Training Log: 1/13 to 1/19 (Week 3)

Finally, a decent week of training.  Not a great, world-class week or anything, but definitely the week I needed.  All things considered, this was probably about the hardest week of training that I could've reasonably handled at this point in the season, especially given how little I've done up to now.


Swim
I finally got in the water twice this week.  On Wednesday, I got in with my friend Ben, and we swam hard, if not particularly far.

• 5 x 100 @ 1:30 warm up
• 200 kick
• 16 x 50 @ :50, every fourth 50 sprint
• 200 pull

I managed to hold something like :33 on the 50s sprint, and that's not too bad.  I mean, I don't have the kind of speed that I used to have, but what can you expect?

Sally and I went to the pool together on Sunday.  I took that very easy, but I still wanted to get in some yards, as much to work upper body endurance as anything else.

• 5 x 100 @ 1:30 warm up
• 200 kick
• 10 x 100 pull @ 1:30
• 100 easy

Managed to hold about 1:15 on the 100s pull.  Again, that's not world-class or anything, but it's not bad, and I kept my heartrate down around 140 the whole time.

Swimming Total: 2 x swim (1700, 1800); 35 pts.

Bike

We had decent weather this week, and I managed to ride my regular commute three times: Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  I would've ridden Monday, too, but I ran that day, and we don't yet have enough daylight to ride on the days that I run at lunch because those days tend to be a little longer.  

Still, Wednesday especially was a nice day, and I had fun out there.  I'm a long way from feeling good on the bike, but at least I'm riding.  That's as good for my sanity as it is for my physical body.

Cycling Total: 3 x commute ride (11-miles each); 33 pts.

Run

I ran seven miles on Saturday last week, and followed that up on Monday with 4.5-miles, doing fartlek work.

• 10-minutes aerobic pace
• 10 x (1:00 tempo / 1:00 easy)
• 2:00 easy
• Finished the last mile at about 8:00/mile pace

That was great, but then I felt like I'd pulled my right calf afterwards, to the point where it hurt even to walk on Tuesday.  I still swam on Wednesday, and it didn't stop me riding at all during the week, but I was afraid to try to run on it.  On top of that, I didn't want to take a day off from riding my commute just to put in a short, easy run during the week, and given how short the days have been this month, that was the choice I was facing.  I don't mind riding in Manhattan, but riding in Manhattan after dark is terrifying.

Me and my dog Faith stretching after last week's long run.

It was just as well.  Sally and I ran together on Saturday afternoon, but when she turned for home at about the 2.5-mile mark, I turned towards the beach and put in another 3.5-miles by myself.  Granted, I ran pretty easy, but that's not a problem or anything, especially considering that this week ended with nearly twice as much work overall as any week in the past three months.

Running Total: 2 x runs (4.4, 6.2); 42.4 pts.

Weekly Training Total: 110.5 pts.

Final Thoughts

So this was Week 3, which ordinarily ought to mean that next week would be a Rest Week.  But I don't feel like I've put in enough work yet to need rest.  I'd like to get out and run a bit today if I get a chance, and depending on how that goes, set up the rest of the week.

That said, it's worth nothing that this week's total is 144% of last week's, and while 110 pts isn't a particularly big number in absolute terms, it's a huge jump from what I've been doing.  I don't generally like to increase by more than 10% to 15% week-on-week, so in thinking about how I set up the coming week, I need to keep in mind that another big jump in total training is not advised.