This. Is. Crazyland.
Life has been hectic lately. Hectic enough to make me quite the delinquent blogger! Work…training…being a good husband…being a good friend…waiting on decisions from the MBA programs I’ve applied to…all of these occupy a slice of my life right now. And let me tell you…it’s HECTIC!
The beauty of having structured triathlon training in my life is that I have to be as efficient as possible in all facets of life to make my schedule feasible. Fear not, although I haven’t been able to spend much time blogging about my tri life recently, I’ve been staying on track quite well. Last week I managed to put in a solid 13 hours of training – broken down as follows:
Monday: Scheduled Day of Rest
Tuesday: 60 minute run, 40 minute swim
Wednesday: 90 minute bike
Thursday: 30 minute run, 68 minute swim
Friday: 75 minute bike, 57 minute run
Saturday: 181 minute bike, 119 minute run
Sunday: 60 minute bike
Total Swim: 1:48:00
Total Bike: 6:46:00
Total Run: 4:26:00
Total Time: 13:00:00
A few of last week’s workouts were particularly noteworthy. Thursday’s swim was truly magnificent. One of my sets in the swim was 10X200 (alternate - pull easy, swim hard). A lot of my swimming really focuses on just building up a distance swimming base. In college I was a sprint breaststroker, so while you might think I have some huge advantage in swimming, I’ll be the first to admit that I AM NOT A DISTANCE FREESTYLER! Because of this, when I’m in the pool I spend much more time focusing on building an aerobic base rather than doing speedwork. However, I do crank up the speed on occasion, and when I do like last Thursday – I really feel alive. I feel like I belong. Swimming was my sanctuary when I was growing up. When Mom had cancer, the pool always welcomed me with open arms. Ready for whatever I had to offer it. The pool is where all of my work ethic in life was created. It’s where I learned that the human heart can beat 220 times in one minute. It is an enormous part of my identity. Last Thursday I traded the aerobic blah blah blah for some speed. Before I know it, I was clocking mid 2:20’s for my 200 swims. A far cry from the 2:07’s that I would drop as a high schooler in practice, but not too shabby for a just recently ex-Clydesdale.
Saturday was also quite a good workout. Another 5-hour brick baby! I mixed things up a bit and was scheduled for a 1-hour bike, 1-hour run, 1-hour bike, 1-hour run, 1-hour bike. I had some company too, as I rode and ran with my good friend Mike, another fellow BU breaststroker, who now lives only about 10 miles from me out in the Philly ‘burbs. All in all, the workout was awesome. I had to tweak my time on the bike slightly to compensate for my run times, which were just slightly off from the 1-hour goal. Three hours in the saddle, 12 miles of strides on the road. I felt pretty damn good when it was all said and done. Progress for sure!
One other tri-related note – I finally forked over my $150 and signed up for the Black Bear Triathlon (HIM distance race being put on for the first time in the Poconos). This race is my IMLP tune-up. My friend Mike will be joining me at the starting line. Rumor has it that Dave will also be joining. Speaking of Dave, please do stop by his blog and send some congrats to him. His second son entered the world last week!
That’s about all for now. Thanks again for reading. Back to Crazyland!
The beauty of having structured triathlon training in my life is that I have to be as efficient as possible in all facets of life to make my schedule feasible. Fear not, although I haven’t been able to spend much time blogging about my tri life recently, I’ve been staying on track quite well. Last week I managed to put in a solid 13 hours of training – broken down as follows:
Monday: Scheduled Day of Rest
Tuesday: 60 minute run, 40 minute swim
Wednesday: 90 minute bike
Thursday: 30 minute run, 68 minute swim
Friday: 75 minute bike, 57 minute run
Saturday: 181 minute bike, 119 minute run
Sunday: 60 minute bike
Total Swim: 1:48:00
Total Bike: 6:46:00
Total Run: 4:26:00
Total Time: 13:00:00
A few of last week’s workouts were particularly noteworthy. Thursday’s swim was truly magnificent. One of my sets in the swim was 10X200 (alternate - pull easy, swim hard). A lot of my swimming really focuses on just building up a distance swimming base. In college I was a sprint breaststroker, so while you might think I have some huge advantage in swimming, I’ll be the first to admit that I AM NOT A DISTANCE FREESTYLER! Because of this, when I’m in the pool I spend much more time focusing on building an aerobic base rather than doing speedwork. However, I do crank up the speed on occasion, and when I do like last Thursday – I really feel alive. I feel like I belong. Swimming was my sanctuary when I was growing up. When Mom had cancer, the pool always welcomed me with open arms. Ready for whatever I had to offer it. The pool is where all of my work ethic in life was created. It’s where I learned that the human heart can beat 220 times in one minute. It is an enormous part of my identity. Last Thursday I traded the aerobic blah blah blah for some speed. Before I know it, I was clocking mid 2:20’s for my 200 swims. A far cry from the 2:07’s that I would drop as a high schooler in practice, but not too shabby for a just recently ex-Clydesdale.
Saturday was also quite a good workout. Another 5-hour brick baby! I mixed things up a bit and was scheduled for a 1-hour bike, 1-hour run, 1-hour bike, 1-hour run, 1-hour bike. I had some company too, as I rode and ran with my good friend Mike, another fellow BU breaststroker, who now lives only about 10 miles from me out in the Philly ‘burbs. All in all, the workout was awesome. I had to tweak my time on the bike slightly to compensate for my run times, which were just slightly off from the 1-hour goal. Three hours in the saddle, 12 miles of strides on the road. I felt pretty damn good when it was all said and done. Progress for sure!
One other tri-related note – I finally forked over my $150 and signed up for the Black Bear Triathlon (HIM distance race being put on for the first time in the Poconos). This race is my IMLP tune-up. My friend Mike will be joining me at the starting line. Rumor has it that Dave will also be joining. Speaking of Dave, please do stop by his blog and send some congrats to him. His second son entered the world last week!
That’s about all for now. Thanks again for reading. Back to Crazyland!
posted by Jeremy at 8:51 AM
6 Comments:
Congratulations on a great training week! Your bike is just getting stronger and stronger, and getting through an on-off-on-off brick like last weekend is a real confidence booster. I would love to hear how your managing your nutrition now that your long sets are pushing past 5 hours!
Good for you to get the balance -- work, life, love, ambition...oh, and Ironman! Hard work, but a better life for sure.
Have a great week!
Balance is key in this game that is for sure. Just when I thought I had it going good, Mateo is born. Time to adapt and fine tune the schedule.
2:20's/200! That would be a great 150 for me.
I am in for Black Bear. It will hopefully be a good tune up.
Thanks for the shout out.
Dave
That Saturday brick was pretty sick. Nice work. I agree that the training is helping me balance all that other stuff in my life - I just have to be efficient and take advantage of the time. But that begs the question: How did I manage to waste all that extra time when I wasn't training??
That was a major league brick you did there! Your life might be busy but you are busy getting it done!
Jeremy- touching post about your mom- thanks for sharing.
SOLID work on the training- keep it rolling!
that is one awesome brick workout..i might steal it
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