Dual Speed Work Session

Although I don't have a thoroughly planned triathlon program in place I felt it was time to start writing about what I am doing for training.  From October through December I wasn't training.  yes I was running, some swimming, very little cycling and plenty of weight training but no specific purpose.  It was nice to have some unstructured workouts for awhile but now I'm ready to take action so I have a great tri season this year.  My plan is to focus on Olympic distance races, 4-6 throughout the season, and throw in some road races, 10k to half marathon distance.

Yesterday, Sunday, was my long run for the week and really today should be an easy day but was feeling up for this, and I had the time bloked off in the AM so I went for it.  I woke up, had 4oz of Cleanse for Life and filled my water bottle up with Want More Energy and went to the gm in my building.  My upperbody workout is focusing on upperbody stabilization work and I did a circuit of 7 exercises and repeated 3 times.  Hamstrings feel a little tight today, but otherwise everything is good.

Immediately following I set up my indoor trainer in my office.  I've been riding on my terrace but today it feels like below 0 here on the waterfront.  Heat is off in the office and temp is at 54 so that is manageable.  My bike workouts have consisted of alternating weeks of speed and force for 1 day of the week and another day as either recovery endurance or muscular endurance.  Today it is Speed, and i'm using workout SS4 from my book.  Easy warm up spinning 95 plus rpm followed by 6x3 min at 95rpm in aero position and 3 min rest in climbing position in z1-2 at least 95rpm.  I have a pretty good play list going here and my cadence really does coincide with the music.  Hardest part of the workout was keeping the cadence up and I was supposed to work in HR Z3 but for most part was at top of Z2.  I was holding myself back a little but also know i'm running out of glycogen stores which is why i have not eaten.  Goal here is also to burn some fat!  Total workout time was 51 minutes and I did not do a proper cool down because i'm going into a run after this.

I really don't like treadmill workouts but at least intervals keep me more engaged than steady state or tempo workouts.  About 20 min after the bike ride i was on the treadmill in my gym.  I had hoped to get to the track, but it really is bitter out.  I have more water with want more energy and I had a honey stinger gell (about 120 calories) 10 min before the run.  Warmed up 10 minutes really easy jog and then prepared for this new interval workout.  Goal is 4x5 min at 20-30 sec slower than 5k pace.  I'm not going to worry so much about what pace i choose, but to choose a pace and stick to it.  I'm finding these treadmills are not calliberated properly anyway so will basically go by RPE and HR.  I was at 7:52 pcace for all 4 intervals and the 4th one was really hard.  For the rest interval I slowed to walk until HR got down to about 123 then jog for total of about 3 minutes before repeating again.  Feel the recovery period was sufficient.  Because it is so warm in here (at least to me it is) I feel my RPE was higher than it would have been with same workout outdoors.  My HR for the intervals ranged from Av of 174 to max of 195.  I feel if i was doing this on a track I could have worked faster.  Either way, next time I want to jog for the rest interval and try this outside.

The fact is I did really well on very little fuel over 3.5 hours.  This was my first brick (even though there was 20 minutes between) and my legs felt really fresh on the treadmill.  Will do this again, and will also try to do the run in the AM and bike in the PM and see how that goes.

PARIS MARATHON WEEK 2 OF TAPER

Not a terribly exciting week.  As far as tapers go my energy is feeling pretty good.  Dropping from 44 miles to 34 miles this week and started a low carb diet on Friday to initiate carb loading prior to race day.  My new shoes feel great, the weather got better toward the weekend, and I'm getting anxious about leaving my work and business behind but at the same time more exited than ever to go to Paris.  Think this will be a beautiful, flat, fantastic race. MONDAY- today is my moderate distance run and I've cut down to 10 miles at 9:20 pace. It's pretty rank out. About 50 degrees and raining so feels cold and there's nothing you can do about it. Glad one of the new pairs of shoes are black. Hate taking nice new white shoes out in the rain. Going to Prospect Park and decided to take whatever pace felt right for today. Although it's supposed to feel easy, I took it a little harder mostly becaue I just want it to be over with. Stopped at hardware store also to see if they had the brackets we need for the finishing touches on the kitchen and they did not. Other than that I stopped for a gel at 5miles and a bathroom stop and turned around and high tailed it home. Ran average 8:57 pace at ave HR of 156. Still feel my left IT band a bit and will be sure to use foam roller later today when I do my weight training session.

