Weekly Totals and Review, Nov. 29 - Dec 5.

I believe I hit a new PR for weekly miles run, all while getting back into the pool and going out of town for the weekend on a family vacation.  These are good signs for training for the Rocky Raccoon 100.  Let's check it out - 

Monday - 1 hour run, 6.26 miles

Nice evening negative split push-run, first half with Roxy. Felt sloppy at first, but then the energy started pouring on! Must've been the Hornet Juice in the water bottle. :)

Barefoot running on treadmill is paying off big time. I have a completely new form that feels better the faster I go. :)

Tuesday AM - 51 minute bike on rollers, 11.72 mi.

I transferred over my negative split running technique to the bike and I'm extremely happy with the results. I spent the first half hour warming up, watching some videos on the laptop. I then used music from stereomood.com for the second half while I increased my heart rate by one beat per minute.

My biggest problem on the bike for the past few years is the inability to get my HR up on training rides. This method seems to have fixed that issue. I can finally "break out" of low HR.

Tuesday PM - 1 hour run, 5.5 miles

1 hour barefoot running on the treadmill. This workout was a real bummer! I got hungry and ate a few slices of pizza before the run and paid for it big time. It made me super sleepy and I couldn't get my HR up for 45 minutes. Gotta avoid that type of food before workouts no matter what!

Wednesday AM - Swim, 25 minutes of 100's on a 1:40 pace - 1600 yards total.

This was an extra-nice swim, just getting to the pool and playing around. If I haven't been in a while, my first time back is always frustrating, so I set my expectations really low. I couldn't find my swimsuit, keys, was late by half an hour, and on and on. So, it's a huge success to just get there. I got that done, so I'm happy. :)

Wednesday PM - 1 hour run, 6.97 miles, no notes

Thursday AM - 55 minute bike, 17.04 miles, no notes (but looking pretty epic! :) )

Thursday PM - 1 hour run, 7.22 miles

Another night run, first half with Roxy, second half escalating negative split. Getting a lot faster. Starting to run out of neighborhood to run in!

Friday AM - 1 hour swim, 3700 yards

I decided to start getting back into the groove of a full hour of swimming. Set out doing 100s on a 1:37 pace, but that got a little too slow after 20 minutes. I bumped it up to a 1:30 pace after that and found a nice groove. Beautiful day, too!

Saturday AM - 1.5 Hour run, 9.5 miles

We spent the weekend at a log cabin in the Texas Hill Country outside of Wimberly, a quiet and remote place. (Video tomorrow) I wanted to get in a run before the family got up and training time disappeared, so I went running off into the night. It is hilly, and a bit of an extreme environment, so it was a blast. Did the whole run on a tablespoon of honey and a tablespoon of olive oil. Felt great.

Saturday PM - 1.5 Hour run, 9.5 miles

Emily joined me for the first part and we had a good jog. I used the same fuel, which worked fine, but it was much warmer and I got a little dehydrated at the end and feeling a little lagged.

Sunday AM - 1.5 Hour run, 9.5 miles

I couldn't sleep, so I went out for my morning run much earlier than usual - 4 AM. I had a great time and felt very strong after a half hour warm-up.

Sunday PM - 30 minute bike, 7.7 miles

I did a good job of getting on the bike and moving, but then found my legs were very sore, so I cut it short after half an hour. Ate half a peanut butter sandwich with just a tiny bit of honey for sweetness before I got started and I liked it. That might just become a habit!

Totals

Duration

Running - 8:33 hours

Cycling - 2:17 hours

Swimming - 1:21 hours

All - 12:17 hours

Distance

Running - 54.71 mile

Cycling - 36.53 mile

Swimming - 3.10 mile

Training Effect

Training Effect: 4 & 5 - 0 hours

Training Effect: 3 - 2:56 hours

Training Effect: 2 - 7:20 hours

Training Effect: 1 - 1:30 hours

Heart Rate Zones

Maximal 0:00 hours

Very hard 0:31 hours

Hard 2:14 hours

Moderate 5:56 hours

Easy 2:08 hours

Summary - I spent about an hour more working out than last week, and an hour more in zone 3.  I can definitely feel that zone 3!  I got much faster from it.  

