My Week So Far

So I'm back on the bike and running more, with a few swims thrown in for good measure. Monday was a 90 minute run followed by a 1 hour bike and a 30 min drill swim. The swim was more for recovery and to cool off while loosening up. In the midst of these workouts was a yoga class. Tuesday was another yoga class followed by 2 hour tempo ride at race pace.

I'm starting to see some gains in strength on the bike. Its about time. I can't tell you wattage because I don't ride with electronics except a HR monitor (though I am thinking about getting a Garmin for next season) but I do know I am pushing bigger gears without blowing up and my average time on the loop has been steadily going down at the same HR/effort. As a disclaimer, I do use wattage during workouts on the trainer with the Tacx but I don't know how reliable that is. The way I see it is if the numbers go up as I get better, that's all that matters really.

Anyway, today was a 60 minute run @ 8:00 per mile pace followed by a 90 minute recovery ride (HR ceiling of 135). Tomorrow is the beginning of the week's swim focused work with a 4k workout followed by a 60 minute recovery run. Let's see how that goes.

Tuesday

Its all just training now. That's really the only thing that's been going on. That and work. I'm taking the strength I've spent the last year building and applying it. Longer runs over varied terrain. (Read hilly). Power based cycling. And longer swims with intervals. Today was boot camp and a power/steady state focused cycling workout. Boot camp was doable but the cycling was pure hell. Made to the end of the workout, but barely. Just one more week and I can think "recovery."

Tuesday

Well it was hot. About 88 degrees, though it felt like 90. But I got in a 45 min run which was quite hilly. I think for the first 20 or so minutes I was really suffering. I'm not quite sure why but I really wasn't enjoying what I was doing at all. But this was definitely one of those days that running with someone helped a lot. I was able to focus more on our conversation which thankfully was less about the heat and the hills and more about things we had experienced in college. The fun stuff primarily. But at some point after the last "insanely" steep climb I started feeling much better.

Earlier today I did my normal yoga class at Dharma with Sanieh. This class was all fire and strength and I really needed a nap after it was done. Apparently I needed a 2 hour nap. That's why the morning run I planned didn't happen. And it is also why I skipped the bike ride too. I wonder if the intensity of the yoga class didn't have something to do with how I felt on the afternoon run. The class was really strength based which probably challenged my muscles more than I needed. Also I was very thirsty from the time we started. And I was conscious of my hydration both today and yesterday, but I think the intensity of the yoga class may have compromised my hydration too. Oh well I'll have to look into that. Tomorrow I'll focus on the bike and get in a swim. I think I've done enough for today.

Not Much To Say Except...

So there isn't really much to say. I have a dislocated bone in my foot. I know why I have it. Not because of shoes, or overtraining. I have it because I've been working on detoxing my body and had some structural deep tissue work done at around the same time. Basically, toxins and cause tendons to weaken and in this instance because of gravity and some integration work done on my feet at about the same time, I didn't let everything shake out before going back to my normal routine. So until the bone gets taken care of I won't be running. I had it worked on last week and got it partially back in place, but I still have pain. On a scale of 1 to 10 it is a 9. 10 being I'd want to shoot myself to put myself out of my misery.

But this is giving me time to finally sit down and write out a schedule for my workouts. Minus running of course. The running is on the schedule, I just won't be doing it. Funny how I can find time to put this on paper now. I think what has happened is I have a better handle on my external commitments. Probably because I've moved some things around and let others go completely. Now I'll work on the actual build in volume and intensity. I should have the whole year planned out by Wednesday. Honestly I feel much better knowing what I will be doing each day versus just "winging" it like I have since my work schedule changed in November.

The Week's Not Quite Over

But I'm having a really good training week. All of my workouts so far have been really productive. I had been thinking about something Lucho said/says about taking risks with your training and have tried to do some things differently -- especially with my cycling and strength work these last couple of weeks. I've added 3 strength workouts to the mix (each with a different emphasis) and do them only during the days I work following a 30 to 45 min warmup run or bike.

One of the challenges in training for me is to get all of the workouts I'd like to do in while still seeing a positive benefit from each session. But what can be most challenging for me is my work schedule and getting adequate recovery. Because I work overnight 3 days out of the week, my sleep patterns are irregular. The days I work I don't get as much sleep as the days I'm off. And the 4 days I'm off are also when I try to get in the bulk of my quality training. So I'm trying to train and recover during the same block of time.

