week in training | 12.28 – 1.3
I decided to take a bit of a different direction with my training this week by programming a Century cycling plan into my Garmin. The plan spans until June and ultimately means my focus will have to shift towards biking and running mileage might be sacrificed to make it all work. Considering my current fitness level, my rides are all one hour and up and most of them are over 90 minutes, including a 3 hour long ride each week and increases as I move along the plan. I wanted some accountability in my session quality since cycling effort levels are much harder for me to glean than running, and this plan goes by heart rate zones (since I don’t have a power meter). I reconfigured my zones in my watch before the week commenced and judging by my workouts this week I think I estimated them quite accurately.
That said, I do plan to continue 10k training despite my possibly lower mileage. The 10k doesn’t demand the high load that the marathon or even the half marathon would, so if I budget my time well I think I can handle both.
Monday, 12/28: 41.93 miles, 19.4 mph cycling (2:21:53)
Went through another adjustment on the bike as J had to reset the trainer after doing some much needed maintenance on the chain. I kept hopping off to fiddle with the resistance until I finally found what felt realistic for my training level. Didn’t really enjoy the workout as a result but got it done.
Tuesday, 12/29: 10.2 miles, 8:49 pace + 18.59 miles, 18.6 mph cycling (1:00:00)
Today’s ride was an hour in zone 2, which ended up hanging on the edge of zone 2 and zone 3 since I performed it post-run and my body likely was recovering from the effort.
I moved my speedwork to today and oof, my legs were not excited. The humidity climbed to 92% and I felt rough and unsteady during my reps, though I did manage to hit the upper end of my goal pace range so I’m okay with my success. 8 x 1k @ 7:27-7:34 isn’t too shabby for 20 mph wind gusts and feet that just did not want.
Wednesday, 12/30: 27 miles, 18.4 mph cycling (1:28:07) + 2.7 miles, 9:46 pace brick run
Birthday brick! I wanted to honor my age with a workout and chose a 27 mile ride and 2.7 mile run. I initially wanted to plug a 27 minute swim in but that aesthetically would mess up my Garmin homepage, so I swapped such for a 27 minute yoga session. I spent most of the ride chatting with my friend and my mom. The run proved a bit less satisfying than I hoped because my ankle was unhappy with the movement. I’ll have to monitor that very closely to avoid aggravating it more in the coming days.
Thursday, 12/31: 19 miles, 19 mph cycling (1:00:00) + 1,800 yard swim (34:11)
Relaxed zone 2 ride fueled by embarrassing portions of cake, and a calm swim with no real aim other than to work some of the lactic acid out of my muscles. Proved a lovely, windy, sunny afternoon and I performed 15 x 100 yard segments at varying paces, averaged 1:54/100 yards overall.
Friday, 1/1: 24.12 miles, 19.4 mph cycling (1:15:00) + 3.96 miles, 10:06 pace + 40 min strength
Happy happy new year! Celebrated with the first proper workout of my Century training plan: 3 x 10 minute tempo intervals. I clocked in at 20.6, 20.6, and 20.7 mph for the work portions.
After work I ventured out for a run/walk to see how the ankle felt with impact. I didn’t experience any issues except if I landed weirdly on it, and that was mostly when I just walked around. Encouraging progress and shows that I may have knocked out the knot with the baseball on Thursday.
Strength:
- 2 x 12 deadlift/2 x 10 deadlift
- 4 x 12 chest press
- 4 x 8 single leg deadlift
- 1 x 8/3 x 10 row
- 50 bicycle crunches
- 50 mountain climbers
- 50 dumbbell calf raises
- 50 alternating lateral lunges
- 1:00 plank
- 25 side plank crunches per side
Saturday, 1/2: 13.23 miles, 9:27 pace + 18.64 miles, 18.6 mph cycling (1:00:00)
Because of my ankle, I didn’t commit to any course of action as far as tempo running went until I warmed up a few miles. I decided once that time elapsed that I was okay to proceed! My legs felt pretty rough and it was not pleasant out – about 69 degrees with 95% humidity – but I experienced no twinges. I ran 2 x 2 miles tempo at 8:09, 8:10, 8:13, and 7:47 with a float mile in between. Later in the morning I completed my zone 2 ride while online shopping.
Sunday, 1/3: 20.8 miles, 19.2 mph cycling (1:05:00) + 5.75 miles, 10:26 pace
4 x 2 minute zone 5 intervals on the agenda early in the morning. I averaged 25.4-26.1 mph for the work intervals and spun 4 minutes in between. This was quite challenging and my legs felt completely trashed during my run, but the midday movement refreshed me.
Total running mileage: 35.8
Total cycling mileage: 174.1
Total swimming yardage: 1,800 yards
