A restful Thanksgiving weekend and another week of training.

Hope everyone had a great thanksgiving, I for one slept more hours each day than I can ever remember doing before, it was glorious. Training went as planned, it was a bit dialed down because of the holiday and my sleeping schedule, next week I will be hitting it hard and ramping it up. As you can probably guess I did not stay completely on schedule but came pretty close. Below is last weeks workouts.
Mon:
R: 40 min. Speed work
S: 2x25 warm up, 2x500 main, 2x25 cool down

Tues:
R: 30 min
B: 60 min

Wed:
S: 1x100 warm up, 9x100 main (worked on form), 2x25 back kick cool down

Thurs:
Fun Run 5-K, ran with Riley, Joe, and Ashley.
(Was planning on a second workout but decided to be lazy)

Fri:
B: 45min just under a 85% heart rate (basically just under a cardio rate)
R: 10 min slowly immediately after the bike

Sat:
Rest Day

Sun:
B: 60 min (set up my trainer at home and kept it at a moderate pace throughout)

Thats it for this week, as I said it was an easy week and full of rest. Next week will be filled with much harder runs where I will be trying to up my speed through stride training. Strides are short efforts (20seconds) but are not "run hard". Basically its accelerating slowly throughout than bursting with a sprint. Its like intervals without the stress on the joints.

Goals for this week are to dial in my swim form (this is going to be a weekly goal for some time I think), get a bit more rest so I hit the gym fresh each morning, and start creating my training music list.

Week 3 or 20 or 19...

This week was a mixed bag, I had a great run today. Six miles and at a slow pace but I felt great throughout, I wish I could say the same for swimming, all my swim workouts were hard and I felt exhausted after (and during) each of them. I need to work on my swim most of all. Cycling was okay, all inside so it was pretty boring, hoping to get a few warm day and get outside soon.
Here's last weeks training schedule:
Mon.
R: 40min, 10 min warm up, 30 min race pace
S: 4x100 warm up, paying attention to my stroke, 2x400 main, 2x50 cool down, back kick

Tue:
B: 60 Min low effort, keeping the heart rate in the 65% area.

Wed:
S: Speed-Work, 6x50 sprints, 1x200 race speed

Thurs:
R: 30 min fast pace

Fri:
B: 45 min harder effort, heart rate in the 85% area.

Sat:
R: 60 min long slow run.
B: 90 min long ride
Sunday- REST---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If you look at the schedule from the last two weeks you'll notice its very similar, this is prep time to get the body acclimated and gives me time to find out what is working and what is not. So far I am getting a lot worked out in my swim but I need to focus on it more, especially my stroke mechanics.

Twenty five ways you know you are a crazy triathlete.....

25 - One of your goals this year is to be faster at getting out of a wetsuit.
24 - You talk about a “hammer” and “brick”, but you’re not referring to construction.
23 - You spend 7 days going to 8 stores in 4 malls before buying a pair of running shoes but you take 1 afternoon to go to 1 car dealership and walk out with a new car 4 hours later.
22 - That charming "cologne" you wear to work is chlorine.
21 - You have more water bottles than glasses in your cupboard.
20 - You have enough pairs of old running shoes sitting in your closet to open your own shoe store.
19 - You immediately bow down before someone with the Ironman "m dot"tattoo.
18 - You have NO idea what to do with yourself on your off day. You mowed the lawn, cleaned the house, washed the car, and there's STILL 4 hours of daylight left! Aarrgghh!
17 - When you're always showing up to work in the morning with goggle imprints around your eyes.
16 - You have so many tan lines you look like a zebra (running socks, bathing suit, jersey, biking shorts, tri shorts, sunglasses, gloves, watch, etc).
15 - The first three items on your grocery list are Gatorade, power bars, and gels.
14 - You get funny looks when putting on Body Glide on your neck because people think it's deodorant.
13 - About half the shirts you own have at least a dozen logos on the back of them.
12 - You wait a couple of days to take your car in when the "check engine light goes on, but when your bike needs a tune up you take it right away.
11 - You refer to the front hall of your house as the “transition area”.
10 - The one "suit" you own has a QR on the chest.
09 - When you get home from a training session, the newspaper is just being delivered to your house.
08 - You consider work, regeneration time between training sessions.
07 - Your bicycle is in your living room.
06 - Your car smells like a locker room.
05. There’s a separate load of laundry every week that is just your workout clothes.
04 - When asked, how old you are you answer 35-39.
03 - Your first thought when you wake up is how high your rest HR is.
02 - Your spouse cried during Terms of Endearment; you cried during the television coverage of the Hawaii Ironman.
01 - Most of this list doesn’t seem like a joke to you.

