training round-up, week ending 12-23-06

this week was a near fiasco.

i'd wanted this to be a final build week that culminated a 4-week cycle heading into a 10-day recovery period over the holidays (coinciding, conveniently enough, with a visit to my parents for Christmas and New Years Day). to that end, i'd wanted to hit 3 "key" or "break-through" workouts: a 3600 meter swim, an 80 mile bike ride, and a fast 10 mile run.

but the following issues occurred:

• pool closure. they closed lap swimming at MacDonald's stadium because they couldn't find any lifeguards. boooooooooooo!!! this put a MAJOR hole in my training schedule. i managed to get the swim in at the Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, but that was after paying $10 for a visit...meaning i paid money for a long swim, since it gave me my money's worth, but i didn't get in the recovery swims, which i just couldn't justify $10 on.
• track closure. they're resurfacing Loker Track Stadium. double boooooooooooo!!! this freakin' SANK my training schedule, since i'd been planning to use the track for recovery runs and some technique work. i thought about using the Rose Bowl fields as a substitute, but their conditions are HORRIBLE. os basically i lost 2 run workouts. not major. but important.
• lingering soreness and exhaustion. i am a little puzzled on this. my body periodically does this. i take it as a sign of either over-reaching or over-training. if i push through it or ignore it, i risk going into over-training syndrome--and i've done this and i've been there, and it takes months to get out. i suspect the prior weeks were a little tougher than i thought--or more than i can handle at this point in the training schedule. as a result, i scaled back my plans and nixed the run to rest up for the bike ride...and ended up almost nixing the bike ride too.
• rain. making the trails muddy. meaning i got an additional excuse not to run. yeah, i know, this is lame. but i figured it wasn't really about rain making the trails too muddy, but really rather about the Ironman gods saying NO RUNNING.

sunday, dec. 17

rest day

monday, dec. 18

morning

• brick: stationary bike, 30 minutes + treadmill, 15 minutes (recovery), aerobic conditioning (zone 2), lyons center, start time 7am
• weight training (chest, abs), 45 minutes, immediately following

tuesday, dec. 19

morning

• long swim (intervals, 3x400m swim, 3x400m pull), 3600 meters, aerobic conditioning & muscular endurance (zone 3), Rose Bowl Aquatic Center, start time 10:30 am

wednesday, dec. 20

rest day

thursday, dec. 21

morning

• long bike ride (build), 80 miles, muscular endurance (zone 3 & zone 4), Irwindale to Newport Beach and back, start time 9am

evening

• kung fu (recovery), 30 minutes, Garfield Park, start time 4pm

friday, dec. 22

rest day

saturday, dec. 23

rest day