Happy Wednesday! Another training week done and another week started (actually by the time I publish it, it’s almost halfway through!).  Last week didn’t have a lot of volume but did have some intensity, which explains why I felt so sluggish when Monday morning rolled around.  Also I think being on call, even though I didn’t get that many calls, was mentally exhausting (dragging my phone with me everywhere and the anxiety of worrying if/when it would ring) and probably added to the sluggishness feeling. Ok, on to last week’s training!

Training week 28: 7/9 – 7/15

Monday – 3575y swim in the am.  I did the same swim the week before, the main set being 5×10 min sets, and this week I just couldn’t seem to get into a good rhythm.  The first two 10 minute sets were pokey but was able to pick it up to a more respectable pace for the remaining 3.  Since I’m on call no hot yoga for me 😦 so instead I did a 30 minute yoga YouTube which focused on deep stretching.  Definitely not the same as an in person class, but better than nothing!

Tuesday – Even though I needed to stay close to home (aka laptop), I just couldn’t will myself to run on the treadmill, so to the track I went with my ziplock baggie filled with my cellphone, paper and pen. The workout was: 1 mi warmup, 6×800 with 1min RI, 1 mi cooldown.  Running holding my phone wasn’t as awkward as I thought it would be, however I will have to figure out something else for my tempo run on Thursday and long run on Sunday, as by the end of the run I was tired of holding it.  No calls though and nailed my planned 10k pace.  At lunch I did my usual Tuesday 1 hour easy ride.

Wednesday – Short-ish swim in the am, 2200y, with 8×200’s, and once again I had trouble picking up the pace but finally got in a groove.  After work, because I am doing an FTP test on Saturday, instead of the typical  :Imightpuke: interval-filled Wednesday ride, I rode an hour easy.  This is going to sound strange but sometimes I feel like just spinning for an hour is harder (mentally) than grinding out intervals since those keep my mind busy and makes the time fly by.

Thursday – 5 mile run with 3 @ tempo / 7:40 pace.  I was able to hold on to the pace for almost all three miles but I had to briefly stop for an emergency bathroom stop with .5 left to go.  I was however able to hold on to my phone the whole time too, lol.

Friday – Rest Day.  I was feeling a little lost and lazy ALL day!  Between ‘just’ the run Thursday and nothing that day, I felt super lazy and like I had way too much free time 🙂

Saturday –  FTP test.  I was anxious about this test the minute it was put on my training schedule.  I feel like my cycling has gotten stronger this year so I was really hoping to see an improvement from my last FTP of 183 from well over a year ago (whoops, not sure how it had been that long), but at the same time, using those ‘old’ FTP numbers for IM watts did feel tough, so the thought of those IM watts going up made me a little scared.  Regardless, after procrastinating until almost 10a, I finally got on the bike and got going.

After a warmup and calibrating my Kickr and my Quarq (I wanted to see the output on both to see if/how much they varied), it was on.  I think I have a pretty darn good ability to block out pain after the fact, because now the 20 minutes are a blur, but I remember at the time thinking ‘Should I push harder? Can I even push harder?!!?  I think I’m borderline on puking…’ so even though I did not puke, I think I found a good hard effort that was probably comparable to 95% of an hour all out.  I was pretty pumped when I saw I averaged 203 on the Kickr, giving me a new FTP of 193 watts.  Hooray!  I was hoping to improve but wasn’t sure how much.  After uploading my Garmin workout, I saw that the Quarq read 7 watts higher, at an average of 211 watts giving me an FTP of 200!  Since my last FTP test was on the Kickr, I’m only taking credit for an improvement of 10 watts, however it is good to know what my Quarq reads so when I’m riding outside I will go off of that number.  That will be interesting during the 70.3 coming up in less than two weeks, I’m not sure how I feel about riding at those new numbers!

Sunday – 90 min ‘easy’ run with some 10-12min HM pace efforts mixed in.  This was not easy.  Not at all.  I did 3 x 12 min efforts with an easy mile in between and it was tough.  I didn’t expect it to be with having the easy recovery in between, but it was.  It was also hot out and because I ran with my phone in my hand I didn’t carry water, so I was relying on the water fountains in the park that I ran through several times.  Well.  The water was awful, hot and tasted like metal, so I did not drink as much as I should have.  As a result I’m sure I was dehydrated by the end of the run, definitely making the run feel tougher than it should have.  Regardless I got it done.  The run was followed by several Oreo cookies and time on the couch.

Total Training Hours: 8:22

I will leave you with this post I saw on the Ironman Louisville group Facebook page.  It made me laugh and I can 100% relate (in any situation going more than a couple of hours without food!)