Tough all over

I can't say I enjoyed this run. It was good to get through it, and get it over with, but my enjoyment was limited during the actual production. Same thing as last week, but I'm not sure if it was easier or not. Last week was hard, this week was hard. All I know is that I made it to the end without falling off the treadmill, and that's a major accomplishment.

Run: 45 minutes, w/5x3 minutes @ 9.9 mph, 2 minutes @ 7.3 mph

Keep knocking it out

No breakthroughs to report today, just a good day of mileage, with a nice little piece of intensity thrown into the middle. I was happy with how the sprints were working out. The first one was kind of rough, but then I got into a bit of a groove. My goggles are starting to leak a fair bit, so this weekend I need to run to the swim store and look into some new ones. My old ones lasted a year, and these have barely gone three months (same brand).

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
500 partner truck & trailer, 30"
200 ez pull, 30"
5x(50 sprint, 30" (43s, 40, 40, 40, 41)
150 as 50 breast/100 pull, 1')
200 ez pull, 30"
3x200 descending free, 30"
3x200 pull w/paddles, 30"
Total: 3500m

Weights:
Bear - 2x4/65
Bent row - 2x10,12/95
Pushup - 2x12,15/80
Crossarm situp - 2x8,10
Pillar opposites - 2x10,11
Barbell curl - 1x11/53
French press - 1x8/40

Stormy weather

I'm a big suck. I could have been out in the cold and wind and rain this morning. But I didn't have to be, because I own a treadmill, and that means I get to bail every once in a while. It may not be quite as much fun, but I still get the miles in. And that meant 10 miles this morning, in my climate-controlled basement.

The run was good, a bit boring, and my legs were a bit heavy, but I think that can expected given the last week. Tomorrow is rest for the lower extremities, and I'll be back to hit it on Tuesday. An afternoon nap has helped considerably, and maybe one more this evening will set me up for a nice night's sleep.

Run: 10 miles: 5 miles @ 7.3 mph, 5 miles @ 7.5 mph

Still going up

It was the end of a real week of speed work, and yesterday was a record breaking day in the pool. So it would be understandable if I was a little shattered coming into today. Instead, I'm a little shattered after the workout, but that's because I hit it hard again. I took a look at my last two attempts at Have Mercy, and set a plan of attempting to hit my highest wattages for the best possible workout.

I ended up with a PR of 221 average wattage for the day (6w improvement), at a heart rate average 1 bpm lower than before. That's a very good day. The only thing that went poorly was the absolute last set sprints, when I couldn't hold the top wattage for more than 3 seconds. The legs were fried. So next time I'll crush that part too.

Bike: Spinervals 9.0 - Have Mercy, 120 minutes

400m of death - The 600th Post

The schedule kind of got shifted around a little. Last week was the distance set, and today became the test day. But I wasn't too sure if we were up for the test, with all the changes. Imagine my surprise when I check the board during the warm-up and see that on the menu.

A few weeks ago, I had an horrible swim, and my confidence had been shattered since then. My last time in the test, I did 400m in 7:00, and on that day, I couldn't do 300m in better than 5:26. I've spent the last few weeks really working on the basics, and hoping that things will fall into place, but without any good timed sets to compare. So my goal pushing off the wall today was to match my 7:00 if I could, maybe pick up a second or two. But things didn't go quite as planned.

My first hundred I got into a hard but manageable rhythm. Finish the stroke, roll the body. That's all I could think about. Go as fast as I can while doing things right. As I finished that 100m, I quickly glanced at the clock. 1:30. I was a bit worried I may have knocked off my goggles when my eyes bugged out. "Umm ... OK ... settle down, Sparky." Since there's no way I could keep that going for long, I tried to ease off the throttle a little, but keep making good strokes. Two hundred metres in 3:15. That's a more manageable pace, as long as I don't blow up. To balance out the lanes, I had been moved up to Lane Two, so I was among faster swimmers. I didn't notice myself really gaining or losing to any of them, so I must be doing something right. 300m, 5:00. I can beat my PR with anything less than two minutes, and I should be able to do that. Things started falling apart in the last 100, but I tried to keep it together as best I could. It was a bit of a MacGyver mission holding things together with bubble gum and elastic bands, but it held. I had a bit of a panic attack in the last 50 when I couldn't remember if I was finishing or at 300m. Oxygen deprivation does that. Luckily, it was the end, and I touched the wall for the last time at 6:43, crushing the PR.