Before my last client I wanted to get in a good back workout but couldn't because my contractor wanted to stop by to discuss some work. Went to basement for a 30 min workout but then was interrupetd on phone with a client. So not much of a workout. Did 4 exercises total, worked either heavy or moderate with little rest.  Supersets of strength and stability. Should have just done yoga and stretching instead. Dreaming about a massage.

TUESDAY- Normally I swim, but this weeks workout is focusing on strokes other than freestyle and decided mid day to skip it. Doing a partial cleanse, it's horrible weather and just want to hunker down and get a lot of work done. After clients at John Street I did all upper body workout of supersets strength followed by stability. Back, then chest, shoulder, biceps and triceps. Moderate intensity to heavy depending on how my shoulder was feeling about the exercise. Bummed that my shoulder is still testy. Tomorrow I just have an easy run and plan to do another partial cleanse, AM until about 5pm before I go to Staten Island to run with TNT. Will see how that goes.

WED- instead of running in the AM I''m holding off till the evening. Had a productive work day then drove to Staten Isalnd and ran 5 plus miles, goal pace 9mm. Going to follow with a workout with TNT so don't want this to feel hard, yet it did for some reason. It is a combination of the fact that I didn't run yesterday, that I'm not used to running late in the day, plus I was fasting until 5:00 at which point I had an isalean shake before driving to SI.  After my 5 mile run I did an easy warm up with the team. They had 25 minutes of hill repeats. I didn' run too many hills with them but did run about 2 miles total. Good group tonight.

THURSDAY- I finished with clients then went to our accountant about taxes. Had time in-between to have a naturally sweetened muffin and banana. Today is my last day to eat a normal amount of carbs. Tomorow go low carbs with goal being 50g per day. yikes. Feeling good going into my run.  Nice day, sunny, about 55 degrees. Ran around battery park up west side. Want to do race pace work but feel instead of specifying distance I will do it more like a fartlek workout. Over 6 miles I did 7 intervals at a RP (ranged between 7:35 and 8:05) with half mile being the goal distance.  I jogged inbetween intervals until feeling recovered enough to do another interval. Was fun to have a free form workout like this . Was planning to do shoulder work but ran out of time. Will add shoulder to Friday workout. Did do abs today though.

FRIDAY- Had an early morning weight training session. In my gym I did back, shoulder, bicep and tricep work. warmed up with elyptical for my shoulder then did supersets of strength and stability. Back, shoulder, back, bicep, shoulder, tricep. Finished with abs. One hour total. Did 3 set all rep range from 10-20. Everything felt good, and change in rep range was actually challenging.  Today is my fist day of reduced carbs.  So far so good.  Lots of protein and almost equal amount of fat.  Carbs throughout this 7 day period consists of leafy greens and green vegetables only.  Not tomato, root vegetables, grains, bread, etc.

SATURDAY- got a late start for my last long run. Had a client in the AM and then went out for my run. By time I left it was around 11am and warming up outside. About 55 out and warmed up throughout the run. Went over the bridge to the west side. Just going with the flow and enjoying my last decent run. Paris is one week from today. Ended up running my plan which was 10 miles at 9:20 pace. HR monitor went crazy again so numbers are off but think my av HR was 156 BPM. Yesterday was first low carb day and because of that my HR did go up after 6 miles. Did not use any gels or energy drinks and althouth my energy was ok was interesting that my Hr went up.

