Training update

Training has been going pretty well. I feel a bit random this year, as it is truly a "fly by the seat of my pants" kind of season. I determine how much time I have to train and then make my training plan, sometimes the same day. Despite this, my swim has definitely come around, but that is attributable to my masters team. I was feeling pretty darn pleased with myself when I came in at 5:52 for my 400 the other day until I looked at the board to see the sendoff... 5:30 I should be able to make that sendoff by.... never. But I can still be pleased that I managed about 17,500 yards (10 miles) in the water this week. Take that speedsters!

Being that it is a self-coached year I have tried to avoid gauging out my eyes with a pencil eraser out of boredom by making up some new and interesting bike trainer workouts. My favorite new one is called- Up and down pain mountain. It is:

10 minute warm up

Set 1
5 minutes zone 3
2 minutes high zone 2
1 minute zone 4
2 minutes high zone 2

Set 2
4 minutes zone 3
2 minutes high zone 2
2 minutes zone 4
2 minutes high zone 2

Set 3
3 minutes zone 3
2 minutes high zone 2
3 minutes zone 4
2 minutes high zone 2

It ends up being

Warm up
Set 1 - 2 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 3 - 1
Cool Down

Or any combination of the sets. It's freaking hard. Zone 4 is basically an all out effort on the bike trainer for me. I shoot for a heart rate between 172-180. It's sick. Almost as sick as spending 6-10 hours per week on a bike indoors for 6 months out of the year. I think all of us northerners need our heads examined...

The run has been ok. I'm still struggling to run more than an hour at a time without something starting to bother me. My ITB flared a touch this week but it seems to be fine. I'm starting to think I'm just big pansy and need to HTFU. I have been able to do all my speedwork treadmill runs, so that's progress. One the subject of running, I have to put a plug in for the free podcast Podrunner.



I am not a fan of running to music because of the variability in cadence. Podrunner makes its mixes by RPM, so you can choose your running cadence. I run to the 180BPM mixes. They are phenomenal!

That's about it for training. I bought my tickets to spend a week with my bike (hopefully the new Trek who will be named Little Miss Big Wheels, or B-dub for short) in Florida. Then I come home for a week before heading out for Oceanside and Timex camp! It's coming up so close- Scary!

As for the big career change, the list is in and the wait is on! I hear where I spend the next 3-4 years of my life on March 19th.

And I also chopped off about 6 inches of hair!



Sorry for the boring post, hope everyone is having a great week!