Weekly training update - June 20, 2010

Okay this is really a biweekly training update, I got caught up in the drama of last week's open water swim debut (and the press of preparing to file a new case at work) that I forgot/didn't get around to posting last week's training summary. But in a nutshell, my 2 weeks of running 5 miles went very very well -- both in being able to run 5 miles at a time with no difficulty, but more importantly running several of them at sub 8 minute pace.

Two weeks ago, I upped my mileage to 5 miles per run. First week, I ran 20.51 miles, with 3 of my 4 runs at sub-8. The 4th run was after I got back from the Chesapeake Bay 1 mile challenge and the temperature was 92F with a heat index of 104. The temperature may have been hot, but my running partner (Jordana) was even hotter!!

Last week, I logged 21.89 miles, including 6 miles yesterday with Jordana. We were at my folks in Va Beach and she was running 14 miles. She did 8 on her own then picked me up for the final 6. Fine run to Witchduck Point and back.

Swimming went swimmingly. The highlight, as posted elsewhere, was my 1 mile open water swim. Meanwhile, laps in the pool and masters swim are going just fine. Before the 1 mile swim, I did 1 mile in the pool. That Thursday's masters swim was: 9x50m warmup; 4 x 100 m (swim, kick, drill, swim); 3 x (2 x 100m, 4 x 50m); 50m easy; 3 x (150m IM, 2 x 50m); 50m easy; 6 x 50m kick = 3200m.

I didn't swim after the 1 mile swim until Wednesday, when I logged my fastest 1 mile in the pool with no wetsuit (27:06). Thursday's masters swim was: 10x50m warmup; 12*25 m; 9 x 150m (3 sets easy, moderate, hard); 6 x 100m (50m moderate, 25m easy, 25m sprint); 50m easy; 5 x 100m kick = 3300m. I must say that that work out really drained me. My legs felt like cement during my Friday run. Being in Va Beach, I was not able to do my 2 mile pool swim. Although today at the beach, I helped Jordana do a bit of open water swimming -- I doubt we swam more than 1/4 mile paralleling the shore in chest deep water. But swimming in swells was a lot different even than when I was in the Chesapeake Bay!

Not much to say on the biking front. Never ventured outside the past two weeks, just twice each week on the trainer for 45 minutes per session, although two weeks ago Tuesday, Jordana did not run with her group and ran beside me on the treadmill. We joked that we would have a race! (Get it? I'm on a trainer and she's on treadmill... it was a race to see who could get nowhere the fastest) Next week, I hope to do another brick. I picked up my sister-in-law's aero bars while in Va Beach (I'm borrowing her bike), so that will be interesting to see how riding with them will go.

Anyhow, it's been a good two weeks of training. My running continues to improve. This week, I begin 2 weeks of 6 milers -- the final phase in my return to running. I hope to do at least one of this week's runs entirely at a sub-8 pace. Not ready for sub-7's yet, although I think I could if I pushed. We'll hold off on that for at least another week, though.