I guess that bad day was exactly that, and not an indication I was regressing. That's good to know.

Then we did some cooldown, easy work, and some paddles to finish the day. Now I'm exhausted, but also a bit elated. (It's an E word day, apparently.) Between sets the coach congratulated me on some big improvements, from 7:13 in December, to 7:00 in January and 6:43 now. I ended up beating two of the regular members of Lane Two. Maybe I'll get called up soon, maybe I'll continue to lead my lane.

Three hours later, I'm still pretty chuffed. I still need a nap, too.

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
100 free as 25 hard/75 ez, 15"
100 free as 50 hard/50 ez, 15"
100 free as 75 hard/25 ez, 15"
100 ez non-free, 90"
400m TT (1:30/3:15/5:00/6:43)
200 ez non-free, 30"
4x200 ez pull, 30"
3x(200 pull w/paddles, 30"
100 ez non-free, 15")
c/d - 200 ez free
Total: 3500m

Weights:
Chaosbringer - 2x4/65
Chins - 2x10,10
Reverse flye/Lateral raise - 2x8,10/15
Side plank w/abduction - 2x12,13
Supermans - 2x12,14
Reverse curl - 1x11/48
Diamond pushup - 1x15/20

More tired than I thought

I was under the impression I was pretty well recovered from Tuesday night's speedwork. Everything felt pretty good, but once the pace picked up tonight, I knew that I was running on a half-full tank. Luckily, the effort wasn't as high, this only being a T-pace day, so I was able to get through to the end. It was just a little tougher than I would have expected it to be. I guess this is my "running on tired legs" lesson for the week.

Now it's time for sleep. Sweet, glorious sleep.

Run: 38 minutes, w/18 minutes @ 9.1 mph

Screaming tris

Nope, not a new series of XTREME triathlons. My triceps. Ow. And it's all because it was a mostly slow day in the pool.

Other than a few 4x25 sets tossed into the workout, the rest was drill/easy (ie, focus on technique). My drill of choice for the day: thigh scrapes, to work on finishing my stroke. Focus during the easy sets: finish the stroke. All that finishing meant my tris were very sore by the end. But that's good, it means I was doing it right. I hope to be able to move my arms again by Friday morning. That's my new goal.

Swim: w/u - 200yds each free, non-free, pull
300 as 50 drill/50 ez, 15"
300 ez free, w/flip turns, 30"
4x25 sprint, on 1'
100 ez back
300 as 50 drill/50 ez, 15"
300 ez free, w/flip turns, 30"
4x25 sprint, on 1'
100 ez back 300 as 50 drill/50 ez, 15"
300 ez free, w/flip turns, 30"
Total: 2800 yds

Eye for an I

I took the day off work. I had a few errands to run, but most importantly I had a dental appointment. (I feel like, for realism, the rest of the entire should have b's at the end of every word.) Since I didn't want to try to do my run after the appointment, I hit before lunch. Today was the start of real speedwork, Daniels' I-pace running. This was, without question, the fastest I've run at any point in years. Last year was mostly easy running, with some tempo work thrown in. This was faster than my 10k speed, by a fair margin.

It's a simple enough workout, 5x3 minutes (2 minute recovery). Once I was warmed up, I notched up the speed on the treadmill, and tried to settle in. I was actually surprised that I wasn't just shot right out the back. I found my groove, and got through the first couple of reps with little difficulty. I mean, I was working, no question, but not struggling. The third rep, I was staring intently at the clock for the last 30 seconds, fighting to keep up. Fourth rep, that became 60 seconds. Last time, 90 seconds of digging deep. But I made it. I held tight all the way through. Now I just need to convince myself that just a little slower than this is manageable for just shy of 40 minutes.

