Wow! Time flies when you are having fun!! I am just finishing up my 2nd Base training period(not including the recovery week) already with 18 weeks to go until Ironman Lake Placid. Training has been going pretty well despite Winter kicking and screaming. I am still spending a lot of time on the trainer compared to last year and the rides are getting longer a bit quicker this year. My fitness has been really so I feel like I am much further along than I was last year. Although the past couple days I have really been feeling the effects of this 3rd week of base building. I am so ready for an easy week!
A friend from work was asking me if I was further along this year as compared to last. I thought I was but really hadn’t compared the data to last year. So, I got on Training Peaks and after having cleaned up last years duplicate data I was able to get a good comparison.
PMC Chart as of March 28 2014
PMC Chart for 2013 March
As of today, my Chronic Training Load(CTL) or Fitness is around 77 whereas last year it was at 58. The scale on the y-axis is a bit off here since this is the beta graphs of the new Training Peaks site. The dotted line on the current graph is my forecasted values based on my planned training. The next couple weeks could be a little squirrely since I will be attending a conference and then on vacation the week after.
Training Volume by Week Comparison March 2014 vs 2013
As for my training volumes, I am up by two hours over the same time last season. I imagine I will probably peak out at around 20 hours this year in late May or early June and then cut back a bit and up the intensity a bit. I do have a long training week planned in Lake Placid the last weekend in June so that may get burst of volume. That will probably be the last big push and then it will be taper time. Hopefully that will be a combo of intensity and volume.
So far everything is going pretty well on the health front. No major issues other than a few niggles here and there. My Altra 3-Sum running shoes have an elongated arch in the left shoe which causes my foot to ache a bit after my runs. This is the same pair I wore for IMLP last year that I thought I had a stone in and ended up running the 2nd half without a sock on that side. I guess I wasn’t hallucinating. I sent Altra email about the issue but they have yet to respond. If I don’t hear back from them I will most-likely go back to either a New Balance or Newton.
I also had another Performance Panel blood test done at InsideTracker. I just got my results back and was not real ecstatic about them. I will cover that more in another post though. I am still running about 10 lbs heavier than last year, but I don’t feel like it is affecting me too much yet. I may need that weight when I start getting into those long rides and runs.