In the past I made the mistake of attempting to stick a more "traditional" training schedule where my long rides and runs where done on the weekends. But getting off at 7AM after working for 12 hours and trying to run or ride was just too hard physically and mentally. I've since decided that just wasn't a good idea for a lot of reasons. The main one being I was having serious trouble with my weight while I was doing it. It was also ruining my training and recovery during my days off.

Because of the things I discovered going through my training logs last week I decided to do as much work on the weekdays as possible in a daily pattern consisting of swimming, yoga, riding, then running followed by more yoga targeting tight and/or tired muscles from the day's workouts. Since the last Time Trial I've shifted my week day workouts around to this new pattern and it seems to be working. I think I've come up with a workout schedule I can live with. By doing some things a little differently adding the strength work and a few relatively short but intense running and cycling sessions to the mix, I'm actually doing a few more hours of training a week and not feeling as wiped out overall. That is a good thing.

I'm not sure but I think simply because of the schedule change, I'm starting to see some more rapid gains in fitness than I'd been experiencing before. One thing I've noticed besides feeling more rested and stronger is that my resting heart rate has dropped from about 55 bpm to 42 bpm. My appetite has been really consistent lately and I think I'm seeing the benefit of eating pretty much the same stuff daily as long as it is healthy. I'm not sure what the percentages are but I know I've been getting lots of carbs, mainly from fruits and veggies. The biggest addition to my diet lately has to be my "rediscovery" that I LOVE grapefruit. Next to watermelon which is practically like eating a serving water and trace minerals, I think grapefruit is awesome. It so takes care of the hunger and the thirst at the same time. And I'm all about efficient fueling. I've also been drinking more organic fruit juices, especially cranberry juice. When I started drinking cranberry juice regularly a couple of months ago I noticed an immediate upswing in my day to day energy. Subsequent conversations with my Naturopath about this development seem to point to both the cleansing, alkaline promoting nature of the cranberry juice in the body as well as the possibility of my walking around with a low grade bladder infection.

On top of all that I went out and did another Time Trial this past Tuesday. This time I started thinking about all the cycling I'd been doing for the last few years with Du'Shun. The thing about my riding with him is that it is all about efficiency. If there is one thing I can say that I've learned from him is riding quickly with a super high cadence and saving big swings in power output for when they are really needed. This is big change from how I used to ride before when I raced. So when I went out to the Time Trial this week I decided to do the whole thing in my small chainring. What happened was that I rode entirely in my small ring and matched the speed of my previous best time. Oh and that was in conditions that were hotter and windier, and with a heart rate 10 beats lower than the prior best effort. So what I learned from that is I had been pushing too large a gear and need to maintain the efficiency as I build my strength.

Now I'm off to the gym. Cheers.

Why They Invented Training Logs...

So we could use them. After what happened at the time trial the week before, first I did some soul searching. Then I got down to business. I looked at my training log for the day of the time trial. Normally my workouts follow a similar pattern on Tuesdays. First I swim, then I do yoga, then I go home for a nap. In the afternoon I ride my bike. It is the same pattern every Tuesday since I got over my bike wreck. Every Tuesday except the one a couple of weeks ago. So that day according to my log I swam, went to yoga (there is a note about the air conditioning in the building being broken), and then I went for a 5 mile run. DING!!! Ok so I'm going to say this here more for my own sake than for anyone else's, changes like this need to be taken into account because there are so many things that need to be addressed. For one, there would be the additional calories and nutrients that would have to be replaced. Then there was the recovery period between yoga and my evening ride that got shortened due to the run. And it was hot. Plus it was hot in the yoga studio. So I think what happened is I just plain bonked on the time trial.

Now about my "weak ass" cycling. Yep I said it and I'm not gonna sugar coat it either. My cycling is weak. Anyway another trip through the training logs (going back as far as 10 years) yielded a lot of pertinent information. Basically my volume is way too low. I haven't spent nearly enough time on my bike. And logs going back all show the same thing, my mileage now is less than half what it had been at the same time of year. But what was also telling is how much time I spent and devoted just to overall leg strength. In the past I spent between 1 and a half to 2 hours a week just on leg strength. I was looking at the weights in the workouts and had to shake my head. 3 sets of 12 squats at 315lbs for example. And I only weighed around 142lbs at the time.

And that bought up another really good point to consider. Back then my power to weight ratio was a lot bigger. And it made up for the fact that I had absolutely no endurance when I think about it. But that is the kind of thing that can be gained from keeping a log. You can really see what was working and what wasn't and make adjustments. Now I've gotten to the point of keeping a sort of log/journal which besides workout specifics also highlights my state of mind and what I am learning from my training.

So things are better now. My advice to you? Keep a log. You never know when you are looking around for some answers, your own best advice might just come from you.