Getting Longer - Cycle 9

I have seen my volume really increase for the first time over this past couple cycles.  I use my Garmin GPS watch to track all my training sessions.  The nice thing about the watch is that it automatically downloads all the data to a website that logs all the data and stores it for free.  I use this website ultimately to track all my data and look back on all my workouts.  It uses a normal calendar week as the default for reporting data.  At the end of each week it gives you a weekly totals box.  In the box it tells you your total distance covered in miles and total duration for all training sessions logged that week.  The past couple years I usually rack up about 6-8 hours of training a week.  Over a stretch of 2 weeks (Feb 17 - Mar 2) I totaled 10:19 and 9:41 of training.  The last time I had a week of over 10 hours of training was back in 2010 in the meat of my training for the High Cliff Half Ironman and the Race the Lake Bike Race.  2010 was also my "golden year" of endurance training and racing.  I posted all of my personal bests that year.  I qualified for the Boston Marathon at the Fox Cities Marathon with a time of 3:04 and ran the High Cliff Half Ironman in 4:40.  My body weight was in the area of 160-155 and had a body composition in the range of 4-6% body fat.

This is all really motivating to me as I have always kept my 2010 race season in the back of my head and had always wished to get back to that condition.  The fact that it is only the beginning of March and my training volume is already hovering around 10 hours a week leads me to believe I can easily get back into the shape I was in back in 2010 and most likely even post better race times this season.  There are some differences that need to be noted, however.  First, I have been spending time in the weight room which is being counted in my total volume, where in 2010 I did no strength training.  Although, I have always felt that I lacked in strength, especially on the bike portion of races and during hilly runs.  I have never incorporated strength into my training in the past due to a lack of time - this year I am making it priority and making time to strength train.  The second difference is majority of my volume in 2010 was spent on long runs and long bikes over the weekends and this season my training volumes have been pretty evenly spread out over the course of a week.  In my eyes, this is a great thing, because I want to adapt properly to longer workouts over the next couple months when my volume will really see a big spike, especially during my long weekend workouts.  Lastly, all my workouts have been single session workouts.  By this I mean that I only did one workout a day, whereas this year, I have been doing multiple workouts at least once a week and have also been combining strength with run and swim sessions.  I have also been doing a bike/run brick workout at least once a week as well.  

As far as my weight and body composition goes, I am still heavier than I was in the heart of my 2010 race season.  I am about 10 pounds heavier than I was 3 years ago this time.  That being said, I am in a completely different place in my life now compared to 3 years ago.  I worked a flexible schedule job which was primarily an 8-4 job.  I was a vegetarian which had a huge impact on my body weight.  I also had a ton of spare time to prepare vegetarian meals each night, compared to what I have now for free time.  With all that being said, I am really working on eating properly and getting my weight back down to the 155-160 range.  This past cycle I have consistently been hovering just above 165.  I am also monitoring my body fat percentage this season.  My plan is to get a body comp test every 3 months this race season.  In December when I first started training for the Ironman I was in the range of 8.6-8.7%.  I had my last test done after my long run on Feb 27th this cycle.  I dropped 1.3% since December.  My new body comp is about 7.3%.  I just need to remain steadfast and consistent with my diet and my nutrition.  I am already planning on a significant hiccup in my diet this upcoming weekend as I am celebrating my 29th birthday on March 2nd.     Sarah's grandma makes the worlds BEST carrot cake for me each year on my birthday.  Carrot cake is one of my all time favorite desserts.  The "hiccup" already started on the last day of this past cycle.  We did a big gathering of both my extended family along with some of Sarah's extended family.  We all went out for a Friday Fish Fry and then returned to our house for cake.  Let's just say I had plenty of carrot cake, but having the family over was great.  I'm sure I will also drink plenty of beer on my actual birthday as well, as Sarah and I are planning on going to the Title Town Brewery in Green Bay for my actual birthday.  So, all I need to do is make sure I get my scheduled workouts in and just get past this upcoming weekend and get my nose right back to the grindstone with my training and diet on Monday.  

