Goals for Week February 18 - 25

Back to a bike focus for next week, although this one will be a bit different with the race at the end of the week. It's looking good for the 1/2 marathon on Saturday, although I haven't done a lot of specific training for it. I'm hoping to finish around 2 hours and just have fun running with my brother and sister-in-law.

I need to keep getting on the bike next week and I'm going to try getting in the water 3 times, to help improve my swimming. It's still tough to do much swimming with the pool I'm limited to, but I'm hoping more repetition will help.

Have a good week everyone.

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Slacking and Hurting

Well... I've been slacking, haven't posted for a while, sorry about that. Work has been pretty busy and it's been tough to find the time to sit down and write a few paragraphs during the day when I usually get the chance. In any case, training has been fairly steady, although the workload has impacted that a bit as well. I'm still getting the workouts in for the most part, but the quality slipped a little last week as I was pretty tired.

Two interesting notes from the weekend, first my brother has been totally roped in at this point, he went and bought a road bike. We took a ride up to Brookline, near Boston, to pick up a used Specialized Allez in pretty good shape. Frame looked great, and although the components weren't top notch, they should work pretty well until he's ready to upgrade. A nice ride up with the oldest and youngest of my girls as well.

I also managed to get outside for a mtb ride on Sunday morning again, we've missed a few weeks with the snow on the ground. The ground is back to being manageable with a few inches left, but mostly packed down on the trails. A bit slicker than usual, you had to be careful on the downhills and spun out a bit easier going up, but it was still fun. It probably made for a tougher workout with more spinning than a usual ride.

I also got a nice long run in during the afternoon, and I'm pretty sore today. This morning, spin class was a bit tough and I jumped in the pool afterward to try and work out the stiffness. It didn't help too much, hopefully Yoga at lunch time today will improve things.

This coming week is a Run focus, and I'm going to keep in that way for a couple weeks as there is a 1/2 marathon coming up on the 24th that I'm eyeing. It's the kids school vacation week, so plans may change, but if I get the chance I'll head over and run it.... we'll see.

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Summary (and Goals) for Week

Whoops, missed my goal post on Friday so I'll put it in here. First, the results from my first recovery week... well, it was a recovery :)

As I mentioned, the goal for this week was to allow my body to catch up with the work that I have been doing for the last 3 weeks. It seemed to work pretty well, as I'm feeling ready to go again. In fact, I suspect I may have backed off a bit too much as I was starting to feel antsy this past weekend. It snowed on Friday night, so I didn't get to go out for a ride this weekend and instead rode on the trainer in the basement. It's a little tougher to get motivated when you are in the basement.

Other training related notes for last week, I got a 1 hour massage, hoping that would help loosen the muscles. It worked pretty well, and definitely helped my shoulder loosen up. It's been a bit tight for a few weeks, and feels much better now that it did. Hopefully I'll be able to fit a massage in every 4 weeks or so. Thanks to Peg at Relax and Release, if anyone needs a massage in Ellington, CT I would definitely recommend her. Also, I order a few Spinerval videos to watch on the trainer. They are mostly the base building type workouts, long rides with some intervals. That includes the Hardcore 100, a 5 hour plus workout! I hope to complete that a couple of times this winter.

Now for the goals for this week, it's back to a bike focus. 5 days or more on the bike with a couple long rides. I'm planning to get in a 2 hour plus ride again this week. Swimming is still in maintenance mode, and I will also ramp up the run a bit. There is a 1/2 marathon in 2 weeks that I'm considering. It feels pretty good to think that I have the base fitness to go run 13 miles if I feel like it!

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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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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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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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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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