Run: 45 minutes, w/5x3 minutes @ 9.9 mph, 2 minutes @ 7.3 mph

Do it right, do it faster

My elbow was a bit sore this morning. I think it was from all the raking yesterday, so maybe I should stop doing that. I'm sure my wife will be happy about that decision. It wasn't really painful, just tender, and more than once I thought about calling it a day early in the pool. I didn't, and I'm glad I didn't, because I actually had a pretty good swim.

Most of the day was very easy stuff, with only a hard timed 200 thrown in every so often. I think my lanemates aren't really impressed by my speed when leading on the easy sets, since I take them very easy. That's the point, isn't it? I work on my form and cruise along (with a bit of a log-jam behind me). Then we get to the hard stuff, and I start pulling out some bigger gaps. Easy should be easy, hard should be hard. That's how I do it.

I was hoping to keep my pace for the hard 200s under 3:30 each time, and mission accomplished. The last set was fastest, because the last set was also when I finally figured out/remembered to focus on form, that I wanted to use my best possible stroke as fast as I could, rather than going faster with the best stroke I could manage at that intensity. It's a subtle change, but it works. More form work necessary, as always.

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
300 ez free w/gloves, 30"
300 as 25 hard/75 ez free, 30"
200 hard, 30" (3:26)
200 as 100 ez non-free/100 ez pull, 30"
300 as 25 scull/75 ez pull, 30"
300 ez free, breathe every 4th, 30"
200 hard, 30" (3:29)
200 as 100 ez non-free/100 ez pull, 30"
300 as 25 head-up/75 ez free, 30"
300 ez pull, 30"
200 hard, 30" (3:24)
c/d: 200 as 100 ez non-free/100 ez pull
Total: 3600m

Weights:
Bear - 2x4/65
Bent row - 2x10,11/95
Pushup - 2x12,13/80
Crossarm Situp - 2x8,9
Pillar Opposites - 2x10,10
Barbell curl - 1x11/53
Frnech press - 1x8/40

A bit of inspiration

Last night, at least by my perspective, was Ironman 70.3 Singapore. When I checked the results this morning, I was surprised. My assistant coach who has been in the Philippines for the last two months went out and took third in the race. On the podium, and was only 17 seconds out of second. Great job, Tereza!

Using that as a bit of motivation, I hit the road for my run. Today was bit over 8 miles, doing a flat 3 mile loop to get loose, then picking up the pace for the hilly 5 mile loop. I finished the first loop about 30 seconds faster than two weeks ago, which is a good sign, and set out for the longer section. My pace was quick but still at 4-4 breathing. There was a stiff, cold breeze out of the north that slowed down a few stretches, but my legs felt pretty energetic, and I kept popping along. When I got back to the house and stopped the watch, the time was 39:21. This is only the second time I've gone under 40 minutes, and beats my old record by 7 seconds. I definitely wasn't out chasing the record today, since my effort wasn't high enough for that. I could have kept that pace up for quite a while. I may not have enjoyed it that much, but I wasn't any near the limit. So, here we are in March, and I'm running at least as well as I was last August, under sub-optimal conditions. That's not a bad thing at all. Let's see what another six weeks does, and race season opens.

Run: 8.4 miles, 24:51/39:21

It was supposed to be easier

My plan was pretty simple: hit the highest wattages for each section of the workout over the last two attempts, and see if I could do it at an easier heart rate. Somehow, I guess my notation kind of sucked because I worked a lot harder than last time (148 bpm average vs. 143). But, I crushed the wattage goal (215 vs 202w). That's a trade-off I'm willing to accept. I'll see if I can do the same sort of thing for the next two workouts.

Bike: Spinervals 15.0 - Aero Base Builder V, 120 minutes

Easier (?) option

According to my original calendar, today should have been a 400m time trial day. But it wasn't. According to some rumours on Wednesday, today should have been a 3800m distance set. But it wasn't. At least, for me. It was an option, but I decided that I really don't need to work that much on my endurance, especially since I feel like my speed has been off and on recently. So I opted for the normal workout, which was quite a bit of fun, if painful and exhausting. (How messed up is my sense of fun?)

