Swim
I put in my usual two swim workouts this week. I can't remember what we did Tuesday, but it came out to exactly 2000 yards. Must not have been that exciting.
Saturday was a long swim day. My buddy Ben is now two weeks out from Master's Nationals, and so this weekend represented his last long workout before starting to rest. We've been doing a lot of endurance freestyle, and I've slowly been pushing him to do more continuous butterfly sets, though these are not necessarily fast.
He hit the water before I did on Saturday and went a little further. My workout ended up as follows:
Warm-Up
4 x 100 free @ 1:30
200 kick
Main Set
10 x 200 free @ 2:55 (aerobic pace)
8 x 50 @ :55, alternating fly/free
Warm Down
50 easy
We've been doing workouts like that all season, but it still felt like a lot of swimming.
Swimming Total: 2 x swims (2000, 3050); 50.5 pts
Bike
We were supposed to have a bunch of rain this week, but it never really materialized. Still, it kept me from getting on the bike a few times for my commute, though I did ride twice. I suppose that's something.
I took my actual road bike out for a spin on Sunday. It was windy down by the beach, and my knee was a little sore, especially for the first half, but I felt okay. Averaged about 16 mph into the wind and probably a little more than 18 mph riding with it. Went just under 21 miles total in about an hour and fifteen minutes. At the end of the day, I was averaged maybe 17.5 mph. That's about normal effort. I certainly wasn't killing myself out there, but I felt better on the back half than I had on the front. Overall I road better than I probably had any right to expect considering how long it's been since I've been out. I wasn't even sore afterwards.
Cycling Total: 2 x commute ride, 1 x road ride (10.7, 10.7, 20.8); 42.2 pts
Run
Ah running. My nemesis. I like to run, but it seems that running doesn't like me.
My plan all offseason has been to run three times per week to improve my form and my overall aerobic fitness, while letting my natural abilities in the other disciplines carry me as necessary. As has happened before, though, once I start feeling good out on the road, some part of me starts getting sore. In this case it's been my right knee, but that's just the latest thing in a long list of things that has given out under stress. What can you do?
They say that the biggest predictor of whether or not a runner will get injured is how much he or she has been injured in the past. Well, I've been dealing with little knee and ankle problems since I was a First Lieutenant stationed at Fort Stewart, Georgia. That's been almost two decades now. For better or worse, the Army sure didn't do my knees any favors. At this point, I suppose I have to just rest it and hope the knee feels better, but it seems inevitable that the end of my running career looms just over the horizon. If it's not this time, it'll be the next one or the next one after that.
Running Total: 2 x lunchtime runs (2.7, 2.7); 21.6 pts
Triathlon Training Total: 114.3 pts
All things considered, this is not a bad total. Ideally, of course, I'd like to put in a long run on Saturday after swimming and then ride on Sunday, but this works. Plus, it's roughly in line with what I've been doing, though it's a moderate increase of total effort over the last few weeks. That's good.
I usually train on a four-week cycle, three working weeks and a rest week. This particular training cycle has been five weeks, however, meaning that the coming week definitely needs to be a rest week. I don't feel particularly tired, but it's possible that not taking the rest week as scheduled this past week exacerbated my knee problems. At any rate, I certainly can't run this week, and I know I'm not swimming this weekend, so I've not much choice but to take some time off.
*sigh*
I'm on the bike today, at least, and with any luck I'll be able to ride my commute a few times. Maybe get in a decent swim on Tueday. That, I suppose, is the best I can hope for.
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