Week 18 - 05/03/2010

This week continued to present some challenges in fitting workouts in amongst life's other priorities. Andrea was out of town all week and I had an overnight trip to make to Maine on Thursday/Friday. Luckily I've got access to my trainer and treadmill in the basement (pain cave) and a fitness center/good outdoor running routes at work, and also a very helpful sister-in-law who came Thursday afternoon from Michigan to watch Drew for the night.

This week I'm continuing to see things going in the right direction with my run fitness. I'm happy with my efforts during workouts and find myself hitting faster and faster paces, so the run focus is paying off. Hopefully this focus equates to a PR at a half marathon on May 16.

Because of the run focus, I've taken a little mental break from the bike. I'm still doing the prescribed workouts but I'm letting the brain tell me that it's okay to miss my intensity numbers while in a workout session. This will change after the half marathon where I intend to intensely focus on the bike with some big things planned for Memorial Day weekend to really jumpstart the fitness.

I also saw some good things happening to body composition. I hit my lightest weight since I've been doing triathlon and am really feeling the benefits while running. I'll be happy to maintain this weight for the upcoming half marathon.

Here are the day-to-day highlights for the week:

Monday: 2,500m swim with some 50s and 200s hard. Legs feeling pretty good after yesterday's 10K, but going to stay off them for the day. Foam roller work at night to ensure the legs are loose.

Tuesday: Pilates and yoga in the morning. Lunchtime speed workout consisting of hard 200s and 400s. Followed these intervals with 3 miles at half marathon pace. Total of 55' in some beautiful May weather!

Wednesday: Single dad for the week means a very early morning workout. On the trainer at 4:50am for 60' at .82 IF, then 30' treadmill brick run at marathon pace. Glad my son's a good sleeper!

Thursday: Good night's sleep last night to prep body for long run. Core and yoga in the morning, then lunchtime long run: 13.1 miles with 5 miles at easy pace, 3 miles at marathon pace and 5 miles at half marathon pace. Finished feeling strong. Threw on the compression gear for evening flight to Maine.

Friday: Late night last night, so slept in a little which left me time crunched to get in a short run and swim. Ran an easy 1.5 miles to a YMCA pool in Portland, swam a hard 1,200m and ran the 1.5miles back to hotel - all done in less than 45 minutes. I couldn't make my first trip to Maine without some local delicacy for lunch:


Saturday: Delayed flights got me home very late last night. Slept in and didn't start bike workout until 9:00am. Geared up for the cold, windy weather but only made it about 30 minutes before deciding it was ridiculous dealing with these conditions. Returned home and knocked out 2.5 hours on the trainer, then did 30 minute brick run on treadmill.

Sunday: Happy Mother's Day! Slept in, made pancakes for a special Mom (and Drew and Dad), then headed out for a 42 mile/2 hour steady "always be pushing" (ABP) ride at .82 IF and 128 TSS. Weather was much more tolerable than yesterday.

Data for the week:

Time spent training: 10:13
Time spent at or above FTP on bike: 43'
Time spent at or below LTHR pace on run: 1:16
Avg bike Intensity Factor (% of FTP) = .809
Mileage: 135
Training Stress Score (TSS): 793
Chronic Training Load (CTL): 95.9 TSS/d
Training Stress Balance (TSB): -21
Weight: 169.0 lbs
Functional Threshold Power (FTP): 293 watts
Vdot: 54.3

Performance Management Chart (PMC) through week 18: