Training Log: 2/29 - 3/6 (Week 1)

Tough week.  I was busy as Hell.  At work, at home, as a writer, as the new Information Systems Officer (ISO) for the West Point Class of 1995...  In every facet of my life, there is a lot going on.

This was also a Week 1 training week, and I tried to hit it pretty hard.  I might have even overdone it a bit.

Swim, Bike, Run

I finally told my wife Sally late yesterday afternoon that the next time I decide to do Mossa Group Power endurance weight training the day before a long run, she needs to stop me.  That combination is a damned nightmare.  Seriously, pain may be weakness leaving the body, but at a certain point, it leaves psychological scars on its way out.

My week looked like this:

• Monday: Commute ride
• Tuesday: Commute ride / Swim
• Wednesday: Lunchtime run
• Thursday: Commute Ride (no Weights)
• Friday: Lunchtime run
• Saturday: Swim / Weights (Mossa)
• Sunday: Long, slow distance run

Swim

I hit the pool twice, doing pretty much the same workout both times.

Tuesday Warm-Up
200 Swim / Kick / IM / Pull / Swim (SKIPS)

Tuesday Main Set
10 x 100 @ 1:25 aerobic pace

100 warm down

The most noteable thing about Tuesday's swim came afterwards.  The Y's swim team was in the water when I got in, and their coach complimented my stroke as I was leaving.  That was nice.  I told him that I swam at Army, and he got all excited.  Gotta love that.

Saturday Warm-Up
5 x 100 @ 1:30 easy
200 kick
6 x 50 @ :45, breathing every 3rd
 -- focus on taking long, balanced strokes

Main Set
1000 @ timer (aerobic pace)
 -- Time: 13:24 (1:20.4/100)

My goal Saturday was to swim the 1000 timer at the same aerobic intensity that I planned to do my long, slow distance run the next day.  This was not as easy as it sounds.  I took the first 100 out in 1:15 and felt good, but after that quick start, I had trouble settling into the kind of steady swimming that I'd set as my goal.  I started getting tired at around the 600 mark and forced myself to even things out, eventually getting my stroke back under control.  Still, the entire approach was stupid, and you don't get extra point for stupidity, especially after you turn 40 years old.

Overall, I'd have to say that I'm reasonably satisfied.  13:24 isn't particularly fast or anything, but it's not terrible considering how little I've been swimming lately, and my heart rate at the end of the 1000 was between 145 and 150.  That's maybe a touch above where I wanted to be, but again, it's not actually bad.

Swimming Total: 2 x swims (2100, 2100); 42 pts


Bike
Three commutes this week.  I can't remember anything about any of them, save that I'm tired of being cold when I'm out on the bike.  We're supposed to have better weather this week, and I am embarrassingly excited about it.  I'm in jeans today, but I hope to be in shorts for the rest of the week.

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


Run
I ran well this week.  I felt like I made a breakthrough coming off of last week's tempo run at the end of my Rest Week.  I put in a full half-hour run on Wednesday, and although I was running easy, I flew.  I am not a great runner, but I put in almost four miles in a half hour, and I felt wonderful.  The past few weeks of weight-training mixed with running have really started to come together for me, with the result that I am now running better than I have in maybe ten years.  It's kind of amazing, really.

Friday's run was shorter, and I forced myself to run a little easier, but I am still running markedly faster than I did just a few weeks ago.  A month ago, my easy aerobic pace was around 9:30/mile.  Now it's down to 9:00, and I regularly find myself cruising at 8:45 or so.  I'm sure I could put in a 10K at 8:00/mile running at race pace.

Sunday was my tough day.  As I've said, I made the (extremely stupid) decision to do Mossa Strength Training with Sally on Saturday morning, mostly because they do a lot of legs in that class, and I feel like all that work on my quads and butt has been helping me run.  This was still a stupid decision, however, because I was exhausted before I'd even taken a step Sunday afternoon.

I'm up to a long run of 7 miles.  None of it was particularly easy, but I set out at an easy 9:15/mile pace and held that without overmuch effort through the first half.  Because of the way my route is shaped, I didn't turn for home until about the 4-mile mark, and despite the fact that this put the wind at my back, it was also where I felt the piano start falling in on me.  Ugh.  My last three miles were 9:22, 9:35, and a painfully plodding 9:45.  I finished with a heart rate right at 140 bpm (below goal pace), and that's fine, but overall, this was a very tough effort.  My legs were dead for pretty much the entire hour I was out there.

Running Total: 3 x runs (3.5, 2.5, 7); 52.0 pts

Aerobic Total: 126.1 pts

On the plus side, this works out to be almost exactly 110% of the point total from my last training week, which means that I hit my goal total exactly.  The downside, though, is that I can barely walk--I am literally hobbling right now--and I have to somehow make my way through another training week starting today.  As I write this, I'm on the train, getting ready to hit the bike for my regular commute.

It promises to be an interesting week.


Weights

Hannah had a church thing on Tuesday, which is why I swam Tuesday night.  By the time Thursday rolled around, though, she looked exhausted.  She was asleep when I got home, and I refused to wake her to go to the gym.  She therefore did PLYOGA with Sally and her sister Emma on Saturday morning while I was in the water.  But then Emma sat while Sally ran Hannah and me through Mossa.

The thing with Mossa is that they do base sets of 16 reps.  I'm fine with all the upper body stuff thanks to my background in swimming, but there are two sets of 16 lunges in the current workout routine, and they absolutely crush me every time.  The high-rep squats are okay, but as soon as we transition to those stupid lunges, I am absolutely done.  Yes, those lunges are helping me, but I also need to be able to walk, talk, and function in my everyday life, too.  There's a line there somewhere, and I am now firmly on the wrong side of it.

My plan was to do Mossa once every two weeks, but it's just not compatible with my run schedule, gains or no gains.  I'm not sure exactly how I'm going to work through the issues here, but I definitely need to keep doing lunges.  I just don't need to crush myself quite so completely when I do them.


Looking Forward
It's Week 2, and I'm starting it badly fatigued.  Save for the bike commute, today is a rest day, and tomorrow is the same, until we hit the weight room tomorrow night.  The good news is that I can structure my workouts to lay off the legs until I've recovered--at least until Wednesday.  The bad news is that it might take me more than two days to recover, and if it does, this is looking to be another very tough week.