I haven’t posted any training updates in a few weeks, so as I finish off this last of 3 build weeks and head into my “B” race of the season I thought I should catch up a bit. I have been steadily building the past three weeks since the NJ Devilman race without any let up. My coach was going to give me a rest week but I was feeling very good coming off Devilman and was ready to stick to the buildup. The last three weeks consisted of 13, 14, and just short of 16 hours respectively. I feel a bit of fatigue, but nothing that is debilitating. I am still able to come home and head out to cut grass after 4 hr bike ride or a 2.5 hour run.
Training volume as steadily increased(above) from around 8 to16 hours. Note the 3 week builds and then recovery week every fourth. Only difference deviation was the race week for Devilman. Below you can see how my fatigue(red) increases and then recovers during the recovery weeks while my fitness(blue) very gradually increases. My current fitness(CTL) level is at around 127 which was the peak level for my entire season last year. So everything from here on out will be adding to that level.
My daily HRV has actually been making a bit of a increase lately. I suspect a downturn this week with my pre-race recovery taking place. Hopefully that will rebound again by Race day.
I have found myself many times during the long hours of training reflecting in amazement at the amount of training I can do and still feel good afterwards. It is amazing when I look back at 4-5 years ago when a 5k run would wipe me out for the day. The change has been so gradual that you really don’t see it until you get into the really long training sessions. I am pretty stoked that at 44 years of age that I can accomplish things that I never dreamed possible while even in my twenties.
This past week(week 17) has been a bit of a challenge in many ways. The early part of the week consisted of very hot and humid temperatures, which were rather tough. I don’t do well in heat and humidity, and doing run pickups in it just about wiped me out on Thursday. Before I could even start acclimating to the heat, the weather did a total 180 and turned rainy and cold on Friday. The plan on Friday was to head up to Dutch Springs quarry to do some open water swimming.
Despite the cooler temps, I headed up to Dutch Springs and met up with my coach and some of his other clients. Turns out one of them was a guy I chat with at the gym all the time. Fortunately the water was a bit warmer than the outside air temperatures. We did a lap around the springs and then the other folks had enough. I hadn’t gotten an hour in yet so I headed off on my own for another lap and ended up with 1.7 miles in about 1:08. Not earth shattering, but we were lollygagging a bit so I probably could have gone faster. It was a pretty good confidence builder for LP. During my final approach to the landing were I exit the springs, I took a bunch of water in the mouth which got me choking a bit. It was a good exercise in dealing with that while in open water. I just rolled onto my back and floated and coughed until it subsided a bit. After the swim I realized how cold my arms were when I got into the shower. I wear a “john” style wetsuit which has no arms because I like the freedom of movement. When I got into the shower the water seemed about 20 degrees hotter on my arms than the rest of me. It took a while until they eventually came back to equilibrium again.
Why does the farmer need to wear a respirator??? Oh, cause he is mixing up toxic chemicals to spray on our the crops that feed the animals we eat. And we wonder why cancer is so rampant these days?
Ok, now some more happy images from my long rides…
On Saturday, I had a 4 hour bike ride to do followed by a 30 minute brick run. It would not have been a huge deal, but on this day we had 20-25 mph winds that were at times practically blowing me off the road. I kept having thoughts of turning back and riding on the trainer, but I also thought “what if it was like this for Lake Placid?” I could not go home and ride that on the trainer, so I better suck it up now and push on. I accepted the fact that my speed was going to be much slower and rode on. It was actually a really beautiful day despite the wind. I also took a less traveled route up north of me which gave me some new scenery to take in. The ride was slow, basically around 14.7MPH which ended up to be around 60 miles. I had done the same distance the week before in 3:30 and that included hills. The nice thing about having power though was that my Average power was a bit higher than last week too, which is taking the wind into consideration.
The brick run afterwards was a bit of a relief since the wind was not as bad during the run. These brick runs are feeling amazingly good. Sometimes my legs feel very stiff by the end of the bike and I think “Oh this run is going to suck!” But once I get going they loosen up pretty quickly and I get into a good cruise mode pretty quickly.
Today I headed back to the Ironton Rail Trail(IRT) again for my long run. I was supposed to do a 2:20 run today. I had run the IRT the previous Sunday in a rainy misty day, so to mix things up a bit I decided to veer off to the D&L Rail Trail for a bit of a offshoot. The connecting trail to the D&L was very rocky and I was feeling the rocks in my minimal New Balance running shoes. It was still pretty windy, but a bit warmer and just as beautiful as the day before. It was a very nice run and I ended up doing 15.5 miles in around 2:30. This capped off the week at almost 16 hours of training which is an hour short of my biggest training week ever.
Tomorrow is the Memorial Day holiday which gives me a nice day to relax a bit more and catch up on some gardening around the house. I have a short bike ride to do, but other than that it is recovery time. This weekend will be the Rev3 Quassy Half (70.3) on Sunday in Connecticut, which will be my final race prep test for Ironman Lake Placid. Hard to believe Lake Placid is only 2 months away!!