SUNDAY- easy day on my indoor trainer. It's nice enough out to ride outside so took the trainer to the back courtyard. Did a new Endurance program from my book. Warm up 15 minutes including easy pedal at 90rmp, alternating 30 seconds standing and 30 sec sitting for 5 min, and alternating single leg work for 1 min each leg x3. Set 1 was 6x2min at 70rpm in zone 1-2 with 1 min rest high rpm. Rest 3 min then 3x3 min 70 rpm or slightly slower in zone 2 again 1 min rest. This was supposed to be 6 sets not 3, but was feeling like too much work for my legs so I cut the session short. Tomorrow is some running at race pace and I need to be taking it all easy. This all felt good. Looking forward to a massage later today.

Totals:  7:40 min of training (way down from last month and i'm totally ok with that), 34 miles running, 1:45 in weights over 3 days and 50 minutes on my bike.  All is well yet still feeling some pain in left IT band.

Paris Marathon- Week 1 or 3 Taper

This is my first week of tapering for Paris.  I'm 3 weeks out and am reducing mileage by about 1/4, from 53 miles a week to 44.  Longest run is 16 miles.  Really glad to have new sneakers. MONDAY- between morning clients I had half an hour to do some weight training. Until race is over i'm focusing on moderate to light weights, 8-12 reps, supersets of strength and stability. Less total body work and more focus on short workouts more frequently so everything gets trained at least 2x a week. Thursday this week will be the last of my leg weight training (i think), so lots of upper body work. Did 4 exercises for back and 2 for shoulders. Both shoulders are cold and my flexibility is poor this early in the am so kept everything pretty easy and focused on short rest.

Right after clients I ate a pear and got dressed for a run. It's dreary out, threatening rain but just looks damp right now and temps in low 50s. Going over the brooklyn bridge and up the west side for 10 miles. Should be a good combination of hills and flat. As I started running could feel some IT band pain which went away once warmed up. My tempo for 10 miles should be 9:20 but i'm feeling light and quick today so going to keep an eye on my HR and go with whatever pace  feels easy. Had to stop for a bathroom around 4 miles and took a gel at 5 miles and turned around. Feeling really good and pace is averaging 8:50. My energy and HR remained low so I was able to keep this pace working a little harder than planned up and down the hills. Final numbers for the main set of 8.34 miles was 8:53 pace and a nice low HR of only 150bpm.

TUESDAY- my only training for today is to swim so I'm taking advantage of the low work load and doing a cleanse/fast day until just before leaving for the pool.  I't been way too long and I need a break from food. Would like to cleanse all day, but know I won't be motivated to go to pool, nor will I have a good workout unless I have an Isalean shake before. Got to the pool early and had a nice easy workout. That was the plan for the day and I was happy to follow it. Did lots of drills. Sets were interesting. Combined freestyle and backstroke. Sets of 200 free then 100 back, 100 free/100back x3 more. Including drills and cooldown covered 2300 yards but didn't feel like it. My back stroke is getting a bit better, less water up my nose at least, and kicking takes less effort. Think my kick has improved a bit since last time I did backstroke. Found that the 100 yards following a set of back stroke really good, not effortless, but better than continuous sets of freestlye. Not a great day, took lots of concentration and i'm just not focused on swimming today. Didn't get as much work done as I wanted to and have more to do when I get home at 9:30.

WEDNESDAY Right after clients I went for a run. Did not have my customary shake, instead I ate mostly carbs. Had a hard boiled egg around 6, and apple around 8 and some energy beans right before the run. Wearing a new pair of shoes today. New brand (Mizuno) and model than before. Warmed up the 2 miles going to prospect park. The plan is to run the rest of the 6 miles at race effort. Since it is hilly and about 40 mph winds I'm not focusing on pace as much as HR and perceived effort. I set my Garmin at 1 mile intervals. The interval paces varied from 7:38 to 8:21 and the AV hr for the intervals was between 163 and 173. The total average pace was 8:00, juts 5 sec short per mile of my race goal, but feel considering the terrain and wind that this was a good race effort. Felt really good in the new shoes. Did not have any gels, just want more energy in my water. IT band was quite a bit better than my run on Monday, not unnoticeable, but much better. Good run. Will follow up with stretches, a mini shake and then weights.

