OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay

Last week was another big week of training, gearing up to my last triathlon of the season.  We also had an eclipse last week.  Seems pretty long ago, doesn’t it?

Monday – Eclipse Day.  This was a rest day for me.  It was also my telework day, and late in the afternoon, when the network went down, I decided to take advantage of the time of day and went to the pool to get in my Tuesday swim.

Tuesday – Took my rest day here.  And it was glorious.

Wednesday – FTP test.  This didn’t go well.  I just didn’t have any energy for it, and about 15 minutes into the 20 minute test, couldn’t hold my watts, so I decided to stop the test and just continue by riding hard and finishing out the workout.  I didn’t even bother to look at the stats, just decided that my I probably wasn’t fully recovered from the weekend and chose to not worry about it.

Thursday – 4 mile run

Friday – 2000m swim.  Got to do this in an outdoor 50m pool, which made it seem faster, but in fact I was sooooo much slower.  I think I was just being lazy since I didn’t feel as rushed – at my normal pool, I’m pushing to get done so I can get on the road to work and miss the worst of the traffic.  This pool (only open early during the 2 weeks when my main pool is closed) is located such that a few minutes here or there doesn’t affect traffic.

Saturday – Got up super early to get my 2 hour ride/2 mile run in before going out for dim sum with some friends.  Worth it.

Sunday – 8 mile run.  It was a gorgeous day to be outside.  I’m ready for the cooler weather (but not so much for the snow just yet).

This cheetah doesn’t want you to know that she is totally unprepared for racing. manfredrichter / Pixabay

This weekend, I’m racing Culpeper International.  It’s local and hilly.  And I am feeling very unprepared.  At least as compared to my previous races.  I’ve really been nailing my training over the past few months, so to have such a lackluster month right before a race has me feeling a bit off kilter.

No regrets, of course – I was dealing with a small injury that led to another small injury and my quad still isn’t quite right (but it’s getting there).  And it’s not that I’m actually untrained.  Just not feeling quite as prepared as I would have liked for a race that is as challenging as this one will be.  So I’m going in without any real time goals, just to finish strong, whatever that happens to mean on the day.

On to last week’s training:

Monday: Rest Day

Tuesday: 2 mile run and Team Fight swim

Wednesday – Supposed to be an FTP test but I didn’t have the energy, so I put it off and ran Thursday’s 4 miles instead.

Thursday – FTP test time!  And when I was done, I discovered that the battery in my power meter was just low enough that it dropped out a few times during the test, so no measurable result.  Alas.

Friday – 2000 meter swim, followed by my annual physical where my doctor proudly proclaimed me healthy (and commented that she likes to see healthy people come in for checkups and why don’t more of you do this?)

Saturday – Volunteered at the Team Fight tri camp, which meant lots of swimming in some crazy water and some running of the bike/run course as I helped direct people.  Went home and finished up my 6 mile run on the treadmill.

Sunday – I was dead after Saturday, but went out to ride anyway.  Felt like I was dying the entire time, and when I finished, discovered that I was PRing segments of the course.  No wonder everything hurt!

Last week was a busy week.  Work really kicked up again, and my training has picked up as well, so it meant for not a lot of downtime.

Monday – Rest day.  I use these for getting stuff done around the house that I inevitably didn’t get to over the weekend.

Tuesday – Scheduled for swim, but I knew that it was likely I would miss Wednesday’s workout, and I need all the bike time I could get, so I did my 75 minute structured trainer ride instead.

Wednesday – After a 9 hour meeting at work (where there was food for lunch but no actual break) I was completely burned out and went home and crashed as anticipated.  At least I planned for it.

Thursday – 5 mile run

Friday – 2000m nonstop swim.  Got distracted midway by the youth diving team.  They were so impressive.

Saturday – 9 mile run.  Well, more of a slog.  Whatever, miles covered.

Sunday – 17 mile solo ride, repeated the same 17 mile course with the group at Princeton Sports, followed by a 2 mile run, a trip to the grocery store where I magically didn’t buy all the food in the place, and then a shower and rest.

Because I missed posting it yesterday.  Whoops 🙂

Monday – Rest Day.  So good at these.

Tuesday – Two mile run, followed by Team Fight swim.  These are supposed to be in the other order, but there’s nowhere for me to run after swim, plus it’s 9:00 at night and I just want to go home and sleep.

Wednesday – FTP test.  I was DREADING this.  And it went really well.  Or really terribly, depending on how you view it.  I went up by 11 watts.  That’s awesome!  Except it now means that all my FTP based workouts are going to get that much harder.  So, improvement is good, but…

Thursday – 5 mile run on the schedule, but I was burnt out.  Did about 3.5 and stopped.

Friday – 2000m nonstop swim.  I probably should have pushed for a bit more speed here.  But I got the distance in.

Saturday – 8 mile run in the soupy air.  It was only in the 70’s when I started, so I hoped that the run wouldn’t be too bad.  Nope, I forgot about the 94% humidity.

Sunday – I had been sneezing much of Saturday (allergies) and that plus the humidity meant that I just couldn’t face an outdoor bike ride.  So I pushed myself on the trainer for 2.5 hours.  Outside would have been better, but I got in the time, so I’m not going to beat myself up about it.

Another week down, another workout recap.  I don’t have another race for about a month, so I think this month will be a lot of really hard workouts to see what I can pull out at Rev3 Williamsburg.

Monday – Travel day/Rest

Tuesday – Bailed on my swim workout in favor of sleep.

Wednesday – 60 minute structured trainer ride.  Felt surprisingly good after the tough weekend.

Thursday – 5 mile run

Friday – 2000m at the pool, 1700 nonstop.  For me, these are a good opportunity to work on form, which is where I end up falling apart in OWS.

Saturday – 7 mile run that I should have started much earlier, but sleep is so very delicious.

Sunday – 2.5 hour training ride followed by a 2 mile run.  I split this one up.  I did 70 minutes with a group outdoors and then the last 80 minutes at home on the trainer.  It was just a little too warm out.  Should I have stayed outside?  Yes.  But I did not.  Next time, I think I’ll do the solo part of the workout before the group ride.