Week 30 Training Summary

Week 30 began with my weekly weigh in on Monday morning. I was 161 lbs. which is the lightest I've been in over 6 years. One of the big reasons that I believed in the journey was because I knew I'd never raced a triathlon at the weight I should be if I want to be in my top shape. Even last year in Chicago when I went 2:05 for the Olympic distance race my weight was 175 lbs. I knew...or at least hoped that the year round committment would put me at a weight that would allow me to race much faster than I ever have. When I was running in college my "fighting weight" was 147 lbs. during my junior and senior seasons. I know I won't get that low because I'm much stronger now than I was then but I do think I can get to somewhere in the mid-150's.
This week marked a year from when I began my training last summer. At that time I weighed 196 lbs. and I was in sad shape. That first week I ran 15.5 miles, biked 100, and swam 5,700 yards. Fast forward one year to this week...my best week of training since I began on November 3rd in preparation for this summer. This week my total training time was 21.5 hours. I ran 50 miles, biked 156, and swam 10,000 yards. In addition to those totals I also lifted weights 3 times, did my first plyometric session since the injury, did lunges twice, speed drills and strides 3 times, and core work 5 times. I'm in the best shape of my life! I did two very quality interval workouts running and biking. On Wednesday I ran 4 times 1 mile repeats with three minutes rest. My times were 5:35, 5:27, 5:18, and 5:10. I was excited about being able to drop that much time throughout the workout. My other hard running workout was on Friday and I believe it was my best one in many years. I set my bike up on the trainer at the track at Pleasant Valley and did a workout combined with cycling and running. My running intervals were 400, 800, 1200, 1200, 800, 400. Before each one I cycled hard on the trainer for 5 minutes and then got off and put on my running shoes and took off around the track. I averaged 5:10/mile pace throughout the entire workout getting faster on the 2nd half of it. I was hoping to be able to run 5:30 pace off the bike so this was a huge lift to my confidence heading into Pigman next weekend. I will be very disappointed if I'm not able to run at least 17:45 for the 5k at the end of the race. I think I should be able to run under 17:30. On Sunday I had a huge day of training with over 5 hours. I began by riding 46 miles easy in the morning. Early in the evening I got back on the bike and rode to a flat stretch of road and did 4 times of 3 miles at my time trial effort with 1 mile of easy riding between each. I did this on my training bike and averaged 336 watts through the workout with an average speed of 25.8 miles per hour. This was the fastest I've ridden in a workout on my training bike with my training wheels. It should be really fast next weekend on the Orbea with the Zipp wheelset. I'm going into this race probably as an unknown in the Elite field. There are about 25 guys in the Elite wave and 12 of them were USA Triathlon Age Group All-Americans last year. It's a chance for me to compete with a bunch of guys I've never been close to. I hope to be in the top 5 at the finish but I'll be putting it on the line with the mentality that I'm racing to win.
Payton turns 1 tomorrow and Super Mom did an amazing job of putting together a party attended by nearly 70 of our family and friends. It made for a great weekend! Thanks for reading! DREAM BIG!