After my run I went to my basement gym for a shoulder workout. Since my shoulder is nicely warmed up from the run I'm going for high volume, but still not too much weight. Did supersets of strength and stability. Rep range from 10-12 and all were 3 sets. Did 6 exercises, so 18 sets total. Everything felt good. Finished with upper body stretches and 10 min of bosu abs. Still have one more run today. Running with TNT in the evening. a 4 mile "tempo" run, which will be at 9:30 pace at the most. Think it's not a problem at all, but need to be conscious of the schedule moving forward in my taper.  It was a super easy run with TNT. Decided to add these runs, although they are short and very slow including walking as well as easy jogging I need to be aware of all mileage. Walk/jog 3.63 miles av pace 11mm.

THURSDAY- I had two clients in the morning and no time to eat so had a plum before my run. Felt good going into this easy 6 mile run but felt a bit low energy around 4 mile mark. Ran from John street, down chambers, up the west side and back up chanbers. So, mostly flat, but some hills. This easy 6 mile should be at a 9mm pace and HR in mid 150's. Legs feel good, but overall the run did feel a little harder than a typical easy run.  Should have eaten more.  Averages including warm up and cool down was HR 153 and pace 8:50.

This will be my last weight training for legs for about 4 weeks. Paris marathon is 18 days away now, and for at least a week after I will not be doing any weights. Did squats 4x10 reps, deadlifts 20x3 very light, leg extensions pretty light 3x10, cable lateral lunges with spinal rotation, finished with 3x8 single leg squats. All this in 30 minutes. Could have done at least 2 more reps for all exercises, so although it was a lot of volume the weights were pretty light.  Before my last client of the afternoon did abs and some foam rolling.

SATURDAY- This mornings run was fantastic. I got up and spent some time on the computer and prepping dinner to go into a crock pot so didn't get out the door until about 11. Had my typical long run breakfast which was a chcoloate isalean shake with banana, isagreens and Isacalcium. Added new insoles to the new sneakers and headed out. It's quite cold today. A bit of a shock to the system. Only 34 degrees and at least 15 mph wind. Going for 16 miles flat today. My last so called long run is next Saturday and it's a drop to 10 miles, so today is just get out there, have fun, go easy but push it a bit if you are feeling good. By the 3rd mile I was well warmed up and really enjoying the run. Shoes feel great, IT band pain on left leg is almost gone, gait is smooth, posture feels good, shoulder feels good. Pace going up the hudson river path was a little slower than the return because of the wind, but for most part was about 9:10mm with HR steady around 156bpm. Had a gel at 4 mile and 8 mile then turned around. Had last gel at 12 and a bathroom stop. Took the last 2 miles from top of the bridge home pretty hard. Added some speed pick ups. This run was supposed to be at a 9:30 pace and average pace for all but the warm up and short cool down was 8:58 and HR 157bpm.

SUNDAY- Had a good indoor trainer session today. Got a new book "workouts in a binder for indoor cycling". Been looking for more focused indoor trainer workouts and I think this book will help me through pre-season and give me options that are more demanding for race season as well. Picked a speed workout that focused on high cadence. Worklout SS4 Aero Position. 15 min warm up consisting of 5 min easy at 90 rpm then another 10 min at 90rpm but focus on pulling back on the up stroke. Main set is in zone 3 which was not a problem today. Most of them were at the top range and found by rep 5 I had to reduce the resistance to maintain the reps. Not used to working at such high reps but legs felt pretty good. Entire workout was in aero and took breaks to sit up during rest interval. did 8x3:00 in zone 3 with RPM averaging 93 followed by 3 min rest in zone 2 again high RMP about 85. Finished with 5 min cool down. Not a particularly hard workout but was a lot of sets. Thought it fit well into my race taper schedule.

Week totals: 9  hrs 45min;  44 miles running; 1:15 swmi; 1:05 bike; 1:30 weights over 3 days.  Feel good going into week 2 of taper, not lethargic, glad the real work is over.

Had dinner with a friend on Friday who ran Paris Marathon last year and clued me into some things that made me more confident.  First they hand out water bottles, very nice.  And the croud is a bit rough which I prefer because I hate being polite everytime I want to pass someone.

