Catching Up

Well it's been an interesting few days.

Swam 1650m on Wednesday. I decided to switch things up, so I skipped the long swim and did sets of 100 instead:

• 500m warm-up (4x25, 2x50, 2x75, 2x50, 2x25)
• 10x100m
• 6x25m

I felt strong at the beginning, and my first set of 100m was done in 1:41. My strokes were very smooth and strong, though by the 2nd and 3rd sets my arms were getting fatigued enough that I couldn't keep it up and had to slow down. I also only waited 60 seconds between sets instead of 120 seconds, so my endurance is improving. I can't wait to see where I am by the spring.

I had a lot of errands to run on Thursday so I took the day off, but I bought some new Vibrams! I was sick of waiting for the Amazon.com vendor to send me a return box, so I went to my local run store and bought these:

They didn't have any with laces in my size so I stayed with the velcro model, which should help with speedy transitions in my triathlon. 

I had Friday off work, so my plan was to do a 50+ mile long ride followed by 3 miles running in the new shoes. This was also going to give me the opportunity to test out my new top-bar food bag, which I had filled with pretzels. I need to figure out a nutrition plan for my long triathlons next year, so eating a handful of pretzels every 15 minutes was going to be a starting point. I felt good for the first loop, but on the second I had an unusual amount of fatigue in my legs. My heart rate stayed nice and low, and I was drinking/eating regularly, but my legs just didn't have it in them. I stopped after 18.90 miles and went home. I think all the speed-work I had done all week had finally caught up to me:

8/17: tempo 5K, followed by sprints at the track

8/18: 10K, tempo intervals with rest intervals in-between

8/19: tempo ride near LT

8/20: 2000m swimming

8/21: race simulation, 12 miles biking followed by 1 mile at LT

Four of those five days had speed-work included, so even with a rest day on 8/22 it was too much. I'll take this as a lesson and avoid getting carried away in the future.

I was lazy as hell during the weekend too. My wife ran in the Patrick Henry Half-Marathon on Saturday (check out her blog at www.StillEasierThanChemo.com !) and I sat on my butt all day Sunday. With the RockNRoll half-marathon only 6 days away, and my sprint triathlon a week after that, I need to take it easy. Here's what I'm planning for this week:

Monday: 10 miles easy bike

Tuesday: 5K easy run

Wednesday: 2000m swim

Thursday: 10 miles bike, 5K run

Friday: 1650m swim

Saturday: Rest

Sunday: RACE!