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.