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December 26, 2006
A Different Kind of Week
I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday (thus far)! I know mine was great. Lots of relaxing and good food and of course time with family. Very nice indeed. It comes and goes so fast but luckily this week and into early next week should be pretty relaxing with New Years and lots of time off work. (insert sigh of relief...) I've already gotten much more sleep than usual over the past couple days and for that, I am VERY thankful.
Going along with the theme of relaxation, my training this week isn't very high volume! I'm scheduled for a 10.5 hour week which used to be a lot for me but which now seems like nothing coming off an 18-19 hour week. Funny how that works. The week seems to be a recovery week but also inserted in there are some harder efforts, of which I haven't been partaking in recently.
I started things off yesterday with a Christmas morning ride. It was wonderful - I think I saw about 5 cars on my route, usually a very busy road. It was cold and I wasn't sure my hands (and then feet) were going to make it home with me in one piece, but otherwise it was great. I also got to ride the bike that I think I'm going to ride this summer in the crits. It's a step up from the BMC I usually ride. It felt great - but it also felt very "small". It also has a different gear ratio than the BMC which doesn't mean that much to me (seeing as how I'm a cycling dummy) other than the fact that I can tell a difference when I want to climb. Different gears needed. I'm sure I'll get used to it. :)
Anyway, I rode for close to 26 miles, 1:25 or so. After riding about 7 miles I did a 1.5 mile out and back (3 miles total) hard tempo type effort and averaged about 20.6 MPH.
This morning I started things off with a swim. On tap was a 1000 yd time trial. Ugh. I'm not a huge fan of time trials. We used to have an 800 yd time trial at the start of every outdoor track season in high school and a time trial on our home XC course at the start of every cross country season. I think I used to get more nervous for those "races" than for actual races with real competition!
Anyway, my last 1000 yd time trial in the pool was on October 25th wherein I swam 13:51 (1:23/100 yd pace). I remember right after that effort my coach emailed me and said my next goal would be 13:30. So 13:30 it was for this morning!
AM swim workout:
2100 yds total (500 yds warmup, 600 yds cooldown)
1000 yd time trial - 13:28 (1:20.8/100 yd pace)
Yippppeeeee! I was really swimming hard towards the end - I'm talking taking a breath every stroke and sprinting like nobody's business. And I'll have to admit I was thrilled when I saw I had actually achieved the 13:30. I had let the thought of swimming 1:21 pace for 1000 yds straight daunt me so it was great to actually do it and see the improvement in my swimming over the last 2 months. 23 seconds might not seem like a lot but it's taken quite a lot of work to get there. And of course I got an email from coach this morning that said "next time under 13 minutes!". He is relentless! But that's what I love about him. He knows my goals for this upcoming season and so therefore he HAS to be relentless, or I'll never get there...
After the pool I did a 45 minutes plyometric session. This afternoon I have an easy 40 minute run with striders and then tonight I have my pilates class.
The very exciting news of my day is that my parents and grandparents got me (and O) a very wonderful Christmas gift - a trip to Portland, Oregon next June for the USAT Age Group Nationals! I had wanted to do the race but the cost of traveling out there would have been too much for O and I alone. Alas - my family to the rescue! I'm very excited for it. It will be an awesome race and I've never been to Oregon (or anywhere near the west coast for that matter). Yipppeeeeee!
Posted by beth at December 26, 2006 1:28 PM
Comments
yeah!! congrats on your time trial and new travel funds!! you are going to be a rock star next year!
Posted by: Audrey at December 26, 2006 3:32 PM