Training Week 4: January 27 – February 3


 

YouTube Link

 

Leah notes:

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Monday: Weights: 3×22… 200 lb* leg press, 50 lb pulldown, 115 lb squats, 20 lb dumbbell chest press, 65 lb* rows, 90 lb calf raises, and 3×25 situps w/10 lb plate w/twist.  Swim: 1200m in 30 mins.
Tuesday: Trainer: 11.78 miles in 30 mins.  Run: 3.1 miles in 37:45.
Wednesday: Weights: same as above but 3×25 of everything.  Swim: 1200m in 30 mins.
Thursday: Trainer: 11.05 miles in 30 mins (did some 1 leg drills that slowed me down a bit). Run: .8 miles of heel fail, then elliptical for 20 mins.
Friday: off
Saturday: Run: 1 mile walk, 1.5 mile run in 37 mins.  Swim: 990m in 22 mins. Outdoor bike: 12.17 miles in 46:45.
Sunday: off

Weights are fun guys!  Can’t you see the happy look on my face?

As you can see, all that speed on the trainer?  Translates almost nothing to outside.  Yet.  I think I’ve forgotten what it is to not just ride consistent speed/effort, so it will take a bit to bring up that number (though – when I was actually working on being fast, those loops were about 17 mph, so that’s something for the first ride of the year).  It’s now time to start working the resistance and speed and pushing some zone 3 HR on the trainer so I can remember what it feels like to hurt on the bike again.  Considering our first 70.3 is supposed to be super hilly and hard, it’s time to get back to the pain.

Let’s just not talk about running this week.  It just makes me sad.  At least I got those new shoes and my heel is feeling better and I think I may be able to run on it this week again so there’s that.

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Swimming has actually been my favorite lately.  Things keep clicking.  “Oh, fingers together and pushing the water!  Holy crap!” “Really extending my shoulders!  Shut up, that feels GREAT!”  And after I get my upper body in line and start thinking about my legs, they actually start doing the right thing as well.  I’m working on some breath work now (5 strokes to breathe, then 7) and that’s feeling awesome too.  Maybe I’ll just quit triathlon and work on becoming an awesome swimmer… kidding…

Weights have also been cool.  Accomplishments!  Wheee!  I am actually sad to see this phase end because I felt like I was making great strides with it, but now it’s time to transition to REALLY lift heavy.  Exciting stuff.

Next week we up the intensity just a little with some efforts allowed into zone 3, some gentle speed work (very short sprints or strides), and some drill work on the trainer and with the runs + adding some longer efforts (just a little).  Looking forward to it.  Prep time is over.  Time to begin the climb of the build.

Joel notes:

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This week we watched the second of the new batman movies. Been good. I also put on some Hoover-phonic on my swimp3 player, and you know the lyrics just don’t work as well for me in the water as just instrumentals. I will have to change that up next week. I did good this week with the sit ups and hit all my goals. Next week I think I am going to keep it at the same level of intensity just to make sure this week wasn’t a fluke.

 

Monday: Oh boy weights, and I am getting better. This whole sit up thing isn’t killing me as much as it used to. Swim time happy time.
Tuesday: Good bike, great slow run. I am really starting to enjoy the keep the heart rate lower and run faster thing. This is going to work out.
Wednesday: Same as Monday, but the squats made me want to just leave. At least the swim made up for the weights.
Thusday: Bike and more movie, then a lunch run, that was just amazing out. I didn’t keep to my heart rate though since another guy in the lunch run was with me and we talked the whole way. I ended up going over quite a bit.
Friday: Day off
Saturday: 3+ mile run, good swim, 12+ mile bike at the Veloway! also sold the couch.
Sunday: No couch, so I stayed in bed to relax. Now that was nice.

 

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Training Week 3 : January 21 – 27

Mostly like the last 2weeks except we did our swim test Saturday morning.

YouTube Link

This weeks video is less than 1 minute, in case you thought the older ones were too long.  We’re working on brevity!

Joel Week 3 Recap:

Monday:

  • Normal weights, upped everything that I could, did more sit ups. Felt awesome even after wanting to die on the squats. Weights Stats
  • A good solid swim. Did some drills, once I can get the kicks down I know I will be way better. Swim Stats

Tuesday:

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  • Morning ride and Batman Begins! Woohoo, what a great movie! Bike Stats
  • Lunch Run, Allergies were better today so that was nice. I can’t believe its in the high 60’s low 70s for this run in January. Run Stats

Wednesday:

  • More weights, Getting Better! Weights Stats
  • Swim Swim time, Legs are starting to get better. More drills are needed. Swim Stats

Thursday:

  • More Batman and more riding. I can pedal quite fast to this movie. I was sad when it was time to stop. I could have kept on riding until the end of the movie but that pesky work thing. Bike Stats
  • Lunch run was good, The main group was booking it but Leah and I kept our slow pace and stayed where we were supposed to with our heart rates. Its getting easier to run at zone 1 and 2. Run Stats

Friday:

  • Day Off!