We did a lot of descending sets of 100s, either free or pull. Once again the coach pointed out, and I noticed myself, is my lack of finish when the effort goes up, which is really a power-suck. I know I harp on it on this blog, and I do the same at the pool. I need to work this through. If I can cruise at 1:50/100 with nice long strokes, then I should be able to move faster than 1:40, even if tired, when I crank it up. But I keep getting in my own way. Definitely more practice (and focus) is necessary.

One other thing to note, it's hard to sprint during a pull set. I could do 1:42-45 all day, but all out ends up at 1:40 (see above for part of the problem). Remove turning up the kick, and increases in speed are hard to come by.

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
2x(3x100 free, descending, 10" (1:50, 1:45, 1:40)
100 ez non-free, 30")
2x(3x100 pull, descending, 10" (1:48, 1:42, 1:40)
100 ez non-free, 30")
2x(300 pull w/paddles, 10"
100 ez non-free, 30")
2x200 free as 150 ez/50 hard, 30"
c/d - 100 ez non-free, 100 ez free
Total: 3600m

Weights:
Chaosbringer - 2x4/65
Chins - 2x10,10
Reverse flye/Lateral raise - 2x8,9/15
Side plank w/abduction - 2x12,12
Supermans - 2x12,13
Reverse curl - 1x8/48
Diamond pushup - 1x15/20

More recovery

Just another three easy miles. Legs feel ready for next week, and more speed.

Run: 3 miles @ 7.3 mph

Nice morning

I know I'm a little odd, and it's easy to argue that 5:30 isn't even really morning yet (especially since the time change made it 0-dark-thirty). But today was a nice little ride to the pool. The warmth from yesterday didn't dissipate over night, and the rain was still holding off. No traffic, nice temps. Very pleasant. Then I got to the pool.

We had a good swim today. The first half was paddles, working on the strength. I'm still using the old paddles, but really focusing on a good catch with my left arm. Then it was time for speed work, and I held a decent pace here. I'm afraid to look back and see what I was doing a while ago, but things felt fast. The first one was kind of sloppy, but I worked on the technique, and the second was the same pace, which isn't bad with the short rests. Lost one second on the third, and the last put out a good effort and did flip turns two out of three times, regaining a half-second. (The last turn I hit the wall at the same time as another swimmer, and since I can be a bit of an unguided missile when I'm tired, I though better of the flip.) It's still a lot of concentration to keep the good form, especially when the brain is really just screaming, "go go go go go go". Time will tell what comes out of all this work.

Swim: w/u - 200yds free, non-free, pull
4x(200 pull w/paddles, 15"
100 ez back, 15")
3x(100 hard free, 30" (1:22, 1:22, 1:23)
100 ez non-free, 10"
100 ez pull, 10")
Extra 30" rest
100 hard free (1:22.5)
c/d - 100 ez non-free
Total: 2900 yds

A little jog

Since I've been feeling a little beat up, I'm glad to have this as a recovery week. My legs could use a few days where the demands are lowered. So, after the quick ride home, all I had to do was knock out three miles, and call it a day.

Done.

Run: 3 miles @ 7.3 mph

Might not be too bad

I wasn't too sure how this morning was going to go. I was still a little tired from the weekend, and I was a little concerned that today might be a 400m test day. Luckily, that won't happen until the end of the week. So today was more practice, and more of a chance to make the adjustments necessary to swim faster. My confidence is still a little shattered after my miserable swim 10 days ago, and I don't think that will get fixed until I have a good test day.

We started with some strength work with the paddles, which was a nice way to pre-fatigue the muscles. Then we got into a descending 300 set, which was a chance to vindicate myself, at least a little. I got to pace myself into the first two reps, then let it all out on the last. I had hoped for sub-5:30, and just missed it. That still isn't equivalent to my sub-7 400 pace, but it was a good effort being that late in the workout. I'm hoping this is a good sign. Repeating the descending as a pull set was tough, since I was well tired, and going hard with the pull buoy is hard, since you can't just kick harder. All told, good day.

