06/06/2010 - 06/12/2010

Sunday, June 6th

Met James for an early morning trail run right from our front door. We start out with about a mile of pavement and then hit the desert behind our neighborhood. I’ve lived in this area for 6 years now, and have never made it back to this area. I’m amazed at just how much land is actually out there. We even passed a deserted rock quarry that James said must’ve just moved out recently. James also said that he’s actually seen campers out here too. At any rate, our tempo was real slow today. We stopped to go to the bathroom, admire the quarry remnants, take in some fluids, and check out “snake paths” that crossed the trail we were running on. There were literally hundreds of them. Holding true to form, we encountered another oddity….a grave for a dog. Well, at least that’s what James told me was in there. During our trek, we only encountered one other person, and he was riding through the cholla forest on a mountain bike. To give you an idea of just how slow the run was, James was wearing a Garmin, but when we were done, he just looked at it and didn’t really say much more. I didn’t ask either. He may have said something about our pace, but we pretty much chose to forget it ASAP. All in all, it was still a fun run and a nice change too. We put in 10 miles.

Monday, June 7th

Last week, my moderate swim was on Tuesday, but that was because we were coming back from vacation on Monday. After perusing the swim book, I came across a nice moderate length “force” workout that I wanted to do. The book describes a “force” workout out as a workout, “Often emphasizing using a pull buoy for a significant portion of the main set. The workouts are intended to improve swimming strength.” Here is the workout:

Warm Up – 300 swim & 300 kick

8x150 Pull (Desc 1-8) (:20 RI)
8x100 Pull (Desc 1-8) (:15 RI)
8x50 Pull (Desc 1-8) (:10 RI)

Warm Down – 100 swim

The workout felt great and so did my arms. It was this workout that made me determined to pick up a pair of swim paddles too. Overall, I was very pleased and felt strong. Total yards = 3100.

Desc – Descend the speed of each swim. For example, on a set of 8x100s, each 100 is faster than the previous one.

Tuesday, June 8th

A moderate bike ride was on the schedule for this morning. Rolled promptly at 5AM and had 3 hours available to get in as many miles as I wanted. Sometimes I’ll use the full 3 hours and see how many miles I can go, but today I just wanted to get in around 50. I figured that I could do my standard 40 mile route and add some side adventures on to it. I ended up going a bit further south, than normal, and then a bit further north at the typical turn-around point. I was able to keep a solid tempo and only sat up to grab some fluids or stretch the back a bit. The end result was a about a 45 mile ride in approximately 2 hours and 19 minutes. That comes out to a 19.6 mph average. Keep in mind that, since I don’t use an onboard computer, I calculate my results using Map My Ride, and the clock on my cell phone. Overall, I was very satisfied with this ride and the accompanying results.

Elevation for my ride:



Wednesday, June 9th

Since I had some time after work, before my speed workout, I decided to pick up some swim paddles. I ended up getting some Speedo Contoured paddles from a local sporting goods store. It seems as though paddles have come a long way since I used ‘em back in the day. I remember using Speedo’s, but they were simple rectangles with some rubber tubing over the middle finger to keep them on. The ones I bought create a nice contour, for proper stoke technique, and have holes in them that allow you to get a good feel for the water. I did get a kick out of one of the benefits listed on the website: Speedo® logo. Seriously!?! OK, back to the workout de jour, speed run. I arrived at 5:30 PM to warm up, but since it was 103 degrees, I was second guessing that. After some stretching, in the baking sun, I took off for 1 lap of walking followed by 2 jogging. After warming up, Erik wanted me to follow this schedule:

4x
1.5 laps fast
0.5 laps recover
0.25 lap sprint
0.25 lap recover
0.25 lap sprint
1.25 laps recover

The first two rotations through were marginal to good. I really didn’t have the speed for the 1.5 fast, but was able to find some for those sprints. It was hot enough to where I had to stop after every rotation to grab some water. Trouble set in promptly on rotation 3. Immediately after starting my 1.5 fast, I knew I didn’t have it. I ended up jogging the fast laps and walking the recover laps for the entire set. For the last rotation, I was able to muster some speed for the .25’s, but that’s about it. The entire workout is scheduled for 1 hour, but it ended up taking me 1.5 hours (warm-up to finish). As a result, I was finishing up alone. Overall, I was severely disappointed with my performance in today’s workout. Total miles covered was about 5.25.

