Thursday Night Workout

I got a really good workout in tonight. I started with 50 minutes on the bike trainer followed immediately by 15 minutes (1.4 miles) on the treadmill.

I was very happy with the workouts tonight. I was a bit apprehensive about the run. As I mentioned earlier this week, I took all of last week off because I was feeling a bit ill, so it's been over a week since I last ran. Since I was doing it after the longest ride of the year, I didn't know how long I was going to be able to last, but I surprised myself by not only being able to go all 15 minutes, but by being able to keep a pace of 5.7 mph the entire time. 5.7 mph is a pretty good clip for me on the treadmill, but I was able to keep the pace the entire time tonight and actually felt like I could keep going when I was done.

It felt great to get back into the full swing of things tonight. The aerobars on the bike are working out nicely, but I still feel I need a fitting to get the most use out of them. Overall though I'm quite happy with them thus far. I'll write a proper review on them after I use them on the actual road a few times.

Monday Night Workout

I got a good workout in tonight. I did 1,200 yards in the pool, then did some strength training and then went home and did 35 minutes on the bike trainer.

The swim went very well. I got 1,200 yards done in 24:56. Yesterday I did 1,100 yards in 25:05, so today went a bit better than yesterday. Today, however, I went back to distance swimming, which is my bread and butter in the water and did 1,000 yards non-stop. I'm not sure this is the longest I've ever gone in one stretch before, but it's certainly the longest I've gone since high school. I felt like I could've kept going, so that's good.

I don't have much to say about the strength training. I used the machines at the Community Center for the first time and rather liked them.

The biking was the most fun portion tonight. A week and a half ago I ordered a set of clip-on aerobars for my bike. They arrived last Saturday and I installed them then, but aside from playing with them a bit to get a decent fit this was my first workout with them. 

I went with the Profile Design T3+ Carbon aerobars (picturs below). After using them tonight I really like them. They let me get down into a more aerodynamic position and they let me rest my arms a bit. That was a fairly large issue tonight as my arms were quite tired from the swim and weights, so being able to rest them was nice. I think the option to rest my arms will come in very handy during the half Ironman in October.

I feel I need a proper fitting from an actual bike fitter for the aerobars, however. I liked being able to rest my arms, I felt like my knees were in my chest while riding. While this very well might be normal for aerobars, I feel it isn't and want to get fitted to make sure my bike is set up correctly. All things considered, however, I'm very happy with them.

                                   

                                   

Swimming Workout 2/8/15

I swam 1,100 yards in 25 minutes and 15 seconds today, then played 18 holes of golf.

The workout was slightly disappointing, but I'm not too upset. I took all last week off from working out as I was feeling very burnt out between the workouts and the overtime at work. I was also feeling a bit under the weather, so I felt that taking a week off was the right decision.

Today's workout was intended to be done as 100 yard sets on a two minute interval. I managed to do the first one on a two minute interval, but after that had to drop back to a 2:15 interval. I was a bit upset that I had to dial it back a bit, but after the week off I can't complain. 

I still think the decision to take the week off was the right one. I feel reengergized and no longer feel slightly sick, which is all to the good. I'm actively looking forward to this week's workouts instead of looking forward to my rest days.

This Weeks Workouts

Sorry for the lack of posting here lately. I've been working alot of hours at work, and while I've always found time for my workouts, I haven't always made time to post about it here.

This week is a rest week, so the workouts are much easier than I'm used to these days. Monday night was a 15 minute run. I did this on the treadmill, as it's hard to find that short of a route in my neighborhood. 

Tuesday was, as normal, a rest day, and Wednesday had me doing 25 minutes on the trainer. That went pretty well, but, like most training rides, was pretty boring to talk about.

Tonight was another 15 minutes on the treadmilll. I was able to up the speed for all 15 minutes tonight and I'm finding out I can go faster for farther then I ever thought possible. 

I'm not sure what workouts this weekend will bring. Certainly my scheduled time in the pool on Sunday, and I was planning on a long run for Saturday, but it turns out I'll be at work for six hours and I have plans in the evening, so we'll see if I have time to squeeze in a run on Saturday or not. I'm finding myself looking forward to my workouts because I like the way I feel afterwards. I can't wait to see how this all pays off during my first race.

