Well, I was going to post weekly training updates but each week I felt like there wasn’t anything very exciting to report.  Week three I was on call so it was a little tricky getting all of my workouts in, so it ended with a measly total of 4h 40min.  Week four I was back on track, getting in all of my workouts and ended the week with 6h 54min.  However week five, the wheels fell off due to a stomach bug and I got in one swim and one ride with a whopping 1h 45min.

Once I got over the bug, I got back into training and this week was my biggest week yet and it felt great 🙂  My coach’s company, Endurance Company, puts on some challenges during the winter months to keep everyone motivated, and this month was the ‘Max Power Challenge’, where you go as hard as you can for 5 seconds with a 2 min recovery, and add an interval each day – so for example yesterday, 2/12, I did 12 Max Power Intervals.  It’s pretty cool to see the watts go up each workout, today I was sooo close to getting to 600!  Ok, let’s get into the details of my big training week… I will say that if this is the volume when I’m not ramping up for IMWI, I’m a tad scared to see what it will be like then!

Monday – 2350y swim after work, followed by Max Power Challenge

Tuesday – Speedwork in the am (15×300…oh lordy), yoga at lunch and Max Power Challenge after work

Wednesday – 2850y in the am, followed by a trainer ride after work with Max Power added at the beginning

Thursday – Tempo run in the am….argh, this kicked my butt again… I need the 8:30 tempo pace to feel good so I can run it for all 13.1 miles… not just the three in my tempo runs! Max Power Challenge after work

Friday – Took PTO in the afternoon for a derm appt later in the day so I did the Max Power Challenge when I got home, chilled for a bit and then headed to the gym for strength training.

Saturday – This was the last race in the Frostbite Series, and since I did the short course, it was a 3 mile race.  Pretty close to a 5k so I was interested to see if I could hold the pace I’ve been using as my 5k pace during speedwork.  The first two miles I held on but the third was a little slower because my stomach was getting angry and I was worried things were going to get ugly if I didn’t slow it down a tad.  I ended with an avg page of 7:44, hooray, since I’ve been using 7:47 pace  during speedwork!  We stayed for the awards ceremony and I ended up 3 place overall in my age group, and JMR got 4th in his.  I will say, he worked much harder for his placing, my times this year were dismal and I lucked out placing at all.  With the warmup and cooldown I ended with 6 miles total since I need to get my mileage up for the Go! Half which is only 2 months away.  When we got home, I hopped on the trainer to do the Max Power Challenge

I was also supposed to swim but due to some skin issues and a biopsy resulting in stitches, I won’t be back in the water until they come out on the 20th.  😦

Sunday – 1:40 Trainer ride with Max Power Challenge at the beginning, where I got super duper close to hitting 600 watts.

Next time…next time I will hit 600! 🙂

Total Training Hours: 12:23

Ok, back to the grind, happy Monday!