Just some updates from this past cycle that are not related directly to my training:

1. For the first time I joined USA Triathlon for the upcoming year.  My intentions are not only to avoid having to purchase a "one-day" membership at races this upcoming year, but I made it a goal for 2014 to race at USA Triathlon National's.  In order to qualify for the 2014 Nationals you need to be a member of USA Triathlon, so I joined.

2.  I registered for a couple new races, which have been added to my race schedule above.  I registered for the Elkhart Lake Sprint Triathlon on June 8th.  I also registered for the Appleton YMCA Indoor Triathlon on April 13th.  

Brief Recap

This past cycle wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be as far as work conflicts.  All of my court trials which were scheduled for the mornings right after a full night of work were cancelled and the one day of midday training wasn't nearly as bad as I thought it was going to be.  I simply adjusted my training plan ahead of time to incorporate a shorted workout that morning (30 minute strength session) so I could get to bed earlier than normal and I got to training on time and just came right back home and took a short 2 hour nap right before heading back to work.

I was able to get in all my scheduled workouts this past cycle.  The only adjustment I needed to make was that I needed to cut a strength session short because I opted to pick up a 4 hour block of overtime on Sunday morning after my usual 10p-6a night shift.  I came home around 10:30am and was just exhausted.  I still got in my 4 mile run, but was lacking the energy to do a full 30 minute strength session.  I just did a short 10 minutes worth of core work then crashed in bed.  I'm glad I took the overtime though, as a little extra money in the bank never hurts.  

My body is feeling great.  Granted, I have days which I am definitely more sore than others, but all-in-all, I am feeling really good for training 11.5 hours over the course of 9 days.  My recovery has been good, I have been started to skimp a little on my daily foam roller treatment and stretching, but I still have been using my Stick religiously.

Favorite Workout

I honestly don't think any of this past cycle's workouts really stick out more than the other.  I have still been stuck indoors doing my 800m repeats on a treadmill, as well as my race pace long runs.  My swim workouts haven't been anything different or exciting and as for by bike workouts, I probably don't even need to comment.  I haven't gotten outside on my bike since early January.  So this past cycle I spent nearly 5 hours on a stationary spin bike, alone in my basement listening to my iPod.  Did I mention our basement is not finished, there is no TV, and I am alone?  All I really want is to get back to being outside regularly for both the bike training and the run training.  If I were to pick a favorite workout, I'd have to pick my 800m repeat workout from day 3.  I ran a total of 8 miles with 5, 800m repeats.  The only reason I picked this workout is because of the challenging nature of the workout.  It's an intense workout, with long, fast sprints, with minimal rest between the intervals.  I usually get a good ego boost after these workouts and almost always feel like I can easily break 3 hours in the marathon when I am done.

Moving Forward

As I hinted to at the beginning of this post, my Birthday falls on Day 1 of the upcoming training cycle, March 2nd.  I took off from work both Saturday and Sunday night.  The 4 day work week will be nice.  Especially considering that I have court on Monday, and back-to-back days with midday trainings on both Tuesday and Wednesday.  Just knowing that I need to get through Wednesday night at work and then Thursday is my Friday is a GREAT feeling.  As far as training goes, I can almost promise you that my favorite workout from this cycle will be my birthday workout.  I turn 29 on Saturday March 2nd, so I structured a workout based around the number 29.  I will swim 2900 meter followed by a indoor bike for the duration equivalent to a 29 mile outdoor ride averaging 20mph (1:27).  Besides that workout, I have another bout of 800m repeats and my long run gets bumped up to 16 miles from the previous 14 mils, with 8 miles of it done at goal race pace. My long brick workout will actually get to be a true brick workout this cycle too, which I am pretty excited about.  Most of my previous brick workouts have been scheduled on days that I have had 8 hour training blocks scheduled on my scheduled off days, which forced me to split the two workouts between the 8 hour training.  No matter what the scheduled workouts are for this cycle, my #1 goal for this cycle is to get right back into eating right after the weekend of binge eating and pure pigging out - I mean, c'mon - It's my freakin birthday!  It's my one day (or weekend) to eat what ever the hell I want, with minimal guilt  :)

Be fast, be strong, and carry on!