Week 10 Recap

Last week was week 10 of my training and also my biggest week so far, despite some trouble getting it started. I guess my first triathlon gave me some inspiration. While I logged many more hours last week, I also felt I was achieving something. I plotted my hours of training so far.
I tried to do my long run on Monday morning, but bailed out after 7 miles. I started too fast (miles 2,3,4 and 5 were all 10:10) and just blew up (mile 6 was 10:16 and mile 7 was 11+) so I stopped.

Tuesday I did an easy 20 miles on the bike trainer at the gym in the morning, and a nice and easy outdoor (yeah for good weather) 5 mile run in the afternoon. Wednesday I made a timid return to the pool (1,200 yds) but skipped any afternoon workouts.

Things started to pick up on Thursday. I got my bike back from our local (and favorite) bike shop (Freeze Thaw) with a new set of cross lever breaks and PINK bar tape. So I went on a ride to Bellefonte and did three repeats of Seibert road. I rode 30 miles in 2:15.

Friday I had an awesome swim. I did 3,200 yds. In addition to a 1,200 yds warm-up (that included all four strokes) I did 2x5x200. I did most in 3:20, with the second to last 3:24 and the last one in 3:17, a new best. I then joined awesome wubby on another ride to Bellefonte, this time on Purdue Mountain Road. As the name indicates, there were a lot of good hills there. It took us about 2:30 hours and we stopped for an epic lunch at my favorite place, Cafe on the Park.

Saturday we got to go doggie sitting for Ondrej's department head. While there, I did my first long run in many many weeks (3 to be precise). I stuck to 10 miles, in 1:45, about the same time as my last 10 miler (I had hoped for some progress but sadly, no).

Sunday I went yet again to Bellefonte on Purdue Mountain Road. I wanted to know how much faster I could go. Bob, my bike guru, was kind enough to join me and give me pointers on how to improve my biking. That was completely awesome. Under his guidance, I started going faster on downhills. I am a complete wuss, and will usually not go faster than 24mph on downhills. I have recently succeeded in increasing that to 28mph for short downhills, but with Bob, I managed to increase that to 30mph. I guess that is the easiest way to improve my speed... downhills...

So, I totaled 112 miles on the bike, 4,440 yds in the pool, and 22 miles on my feet this week. Starting this week, I am switching to a Saturday to Friday week. Also, I will be focusing on learning how to use clip pedals (present from father in law) and nutrition. I am doing more and more 2 hr + workouts so it's a good time to practice eating and drinking...

Happy training!