Last weekend’s training

Last week was my longest training week since July 09, when I had just completed my 322k+ Hairshirt ride. The next month I started learning how to swim, so really this was my longest triathlon training week ever.

It started off with a 2.15k Wilcox swim with E man. It was his first 2k outdoor swim, and he did a great job. He’s going to be racing in the Toronto Island Triathlon this Sunday, and he’s been spending a lot of time in the pool. It’s really been showing. Last year we were only able to get to the first buoy (about 200m out) before having to turn around.

It took us 56:51, but that included a lot of stopping and hanging out—my moving time was 41:26. I even got a nice sprint in for the last 230m.

Wilcox

From the lake we met up with L and did a couple laps of Holland Landing. 45.25k in 1:55—sometimes I love social rides. 

Hollandmarsh

The next morning was not a social ride at all. 100k from the city out to Ajax and back. This was where I shot the video for my last post. 3:56 isn’t very fast at all compared to my shorter distance races (averaging 25.4 km/h), but I’m okay with that. It was more of a matter of getting the distance in, not injuring myself, and trying to figure out pacing for Syracuse. At least that’s what I’m telling myself.

I wasn’t concentrating on heart rate very much. I’m trying to dial myself into the 145 range for these distances, but I only ended up down at 136. I want to blame the missing morning coffee. My average heart rate went up 4 bpm after I had it, but my average speed also dropped 0.9 km/h (however being an out-and-back ride, there was a lot more climbing on the way home).

Ajax

One of the great things about having the camera on all the time is the random stills. There was the couple doing Tai Chi by the beach.

Taichi

The bridge connecting toronto to Pickering

Bridge

No need to explain.

Hortons

It’s okay, I’m safe here. Only “cyclists” have to dismount.

Cyclists

I’ve got dozens of smiling and waving runners and cyclists. Early risers are the friendliest bunch.

Smilingrunner

I was feeling great by the time I got home. My injury hasn’t been bothering me much, and I was full of confidence. So I figured why not try going for a really short run. I can concentrate on form, thereby avoiding using my injured tendon as much as possible. I know what signs to look out for now. I was just going to go to the longest street in the world and back (about one mile), but once I started I just kept going along my original running route.

I can run again. I only did about 2.15k (same as the swim from Saturday), but my pace was actually faster than it had ever been! My GPS deleted the exact run info, but I noticed I did it in about 11:30 before it was erased. That’s in the 5:25 range! 

Since then my tibialis anteriors (both of them) have been sore. They’re about at the point where I think I can do it again (five days later). I’m okay with that. Shin splints I can work around. I don’t know if I really want to do the math on this but if I can increase my mileage 5% a week, I should be doing a marathon in no time, right? Almost? 61 weeks, plus 25% for recovery is 76 weeks. About a year and a half. Wow.

It’s not that I’m already looking for short cuts, but I’m sure that you can’t really start with one run a week. So if it takes me three months to get up to four 2.5k runs a week, I’ll be starting at 10k a week. That’s workable. Then it’s 30 weeks, plus the 12 it took to get there, plus the 8 for recovery, then we’re only looking at 50 weeks total.

There’s a possibility that I’ll be ready for a fall marathon next year. If I can do that then there’s no reason I can’t do a late spring / early summer ironman the year after. All based off one eleven minute run. My fingers are crossed.

Of course all these plans can change. My MRI is this weekend, and I’ll be finding out the full extent of my injury. Surgery might cut a bit into those plans. BAH!

2 responses to “Last weekend’s training

  1. Nice training last week. Fingers crossed that the successful run is a sign of good things to come! On the road again….We’re headed to Wilcox tomorrow and I’m kind of hoping I can go all the way across and back… we’ll see, depends how tired I am from the run.

  2. Thanks! Good luck on your swim if you haven’t headed out that way yet. You can always split the swim up if you don’t mind hanging out at someone’s dock!

Comments are closed.