Saturday:

  • 35 Lap swim test. 1050m, Great times on this. 26minutes fantastic for me. Swim Stats
  • Finished up watching Batman and got in 20 miles! Poor nutrition though, we should have eaten more on the bike. Doesn’t it always come back to that? Bike Stats
  • Super slow run, Leah’s HR kept getting over her Z2 top, so we walked a few bits. It was 58 out so perfect running weather. Run Stats
  • Oh yeah… we did our batch cooking, before the swim, after the swim and after the run this day, and hosted a party at the house for a few other couples. Long day.

Sunday:

  • Day off, but we ended up walking all around 1 store for like 2 hours.

According to Joels Fitbit.

  • 73613 steps taken
  • 43 floors climbed
  • 35.5 miles traveled

The stairs are great I love how it tells me. It makes me want o go up and down the stairs a whole bunch of times at work, just to get a better “score”.

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Leah Week 3 Recap:
Monday: Weights: 3×22… 190 lb* leg press, 40 lb pulldowns, 105 lb squats, 20 lb* dumbell chest press, 60 lb row, 80 lb* calf raises, 10 lb plate situps with twist. Swim: 1290m in 30 mins.
Tuesday: Bike: 11.37 miles in 30 mins.  Run: 3 miles in 36:30.
Wednesday: Weights: 3×22… 190 lb leg press, 50 lb* pulldowns, 125 lb* squats, 20 lb dumbells chest press, 60 lb rows, 55 lb* hammie curls, situps w/twist w/10 lb plate.  Swim: 1350m in 32 mins.
Thursday: Bike: 10 miles in 32 mins (hurty hip so I went slower).  Run: 3.1 miles in 38 mins.
Friday: off
Saturday: Swim: 1050m test (in 23 mins).  Bike: 20 miles in 52:28.  Run: 3.1 in 40:30 because my body hated me.
Sunday: off
(Weight PR is noted by a *)
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Notes and Observations:

My heel has gotten less creaky, I got to run outside 3 times and I’m not limping and feels better than it has for a while.  That’s a happy for sure!

I did a 1050m test (70 laps) on Saturday and hit 23 mins.  That’s a ~35 minute mile.  Faster times than I’ve posted for a while/ever (for a while I had the pool measurements wrong so I thought I was faster than I was)?  It felt great to push myself in the pool and I am HUNGRY for some hard pool workouts that are going to come starting March.

Cycling has just been more of the same goodness.  I’m craving some outdoor riding, but I want to push myself to see what I have outside at a closed road course (Veloway).  I may have to break my zone 1/2 rule just once soon.  For now, loving the trainer movie rides.

Running – meh.  My HR finally came down a bit this week for the lunch runs, but Saturday’s run was just shit.  Allergies, lack of motivation, no music because I’m a dummy and didn’t charge my mp3 player, and just plain tireds made my heart rate go sky high after about mile 1.5 and I was either trotting or walking so I bagged it a little early (with the warmup and cooldown I got my intended 45 mins in, because I ran so frigging slow, but it’s not what I set out to do).  I’ll keep at it, but right now, runs are, pun intended, my Achilles heel.

Weights are good.  Raised everything to 22 reps, and I even upped some weights.  I’m getting stronger.  Let me tell you a story… I went about my normal weights workout on Wednesday…and Zliten and I were staggered so he was on the exercise before me. I get to the squat bar, put my weight on, and go at it. The first set went OK, but the second set was just WAY hard. I started thinking about how the day really drained me. Finishing his last set of the previous exercise, Zliten comes over and points to my bar and gives me a thumbs up. I’m like, what? I then realized I had put two 35s and two 10s on each side instead of 25s and two 10s. Holy crap, I squatted 125 lbs which is 20 more lbs than I was struggling with last week! I almost took the weight off, but figured if I could do two sets I could do three. It did make my hips (of all places) REALLY tender for about 12 hours after but I survived.  I’ll scale back a bit next week (115 maybe?) but that was awesome!

I did not eat so well last week, so one of my big goals this week is to try and eat all the right things and not go completely overboard on calories.  Sometime soon I’ll post the eating strategy I’m following, but it’s basically about eating good things while trying to stay away from the bad things and trying to eat them at the right times.  Sounds like rocket science, eh?

If you’re interested in following me on dailymile to see stats and stuff, you can here.

Question of the day: Did you run, bike, swim, or lift heavy things this week?  Was it awesome?

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