#64 a little gas on the fire to get things going?
Coming off a week of training where I felt like I was a little behind the stress-curve complete with all of the key indicators (a cold), I decided this was a good week to back off the total training volume (i.e. lots of long sessions) which for me is by far the greatest stressor.
The compromise though was that in order to do so without losing substantial ground, I’d have to give myself a little intensity “pop”…..a little gas on the fire, which, assuming the gamble paid off, would give me my first training break-through of the season.
In practical terms this worked out to 7 workouts, down from what would be my goal for the week (11) with a decrease in training time to 6 hours from a standard goal of 10+. However I think it accomplished the goal. After a fairly intense training week, I’m surprisingly fresh and feel good about my training results; of course I won’t know for sure if it was a break-through week until I can look back on it…..but even though I’m still a little run-down, I’m confident things are generally on track.
Training sessions for the week:
Sunday Swim x 30 min – nothing special, just getting in some meters….still battling fatigue
Monday Run x 6+ mi – started aerobic, slowly increased pace to threshold and then ended with a short push of the pace (+/- 1/2 mile).
Tuesday Bike x 45 min (of which 25 min was hard) + 15 min of anaerobic interval-work (treadmill, weights, etc) work in the gym.
Wednesday Swim x 30 min for recovery and form. Had hoped to get a second session in here, but just wasn’t in the cards.
Thursday Swim x 60 min – solid session, started as an “endurance” set, but then saw a guy (really fast swimmer) who was looking for a training partner as his typical partner was running late. Bottom line is that we started doing 75m repeats……and by the 12th one I was sucking wind……which was a good break from sucking wake…..great “jelly arm” session though.
Friday Run x 7+ mi – went with feel on this one and was happy with my pace on a hilly course. Wanted to push hard enough to feel it but not go all out…..mission accomplished.
Saturday: Brick 1 hour of “hillacious” by spinervals pushing enough power on the trainer to have tired legs and then jumped on the treadmill for 20 minutes at a pace I’d be quite happy with on race-day.
Grades
PHYSIOLOGY
Fuel (Nutrition & Hydration): B Nutrition was solid this week…..even good, however as the intensity went up, the hydration went down.
Recover (Physiologic Stressors): B- Good step in the right direction this week……by cutting back on volume I freed up some time to rest…..and I actually did. It helped.
PSYCHOLOGY
Endure (Mindset): B+ Feeling more and more focused which is key. Also continuing to pay attention to the little details of my training sessions trying to wring every drop of quality out of them…..this is rewarding as it feels like I’m getting somewhere each session.
Connect: B Still felt like I was able to stay in tune with those around me…..a good thing.
METHODOLOGY
Quality of effort: B- Quality was good……recorded more than 1/2 of the sessions….but still struggling to sit down and put into my tracker.
Scoring Key:
A+ = 5.5 A = 5.3 A- = 5.0
B+ = 4.5 B = 4.3 B- = 4.0
C+ = 3.5 C = 3.3 C- = 3.0
D+ = 2.5 D = 2.3 D- = 2.0
F+ = 1.5 F = 1.3 F- = 1.0
B- for the week…..passable, and a solid improvement from last week. Still in search of that “A” week though…..have to love the challenge.
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OK, it’s off to the pool for me…..squeezing in a video session to help me “see” the (many I’m sure) holes in my stroke. On one hand, sort of don’t want to know, but on the other hand, it’s probably the best thing for me if I’m to make steady improvements since going at it blindly has a pretty low ceiling.
I’ll let you know how it goes……
Less than 6 months to go.
Mike E.