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
300 pull w/paddles, 30"
300 ez as 100 back/100 breast/100 free, 30"
300 pull w/paddles, 30"
100 ez non-free, 1'
3x300 descending free, 30" (5:53, 5:43, 5:31)
100 ez non-free, 1'
3x300 descending pull, 30" (5:50, 5:37, 5:25)
100 ez non-free
Total: 3600m

Weights:
Bear - 2x4/65
Bent row - 2x10,11/95
Pushup - 2x12,14/80
Crossarm situp - 2x8,8
Pillar opposites - 2x10,12
Barbell curl - 1x11/53
French press - 1x7/40

Keep building

A nice, clear morning for a run. It was just below freezing when I set out, but it warmed up quickly, and I ended up a bit overdressed. Still, you can't complain about days like this. I was setting out to do about 10 miles over flat terrain, so I alternated loops of 2.1 and 3.15 miles. The last loop I picked up the pace, to where 4-4 breathing was barely manageable: high-end aerobic work. All in all, this was a very good run. Now I get a week of something resembling rest.

Run: 10.5 miles, 17:09/25:31/17:11/23:51

End of Silence

How much do you love getting stronger? The list of things better is pretty short (and most of them can't be discussed on a family blog). But this morning was a good round of showing that fitness is coming back.

Yet another appointment with Coach Troy, another pass at Have Mercy, The Sequel. And I knocked this one out of the park. I averaged 7 watts higher than last time (219w), and my average heart rate was 3 beats per minute lower (152 bpm). I think that's some pretty good evidence that I'm getting stronger. Once I turn this into long-range threshold power, I'll be making good time all through the season. I think top 5 T1 to T2 in most races is a reasonable target.

Bike: Spinervals 15.0 - Have Mercy The Sequel, 120 minutes

Bulldozers and dirt

I keep recovering from last week's disappointment in the pool. It seems like I have to keep harping on the same topics when it comes to my swimming, but I have most of the difficulties when my form breaks down in the most fundamental ways. There were two things that came out of this morning's swim:
1) I may need to look into going with a smaller size of paddle, at least for a short time. I'm finding that my left side isn't getting the same amount of work as the right. Watching my hands, I've noticed that I don't do a complete catch with my left arm (forearm is short of vertical), and I'm "slipping" the paddle to make it easier. This is not a good habit to develop, so if I get a chance to hit the store this weekend, I may look into a set of paddles a size or two down.
2) Whenever I try to go hard, or start to get tired, my form slips, and I have to work twice as hard to overcome the giant brake my body turns into. Between 50-70m into my last sprint, my pull had shortened, which cost me body-roll, which caused my hands to cross over in front, and everything was a pile of suck, and I was killing myself out of breath. I yelled at myself to get it together, forced myself to widen my entry and finish the pull, which got me to roll again, and I sped up and felt less tress. It seems so easy, but I continue to have issues with maintaining the basics of good form under duress. I guess I'll need a few thousand more metres to get all this together again.

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
4x100 as 50 scull/50 pull, 10"
500 as 12.5 head-up/87.5 free, 1'
200 ez non-free
3x200 pull w/paddles, 30"
2x(300 3-person drafting, 30"
100 ez non-free, 30")
4x100, 15", as 1) 25 sprint/75 ez, 2) 50 sprint/50 ez, 3) 25 sprint/75 ez, 4) all-out (1:39)
c/d - 100 ez non-free
Total: 3600m

Weights:
Chaosbringer - 2x4/65
Chins - 2x10,9
Reverse flye/Lateral raise - 2x8,9/15
Side plank w/abduction - 2x10,12
Supermans - 2x12,12
Reverse curl - 1x13/43
Diamond pushup - 1x14/20

One down

This is the end of the first block of speedwork. I'll take next week to just do easy runs, and start again after that. At that point, I'll be adding some I-pace running, which threatens to throw me off the treadmill, with haste. I'm excited to see how that goes. For now, I had another good session of T-pace running. I felt a little more taxed than I expected to, but I think the three weeks is starting to catch up with me. All told, I know I'm better off than I was when I started this block. Seven weeks and change until the first race. Legs are improving. Sub-40, here I come.

