Oops, I did it again...

[Day 45]

I missed another blog day (yesterday). Whoops. But honestly I have to prioritize my other half when he is here and I have some moments to spare in the evening to watch Grey's (and get emotionally destroyed) and terrible rom coms with him. Yesterday's workout was rough. I feel like strength was coming back to my legs but they were hurting and things were tough. It was nice to have the marathon Olympic trials on at the same time though, just a nice reminder that you have to be working hard to achieve your goals. Also Amy Cragg and Shalene Flanagan were an adorable inspiration towards the end of that race, it was really fantastic to watch and I'm really happy for both of them that they'll be going to Rio. Here's the rundown:

Yesterday's Workout: Trainer ride, 120 mins
Summary:

• WU: 10 mins easy 
• Pre-set: 5 x :30/:30 spin ups 
• Main set: 3 rounds of 
• 2 x 5/1 split as 2 @ base (95 rpm), 1 @ base + 10 rpm, 2 @ base, 1 recovery 
• 2 x 5/1 split as 2 @ climb (base +4 gearing), 1 @ climb + 1 gear (hold cadence), 2 @ climb, 1 recovery 
• 3 mins easy 
• Sprints: 2 x (6 x :45/:45 MAX sprints at base +1 over 100 rpm, 2 mins recovery) 
• WD: ~10 mins easy til you reach 2 hours 
• Totals: 27.57 mi, 2:00:47, 13.7 mph

Hit Rate: 48/51 (94.1%)

Notes/thoughts:

• I would not have gotten through this if it weren't for Henry. I would've either quit or down adjusted all the efforts. I think I would have been satisfied to aim for 90/100 rpm instead of 95/105 rpm, but Henry was really great about holding me accountable and even though I didn't hit every round consistently at that tempo, I was always still shooting for it because the expectation was clear and he wasn't about to let me take it easy on myself. Also the day was particularly tough because unlike the trainer rides that are rough on my cardiovascular system, yesterday was really rough on my legs. They just burned the whole time and I have a hard time just settling down into that kind of pain and doing what needs to be done anyways so to have someone telling me to stay in the effort and push and push and push really helped me keep my focus when I really wanted to do was stop. 
• One of the things I've noticed is that I tend to actually find the second 2 minutes at base after the hard effort a little bit easier than the first 2. That's only really true when I'm fatigued from a training week I find. Earlier in the week, getting up to speed isn't a problem for me and maintaining is hard, but I think something about my energy systems tends to shift by the latter parts of the week and I find it hard to ramp up but easier to hold on towards the end. Just an interesting thought/observation.
• Um all in all it was a slow average pace kind of day, which probably speaks to the efforts not being perfect. I wasn't hitting 95/105 rpms and 60/60 consistently and I was definitely falling below 100 rpm (sometimes way below 100 rpm) during the sprints (I was doing my best, my best was just not great yesterday).

Weekly recap!

• 2 runs, 2 swims, 3 trainer rides, 1 lift for a total of ~11 hours (8 sessions) this week. Big week in terms of the hours to sessions ratio, but that's just because the run mileage is coming back up.
• I only doubled twice this week, so honestly I didn't end the week feeling as terrible as I sometimes otherwise do. I was more sore from the lift this week than I had been getting from the gym in the past few weeks, so that was a surprise, but it didn't seem to put too many holds on the run and ride that followed. 
• I'm definitely feeling the accumulated fatigue, and it's just starting to cut in on the quality of some (not all) of my workouts. The biggest effect that I'm noticing though is that it's been taking me longer and longer in terms of warm up time to really loosen up. Like I tend not to feel good until about 30-40 minutes into any workout, which is halfway through on some days.

So officially speaking, the end of Block I is ending soon. With the adjustments that have been made, the last Block I workout will be a lift tomorrow morning. I was originally planning about a 4 day rebound period between Block I and II, but given how things have been going, I sort of re-arranged the plan and added about a two week "Transitional Block". The goal of this block will be to maintain intensity somewhat comparable to Block I in workouts while adding distance to the running and instead of taking a solid chunk for recovery, I'll take a few extra days off (3 days off and 1 recovery run are scheduled in) so the hope is that I will feel still feel rested at the end of this block. That shortens Block II to three weeks, but I'm chill with that, since the point of Block II will be to get more into tri specific work anyways (riding outside at more race simulating efforts, getting back into bricks and transition runs, etc.) and I need my run base back in a good place in order to do that. 

Today I'm swimming at a dual meet slash time trial with the swim club. The lineup is 200 free, 100 back, 100 IM and 50 back. I'm expecting to be pretty mediocre because I haven't been training for this and I'm coming off an 11 hour training week, but it'll be fun just to get in the pool and swim hard and race. Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Much love,

Jess