Week 4 Training Summary...The Battle with Misty Hyman

As I had planned week 4 was a big training week for me. I had 20 workouts and my total training time was right at 24 hours. For the week I biked all 7 days for a total of 180 miles, ran 6 days for a total of 45 miles, and swam 4 days for a total of 16,100 yards. In addition to those I also lifted weights 3 times, did speed drills, strides, lunges, and push-ups all three times, core work 8 times, and plyometrics twice. It felt great to get in such a solid week, by far my biggest since surgery last April. I burned through a lot of GU Energy products this week to keep me fueled. It is really helpful for me to make sure I have them with me on the long swim workouts with the high school and also on my long run on Sundays. I went 76 minutes this week for my longest run since surgery. I'll keep building that slowly with a plan of getting to 2 hrs. 15 minutes by mid-April. I saw Dr. Kaminski for ART treatment on Tuesday and then ran the Turkey Trot 5 miler on Thanksgiving morning as hard as I could. I was having a little bit of discomfort in the back of my knee where my calf muscle meets my hamstring before this race. It hadn't hurt to run but I could feel it when I did a full squat. I warmed up and it felt good enough to race on so I ran the 5 miles hard and finished 7 seconds faster than last year in 28:32. It is a pretty tough course which is mostly uphill for the first half of the race before coming back downhill the 2nd half. I was excited to be able to do this race 7 seconds faster than last year despite missing the majority of 5 months running. This was my first benchmark race of the year and it tells me I'm right on schedule for big things. It was also much colder this year for the race as the temperature was around 25 degrees at race time. My wife Jen won the women's race at the Turkey Trot. She ran great and came in at 30:40. It was her last race of the year and she had an amazing season especially considering she gave birth to Owen in March. I haven't kept exact track but I think she won about 19 races this year. Way to work Super Mom!! I had a massage from Laurel Darren on Friday and it helped tremendously in getting rid of my knee pain and preparing me for a huge weekend of training. I was able to get in 4 hrs. 40 minutes of training on Friday after the massage and then follow that up on Sunday with another 4 hr. 20 minute training day. Those were my first two days this year over 4 hours in a single day. I know from past years that I recover better after each 4 hour day and once 4 hours isn't very taxing I'll move my long day to 5 hours...and then beyond. Going into Ironman St. George on May 7th I'll be relying more on my cumulative volume of training more than I will rely on single long days since all the training leading up to this race will be while I'm still working full-time. My fall Ironman at Rev 3 will be more on big single days that I have more time for in the summer. I will probably only have a handfull of 100 mile rides going into St. George while I'll have many more over the summer.

My favorite workout this week was a battle with a swim set named after Olympic female swimmer Misty Hyman. It was a set that I did with the high school team on Friday and Coach Tweedy warned us that the set would challenge us much more mentally than physically. The set consists of a 50 yard swim every 90 seconds but the catch is that the first 25 is an underwater kick with no breaths and no strokes to be taken. Once you hit the wall completely gasping for air you then turn and sprint back down the pool as fast as you can. Every 90 seconds you begin another one so if the kick and swim takes you 50 seconds you have 40 seconds to take in oxygen before beginning the next. Coach Tweedy was exactly right about the set challenging me mentally. The first one wasn't too bad but it burnt up a lot of my oxygen stores and on #2 I felt like I was going to pass out. Each time someone on the team came up early he added on one. There were actually a lot of kids that couldn't make it down the pool without a breath so we ended up doing 10 of them before he called it a set. I made it down the pool kicking with no breaths for all of them but I only wish I could say I beat Misty Hyman. She got the better of me because after the first one I started swimming back down the pool easy so that I could recover for the next one. It was so tough not to take a breath on the kick part that I didn't think I could make the next one if I sprinted back. For that reason I will chalk this one up for the opposition. I loved the set because with each one there was a little bit of doubt that crept into my mind as I would think I needed a breath and looked up to see I was still 10 yards from the wall. I managed to make it in but by not sprinting back down I can't say I won. I know the Ironman will be very similar. There will come a point in the race when I begin to wonder if I can continue on at 9:10 pace (my goal for St. George). If I ease up hoping to save energy for later I'll be doomed. The goal will never be met. I've got to learn through sets like this that it can be done. The body is phyically capable of so much more than the mind wants one to realize. I'm already looking forward to the next time we are challened with Misty Hyman 50's. I will make the underwater kick and then sprint back as fast as I can knowing full well that my body is capable of doing it. If you're at the pool and are bored try one out and you'll find how mentally challenging they are.

I'm four weeks in now. Each week I have added on volume and this week will be time to rest and recover while my body adapts to the demands I have placed on it the first 4 weeks. I'll still work out of course but my volume will be much lower so I can get ready for another build up through December. I already have some big weeks planned for the end of December while I'm on winter break. I can feel my body changing. I'm losing weight, getting stronger, and my confidence has grown leaps and bounds since I began training for 2011. That may be the greatest result of the training. I'm beginning to feel like a podium finish in St. George is going to happen. I had doubts 4 weeks ago as to whether or not my achilles was really ready to hold up through the demands I place on it in training. Those doubts have been completely erased. I hope all of you had an awesome Thanksgiving! It's a great time to set goals and begin working towards them. Each day...each week...and each month you will see progression. Work hard and know that nothing is impossible! Thanks for reading. DREAM BIG!