Triathlon Training Log: 8/10 to 8/16 (Week 4)

As I've mentioned before, I'm seriously considering a solo attempt at next year's Swim Across the Sound.  I'd like to do it, but at this point I have two concerns.  First, I'm not sure how my body is going to react to the dramatic increase in swim yardage required to contemplate a 15.5-mile open water swim, and second, I'm not at all sure that I have time in my personal and professional life to make the kind of commitment to training that I think success is going to require.  So the past two weeks have been about upping my swim yardage and gauging how my body is reacting while working with my wife to design a family schedule that works for everyone.  So far, so good, but we are all of two week in.

If you're new to the blog, this write-up uses a points system to track training and equivalence efforts across all three disciplines.  You can read about that here.


Swim
I swam three times this week, and all of them were simple, grinding workouts.  I know folks sometimes come here looking for cool swimming sets.  There aren't any of those here.

Tuesday
5 x 100 warm-up @ 1:30
25 x 100 @ 1:25 (aerobic pace)
100 cool down

Thursday
2x 200 warm-up (no interval)
1800 yard swim (~25:00)
50 cool down

Sunday
200 SKIPS*
2 x 400 @ 5:40
3 x 300 @ 4:15
4 x 200 @ 2:55
5 x 100 @ 1:25
100 cool down

Sunday's workout was tough.  It was essentially similar to what I did Tuesday--i.e. 100s on a base 1:25/100--but it went 500 yards further, and I don't mind telling you that I got tired in doing it.  Maybe that was because it was hot outside, or maybe the problem is that my buddy and I spent most of the previous day in the car driving to and from West Point to watch a football practice.  Regardless, by the time I hit the middle of that set of 200s, I felt like I was about to pop, and I barely made the interval on that last 5 x 100 set.

On the other hand, my friend George said that he was swimming about 20K yards per week when he did his Swim Across the Sound.  I hit 9450 this week, and I'm only two weeks in.  Assuming that I don't develop tendinitis, that seems like decent progress.

Swimming Total: 3 x workouts (3100, 2350, 4100); 94.5 pts

My interim goal is to get to a point where I feel comfortable doing 10K yard workouts on Saturday mornings.


Bike
I only worked four days this week, and of those, I rode my regular commute three of them. It was really nice to have a short week, but the commute rides themselves were basically non-events.

Cycling Total: 3 x commute rides (3 x 10.7 miles); 32.1 pts


Run
I wanted to run twice this week, but with the increased focus on swimming and the decision to go watch Army's Football's scrimmage, there just wasn't time.  I put in a 5-mile effort on Wednesday at lunch, and that went pretty well, but it was the only run I did.  I ran from my office to the Reservoir in Central Park at an easy pace, let a total stranger pull me around the Reservoir at about 8:45/mile (light tempo pace), and then ran easy on my way back to the office.  That totalled out at 5.1-miles, 9:11/mile pace.

Running Total: 1 x lunchtime run (5.1 miles); 20.4 pts

Triathlon Training Total: 147 pts

147 is not a bad point total all things considered, but if you're training for an Ironman, you're probably doubling that right now.  I feel like I could probably do an Oly right now if I pressed, but it's not like I've been making an effort to balance my training across all three disciplines.

Last thought: it's been a few months since I've done one of these logs.  Is anybody actually reading this, or is this a waste of time?  Thanks in advance for your honesty.

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*SKIPS: Swim / Kick / IM / Pull / Swim.  200 SKIPS is a 1000 yards of swimming.