Swim, Bike, Run, Rinse, Repeat

Monday marked a return to the norm.  The ever constant and cyclic training regime: Swim, Bike, Run, Rinse, Repeat (actually, there are many rinses, fear not).  Except, the cool thing is that since I’ve got a race on Sunday (Nation’s Tri) we’re back into Big Brickin mode.

So what has that entailed thus far?

Monday:

Technically my ‘rest day’, but Monday was all about the pool.  After 1,000 yards of ‘warm up’ and addressing technique issues, it was time to get into 4x500’s, descending (which means you get faster each set).  All in all, I did about 3,000 some odd yards in a little under an hour including 2 minutes rest between the sets.

Tuesday:

And this is where the fun begins.  I LOVE BRICK WEEKS!  These weeks occur anytime before a race, and involve numerous short and high intensity bike/run bricks.

(Note, I polled two fellow bloggers regarding whether to use the shirted, or shirtless photo – and I was told shirtless – so you can thank both of the blogger ladies.  Sorry guys, I have nothing for you.  I don’t normally ride with a shirt on my trainer in my own house because then it means more laundry to do...anyway…)

The bike was about 45 minutes worth of awesome fun:

:10 warm up > 100
:01 Z2 @ 105 rpm
:01 Z2 @ 110 rpm
:01 Z2 @ 115 rpm
:01 Z2 @ 120 rpm
:01 Z2 @ 125 rpm
:05 Z2 @ 95 rpm
2 x (:05 Z4a @ 95 rpm with :02 easy spin between intervals)
:02 easy
:05 Z4b @ 95 rpm
:05 easy

You can pretty clearly see the intervals sets below (each line represents 15 minutes) and the lower dips are the 2 minute rests.  For all the intervals, I was able to keep the HR’s within the specified zones at about 310-330watts.  Which is just slightly below pre-Ironman levels by about 10w.  Not bad though for my first high intensity bike trainer workout since Ironman.

Oh…but this fun wasn’t over yet.  We gots a run to do!  And the runs are fun; my favorite!.  They are slowly increasing in HR, and thus slowly increasing in pace.

(I stuck a camera in my window and took a photo, I was pretty amazed I got it right on the first shot.  Actually, I’ll be honest – I was really dumbfounded.)

The only bummer with the brick tempo runs is I can never quite go all out.  I have to keep it ‘in zone’, so while I SOOO WANTED to break it out and go sub-6…I wasn’t allowed. :(

Run HR Zones

:05 Z2
:05 Z3
:05 Z4a
:05 Z4b
:05 Cool down

It’s funny how you can so clearly see where I start my cool down right at the 20 minute marker.  Although – when I hit 25 mins (my end), I did have to make a little secondary off-the-clock loop around the neighborhood because there was an incredibly hot runner chick that ran by and I hadn’t seen her before (Hey, I’m single – what do you expect!).

Oh, and I brought the little Garmin Edge 705 with me just for fun.  Sure it’s meant for the bike, but I was curious if you could run with it.  Yup, no problems at all.  And both it and the 305 gave EXACTLY the same numbers.

Wednesday:

Back into the pool we go.  Tonight we shortened it up a bit and kept the ‘warm-up’/technique portion to just 1000 yards.  And then only 2x500’s.

 

(I had my little underwater camera at the end of the lane for fun, recording video.  The above is a few frames before I made the turn at the wall.  At least my arm and elbow are in closer and my breathing water line is nice and low, but my hand is whacky-ass)

On the first 50 I went 37 seconds…and at the midway point of the first 500 I was at 3:30 on the dot, so I thought I stood a reasonable chance of going sub-7.  But alas…I lost steam and ended up with a 7:11. :(  That’s the fastest I’ve been in months since re-focusing on long-distance as opposed to sprints.  But I got some whacky idea in my head after seeing the split that I could make it sub-7.

The next 500 wasn’t any better, despite the fact they were supposed to be descending (aka..faster). Double-frowny-face.

Onward…another brick awaits tomorrow!  Yippee!