Paris Marathon- Week 3 of sharpening phase

Monday- Todays 12 mile run was interesting. It's raining quite hard and we also have 40mph winds. Fortunately it's about 55 degrees out so I wore shorts, shirt and rain jacket with hood and a cap. I stayed comfortably warm and wasn't miserable except at a few points in the run. Warm up was 2 miles to prospect park. Once at the park I went counter clockwise until I hit the 6 mile mark. Pace is not as important (gaol was 9:20) but wanting to keep my HR average under 160. Had a gel at turnaround and walked briefly, also had to stop for the bathroom one other time. The second half of the run felt better than the first. Really enjoyed my ipod genius metal mix. Perfect for this run, gloomy and upbeat. Only saw 3 other runners in the park. The last mile I was able to pick up the pace as it was all down hill and wind was working with me. The main set of 9 miles was 9:23 pace AV HR 158. Cooled down real easy for the last mile. My doorman Ralph gave me tons of credit for taking on this task today. Tuesday- Between clients I had time for breakfast (isalean pudding and a banana) along with a short workout. Having some cramps today and not feeling great so I went fairly light. Did 3 exercises for back, two for shoulders and 1 for chest. No machines. All free weight or cables. Reps 10-15, three sets.

After clients I went for my run. Feeling a bit better than when doing weights. This will be an easy 6 miler with goal pace of 9:00. Found it to be quite windy and worked harder than I planned, but legs feel great and HR is not too high, so sticking with my plan for 9:00 pace. Ran all lower Manhattan around battery park, so really flat, but seemed no matter what my direction I was running against the wind. Not including a short warm up and cool down, my work set of 5.72 miles was at 8:44 pace and ave HR 164.

It evening now and time to join the Tritons at Roosevelt pool. Todays swim session is a recovery workout. We did a long warm up and drills for about 25 minutes. The main set was 5x50, 5x100, 2x100. Each distance increase also involved putting more energy into the stroke but focusing on the glide and keeping the number of strokes per length short. Les was coaching me today and had me work on my extension when entering the water. This was a totally new concept for me. I typically reach right in front of my head and don't really extend my arm until my hand is in the water. Working on just this for the whole session was eye opening. I was able to swim the 50s in 50 seconds. I was able to swim the 100s in 1:50, and after a long rest (at least a minute) was able to swim the 200s in 3:55. This is such a huge improvement for me. I'm elated!

Wednesday- I finished with clients and then went for a 12 mile run. I did this same run two weeks ago and improved in both distance and speed at MP. I warmed up 2 miles to the Brooklyn bridge and then planned for 7:50 pace for 6-7 miles. The first mile was all down hill with lots of stopping for traffic. Used this time to pick up my cadence. Then I ran flat along the Hudson River Park and continued with my MP of 7:55 in mind. I had to stop a number of times during the 6.84 miles at MP. Once for the bathroom, once to have a gel and turn around and once to drink water. Found at this intensity I couldn't drink and run at the same time. The temperature was good, about 32 and the wind was pretty light. I stopped the Tempo pace when I hit chambers street and paused my Garmin and forgot to turn it back on. But the results of the MP pace portion was 6.84 miles at 7:54 pace AV HR 168 and Max 181. I did this same workout two weeks ago, but only 6 miles (it excluded the downhill warm up) and for that one my pace was 8:16 and HR 171 BPM ave. So i'm quite happy with the improvement. Moving forward I want to keep the goal 6 miles but eliminate the rest periods. Once i've succeeded in that will increase the miles at Race Pace. The rest of the run I took really easy. Noticed that climbing hills was very difficult, HR wise and my legs were simply tired. So, I feel I did push the work set as hard as I could.

Thursday- between clients I had a little time for lower body strength training. Ideal because I have an easy run today, biking tomorrow, no training on Saturday and a long 22 miler on Sunday. Plenty of time to recover. Did Squats, same weight each set but increased reps. Same with leg extensions. Did Dead Lifts with same protocol but the weight was only 55# so was higher reps. Finished off with lateral lunges loaded to one side with a KB and made it a compound movement with over head presses. This was at about 8:15 and I had nothing to eat going into this. Had a Isalean Shake pudding and a banana following the workout.

