The spring training post-mortem

[Day 129]

There's so much data from the past four months that the idea of going through it freaks me out. So know that I'm writing this as I'm looking through everything and I expect the post to be way sloppy because it's so unplanned. But honestly, if I had to put more effort into it than this, the reflection would never happen so I'm gonna do this and be satisfied with it.

Here's what the full schedule ended up looking like (if you click on the images, they should get bigger):

And here is the month by month breakdown via Garmin:

• Swimming: 
• Jan: 9 swims, 19.13 mi, 11:10 total hrs
• Feb: 9 swims, 18.52 mi, 10:15 total hrs
• Mar: 5 swims, 11.08 mi, 6:15 total hrs
• Apr: 9 swims, 14.82 mi, 8:21 total hrs
• Biking: 
• Jan: 9 rides (all trainer), 172.43 mi, 12:21 total hrs
• Feb: 10 rides (4 outdoors, 6 trainer), 250.59 mi, 17:59 total hrs
• Mar: 6 rides (5 trainer, 1 outdoors, 2 bricks - 1 trainer, 1 outdoors), 163.01 mi, 11:17 total hrs
• Apr: 8 rides (2 trainer, rest outdoors including 1 brick, 2 races), 185.08 mi, 10:59 total hrs
• Running:
• Jan: 10 runs (6 treadmill, 4 outdoors), 41.44 mi, 6:37 total hrs
• Feb: 10 runs (1 treadmill, 9 outdoors), 67.68 mi, 10:43 total hrs
• Mar: 15 runs (all outdoors, 2 bricks), 93.47 mi, 16:04 total hrs
• Apr: 11 runs (all outdoors, 1 brick, 2 races), 56.74 mi, 8:40 total hrs
• Other: 
• Jan: 11 sessions (6 lifts, others were core/rowing/etc), 8:50 total hrs
• Feb: 6 sessions (5 lifts, 1 other), 7:10 total hrs
• Mar: 6 sessions (5 lifts, 1 other), 6:57 total hrs
• Apr: 3 sessions (2 lifts, 1 other), 3:15 total hrs
• Total time by month:
• Jan: 38:58 hrs
• Feb: 46:07 hrs
• Mar: 40:39 hrs
• Apr: 31:22 hrs
• Totals: 
• Swim: 32 swims, 63.54 mi, 36:01 total hrs
• Bike: 33 rides, 771.11 mi, 52:36 total hrs
• Run: 46 runs, 259.33, 42:04 total hrs
• Other: 26 sessions (18 lifts), 26:12 total hrs
• Time: 156:53 hrs

Okay that was actually sort of cool to compile. On one hand, the numbers are too large for me to really comprehend so it's like, oh apparently I worked out a lot. On the other hand, it's cool to see what the swim/bike/run distribution looked like.

Overall thoughts:

