So Much To Blog, So Little Time....

I honestly have a lot of stuff to write about. You would think that last week would have been a good week for it -- being a recovery week and all. But as I've mentioned before, recovery is hard work. These are typically lighter weeks in terms of volume, but they tend to have some intense workouts scheduled for benchmark purposes. Last week was really important because it was the first time I would be able to really assess my current "level of fitness" and make some decisions about what direction I would take my training given my bike accident and the unexpected time and energy commitment involved in becoming a certified Yoga Instructor.

I sort of highlight the term "level of fitness" because as I'm writing this, just as I was deciding to bench mark it last week, I sort of have to laugh. I'm laughing because when I decided to do the testing I still hadn't seen the last, and probably most important, person on my wellness team (more on this later). So basically what I'm saying is my arm still hurt. But in order to move forward I needed to know exactly where I was -- the good, the bad, and the ugly. So to speak.

This meant testing in each of the 3 sports. The run was easy. Just run and hold my arm at an angle that didn't involve it hurting. Sometimes I do this type of test on the track. But that is more important with actual speed assessment. Since I'm not fast at the moment both due to 3 months of nonstop Yoga and the bike accident, I decided the "truth" of the track wasn't necessary. This time I did a run test similar to a T-30min in the pool. Except my run test had a heart rate ceiling of 154 which is approximately 15 beats below my aerobic threshold. The point of the work out was to see how far I could run at that pace in exactly 1 hour. I ran about (I was on the trail without the footpod - my shoes fit better without it) 7.5 miles with an average heart rate of 148. This averages out to about 8:00 per mile pace.

There were actually two bike tests. One with a heart rate ceiling of 150 and one with a higher ceiling done 3 days later. Both test were done on the same 8 mile course. This is the same loop that is used by the RunFar Time Trial folks. My average heart rate for the test was 146 and I completed the 8 miles in 23:42. This gave me an average speed of 20.25 mph. The second test was done with a heart rate ceiling of 165, or 5 beats below aerobic threshold. My average heart rate was 162 with a time of 22:15. My average speed was 21.56 mph. The coolest thing about the bike though was discovering aerobars hold my arm in a completely pain-free position!

Last was the swim test. Though I had regained the ability to bend at the elbow, it was still too painful to swim for any amount of time over 3 minutes. As such, I opted out of the planned swim test.

Conclusions from last week: 1. Aerobically running and biking I'm ok. 2. I need to do more power sets on the bike for some speed and efficiency. 3. I can't swim yet. And 4. For the time being, I suppose I'll be a duathlete.