By 10:30 I was done with clients and went for my easy 6 mile run. It's been snowing the last 2 hours and just stopped. Perfect, calm, moist, quiet and not windy. Left John Street gym for a flat run. Noticed the Garmin was not working properly. Said my HR was 223bpm during warm up, the surface was snow covered, I was enjoying the tranquility and just went for an easy run with no training thoughts in mind.

Friday- after morning clients and an Isalean Bar I went back down to the basement for an uper body workout. I had a plan and it was just the intensity of workout I was looking for. Have not worked upper body intensely this week and this was a great 45 minute program. Did supersets of stability followed by strength. Three sets of chest, followed by back, shoulders, then two sets of biceps and triceps. Also 10 min of abs with the TRX.

Immediately following the weight training I got on my indoor trainer for an hour. Doing intervals again today. Legs feel fine from yesterday's weight training, hamstrings a little tight though. I'm off completely tomorrow and have my long 22 mile on Sunday so will put some effort into this one and work at a higher resistance. Each work interval was executed as planned at sub threshold HR of between 153 and 162 bpm. The work intervals were at 65-72rpm and each was followed by 2 min recovery at 90rpm but HR stayed in the 140+ range, so not complete recovery. Intervals were 8-6-4-2-8-6 min. Started with 10 min warm up and had a 5 minute cool down. Thought I worked quite hard, more so than last time I did this program. Will be good to have a full day off and hopefully a fantastic long run on Sunday.

Sunday- Yesterday was a complete off day. have not done that in ages. Had an Isagenix conference and then a party following so no time for anything else which I of course planned into my training schedule. At the party I definitely ate more than I would at home, particularly fat, sugar and carbs, but was ok with that considering I had the 22 mile run planned for today. Had 7 1/2 hours of sleep last night, woke up, had an isalean shake with banana, piece of sprouted bread with humus and did some stretching, mostly for my back, before heading out. It's about 28 degrees out and wind is about 11mph. Headed over the Brooklyn bridge and up the Hudson River parkway for a nice flat run. Building this week to 22 miles, from 20 last week and my goal pace is 9:48. The first 11 miles were nice and easy although was going against the wind and decided to take the first half slower, and pick up the pace for the second half. First 11 were at 9:32 av pace and HR ave 159. I didn't stop at all until the turn around at 11miles. Made it all the way to Fairway in Harlem. Took a break there because my hose to the water pack had frozen. For the rest of the run I had to stop briefly to drink when I wanted a gel. I'm using want more energy in my water and the Honey stinger gels. Had one at 6 mile, at 11mile, at 15 mile, short bathroom stop, last one at 19 mile. Finding these gels not as effective in providing me with energy as the power gels, but they are all natural and taste great, so I think I just need to take them more often. Will try every 4 miles on my next long run. The last half of the run was faster, ended up running 9:16 pace and hr 158bpm. Going over the brooklyn bridge was not hard at all at a 10mm pace so I picked up the pace the last 2 miles. Overall really happy with my longest run to date. Average pace was 9:24 and AV hr 158bpm.

Totals for the week: 58.7 miles over 9:05;  Swim 1:15; Bike 1:00; Weight train 1:45.

Running training- Base training- Week 5 Paris Marathon

The plan this week is for 46 miles, an increase of 3 miles from last week.  One new change this week is to add a short run on Sunday, so now i'm running 6 days a week and my off running day will include a short set of upper body weight training.  Will include an indoor trainer workout midweek and swimming on the weekend. Monday- Left from john street around noon after finishing with clients for a 8 mile run.  My garmin did not pick up a satellite for the first mile or so and i feel the data is a bit skewed.  I think i ran slower than indicated in the data. I was feeling really good for the first 5 miles then lost some energy toward the end.  I ate about 4 hours before the run and didn't plan a snack and should have.  Dank pure water on the run.  The weather is beautiful, its 62 degrees or so and a ton of people are out for mid day lunch break in battery park.  Was supposed to be 8 miles total but was more like 8.5.  My warm up was nice and slow and the main  set was 6.11 miles at 8:52 and hr 158bpm.  My plan was 9:20 at 152bpm so i was a bit fast and worked a bit too hard, but not sure about the speed data as i said.  cooled down for a mile and stretched.