How to Study Your Long Distance Nutrition

Your long distance nutrition should give you an even amount of energy throughout your entire workout.  You can tell if it's working by reviewing your heart rate profile.  If it is nice and even, then you are on track.  If it is not, then you have some work to do.

A great way to fix your nutrition is to measure it out so that you take it evenly over long periods of time.  Bring along extra fuel in case you are underfueled.  

Proper fueling for long workouts gives you a huge benefit - you get much more quality out of the time spent and don't need as much quantity, reducing fatigue and risk of injury.

Why Distractions Make You Slow

We got a great question on the forums about constantly changing your swim route in a race that made me think about this video -

Notice there's no "The more you know.." NBC jingle at the end of this bad motherf*cker.  Cavendish is not making a PSA for little kids.  This is about a subject that elite athletes have mastered.  And Cavendish wins.  He wins A LOT.  He focuses on the kill and doesn't spend any time debating on if he should or shouldn't change course.  

Which leads me to this little blog post I found today.  I twittered it and was not surprised to find lots of people loved it.  They love it because, deep down, it rings true and we know it.

The next time you go out for a workout, remember that pain is a symptom of performance.  If you want to improve, you better be willing to put in the effort.

How to Get Back Into the Pool!

Thanksgiving Week Workouts Review

A change of scenery - trail running in Tyler, TX.

It was a nice week of fewer workouts, more family stuff, and a little bit of travel to the Piney Woods of Tyler Tx. I managed to squeak in 11.5 hours of solid training, most of it higher quality than usual. No swimming this week; just biking and running. Click on the links to see the workout's full HR graphs and speed charts.

Monday - 1 hour run, 6.5 miles

Nice night run, starting off easy with the dog, hitting target training effect about 45 minutes into it and then coasting the rest of the way home.

Tuesday AM - 1 hour Bike, 15.5 miles
1 hour ride on the rollers, doing "The Hunted" - the latest video from The Sufferfest.

Great video and you can see from the chart how I was hammering home the sprints at the end. Highly Recommended.

Tuesday PM - 30 minute run, 2.93 miles

Short evening run. Cold, crappy weather. Wasn't feeling it, so cashed it in for a nap.

Wednesday - Day off.

Thursday AM - 1 hour run, 5.4 miles

Running barefoot on treadmill. Working on form and nutrition. Emily was gone, running a Turkey Trot 5k with a friend.

Friday PM - 3 hour bike, 50 miles

Truly a rockin' ride. Nice and hilly, mostly on a quiet toll road and country roads in the Piney Woods of Tyler, TX.

This ride was all about working on proper nutrition and I nailed it. HR graph shows ultra-smooth pattern, even with the big hills.

Saturday AM - 1 hour run, 6.3 miles

One of many weird and fun items I find while out running.

Still in East Texas. Took off to the east and just ran like crazy wherever it took me. Ran through some woods and down a highway, turning around at an Exxon station and headed back. Found a license plate on the ground.

Started off chilly but warmed up. Also started off with a really high HR for some mysterious reason, but it settled down quickly. Great run!

Saturday PM, part 1 - 1 hour bike, 18.4 miles

1 hour on the rollers, going pretty hard, staying at the top end of my target HR zone (125-135 BPM). Went over 135 quite often. Got off the bike and went straight to the treadmill. HR failed to log on this one for some reason.

Saturday PM, part 2 - 1 hour run, 6.94 miles

Great fast barefoot run on treadmill. Hovered around 7.1 mph for a long time. Pushed this one to upper end of target zone, but stayed below 135 BPM for the most part.

Watch kept trying to pick up bike sensor, since it was right next to the treadmill. No HR graph since I just used the treadmill's numbers instead.

Sunday AM, 3 hour bike, 48.2 miles

Legs very sore from last few days and also lost a few pounds over past couple of days, undoing damage from Turkey Day.

This ride was a bit confusing to me. Felt like I needed to abandon the plan of 1 scoop of Perpetuem per hour at about 70 minutes in, and look what happened. Was it too much fuel? Too little? It felt like too little, but I'm a poor judge of this. Something to continue working on for sure.

Weekly Totals:

Cycling - 7:57 hours, 131.4 miles
Running - 3:34 hours, 28.10 miles
Not a bad week for a lot of family stuff going on. Really enjoyed the reduced hours and hanging out with family. Made huge progress in getting the HR up for more workouts and looking for more improvements on the nutrition for long rides.