• On the goals from back in these days: 
• Consistency w/o burnout towards the end of the big training block: Somewhat accomplished? I think I definitely did way better than I did in the fall and managed to keep up what was for me a very high volume of work both in terms of training and school and somehow stay on track for almost four entire months. There were some off days/weeks towards the end both because of inevitable schedule issues relating to travel and just mental things (some weird mix of burnout, anticipation, and anxiety) but it was a margin of error I am more than happy to accept. I feel like if I can hit serious training blocks like this every time I went for it, I would be in a fantastic place. Sure, there's always room to improve when it comes to consistency but given the constraints of reality and the fact that there's much more to my life than just this sport, I am 100% satisfied with what consistency looked like this block.
• Picking up the slack on the biking and swimming: Biking yes! Swimming no...Which I'm sort of okay with honestly. I think there's still room to improve on the biking. That's something that I want to continue working on moving forwards. My swimming hasn't been improving but it also hasn't been getting significantly worse and for now I'm willing to accept that while I focus on upping my game in the disciplines I'm weaker in. I've gotten a lot better as a cyclist these past few months and I really hope to keep that moving in the right direction as time goes on. I will say that the lifting supplement to my swimming did go phenomenally well this block, something else I hope to keep up as time goes on.
• Run mileage: goals were 20-25 miles per week which turned out to be waaaaay ambitious. I had a few kinks in the early parts of the year involving my knee and my IT band that kept that from being a reality, but I was there in that range in March (which was my highest volume month) so I would consider that a success. I'll be running a lot between now and July so we'll see where the weekly mileage lines up in the upcoming weeks/months. 
• Core/stability/mobility/stretching/recovery: Um no. Fail. I have always sucked at this and pretty much continued to suck at it this cycle. This is something I'm going to try and work on more in the upcoming months. 
• Being more present: I think I'm getting better at this. I think I still have a long ways to go before I am where I want to be. I think what has improved is my acceptance of myself and the things that I feel and the way that I think. I think I'm more okay with being who I am and having the quirks that I have and accepting that one of the consequences of just being me is that I'm maybe not going to be as happy as other people are sometimes and that's okay because it is what I want and what I choose. I think I'm better at being thankful for having the ability to do what I choose to do. That's valuable. Do I still have to work more at being present? Yes, but in terms of my mentality as a whole, I think I'm moving in the right direction. I hope the people who have been reading this madness agree.
• On the future:
• Honestly training is going to be way less serious in the upcoming year because I know I need to focus on other things like school. There are plenty of things that I want to work on because there are always plenty of things that I want to work on, but I think it's important to take it one step at a time and remember that it has to take a back seat compared to some of the bigger things happening in my life right now. So for the next few months, the two main things I'm going to be working on are as follows...
• Running: Most of my races are running races in June/July, so I'm going to focus on running for now. (After that, there'll be a mix of different races from August through October so I'll probably get back to a more balanced tri training schedule. By the time the winter rolls around, I expect to be switching over from endurance work mode to strength work mode because I've always wanted to put some work in at the gym just getting stronger. I've never really had the chance to focus on that specifically because I've always been doing one endurance type race or another. Since there really aren't races on the calendar after October, I expect to have some time to just hit the gym and have fun focusing on something that is normally more of an accessory part of my schedule.)
• Core/maintenance/stretching: I suck at paying attention to this and doing this and I really need to make it a more habitual part of my schedule so it's something I'm going to try and really tackle in the next few months.

There is so much more I could look at and so much more I could talk about and over-analyze when it comes to this stuff but honestly, I want to leave it at this: I did something in the past four months that I didn't think I was capable of doing. I think I've worked harder than I've ever worked in my life (not necessarily just in regards to training, but in regards to literally everything else too) and I've learned a lot about myself and my limits and my strengths and my weaknesses. Most of all I've learned a lot about how to make this life and my passions work within the constraints of reality and I've learned that I have the best support person in the universe who does so much to give me the best chance I have at reaching my goals. I couldn't have imagined any of this would go the way it had when I first laid out all my crazy plans at the beginning of the year. I couldn't have imagined that it would be so hard. I couldn't have imagined that I would realize that it is so hard and keep going. I couldn't have imagined that anyone would support my crazy crazy life and my crazy crazy dreams. I've been so lucky just to experience the things that I've been able to experience and come out the other side. Sure, there are a billion ways in which I've fallen short along the way but I really couldn't be more satisfied with my decision to try. I couldn't be more thankful to have had Henry standing beside me every step of the way. I couldn't be more proud of how far I've come. 

The lofty goals are getting laid aside for a little bit. You can bet I'll keep training and keep working and hopefully keep improving, but the priorities are definitely going to shift in the next few months and maybe even years. I'm going to try to be a little less uptight and a little more forgiving and a little more focused on school. I'm sure everything that's gone into these past four months will only help me even as things start to change. It's just another adventure and I'm sure it'll take me to just as unexpected places as this one has, even with all my overbearing planning. I hope you'll stay with me as I take it on. Happy Sunday everyone!

Much love,

Jess

PS - It was a rest day today. I didn't do much of anything, which was fairly glorious. Long run tomorrow! (:

Going longer on that trainer...

Today started with a very early lift and finished with a long afternoon trainer session. The lift was similar to what I did last week, with some minor tweaks and the addition of glute bridges. I didn't do a short treadmill run after the workout because I felt lazy. As of right now, I'm physically feeling much better than I did last week at this time. Although the soreness is starting to set in, it's definitely not as bad as it was last week, which is promising. The lift in and of itself also felt easier than last week, which is also promising since I did a similar amount of work/weight. I may have taken more rest breaks though, which may have factored into experiencing less fatigue. I definitely have to get over my fear of dudes...they will be in the gym while I am in the gym. I just need to get used to it. It'll take time is all I guess.

