Luckily, my legs were pretty shelled from all of the riding from the triathlon camp in Madison so taking a break from the bike was a given. And running for the first couple days in Vegas was also not advised. So I focused on recovery for a couple days, then got back at it with some light workouts and resumed normal training by the weekend. The tough part of the recovery focus was getting the sleep my body was craving since the week would be filled with many long dinners and subsequent late nights.
The Swim
As many times as I've been to Vegas in the past couple years while training for triathlons I have a "go to" pool that serves my needs...the Las Vegas Athletic Club. The nice thing about this club is that it's open 24 hours - nice for someone whose body clock is 2 hours ahead of Pacific time, so going to swim at 4:00am is no big deal. I only went once this week but it turned out to be a decent, comfortable swim on the heels of the big tri week.
The Bike
As I mentioned, this would be a "down" week for me and the bike. I did get a short spin in on Thursday on a spin bike in the hotel. I threw in some harder efforts just to see where the legs were at. By this time, my legs were feeling pretty decent so I know I was recovering well from the hard training last week.
I had a great long ride on Friday riding pretty comfortably for 4 hours, nailing all of my power zones during the intervals. But during my 3 hour ride on Saturday (where I was trying to hold 80-85% of FTP) I just didn't have it. The power was slowly falling throughout the ride, no matter how much my mind was telling my legs to push harder - probably the fatigue from the previous week in combination with the hot and humid weather from the previous day's 4 hour ride where I lost 7 pounds of fluid!
The Run
My running has been kicking some butt lately - I've been feeling great despite startting most runs feeling pretty fatigued. But after the big tri week I wanted to be sure I didn't do anything stupid that could dig me into a big fatigue hole or, even worse, injure myself. So I chilled from running for a couple days and picked it back up on Wednesday with an easy 10 miler that left me hungry for more - again, I knew I nailed my recovery and was ready to get back at it. The rest of the week, though, was just short easy/steady runs.
Body Composition
Despite being at a business meeting where every meal is buffet-style I stayed disciplined and made smart choices. I did allow myself one binge at Nobu (sushi!!) but it's not like it was In-n-Out Burger for God's sake!
I came home weighing a pound less than when I had left. This was probably due to water loss from the 110 degree temps!
Here's the day-by-day view of the training I did for the week followed by a summary of the week's data:
Monday: -60 TSB after IMWI tri rally means day off today. Solid 10 hrs of sleep last night. Wish I didn't have to sit on plane for 3 hours!
Tuesday: 2500m smooth, steady swim in Las Vegas Athletic Club pool.
Wednesday: Easy 10 mile run to test out legs. Felt great! Legs are back! Enjoyed the awesome Las Vegas sunrise but 92 degrees at 5:00am sucks. Binged on some Nobu sushi for dinner.
Thursday: 45 minutes on hotel spin bike, then 5 mile steady-effort brick run down the Strip. Legs are 100% and ready for a long ride tomorrow.
Friday: Day started with a 1.6 mile open water swim sans wetsuit. Felt a big difference in swim time and smoothness of my stroke without the added buoyancy. Then got in an 82 mile ride later in the day at .79 IF and 260 TSS in 4 hours followed by a 3 mile run at 6:30 pace. Took in 160 oz fluids and still lost 7 pounds!
Saturday: Horrible 3 hour ABP (always be pushing) ride this morning - power outage at halfway point. Only manged .7 IF and 148 TSS. I need me some rest and hydration! Highlight of the day (and week) was Date Night with Andrea!
Sunday: Rest/recovery day. Spent most of it hanging with Drew where we cheered on friends racing the Racine 70.3 triathlon.
Totals for the week:
Training duration: 11:39
Time spent at or above FTP on the bike: 32'
Time spent at or below lactate threshold pace on the run: 10'
Avg bike intensity factor (% of FTP): .742
Mileage: 176 miles (Swim: 5.2K, Bike: 155 miles, Run: 17.25 miles)
Training Stress Score (TSS): 708
Chronic Training Load (CTL): 125
Training Stress alance (TSB): -7.6 (-56 at the beginning of the week - recovery worked!!)
Weight: 169.0
Functional Threshold Power (FTP): 293 watts
Vdot: 55.3 (but training at 56)
Performance Management Chart through week 4 of Ironman Prep Training:
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