Run: 44 minutes, w/2x(6 minutes @ 9.0 mph, 1 minute @ 7.3 mph, 4 minutes @ 9.0 mph, 1 minute @ 7.3 mph)

Fast and slow

Interesting swim this morning, alternating between very fast and very slow. After warm-up, we did sprints as a group, all together, since not many people showed up today. After each set of sprints, we were to do 500 yards easy, or keep swimming until the fast lane finishes their 500, to do more sprints again as a group. I think I got 450 yards during each easy stretch, but it may have only been 400. I'll give myself the benefit of the doubt. In general things felt pretty good, but without any timed sets, it's hard to say. I know I was fighting by the end of the last set of sprints, since I couldn't really hold my line, and was bouncing off the lane line and the swimmer beside me. I guess simulating a race start can be useful, too.

Swim: w/u - 200 yds each free, non-free, pull
100 ez free, get stroke count
4x25 sprint on 1'
450 ez free, try to keep count from above
4x25 sprint on 1'
450 ez pull
4x25 sprint on 1'
500 ez free
c/d - 100 ez non-free
Total: 2500 yds

Wrath

It was kind of a long day, with work and then a very uncomfortable dental appointment. All I really wanted to do was crash on the couch, but since it's Tuesday, it was the day to run. And that running is more up-tempo work as prescribed by Dr. Jack. This is the third time through this workout, and it feels like it's getting easier. Not easy, but easier. Sometimes that's all you can hope for.

Run: 40 minutes, w/12 minutes @ 9.0 mph, 2 minutes @ 7.3 mph, 6 minutes @ 9.0 mph

Slow, but it was supposed to be

Today was better than Friday, but it would have been some trick to be worse, eh? The pace was down, all aerobic work today, long sets with not much rest. I still feel like something is off, that I'm not getting the pace I should with the effort I'm contributing, but all I can do is keep working and keep focusing on what I can control. Sooner or later it has got to straighten out. I can pretty much guarantee I'll be doing a stroke improvement clinic once Tereza gets back from training camp. I need the help at this point. (But, it will be noted, I'm faster than I was last year, so I can't complain too loudly.)

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
4x400, 30" as 1) free w/gloves, 2) breathe every 4th or 5th, 3) 12.5 head-up/87.5 ez free, 4) 300 pull w/paddles/100 ez non-free
4x300 descending free, 30" descend from very easy to moderate-hard (6:12, 6:02, 5:55, 5:48)
c/d - 200 ez non-free, 200 ez free
Total: 3800m

Weights:
Bear - 2x4/65
Bent row - 2x10,11/95
Pushups - 2x12,12/80
Crossarm situp - 2x8,8
Pillar opposites - 2x8,10
Barbell curl - 1x9/53
French press - 1x6/40

Opening things up

With some decent weather, I finally was able to get out for my long run outside today. Temps were hovering right around freezing, but no real wind, and no precipitation, so no reason to hide indoors. With only a couple of months until the first race of the season, it's time to get some hours on the road, and a feel for terrain. I was up a bit too late last night, and lost an hour with the time change, so I knew I'd be dragging through the run. With 8 miles on the schedule, I was going to do a three-mile flat loop, and a five-mile hilly loop. The pacing for the day would be all aerobic, although I knew the hills may get to me a little.

The first loop went really smoothly. Everything felt nice and comfortable, nothing too strenuous, and moving faster than I really expected to. On the second loop, my pace was still really good on the flats and downhills, but the uphills hit me pretty hard. Those are unused muscles that need to be rebuilt. I maintained a 4-4 breathing pattern all the way through, and was pleasantly surprised to finish the 5 mile loop in 41:26, which isn't the fastest time I've ever done, but is well ahead of where I was this time last year. I probably gave away 20-30 seconds just on the few hills, so my legs are coming around nicely. If this is what I do when I'm dragging, then I'll put on a good show next time I'm fresh.

Run: 8.4 miles, 25:20/41:26

Small improvement

I'm a bit tired, so I'm keeping this short. This morning was more cycling, meaning more Have Mercy. A couple of positives, a couple of negatives come out of the day. First, number-wise, today was a step up from last through, three weeks ago. It's not big, but 0.7 watts higher on average is more. And more is good. Even better, I did it at an average heart rate 4 bpm lower than last time. So more watts at an easier effort. Score.

Thing is, it could have been better. I fell apart a little in the last 30 minutes. Most of the high-intensity intervals during that section were about 20w lower than before. That's not a good sign. I was just kind of tapped. Not completely exhausted, since I was still making some power, but it could (should) have been more. I may take the time to write down what my bests were for each section over the last two passes, and next time through try to match my records all the way through. That should get me an even better day.

Now for food and nap. If they're going to rob me of an hour sleep tonight, I'll have to get it back when I can.

Bike: Spinervals 9.0 - Have Mercy, 120 minutes

How's this for inconsistency?

OK, the swim this morning sucked. Then after work, and after hours of me just trying to stay awake from how shattered I was, I hit the weights. And I dominated. Had a great day. Sometimes things are kind of odd.

Weights:
Chaosbringer - 2x4/65
Chins - 2x8,10
Reverse flye/Lateral raise - 2x8,9/15
Side plank w/abduction - 2x10,10
Supermans - 2x10,12
Reverse curl - 1x12/43
Diamond pushup - 1x12/20

Inspired by song

Sometimes, you feel like shit.
Sometimes that ain't half of it.
"The Company I Keep", Drive By Truckers

This was not a good morning, and truth be told, I have no idea what happened. Sure, I ran pretty hard last night, but I think I got plenty of recovery food, and a decent night's sleep, and ate my usual breakfast. But I sucked in the water today. I got caught in the wake of the Fail Boat, and had one of those days that makes you re-think if you should even bother doing this sport.

(Luckily, I've been in the game long enough to know that bad training days are just that, they happen to everyone, and sometimes they happen for no explicable reason. Once is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, three times is a pattern. So don't expect any retirement notices here, but I'll admit to wondering if I should switch to duathlon during the set.)

I felt good getting into the water, felt good warming up. Then the real work started, and I was crushed. The heart of the workout was 6x300m with one minute rest, hard and self-timed. The goal was to do the work, and try not to experience too much drop-off. Given that I did a 400m TT in 7:00 in January, I thought repeats at 5:30 (1:50/100) would be a more than reasonable goal. I was way off. Part of it must be my pacing, because I could hit 1:40-:45 for the first hundred with no problems, but things just crashed after that. I finished my first interval in 5:27, and fought to get that. It should have been a cruise. The times only went up from there, until the last rep, when I completely sold out to make a respectable time. I was even getting extra rest, since I had to let the others in my lane move in front of me as I cannonballed to the back of the lane. This was a pretty depressing run. I feel like I'm caught between two swimming forms, and my body isn't strong enough to keep form with my new technique, but I've lost the ability to generate any speed with the old technique. I could feel myself not finishing my stroke, and any attempt to get a better roll felt like a fish floundering on land. I guess I need to keep building the muscular endurance to keep this up over longer stretches. Long-term, this is the right way to do it, but having sucky days like this sucks. (Yay redundancy!)

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
4x50 free, descending, 15"
6x300 free, 1' (5:27, 5:35, 5:32, 5:45, 5:50, 5:37)
500 ez, as 100 each back/breast/pull/back/breast
2x200 pull w/paddles, 30"
c/d: 100 non-free, 100 ez free
Total: 3500m

Legs ticking over

Things are coming back. I repeated last week's workout, and felt considerably better all the way through. I get to do this one more time next week, and I'm sure I'll just cruise right through that. I love the feeling after a workout like this: taxed but not destroyed. It feels like I did the right thing, and I'll be able to get right back at it.

Run: 44 minutes, w/2x(6 minutes @ 9.0 mph, 1 minute @ 7.3 mph, 4 minutes @ 9.0 mph, 1 minute @ 7.3 mph)

More focus needed

This was another morning of instruction. Not a particularly long lesson, but twice I was stopped mid-set to be reminded of things I should be doing/shouldn't be doing. The first one is still the primary failing of my swimming. I need to finish my stroke. If my concentration on that one point wavers even a little, things start falling apart. Many flaws in my technique get corrected when I'm doing it right: the longer stroke gets me to rotate more, so I'm more hydroplaned and spend more time on my side, I also have a more powerful snap to the other side, and can apply better power through the entire stroke. I just need to keep at this, ignoring everything else until I can get this at all speeds.

