Bike Week Completed

Put another long training week into the books.  This was bike week.

For several weeks I've been telling Steve there was something wrong with my handle bars since I've had consistent pain in the muscle under my right shoulder blade.  I couldn't figure it out - bars too low, bars uneven?  Steve thought it was probably my posture on the bike.

Steve and I went out for a ride yesterday to check my bike fit.  As we were getting our bikes ready to ride I really looked a handle bars.  My left brake lever/hood was very slightly rotated inward.  Stevie muscled it to the right spot.  Voilà!  No more back pain.  After watching me ride, he also raised my bike seat.  That helped a lot and I'm getting a lot more power on the climbs.

This is recovery week.  Oh, yeah.  I've got a long run on Saturday, but that's my only "all out" workout this week.  I'm very, very excited to have a nice, light training load.

Three Weeks Down, Ten to Go

I'm officially through week 3 of the Half Ironman plan. In the last 21 days, I've been rock solid on training. I did miss the biking section of my workout yesterday, because it was rainy. That's the only miss in the last 3 weeks..

Here is what I've learned so far:

Treat each week as a unit.  I can shift around workouts during the week, but there's no working ahead into next week or carrying over missed workouts. Every Sunday night, I hang the new week's training calendar on the fridge. Every Sunday is a victory and every Monday is a fresh start.

Sunday must be a rest day. I've been trying to use Thursday as my rest day because I need to commute round trip to Burbank. That ends up being a 14 hour workday which starts at 5:30 AM. There's no way I can do a workout on Thursday. Guess what, a 14 hour workday is not restful and recuperative. I need Sunday Funday for my own mental health. I can do a swim or a bike ride with my husband, but I can't do some mega-workout.

Get enough sleep. Right now, I need between 8 and 9 hours of sleep each night. When I'm not in full training I need about 6 or 7 hours. I'm incredibly fortunate that I can telecommute some mornings. I can sleep until 7:45 then immediately start working at 8. When other people take their lunch break, I commute to the office (a whole 3 miles!)

Not everyone can be supportive. No one can always be supportive. And that's okay.

Finishing the Swimming Week

My occasional, nagging worry is that I'm simply not training enough to complete a half Ironman.  How is working out for two hours a day going to prepare me for a seven hour race?

On Sunday, I figured it out.  This training plan works in week long blocks.  For one week you do a specific workout repeatedly without days off for recovery.  Last week it was swimming.  That's fun on Monday and Tuesday.  Then the daily fatigue accumulates and by the end of the week, you're training on some tired muscles.  

On Sunday, I swam the slowest two mile swim in the history of universe.  It took me over an hour. I was swimming every lap almost 12 seconds slower than I swam earlier in the week.  But I completed it and trained through the fatigue.  That's what's getting me prepped for race day.

The swim took so long, that my SPF100 Sport sunscreen washed away.  Now I have a butt like the Coppertone baby.

Gear Guide - Fingertip Lap Counter

Training Plan	I Did
Swim: Warm-Up: 200 Swim 200 Kick 200 Pull Main Set: 16 X 50 Speedwork Cool Down: 200 Easy	Swim: Warm-Up: 200 Swim 200 Kick 200 Pull Main Set: 16 X 50 Speedwork Cool Down: 200 Easy
Workout Time:  40 minutes	Total Time:  120 minutes

One of the things I like about swimming is the oasis of calm in the pool.  No one bugs you.  No one wants to talk.  You can't hear or see your Crackberry.  It's like mediation time for me.  Unfortunately, I get lost in my thoughts and I forget to count my laps.


Speedo Aqualap to the rescue.  People seem to dislike this product on Amazon, but it's been awesome for me.  It's super easy to operate in the water and you don't need to stop swimming to count a lap.  It's very easy and intuitive to use.  You just tap it with your thumb while you're swimming.  Another nice thing is it has a little chime that you can hear underwater.  That chime lets you know that you did, in fact, count that lap.   Plus, I can easily read the screen underwater and see how lightenin' fast that last lap was.  (No more stopping and pulling off my goggles to see the timer clock.)  The downside is that the band isn't adjustable.  Either this is going to fit you or not - no adjusting.  I can't imagine that it would work for someone with large or petite hands.

Final verdict: You don't need this, but it's nice to have.  It lets you go on autopilot in the pool and then go home and analyze your lap data.

Training notes. Yesterday my shoulders finally protested the mile-a-day swimming.  When I hit the pool, my shoulders were tired.  I powered through my laps, but I'm looking forward to my rest day today.

Swim Weeks - As Good As Anticipated

Monday
Training Plan	I Did
Swim: Warm-Up:  4 x 150 Main:  1650 ladder    Cool Down:	Swim: Warm-Up:  4 x 150 Main:  1650 ladder    Cool Down:
Workout Time:  40 minutes	Total Time:  60 minutes
Tuesday
Training Plan	I Did
Swim: Warm-Up:  400 Main:  9x100 (EBEH)  Cool Down: 6x25 Bike: 60 Minutes  Hills	Swim: Warm-Up:  400 Main:  9x100 (EBEH)  Cool Down: 6x25 Bike: 60 Minutes  Hills
Workout Time:  100 minutes	Total Time:  140 minutes

As I expected, I'm just loving swim training week.

Swimming is the one workout I'm always sad to see end. When I finish a long swim I'm always so bummed to have to get out of the pool. Unlike running, where I'm always, always happy to wrap up a run.

As an added bonus, today while I was swimming the Senior Citizens Synchronized Swimming team was practicing.  You haven't lived until you've seen a bunch of ladies in flowered swim caps do the oyster flip.  All kidding aside, that's the type of senior citizen I want to be - healthy and still learning new stuff.  And I want to be doing jazzhands!

Once I finish the ultramarathon, I'm going to find some endurance swims to do - that Alcatraz swim or something like that.  It seems like a waste to love swimming so much and not do it all the time.