Tuesday- no running, just short upper body weights session.

Wednesday- My run plan is an easy run of moderate 8 mile distance at 9:20 pace.  After clients i had half a shake then left for my run.  Warmed up 1 mile and then it's a 1 mile hill all the way to the park.  I went clockwise to start to switch things up.  Had no problem holding an easy pace, was actually a little fast but my legs are heavy.  Particularly feeling my quads but felt recovered when i awoke today.  Yesterday was no running and only a short set of upper body weights, but maybe i'm feeling the leg weights from Monday.  Turned around at 4 miles and continued home.  Did a 1/4 mile cool down.  Main set was 7 miles at 9:09 and HR av was 156. Was planning on an indoor trainer session today as well but will put that off for tomorrow to follow an easy run.  Partially due to time constraints but also because my legs are feeling so heavy.

Thursday- I have a few hours free in a block so will run, bike and weight train within about 4 hours.

I went for this 6 mile easy run with an empty stomach and really didn't need any fuel.  It's much windier than I expected and feels cold.  Should have dressed warmer.  Started with 1 mile warm up to the bridge.  My pace started fast for the 5.5 mile set and i slowed a bit on the incline up the bridge.  It's really windy which made me want to go faster to get over the bridge and its drizzling a bit.  Legs feel great today, breathing is good and I'm not going to worry about going too fast.  Took the down side of the bridges slower to recover a bit.  AV HR for the main set was 158 (a little bit high 155 was goal) and pace ws 8:54 (9:00 was my goal).  After the run i had a single scoop shake.  I had about a 30 minute break to set up the trainer and plan my ride.

Did a new program tha I call Level 1 seated climbing at sub threshold level.  Warmed up for 15 min then went into the following set at HR goal 153-162bpm and 65-70rpm  8-6-4-2 min intervals with 2 min rest in between at easiest gear spinning 90rpm.  I followed this with 8 min at 75rpm at a level equivalent to a long endurance ride.  For the main set my HR ave was on target at an av of between 158 and 161 for each set.  Cadence was a bit low though at 62-64 per set. Would like to do this again with less warm up and go through the cycle twice.  Was fairly easy but if it was later in the day and I had more time allocated would have been good to do two sets of this.   Broke down my bike, changed clothes and went to basement for my 30 minute legs and shoulder workout.

Friday- Today is almost just like yesterday, dreary, cold, and windy.  I fasted 12 hours overnight and had half a shake before my run.  Running 6 miles in my neighborhood.  Mostly flat, but the headwind was pretty rough.  Goal is to warm up 1/2 mile and then run the 5.5 miles at 9:00.  Noticed when I go for these wandering runs through the neighborhood that i get really bored and seems like a much shorter run to go over the bridge and back.  But i wanted to run flat and easy today.  Need to come up with another flat easy short run.  For the 5.5 miles i ran exactly a 9:00 but my HR was a little high at 161bpm.  Walked for 5 min after my run, stretched, did 10 min of abdominals (been bad about that this week) and 10 min of yoga.  Hope weather is better tomorrow for my 14 mile run.

Saturday- Lovely damp day for a long run.  About 55 degrees out.  Today instead of using my speed goal of 9:20mm i'm going to use HR.  Over the last 2 long runs, one being hills and one being flat my ave pace has been 9:09.  On the hilly run my hr av was 148 and on the flat 159.  So today i'm going flat for 14 miles and setting hr average at 153bpm and watch my pace accordingly. First half had the wind against me much of the time.  Average HR was 153 and pace 9mm.  My water pack had want more energy in it and I had a gel and a bathroom stop around mile 7 and turned around.  On the way back it was really easy to pick up the pace and averaged 8:39 whith 153 hr.  This was a really encouraging run.  My average speed for the main set of 12.26 miles ws 8:49 and HR 153.  Think by time i get to the end of base training I may be able to increase my race pace goal.  Time will tell.

