Another Successful Week

Well, I've managed to make it through my third week of training. Volumes are light and intensity low, but at least I'm getting back into the swing of things. What is different this year is the amount of riding I'm doing on my bike. At the end of the 2004 season, I put my bike away in September and, except for a couple of rides on especially nice days during the winter, I didn't take it out again until early March. That's six months of bike training I missed. Between September and the end of February, I had a grand total of 65.7 miles on my bike. To my credit, however, I had 444 miles of running and over 72,000 yards (40 miles) in the pool.

Granted, in the next 6 months, I did my level best to make up for the huge deficit on my bike by riding over 1350 miles. But in 26 weeks, that's still only an average of 52 miles a week. Clearly, that is not a sufficient base for making it through an Ironman. In analyzing the data, I discovered that I also ran less than I did in the previous 6 months, garnering only 336 miles, but my swimming increased to over 91000 yards (51 miles).

Obviously, there was a flaw in the execution of my training plan (I was using the 26 week Ironman program in Gale Bernhardt's book, Training Plans for Multisport Athletes). I think the flaw was bailing on workouts because they weren't convenient, or it meant getting on my trainer (which I was loathe to do). It was just so much easier for me to bail on a workout if I was the only one to whom I had to be accountable. Now that I have a coach, I'm held accountable by someone else and I find that I am less inclined to skip a workout.

So, the training totals for this week (my weeks start on Monday, with that day off from workouts) look like this:

Bike = 36 miles
Run = 12.6 miles
Swim = 2150 yards

For the month, my totals look like this:

Bike = 94 miles
Run = 36.6 miles
Swim = 7000 yards

Already, just in the month of November, and the month is not yet over, I have surpassed my bike total for the entire 6 months of last winter. There may be hope for me yet! As long as I can continue this momentum, I may actually get through the bike portion of Ironman Canada in plenty of time to run a marathon (oh, now I'm excited!).

So, today was my last long run before the Seattle Half Marathon next Sunday. I managed to do a whopping 7 miles and it took me almost 90 minutes to do it. Yes, that means I was slow. I'm not sure if it was the cold 90 minute ride I did yesterday (brrr...I have simply got to visit Performance Bike for some cold weather gear) or if it was the trail I was traversing that made for such a slow run. I suspect it was a little of both.

To keep things interesting, the Y group has decided to change things up a bit so that we don't get bored with the same old run. Now, instead of regularly running along the Orting trail, we'll alternate between (nice, flat) Orting trail, the (hilly) Soos Creek trail, the (just as hilly) Pt. Defiance 5 mile loop, and a hosted run (please, give me more hills....NOT!). What all that means is I'm getting in some nice hilly, albeit SLOW runs.

No matter, though, as all this hill running is simply preparing my for next Sunday's race. Yeah, right, as though I'm going race against anything. I can't even race against myself this year. Last year I PR'd on the course. I don't expect to come anywhere close to that this year. In fact, I can't help but think that in order for me to even finish the race, I will have to stick to my plan of walking for 60 seconds every 5 minuts. Yes it slows me down, but considering that 7 miles is the furthest I've run since my knee surgery back in September, I think it may be a wise move on my part. More to the point, even my coach doesn't have me finishing the race any faster than 2:45. Even at that, just so long as I can finish upright and veritcal with a smile on my face, I'll be a happy camper.

Now I need to go plan my Thanksgiving Dinner. It's not nearly so lavish as VM, but it will certainly be plentiful. Have a great week everyone and a wonderful Thanksgiving. Try to remember all those things for which you are grateful. Health, family, friends, jobs. Remember, too, life is choices so if you aren't happy with anything, you are the only one that has the power to make any changes, even if the change is only in your attitude.