Swimming

Training went well this week, I am not posting my workouts that I did this week because I did the exact same schedule as last. When I decided to do this race I made sure to start training for it a few weeks before my training schedule began so I could acclimate to the demands of the schedule. This upcoming week will be new workouts so check the blog out next week for the new workouts.

One thing I would like to write about is my favorite swimming training book and program:
http://www.amazon.com/Total-Immersion-Revolutionary-Better-Faster/dp/068481885X and, http://www.totalimmersion.net/.
Total Immersion taught me how to swim triathlons years ago and I recently went back to it to review the material. This book is how training books need to be written. It is about one stroke, the only stroke you need in a race, the freestyle stroke. It is full of ways to make you a more efficient swimmer and it gave me my swimming form I have today, which while not perfect is pretty damned good especially for someone who never took swimming lessons. I highly recommend buying this book if you want to swim faster, farther, and easier.

Swimming has also helped with my joints and my running. I don't know exactly how it is helping but my legs have been feeling better than they have in a long time. Yesterday I did a brick workout (combining two workouts into one) I swam 800 meters and immediately jumped onto the treadmill for a 1.5 mile sprint. I normally have been wearing my compression socks but for this I had left them at home. My legs felt strong and my lungs felt great. My swim was not fantastic and I felt lethargic, once on the treadmill though I felt immediately better finishing at a 8 min a mile pace (which is pretty fast for me).
I'm thinking the swimming is increasing my circulation in my lower legs, allowing my joints to rest while working out, and is increasing my cardio abilities all at the same time.

I'm feeling better all around and my body is getting much more used to working out twice a day although I am sleeping much more as well. Next week will be updated for my workouts and I am rereading my favorite running book now, "Ultramarthon Man", I'll give a write up on it next week, highlighting my favorite part of the book, "the soiling of the Lexus"...

Week 1 Recap

Week one is down and out, I rediscovered my love of swimming, the runs went well and the cycling, well, the cycling was done at the gym as its already colder than a witches tit here in northern Utah.

Here is my Week 1 workout rundown:

Monday:
Run: 40 minutes easy pace
Swim:
Warm up 4x25 crawl
Main Set 2x200 crawl
Cool Down 4x25 crawl/back kick 

Tuesday:
Run: 30 minutes easy pace
Bike: 60 minutes easy pace

Wednesday:
Swim
Warm up 4x25 every other a back kick
Main Set 3x200 Crawl
Cool Down 4x25 easy, every other a back kick

Thursday:
Run 60 minutes, long run, easy pace

Friday:
Swim-Speed Day
Warm up 4x25 crawl
Main Set 4x100 race pace crawl
Cool Down 4x25 each slower than the last

Bike:
30 minutes easy

Saturday:
Off day but went for an easy swim, 300 yrds

Sunday
Off Day, went river fishing, so easy walk and fly fishing.

All in all it went very well. I remembered how much I enjoyed swimming. The quiet time alone with nothing to worry about other than counting, breathing and the blue line really relaxed me and made the rest of my body recover from the runs much faster. On my long run I cramped up and had to walk for five minutes but was okay to continue at my normal pace after that. I need to find a good yoga class.

This weeks goals were, just get used to the sleep schedule and be ready to do it again next week. This was a little harder than I anticipated, I had a hard time getting to sleep and by the fourth day I was beat. This upcoming week will be more of the same, gettting used to the new routine and just getting the workouts done.