Friday, April 30, 2010

April Training Totals

April was a tough month to keep a good training rhythm. Training totals are down from what they were. I can name lots of excuses for the decrease. Despite the fact that the totals are lower than I would have liked and lower than my last couple of months, they are still respectable numbers for being 4 months out from an Ironman (15.4 hours per week average). Here are the totals:

Swim-- 23h 33m 78,903.6 yards (Several swims were in a meter pool, the conversion to yards is why that it is listed to the fraction of a yard...)// My best sport of the month.
Bike-- 35h 28m 691.5 miles
Run-- 3h 58m 29.6 miles// Volume similar to last month, was probably a little too cautious due to soreness in the same area of my injury. I hope to improve upon this next month.
Deep water running/Resistance training/Walking-- 3h 01m
Total: 66h 00m (2.2 hours of training per day)

5 days of 5 or more hours of training.
6 days with 0 hours of training.

The distribution of the volume was not very symmetrical. 4 of the missed days of training took place in a 9 day period, this period also was high in stress and low in sleep. Bad combination all the way around. It had me feeling flat and out of shape. Fortunately, I was able to regain a rhythm towards the end of the month.

I am hoping that the unplanned reduction in training volume will actually work out in my favor in the big picture. Maybe the decreased volume will allow me to better absorb the incredibly high February/March training totals?!?! If that is the case, I hope that it will allow me to be fresher and fitter for this summers training and allow me to hit a higher peak fitness level in the racing season. I am choosing to be optimistic :-)

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

March Training Totals

March brought about another solid month of base building. Fortunately, March also represented my return to regular run training. Here are the totals:

Swim-- 38h 59m 125,080.7 yards (Several swims were in a meter pool, the conversion to yards is why that it is listed to the fraction of a yard...)
Bike-- 64h 29m 1,206.8 miles
Run-- 4h 13m 33 miles
Deep water running-- 9h 12m
Resistance training-- 8h 55m
Total: 124h 49m (4 hours of training per day, 28 hours per week)

14 days of 5 or more hours of training.
Zero days with 0 hours of training.

Swimming is going well for the most part. I swim masters several times per week and augment those workouts with LOTS of supplementary volume. The only negative to date related to swimming is that I strained a neck muscle while swimming butterfly mid-month. This little setback cost me some training time in all 3 sports. For now, butterfly is going on the backburner...

Due to the neck issue, my bike mileage for the month was *slightly* down. Still a solid amount of work. More so than in February I was able to integrate much more quality riding. Several solid days going hard in the hills, a couple of time trial workouts and an aggressive charity ride where we averaged 25mph for 21 miles. Also, I seem to be getting one really big Overdistance day per month. In February it was a 162 mile day, for March I got in a 182 mile effort! Finally, many of my rides are simply recovery rides on flat terrain in the small chain ring. These seemingly mundane efforts are really helping me get smoother pedal stroke, which is helping me ride hills better.

I am really excited to Start running again. I am proceeding cautiously with my mileage. So far, things are going well. I think that the swim and bike fitness I built while being injured is helping me transition into the running.

Most of my runs were only 2 miles long. Since my training mileage is so low, I have been making efforts at crosstraining with deep water running, which seems to be quite effective. I plan to continue it, even when I am doing normal running mileage.

I'm excited to continue the training into April. The running mileage will increase, but it will still be within a conservative range. There will be more quality days in all 3 sports.