Sunday, May 16, 2010

9 Hour Volume Week, in the books!

Ok, it's not 20+ hours like a certain someone who's training for IMCDA. But when I laid out my plan back in January, I saw a build from about 4 hours/week to just over 9 hours in about 13 weeks and gulped a bit. My only comparison had been Marathon training, and that never exceeded about 6.5 hours on the worst week. The plan got adjusted because of a change in goal race, but I've been pretty much faithful to the mileage and duration laid out. A week ago, I came down with something on a Thursday night, and missed a Friday work out and had to cut short a weekend long ride. My long ride has also had to be capped at about 2 hours since Lead Sherpa K had laid down the law that no workouts beyond the nap time of A & P.

So, about three weeks away from my goal race, I was starting to panic because I'm not hitting my training targets. I've been fine from an build perspective, but frankly, I feel I may have peaked too early.

Well, a 44 mile ride today at a good clip makes me feel like I'm not that far off peak conditions. I need to restock on my in race fuel and experiment on nutrition plan, but other than that, I'm ready for my taper. I'm hoping to add a couple of Open Water swims to the training regimen in place of my long swims and I think I'll be as prepared as I can be for this race. Also, will do a couple of bricks to see how the new HR monitor tells me how the ol ticker deals with those pesky transitions.

Full disclosure, I don't really practice hills. Where I live it's tough to get to hills on my time schedule. Also, I only recently got my HR monitor, and it's very simplistic. It has been invaluable though showing me how hard I'm going on my rides or runs. In terms of varying the intensity of my workouts, I can honestly say, I've got one speed for most of my workouts which is as fast as I think I can last. Using the HR has let me zero in on intensity a bit better. It's still hit or miss, but I feel it's got a lot of potential to help me improve.

I'm now reading the Friel's Triathlete's Training Bible and realize how much more I can get out of my training. For now, I'll be happy to get an Olympic under my belt and then reassess where I go for the last race(s) of the season.

Technically, I've got two more weeks of training, just short of 8 hours the first week, and 4:45 for the last week of tapering. I've got some ideas to work in some race specific issues and get some Open Water techniques honed.

Hotel is booked for Austin, checklists are starting to be made. Excitement is starting to build.

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