Training Update

8 weeks.  I can't believe it's been 8 weeks since I started running again after my forced break.  So this was my final week of running no more than 3 or so miles per run (weekly mileage of 13.59 miles).  Tomorrow, I up the mileage to a whopping 4 miles per run (to the Washington Monument and back).  I am actually very excited finally to run beyond the Mall. 

The best part of this week's running is that I started to test my speed.  No, I did not do any track work but I did push the pace on a couple of runs.  Monday and today I averaged 8:10s.  On Wednesday I was feeling particularly good and averaged 7:54s, yup sub-8s.  No pain (or at least nothing significant -- I still feel "something" sometimes in the pelvic region but nothing like what I felt 2 months ago).  So I am feeling very confident that once I build my mileage up over the next weeks, I will likewise be able to regain my speed.

On the swimming front, I swam a solid 5 miles. 1600meters on Monday, 3200 meters endurance swim yesterday and Masters swim on Thursday.  Masters Swim, of course, is my weekly helping of humble pie.  This week's workout consisted of:  400m warm up; 6 x 50m; 400m hard, 50m easy/300m hard 2x50m easy/200m hard 3x50m easy/100m hard 4x50m easy; 5 x (100m hard/50m easy); 6 x 75m kick, for a total of 3400meters.  Once again, I was LAST in my lane.  I'd like to think it is because I cannot flip turn or otherwise turn without literally grabbing on to the side of the pool (I lose probably 2-3 seconds per length this way).

Bikewise, I did 45 minutes on Tuesday and 30 minutes on Thursday morning on the trainer.  My brother was in town and brought up my sister-in-law's sweet Cannondale tri-bike.  It's at the bike shop getting a tune up.  I look forward to hitting the road on occaisions.  I'm thinking of doing the occaisional brick on the weekend.  (In tri-world, a brick is a workout using two triathlon disciplines, e.g. swim then bike, or bike then run, one directly after the other.)

So now that my 8 week doctor-ordered recovery period is over, I am very excited about finally really starting to train again.