Thursday, June 10th

I guess my quest for finding a weekly routine that doesn’t have me doing back to back disciplines isn’t working out so well. Today was going to be a split day with a moderate run in the morning and a long swim in the afternoon. Surprisingly, I felt no ill effects from yesterday’s demoralizing speed work, so the idea of a 5 mile run didn’t really bother me. With the stopwatch off, I headed out and completed my usual loop. I felt real good. My turnover seemed to be normal, I wasn’t breathing hard, and the legs weren’t sore. I would say that I was satisfied with today’s run.

Previously, my “long swims” consisted of me getting in the pool and churning out 5000 – 5600 yards with very little structure. Just grinding it out and building a base. Today, I picked out an “Endurance” workout from the swim book and it looked like this:

Warm Up – 200 swim & 2x200 [50 swim, 100 kick, 50 swim (:20RI)]

400, 300, 200, 100 Moderate (:20 RI)
300, 200, 100 N/S (:25 RI)
200 Fast (:30 RI)
100 Fast (:30 RI)
4x150 Pull (:20 RI)

Warm Down – 100 swim

Overall, I was moderately satisfied with my performance during this workout. I felt strong and had good rhythm. It was also the first time using my new paddles and I love them. The added power allows me to glide through the water with very few strokes. Total yards = 3200.

N/S – Negative split. The second half of the designated swim is faster than the first half of that swim.

Friday, June 11th

Another back to back day as a speed swim was on tap for this afternoon. First up, however, was a morning speed ride. The main road leading into our subdivision is exactly 1 mile long and has a nice, gradual, uphill pitch. I decided to use this for today’s training. Hammer up and recover down. Since I don’t use a heart rate monitor, a power meter, or a computer, I can’t tell you the scientific numbers, but I can tell you that my legs were burning and I was out of breath. My goal was to see how many times I could go fast in an hour. I ended up doing 8 (16 laps total). After calculating my warm up, and warm down, I ended up putting in around 18.5 miles. I would say that I was moderately satisfied with this workout.

Elevation for the speed portion of my workout:



The afternoon swim was a speed workout. I found an “Anaerobic Endurance” workout that looked pretty good:

Warm Up – 300 swim, 300 kick, 300 pull / 200 swim, 200 kick, 200 pull

4x50 Build (1:00 SI)
2x50 Fast (1:00 SI)
1x50 Easy (1:00 SI)
3X50 Fast (1:00 SI)
1X50 Easy (1:00 SI)
4X50 Fast (1:00 SI)

Warm Down – 300 swim.

I had to do my final 4x50 set while the lifeguards were putting a volley ball net across the lanes and then actually removing said lanes. I had to make sure my recovery stroke was low enough so as not to snag the net dangling just above. The final 3 50’s were done with no lane lines at all. With all that, I was able to keep all fast 50’s between 27 seconds and 30 seconds. Overall, I was very satisfied with today’s workout. When my arms are burning, my lungs are moving, and my legs are tired, it’s all good. Total yards = 2550.

Anaerobic Endurance – The intention is to swim very fast, faster than you thought possible. The main set may be quite short in yardage, but still take twenty to forty minutes to complete. The main goal is to swim fast – don’t conserve energy, go for it.

SI – Swim Interval. Leave on the designated schedule. For example, one of my 50’s above took me 27 seconds. On a 1:00 SI, I would have 33 seconds rest. If it took me 40 seconds, I would have had only 20 seconds rest.


Saturday, June 12th

I ended up switching my long bike ride to Sunday so that I could meet a high school friend for a nice 10 mile run along the canal. After showing up at 5AM, to warm-up and stretch, I met up with Cindy and a group of her running friends. Cindy is currently training for the PF Chang’s Seattle Marathon and needed to get in 14 miles today, so she picked us up after putting in 4 miles. Wow, what can I say, what a great run! It was great meeting up with an old friend and meeting new people too! We did a 5 mile out and back. While I don’t know what our overall average minutes per mile were, Cindy did say that our slowest pace was 8:45. Nice! Overall, I was very satisfied with today workout.