Sunday- I'm on a roll.  Two weeks in a row making it to team swim on Sunday morning. Missed the warm up for today's team swim.  Started out with a bunch of sets of 200m.  Spent the first 1/2 hour focusing on frestyle.  Second 1/2 hour was more IM but i modified that and added some drills where butterfly would have fit in.  Everyone was wearing fins in my lane except myself so had a hard time keeping up at times.  Therefore if the group was doing backstroke but i was behind I would swim free style to catch up.  Last 15 minutes was 25 meters which i would like to have been able to keep up on.  Were supposed to be 25measy 40s then 25m hard 20s x16.  Better goal for me would have been 45s, 25s.  Did 2350 yards total today over the 1:15 min wokout.

Folowing the swim there was a long commute home.  Snacked, and got ready for a short run.  There were lots of stops on todays route and the garmin did not pause sometimes when i stopped, so average speed is actually a bit faster than what was indicated here.  This is the first week of 6 days running, and this is the new 6th day.  Felt good to run the day after my long run.  Helped that it was 60 degrees out and i'm not swamped with other things to do today.  Got in the swim early and by time done with run it was 1pm.  Dont' want to put anymore time into working out so will skip my weight training today. For a short easy run my pace should be 9:00 and hr around 162.  Today was 9:02 and HR 158.  Like i said i know this run was faster than the data indicates so feel good about these numbers.  Must say it wasn't an easy effort though.  Since i ran to the bridge, half way over and back, there were some parts that took some effort.  Note Max HR was 178.

Next week should be interesting.  I really have 3 days of local running then i'm getting on a plane and going to FIji.  Between the air travel time and the jet lag I'm not sure how my training is going to go for the next two weeks.  The vacation focus is scuba diving, so will fit in my running where i can.

MODERATE DAY- run and bike

I call today a moderate day but is actually fairly heavy compared to others since i started the program.  I'll be running 8 miles at a moderate 9mm pace and then getting on my trainer for intervals later in the day. After three morning clients I had time for my training run.  While with a client I ate my Isalean pudding (about 300 calories) and just before the run i had a handful of baby carrots and about 1T of hummus. Running to prospect park today for a moderate distance 8 miler which will be hilly.  Temps are really cool and I found my energy to be great.  Goal was to run the 8 miles at 9:00 pace and HR a bit over 160bpm.  I warmed up for a mile and then started my main set of 6.5 miles on a long hill going up to the park and my pace was quite even at about 9:22.  Once in the park my pace picked up and the run really felt easy.  I noticed the 1/2 mile hill on the way home that usually slows me down quite a bit felt quite easy today. Over the 6.5 main set my ave pace was 8:57 which was right on target and my HR was a bit below target at 159.

I at lunch really late, around 2:30.  I had bought a lentil salad with some apples and dried fruit and had that along with a leftover small fresh salmon patty over mixed greens.  Snacked on some baby carrots before my bike session, but not very hungry today.

I finished most of my work and got on my trainer around 5:30.  I've done this interval session only once before. Starts with a 15 min warm up.  Then 15 minutes of short intervals that look like this:  15s (30s rest) 30s (60s rest) repeat until the 15 minutes are up.  Took a 2 min rest then part 2 is 60s intervals with 90s rest for a total of 20 minutes (8 cycles). This was good for a dual training day.  Light leg work but fairly intense cardiovascularly.  For both the shorter intervals and the longer intervals i worked into my super threshold zone (163-166bpm) which is basically my race HR for shorter distances.  Cadence throughout was between 90-100rpm for the work intervals.  I cooled down for 8 minutes making this a nice one hour session.

Will have dinner around 7:30pm.  Just a serving of Isalean soup with some extra good stuff like a little leftover turkey sausage, fresh basil and scallions.  Feeling really satisfied today.  Very busy and no time to think about being hungry.