Well...let me start by letting you know I couldn't think of a creative title for this post. It's basically just a recap of how training went this week. I'm not sure whether to count these weeks as part of last year's training or a new year. I'm not even sure when the official triathlon year ends. I'm thinking I may call last week my first week back of training which would make this week 2. I guess I'm being too technical with this decision. Training is training and this was a good week of it...probably my best week since my 10 Days and 10 Nights camp in early August. For the week I met all my weekly goals. I ran 50 miles, biked 155, and swam 9,500 yards. I lifted weights three times, did speed drills and strides three times, lunges and plyometrics twice each and core work six times. I also got in to see Dr. Kaminski for ART once this week and that left me feeling great. My training time totalled 21.5 hours this week which is a great week now that I'm back to teaching. I'm getting more used to the routine of training after school and am trying to iron out the most convenient schedule to be efficient with the training.
Since my volume is less than the summer months of training I've really been focusing on the quality of the workouts. I biked 4 times this week. One day was long but I had two of the other days where I did very tough quality intervals. In the pool I began swimming with the Stingrays Club team. They are mostly junior high and high school kids and I'm thankful their coach has given me the chance to work out with them. The workouts have been very tough for me but training with a group is what I need right now. For running I had a great workout on Friday of 5x 1 mile repeats after a warmup. I took 2 minutes rest between each one. My goal was to run the first one at 10k pace and cut down little by little. My times were 5:32, 5:29, 5:25, 5:20, and 5:02. I went very hard on the last one but was excited to run nearly 5:00. I've also been excited by my progress in the weight room. I've increased the weight on my leg lifts by 10% in hopes that the additional strength will lead to improvements on the bike. More than anything this week while I was out training alone...which is nearly every workout, I began focusing on the task at hand. I began thinking about Longhorn 70.3 on October 25th. I'm excited to race there with a goal of being in the top 3. I'm trying to find as much as I can about the course and conditions. I'm very confident and excited to race another 70.3.
On a side note, I skipped a race in Iowa City this weekend. It is one I would have liked to do but my goal is on Austin and I know how valuable the weekend of training is. Had I raced in Iowa City I would have missed some key workouts. Instead of that race I was able to get 8.5 hours of training in this weekend. That decision will be well worth it come October 25th. Thanks for reading...DREAM BIG!!
1 comment:
Jeff,
Good luck in Austin. I did this race as my first 70.3 last year, even though didn't go exactly as plan was a still a great time.
Plan on heat, it was really hot last year and there is no shade on the course anywhere. The swim is typical lake swim.
The bike is primarily a flat single loop, nice ride that you should be able to jsut hammer. Only warning is to pay attention to the roads as there were some good size cracks that folks got there tires caught in. This is probably from the Texas heat and most were marked with paint but saw a couple of good wrecks.
The run is key, I wouldn't call it hilly but there are a couple of short hills. It is two loops, half on concrete, half on trails with a large hill, they called it Quadzilla, at the end of the trail loops(similar to west lake). Once again absolutely no shade.
Good luck and keep going strong.
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