This is supposed to be a peak week for the last race of the year, my Half-ironman. Last week i felt good during recovery and didn't plan my training advance. This week was pretty planned out with the goal of 14 hours of training. As the week progressed i felt this was too much volume and i'm not sure if i needed more recovery from the race or if i was building up to catch a cold or what. So aside from the indoor trainer ride on Tuesday, here is how the rest of the week panned out. On Wednesday i did only twenty minutes of TRX work and some abs followed by Hill repeats run. This is the same series of hill repeats that i had done before the DC race. Started with a nice 23 min warm up then went to the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge. Completed 8x1 min repeats with 2 min rest inbetween. My HR got up to about 178-181 for each repeat. My best pac was 7:43 and worst was 8:13. Didn't work these hills as hard as some of those from prior training. Total mileage was 5.96. Went out that night to a concert and didn't get as much sleep as usual.
On Thursday i did some moderate weight training. Mostly 10 -15 reps focusing on Back (3 exercises) and shoulders (2 exercises). This was followed by a run. I did 10 miles averaging 8:38min mile. Started with a 10 minute warm up the set out for 1hr and 15 min at half marathon race pace. My HR was a bit higher than i feel I can manage for a race. had to rest briefly a few times to drink and gel. It was unseasonably hot, otherwise a good run. Feeling that the hard work from the hills yesterday left me less than recovered for today though. Average pace for the 1:15 was 8:23 and HR was 172. This run was a good indicator for what i think i can run for the race. I need to keep my HR for the race around 169. Wait, the day isn't over, i still have to get in a swim. Since the riverbank pool is closed for cleaning my o=nly option at the moment is to swim with my team. Unfortunately that means swimming from 8-9:30pm in the city. I've never had to do this before and i hate the idea of swimming so late in the day. I went to Baruch for the team swim and much of the workout was freestyle. I was in a lane with some swimmers who were a bit faster than usual for my lane so the coach set the intervals at a more challenging time than i was used to. I kept up ok but was frustrated that i got behind as the workout progressed and the intervals became shorter. Overall i swam about 1.25 miles and i hoped to swim at least 1.5 that day. I liket the last 12 intervals which were 25 yards really hard (a breath every 4-6 strokes) followed by 25 yards at 50% effort. It was later than my usual bedtime when i got home and took about an hour to unwind and get ready for bed. Again i slept less than usual.
Friday is long run day. Plan was for 2 hours in prospect park at an easy pace. I started with a 21 min warm up to the park and everything was feeling good. In the park i did 44 minutes at an easy 9:21 pace and hr at 150 (about 79%) but legs felt real heavy. Although i was planning for 2 hours I decided to cut the run much shorter than planned. I have off on Saturday and Sunday i want to get in a good long bike ride, so decided to add the extra time missed on the run onto the bike ride. My not so long run was 1:25 at 9:28pace. Note i rarn three days in a row, totally not the norm for me. Thinking back i should have done the bike ride on thursday or Friday instead of waiting fot the weekend, but since we were headinig to the country for the weekend i wanted to enjoy ther ride there instead of the typical park rides that my body has gotten so accustomed to.
Saturday i woke up with a sore throat. Somehow i wasn't surprised. When i cut the run short on Friday i knew something was not right with my body.
Sunday i had head congestion, sore throat is gone, and a bit of a cough. David and i are up in the Pocono's region of PA visiting my parents. We drove Saturday and will return Monday. We bought the bikes intending to ride on Sunday for a good 2 1/2 hours but not only was my body not cooperating, but we had rain all day on Sunday.
My intended peak weak was a bit of a disaster. My ride on the trainer was awesome, the rarce pace run was valuable and the rest of it was pretty useless. If i were to schedule the week again i would have done the following: Monday- ride on the trainer. Tuesday race pace run. Wed off. Thursday 2-2.5 hour ride in prospect park and swim with team in the evening. Friday easy 6 mile run if i felt like it (note sleep patterns). Saturday off or 6 mile run if didn't do it on Friday. Sunday long run 1.5-2 hours.
I should have cut out the hill run and rode long on my bike during the week and I should not have run three days in a row. I should have kept the long run, but saved it for the weekend instead of dragging the bikes out of town. And should have planned for only 9 hours for the week.