This was our third build week in a row which means recovery week is coming up next. The best part of the week was the amazing weather over the weekend which made swimming, biking and running outdoors for nearly 9 hours more enjoyable than ever. We have been blessed with a VERY warm winter in San Diego this year and I’m definitely not complaining! Here’s how the week went:
Week of February 27 – March 4
Monday – Complete day of rest. This was unplanned but both Mike and I agreed on Sunday night that our bodies were calling us to take a full day off from leg work. Then, in the afternoon Mike told me he was planning to skip his swim and come home. I was still going to swim but as soon as I walked outside into the pouring rain, all I wanted to do was curl up under a blanket on the couch with Mike and watch TV. So that’s what I did – went straight home and we drank a beer and ate leftover Mexican dip from the dinner party I went to on Sunday night. We went to bed by 9:30 and woke up feeling great the next day. Sometimes you just have to listen to your body and relax!
Tuesday – Started the day with 55 minutes on the trainer plus 25 minutes of strength/core including Ab Ripper X. Then, after work I headed to a track workout that I’ve seen advertised in the Tri Club newsletter but never have made it to. I was really glad I went! I got there early and ran about 1.5 miles on the track before the workout to warm-up. The workout was 2 x 400, 1 x 800, 1 x 1600, 1 x 800 and 2 x 400 with complete rest between (not a recovery jog). I found the workout to be extremely motivating but the short distance (3 miles of intervals total) wasn’t so much that I felt totally wiped out at the end. I did a 1/2 mile cool-down jog at the end for a total of about 5 miles.
Wednesday – I headed back to the YMCA for the Masters Swim. We completed 3,500 yards. After a 400 warm-up we did 4 x 150 kick-swim-kick (with fins) and then got to the main set which was 4 x 100 base, 2 x 400 (descending 200s) and 4 x 100 -5 base so these were at about 1:35. After the fast 100s I was starting to get pretty tired. I definitely need to increase my endurance if I want to swim 4,000 meters without ease on June 24! We followed up the big set with 1 x 400, 1 x200 and 100 cool-down. Some of the lanes were still swimming an additional 400 and 200 but after 68 minutes of swimming I was done! I’m hoping to work my way up to the full 1 hour 15 minutes and get in over 4,000 yards per session during my peak Ironman training.
After work we put in a frozen lasagna and got on the trainer for a 90 minute spin while watching The Biggest Loser. My legs felt a bit tired and I took a bit more effort to keep my watts at the normal amount. I alternated between a slightly easier and slightly harder gear throughout.
Thursday – We got on the trainers again for 60 minutes of Sufferfest’s “Angels” in the morning.This workout consisted of a warm-up, 10 minutes which included 1 minute just under threshold, 1 minute just over threshold, then 3 x 8 minute climbing segments (70-75 rpm) at 8/10 effort with attacks at 9/10 effort. My legs were still feeling the climbs from last week’s long ride plus my track workout on this one for sure! My watts were slightly lower than the last time I completed it.
After work I did P90X Yoga (95 minutes).I definitely count this as a strength workout since I definitely feel the burn! It also serves as a core workout and a good stretch.
Friday – Back to the YMCA for another Master’s Swim. This time we had a different coach and he had us doing several kicking drills without fins. I think we got in about 3,000 yards but it was hard to keep track since we did a lot of different things.
At lunch I got a 60 minute sports massage. I bought a 4 pack and will be going back 1x/month up until the Ironman. More about this later!
Saturday: We met up with a friend of Mike’s who is also doing the Oceanside 70.3 for a course preview. We rode 70 miles total, basically from Encinitas, up the coast, through Camp Pendelton, to San Clemente and back. Then we ran 5 miles.See my blog post about this brick workout here. Saturday afternoon and evening were spent in bed and on the couch recovering.
Sunday: I woke up feeling really good after so much sleep from the previous day. We headed to Del Mar for yet another open water swim. This time the waves were VERY small and the air temperature was already in the high 60s at 8 a.m. The water was still a very chilly 58 degrees, but overall I felt less cold than the previous 2 weeks. Jeremy used his watch to calculate that we actually swam 2,000 meters (1.2 miles),not including entering and exiting the water. Jeremy swam this just under 30 minutes and I was just behind him. I felt like that was a good indicator of my pace at the 70.3, since I held a fairy steady effort and pace on this swim, unlike prior weeks when I stopped several times to sight or rest. This time I had a nice rhythm for the majority of the swim.
After our swim we headed home and changed into running gear. We headed out for a 90 minute run which turned out to be just shy of 10 miles. By 10 a.m. when we started it was already in the 70s and by the end it must have been close to 80. However, I felt better on this run than I did in the prior week and our pace showed it. When I got home, Mike was already back from his run and he was doing some push-ups and pull-ups. Since he got the pull-up bar out, I decided to try to do one. During P90X I barely got up to the point where I could do 2, but most of the time I could just do 1. I figured now I wouldn’t be able to do one at all, but I surprised myself with 1 pull-up!
After stretching/foam rolling, a shower and making ourselves some veggie juice, we went to our favorite sandwich shop in Del Mar and took our lunch to go and ate it on the cliffs overlooking the ocean. The weather was absolutely spectacular this weekend! Then we headed to the farmer’s market in Solana Beach and loaded up on fresh brussels sprouts, local almonds, and of course, dessert. I couldn’t resist the home-made peanut butter cup gelato sandwiched between two home-made chocolate chip cookies. Couldn’t have asked for a better end to the week!
Weekly Totals
- Meters Swam (yes I converted my yards to meters!): 8,000
- Hours Biked (door to door minus 15 min on long ride spend waiting for our friend): 8.75
- Miles Run: ~20
- Hours of Core/Strength: 2
- Total Hours: 16.5
Your cycling is really taking off! Looks like a great week!
What a weekend! Glad to be part of Team WODS!!