As I was driving to Bettendorf to begin my long run Sunday morning my car read that it was 41 degrees and it was raining out with no end to that in sight. I could have put off the 95 minute run for later in the day when the rain was finally expected to come to an end this weekend. I reminded myself (to steal the poker phrase) that I'm "all in" this year. By that I mean I am doing everything in my power to reach my potential in triathlons. All the little things that I check off each week on a goal sheet are done for a reason. I'm not leaving anything out that I think can help me. I'm "all in" this year. I gave up coaching, which I was very passionate about so that I can do this. I'm not going to leave any doubts when I get done. I'll either know I was good enough to race professionally or I wasn't. I won't be thinking I should have done more of this or that. I'm all in! I just hope my results are better for this sport than they are for poker! I got the 95 minute run in and it felt great despite being soaked and cold!
Week 18 was a very solid week of training. I accumulated 21 hours of training time. I backed my run miles down to 51 for the week but increased my bike miles to 140 for the second time in three weeks. I swam three times for 10,500 yards and I actually felt like I made progress in the pool this week. In addition to those totals I did the small things once again...lifting weights and doing speed drills and strides three times, lunges and plyometrics twice, and core work five times. I had a couple great workouts that have increased my confidence tremendously. On Wednesday I did a track workout by myself with 3 sets of 4x400's with 1 minute rest right into 4x200's with a 200 jog recovery. I was hoping to run 78's on the 400's but ended up averaging 75.5 for those. On the 200's I averaged 34.0. The workout was faster than I've been running but I handled it well. On Friday I did my toughest workout of the week. I biked 10 miles to a road where I like doing intervals. It has lots of rolling hills but nothing too difficult. I did 2x 5 miles hard and averaged 23.05 mph on the first one into the wind and 27.1 mph average coming back with the wind. This averaged out to 25.0 mph which was faster than I raced in Chicago last August. I had my training bike with training wheels so I was very excited to go that fast. I also started using my new Power Tap and was excited to be able to hold 309 and 305 watts on each of them. I'll be using this power tap to get more data on future workouts. This one wasn't finished...upon returning to my house and completing the 33 mile ride I got off and did a 4 mile brick run hard. My time was 23:08 (5:47/mile average) which was faster than I ever raced last year. I believe I am ready to race at 5:40 pace for a 10k with racing flats on. This workout proved to me I'm in the best shape I've ever been in. Some would argue that it's too early and I'm in too good of shape too soon. I won't be able to hold it all year. Remember...I'm all in. I'll do all the work I can and keep trying to get a little bit better each day. I can't wait to race on April 26 in Sullivan, IL as a tune-up for Memphis. DREAM BIG!
On a side note, I'm looking forward to taking a cruise with my family next Friday. I'm not sure about internet connection on the ship so if I don't post that's why. I also have to thank my wife more than ever for being SUPER MOM this week with a tough work schedule. She was able to do it all once again to allow me to train. I can't thank you enough for this. I'm looking forward to getting some relaxation with you, Payton, and the rest of the family this week. I'm putting a limit on my training of 2 hours each day. Should be a good rest week.
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