What a week! Weather tried to get crazy and derail it all at the end. I've added in weights to my "swim focus" now... and my body is letting me know that I'm adding new and different stresses to it! I'm not getting enough sleep either - trying to do too much, and work is crazy - sometimes my mind won't shut off and let me sleep.
I did get my 4 swim sessions in for the week - barely... I managed only 3 quality sessions, and one "I don't want to be here / I'm stopping" session. Why "practice struggling"? So, only 6700yards for the week total. The quality of the 3 sessions had plenty of solid 50s in at 37/38 seconds each, and good longer sets of 400-700yds at threshold pace - which for me is 1:30/100y.
Work and holiday "stuff" and general fatigue from adding weight lifting and not getting enough sleep caused me to take Friday and Saturday as rest days. I hadn't had a rest day in 2 weeks - so I was due!
The highlight of the week was my 16mi run Sunday afternoon. I was lucky that the precipitation falling changed to snow. Some of my teammates braved the cold (35F) and ran in pouring rain and wind. I had the Oberlin group swim in the morning, and then the run in the afternoon.
My 16mi run wasn't perfect, but it was solid. Right at 8:00/mi average. It was approximately "even split". I negative split most of the second half, but the last two miles, I did slow down a bit. I didn't bring any gels or anything, and I think the morning's swim left me a little less than full when I started the run... plus the snow was blowing, and there were a lot of cars and no sidewalks the last 3 miles - which made dodging traffic and not turning an ankle a very big challenge.
Good news is that my running paces are about 0:15-0:30/mi faster now than this time last year. I'm using VDOT 54 now: (was VDOT 52 last January)
8:01/mi = Easy / Long
6:24/mi = Threshold
5:52/mi = Interval
5:20/mi = Rep
I just picked up Jack Daniels' Running Formula from the library to re-read again this winter. It is an AWESOME resource for understanding the science behind endurance running trianing.
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