Today's AM Workout: Lift
Summary: 70 minutes

• Front squats: WU 10 @ 45, pyramid 10 @ 65, 8 @ 85, 5 @ 95, 8 @ 85, 10 @ 65 (5 working sets, first and last = light)
• Flat bench: WU 10 @ 45, 10 @ 65, working 3 x 8 @ 85 (last set split 6/2 rest pause)
• Weighted glute bridges: WU 15 @ short bar, working 3 x 12 @ sb+20
• Pulldowns: 4 x 12 @ 6, alt. wide/narrow grips
• Superset: 3 x
• DB shoulder presses (seated): 12 @ 20/side (if you get bold maybe it's time to move up to 25…)
• DB rows: 12 @ 40
• Forward/backwards lunges: 3 x 12/side @ sb+20

Hit rate: 38/41 (92.6%)

Note that sb means the small straight bar. I have no idea what it weighs but I figure as long as I'm consistent with the use of this particular bar, it's not super important.

The afternoon trainer session was long, but I kept it at just below threshold effort so it wasn't the hardest. The entire second hour to be honest was sort of grueling and my butt definitely really hurt by the end, but I kept it nice and consistent throughout and I'm really proud of the effort.

Today's PM Workout: Long trainer ride
Summary: 29.01 mi, 2:00:29, 14.4 mph

• WU: 10 mins easy, 5 mins base of a hill building up to 100 rpm in the last minute
• Main set: twice through…
• 2 x
• 4 mins @ 90-95 rpm race pace (base)
• 4 mins @ 60 rpm race pace (climb)
• 4 mins @ 90-95 rpm race pace (base)
• 3 mins @ 90-95 rpm sprint pace (+1)
• 1 x
• 12 mins @ 90-95 rpm race pace (base)
• 3 mins @ 90-95 rpm sprint pace (+1)
• 5 mins spin recovery
• 5 min spin down (after recovery from last set)
• Speed splits: 13.2, 15.1, 14.5, 14.9, 15.0, 14.0.

Hit rate: 39/42 (92.8%)

Now I'm going to go get Henry from the airport! And tomorrow is my day off! Yay!

Much love,

Jess 

My legs are slowly coming back to life...

My legs had a really hard time yesterday. I made the decision to push back the bike trainer workout by a day in order to give my legs a little bit of extra rest. It seems to have helped a lot, although I also worked them pretty hard today so they're definitely not feeling too hot still. Nonetheless, it seems like the lifting pain is lightening and it's being replaced with a different kind of fatigue, so I'll call it progress.

Today started with a run in the morning before my volunteering session and I took the make up bike trainer session in the afternoon.

Today's AM Workout: Base run, Forest Park.
Summary: 7.04 mi, 1:13:10, 10:24 pace.
Pace splits by mile: 10:35, 10:52, 10:36, 10:40, 10:00, 10:09, 9:56, 9:18.
Hit rate: 32/34 (94.1%)

Mornings are nice because it's not too hot. It was very humid today though, but my body handled that fine. I ran the route counterclockwise, which is the opposite of what I usually do, so it put the hills first (which explains the nice negative splitting). The run felt pretty easy on my cardiovascular system but was brutal on the legs. They hurt with every step the first 1-1.5 miles and then lightened up to just aches in specific areas for the rest. It's good to know that I can finish a run of that distance on really blown out legs though. Interestingly enough, when I ran this route in the other direction exactly a week ago after having had my legs pretty thoroughly wrecked by biking workouts, I ran a 1:13:09. The consistency astounds me. The effort was slow, but I'm happy enough with it, just proud I got out there and did what I had to do. (It was an early morning I really wasn't feeling, but I'm glad I did it.)

Today's PM Workout: Trainer ride
Summary: 18.6 mi, 1:16:22, 14.6 mph.

• WU: 8 mins easy, 2 mins base of a hill
• Main Set: bike sprints to failure, 5 x (6 min efforts, 2 min recovery)
• Broken as: 2 min 85% (base @ 100 rpm), 2 min 100% (+1, 90+ rpm), 1 min 110% (+2, 90+ rpm), 1 min 120% (+2, 100 rpm)
• 1 extra minute recovery
• Big gear: 4 x (2 mins steady state seated climb, 55-65 rpm, 1 min standing climb (biggest gear, c+3), 1 min recovery)
• WD: 9 mins at steady state then easy.