Thursday and Friday Night Workouts & Thoughts on Swimming

I forgot to post on Thursday evening and didn't have time last night, so let's get caught up with what I've been doing.

Thursday evening after work I ran thirty minutes on the treadmill and went 2.683 miles. It was a good workout and I felt good at the end of it. Out of breath and really sweaty, but good.

Friday night I swam 1,350 yards in 29:59. My training plan called for half an hour in the pool, so I managed to hit that right on the head. I purposely gave myself less rest this time around than I'm accustomed to this workout. My longest rest was around 1:10. 

My first set consisted of 5 x 100 on a 2:00 interval, followed by a little over a minute of rest. Then I did 5 x 50 on a 1:00, followed by another minute or so of rest, then swam 400 yards. After another minute or so of rest I finished out with 2 x 100 on a 2:00.

The workout was very satisfying. I was a bit apprehensive about it. Not nervous exactly, but defintely a bit worried about the low rest periods. I was afraid I'd have no rest between the last few 100s of my set, but that wasn't the case. I always had at least 5-6 seconds to recover and catch my breath before starting again. I know that doesn't seem like a lot of time, but in the competitive swimming workd that's almost an eternity. It was enough time for me to stand up and get some breath back before starting the next 100, and I was very happy I was able to do these on a 2:00 interval. When I first got back in the water back in July, there was no way this would have been possible. 

I was very happy with the swim workout. It was hard, which is ideal, but not quite so hard I felt I couldn't do it. I'm going to keep the low rest midset going forward. Hopefully it will help make me faster again. I know that with the distances I'll be swimming at races, especially the half-Ironman in October, speed is definitely not the name of the game, but I can never help thinking "In high school I was finishing 100s easily in 1:20-1:30 without being too winded", and that's what I want to get back to. That goal is likely slightly unrealistic as I'm no longer swimming for two hours a day five days a week, but I'd like to get my average time down from 1:50ish to 1:35 to 1:40. At that point, doing 100s on a 2:00 interval wouldn't be nearly as bad as it was Friday.

It always amazes me how much swimming helps clear my head. For the last two days of this week work has been crazy and I'd been fairly stressed about it and most of my thoughts were consumed with work, but swimming always helps me clear my head.

When I'm biking or running, my brain doesn't really disengage. I'm thinking about what I'm doing and usually trying to convince myself to keep going. (I'm especially bad at this when I run, telling myself to make it just one more minute, or one more quarter mile, just to repeat the exact same mantra once that minute or quarter mile is done). 

When I'm swimming, however, I don't have to think that way. I think because I swam for so many years, I subconsciously know I can do the yardage, and that frees my head up to work through all the cobwebs that have accumulated. All I know is that when I went into the pool on Friday, I was in a bad mood and my head was spinning from thinking about everything that needed doing at work, but when I was done all that stuff was neatly packed away in a box and I was no longer stessing about next week. I can't explain why swimming works this way for me, but I'll take it. 

Wednesday Night Run

I got 25 minutes in on the treadmill tonight. I'd planned on doing two miles outside, but once I got home I really didn't feel like getting bundled up to go outside so I decided to just jump on the treadmill instead. 

The run went well. I got in 2.22 miles in 25 minutes. As usual, the first three to six minutes were the hardest. Once I got past the first part, it got easier. Near the end, again as usual on the treadmill, I felt like I could keep going. I upped the speed for the last three minutes, and actually felt better running faster than I had for the rest of the run. 

I almost didn't work out at all today. Since Monday I've been feeling a bit run-down. I'm not sure if I'm just tired, or if I have a bit of the flu, or if I'm overtraining a bit, but I've been feeling very tired this week. I'm glad I worked out because I felt better afterwards, but I had a hard time convincing myself to do it. Hopefully I can get caught up on sleep this weekend and be back to normal next week.

Swim Workout 1/19/15

I got 1,100 yards in today in 24:57. I did 10 sets of 100 yards on a 2:15 interval, then rested about 40 seconds then did 2 50s on a 1:00 interval. 

I was very pleased with the workout. I pushed myself hard tonight and stuck to my sets. I can tell I'm getting better in the pool.