother. Running was decent, I need to maintain this as a minimum amount.

Here's the Year End Totals

• Swim - 43,200 yards - 13.5 hours

Swimming is actually down a bit from 2005 as I was a bit frustrated with my progress, and I didn't feel the time investment was worth it. This number clearly has to go up quite a bit in order for me to swim well.

• Bike - 2,046 miles - 121. hours

This was a huge improvement for me, as I was under 1,000 miles in 2005. I've become much more comfortable on my bike and really enjoy riding. I'm hoping to increase this again, and my goal is to ride to work quite a bit more this year to help get in some extra miles and just have fun. Overall, biking has become my favorite of the 3 sports and something that has become a real stress reliever for me.

• Run - 463 miles - 86.5 hours

Another big jump for 2006, in 2005 I only ran 200 miles. Running has even become fun at times, and I have occasionally hit the zone where I felt like I could just keep running forever. Definitely a breakthrough year for me, and I hope to focus on running again next year. Just for fun I plotted out a trip to see how far I had run, and 463 miles takes me almost to Ohio from my house! Pretty cool!

Overall, a great year with stretching, strength training and general aerobic training I was just over 275 hours for the year. Goal for 2007 is 350 hours, that's probably a bit ambitious, but we'll see how it goes.

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Relaxing December

It was a good month from a personal perspective, and not so good from a training perspective. I was able to take a couple weeks off from work and head down to South Carolina with the kids and wife for a relaxing time and feel rejuvinated. Not much training however, as I was sick before that, and didn't spend much time exercising. This is my last break before my training schedule kicks in however, so I felt good about relaxing.

Hope 2006 was rewarding for everyone, and I'm looking forward to a new year!

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