Speed splits: 14.1, 15.9, 14.9, 13.4.
Hit rate: 33/35 (94.2%)

The trainer ride was pretty solid all in all. I think I moderated the effort well, the last two repeats of the sprint set were tough but manageable (some pace slip off towards the end though). Big gear work is a must, will keep trying to get through that. The trainer workouts are tough but I'm sure they do wonders for fitness. We'll let the bike see the outdoors tomorrow and hopefully that'll be a good time. As of right now, my legs are still weak and hurting a bit, so I'm going to take some time to stretch and hopefully put them in the best possible position for tomorrow. Yay!

Much love,
Jess

Chasing Consistency

I feel like my big complaint about last year as a training year was lack of consistency. The thing about success at any endurance sport (and I count competitive swimming amongst them, because it's true for that too) is that you need to be consistent with your training in order to make progress. Sure, the stalling that comes with hiccups in training is possible to overcome, but it's difficult and comparably more mentally and physically taxing than it needs to be. Usually being consistent wins out in the long run.

The problem I've started realizing recently though is that as a normal human being trying to balance my normal human being life with trying to progress at my sport is that consistency is oftentimes hard to come by. Looking back on the last year, consistency was hard to find because of travel for medical school interviews, then travel for my long distance relationship, then summer things that included spending time with friends and family and moving out to St. Louis. Looking ahead to the next year, there's my erratic August orientation schedule, travel to Asia over Winter Break, my upcoming wedding next summer and Henry moving out to St. Louis, and probably other things that will pop up whenever they feel like it. Looking even further ahead, there'll be my changing schedule from year to year (and rotation to rotation), Step I, and who knows what else. I won't always be able to settle into that consistent schedule that I want, because like I talked about in an earlier post, the priority in my life is realistically not training. And that's okay.

I guess today's situation is related in some ways and unrelated in others. I was planning on taking a swim in the morning, but my period started today and my mother really doesn't want me swimming through my period. I've had a lot of issues with stomach cramps this year and she knows the cold and the exertion make it a lot worse. If I was still seriously swimming competitively like I did when I was younger, she would have understood the need to be at practice and let me go. But she's a firm believer that my priority should on my health and not on my performance (she thinks I train too much and too hard as is) and I'm willing to oblige her while I'm living in her house. The more the day goes on and the worse my cramps get, the more I am glad I am obliging her.

In any case, what I'm trying to get at is that while I'm here, my priority isn't training, it's family. Part of that means making time for them and making sure I have the energy to spend quality time with them but part of that also means trying to balance their needs with my needs. Living by my mother's rules for a few days is a part of me trying to satisfy her needs. So for the next few days, I won't be swimming like I planned. I don't even know that I'll be running like I planned. I'll just play it by ear day to day and see what happens.

The problem with that plan is that it starts to knock down at the consistency I've been building towards this month though, and that's a disappointment. But I think acknowledging that consistency is difficult to find in a life where training really does take a back seat to a lot of other priorities (and acknowledging that it's okay for training to be taking a back seat, it doesn't mean I'm not a committed, hard-working person) will be important for me moving forwards in terms of getting comfortable with the inevitable hiccups in the schedule that generally seem so frustrating to me. They are all part of the part-time athlete act and that's perfectly okay because it's just that: part-time.

So I'm going to work around it and move forwards and accept that consistency is a great goal to have but you don't always meet every single goal. That's the point of the 80-90% rule; do your best as often as you can and don't worry about the rest. (I'm also not even penalizing my numbers these next few days with that rule, there will be no adding or taking away from the hit rate regardless of what I do since they're planned as flexible days.) I am going to really try to be consistent moving into the fall triathlons seeing as those races are important to me, but if there are any more unexpected hiccups in the road, I will try to face them with the same attitude I'm facing these next few days with. Really working on having the right mentality and keeping training a positive experience. (:

Much love,
Jess

PS - A quick note on the recovery front: Mom has been rubbing out my legs sporadically throughout the day while I'm functionally disabled from stomach cramps and it's been wonderful but they're still sore. The joint pain is mostly gone although my knees have been flaring up occasionally when I'm lying down. Still mostly better than I was expecting though, I've had much worse from hard gym days so this I can live with.