The other issue popped up during some one-arm drills. I don't know how pronounced this is during my normal stroke, but if I do it one-arm, I'm probably doing it a bit at all times, and need to correct it. It seems that I'm lifting my head to breathe to the right side. I'm OK breathing with the rotation to the left, but not to the right. So I need to focus on keep my head down and breathing into my shoulder, allowing my head to go with my body. It's all these little things that I need to fix to get faster.

Swim: w/u - 200yds each free, non-free, pull
4x100 as 25 one-arm/25 free/25 one-arm/25 free, 15"
500 as 200 gloves/300 ez free
3x100 pull w/paddles/50 back, 30"
8x25 sprint on 1:00
c/d - 3x50 back/50 breast/50 pull
Total: 2450 yds

War Ensemble

Slayer may be the greatest high-intensity treadmill music of all time. Nothing will power you through a hard set like Tommy Araya's vocals and Dave Lombardo's drumming. When you've got two minutes left, and you start screaming "Born of fire!" like your speed has engulfed your feet in flames, it's a good workout.

The structure of the day was the same as last week. The speeds were better selected, and I'm already getting more comfortable running at speed. (Translate: "more comfortable"="less wanting to die") Let's see what happens when Dr. Jack adds some I-pace runs in a few weeks.

Run: 40 minutes, w/12 minutes @ 9.0 mph, 2 minutes @ 7.3 mph, 6 minutes @ 9.0 mph

Wake-up call

There are nice gentle ways to wake up on a Monday morning. Today's swim was not one of them. If a workout is 3600m long, and by the 2000m mark, you're so exhausted you might drown, that's a bunch of hard work. It's been a long time since I've been this tired during a workout, and had to keep going.

The crux of the day was a 12x100m set, on a pace time. The pace was faster than we'd ever done for anything that long, but we did get the benefit of every fourth repeat being a non-free interval, buying us a few extra seconds recovery. I'm pretty sure that's the only way I made it through the set. I could feel the heat radiating off my back after we were finished.

But we weren't finished. The remainder wasn't much for fast work, but as tired as I was, anything was going to be hard. I tried to use the best form I could, and dragged myself up and down the pool until there was nothing left on the board.

Swim: w/u - 200m each free, non-free, pull
3x100 free, 10", as 25 hard/75 ez, 50 hard/50 ez, 75 hard/25 ez
3x(3x100 free on 2:00 (1:40-1:45, 2x1:45-1:50)
100 ez non-free (~3:45))
500 as 100 pull/100 back/100 pull/100 breast/100 pull, 1'
500 partner truck and trailer, 1'
500 free as 25 head-up/75 ez
Total: 3600m

Weights:
Bear - 2x4/65
Bent row - 2x10,11/95
Pushup - 2x10,11/80
Cross-arm situp - 2x8,8
Pillar opposites - 2x8,8
Barbell curl - 1x13/48
French press -1x14/35

Little piece of cloud

There was a time when my rule for running outside was anything above -20C air temperature, or -25 with the wind chill. That was a time before I owned a treadmill. Now I'll hide in my basement if it's worse than -10. I've gotten soft.

But anyway, I did my run, which was 10 miles. Since I'm scaling back my hard paces to better fit my VDOT, I figured I'd pull back a bit on the easy pace too, doing 5 miles at 7.3 mph, and the next 5 at 7.5. Considering how legs felt at the end of yesterday's ride, I'm surprised I was able to walk to the treadmill, never mind actually do a run. But the run went off, and things went really well. I did a heart rate check at 5 miles, and I was 148 bpm. Five miles later, and after picking up speed, I was 153 bpm. So the heart rate is holding steady, and it's in the right range. Now THIS is what I've trying to get to for two months. Things are finally falling into place. It's like working on a jigsaw puzzle that's mostly blue sky, and finally being about to say, "I think this little bit of cloud goes right there", and it fits. I'm getting my legs back. Now the rest of you need to start worrying.

Run: 10 miles, 5 miles @ 7.3 mph, 5 miles @ 7.5 mph