A Transitional Month
What started off as a return to training plan, with lots of really good intent, quickly devolved into a month of just fun. As you can see from the photos above, I had a lot of catching up to do with the family, and with summer here there are no more excuses! Outside of the Lake Placid Training Camp in mid-June (an annual tradition!), it was a month focused on a few key areas. Training totals from Strava weren't very exciting:
- Swim - 11 total times.
- Bike - 15 total rides.
- Run - 19 total runs.
The Swim
My focus for June was on technique. I know I need to swim better overall, and usually my swim training is just time in the water. More of an aerobic building exercise than a "How can I get faster?" exercise. I did some reading, and thinking and video seeking. I am a very visual learner, so I really enjoy cruising YouTube to find some quality stuff to watch.
- Super relaxed swimming with fixed head position: Jono Van Hazel
- Swimming with higher legs: Funny, but good instruction.
- Cross Over Kick: Reading, not watching.
I have been working on a relaxed stroke with better kick timing. A full stroke with my finish coming through my hip. Interestingly, my 100 times are easily sub 1:25 with this approach, where just working on faster turnover / cadence had me practically exhausted without the speed. I plan on continuing this focus as I build endurance.
The Bike
I have been on my road bike all month and have really been loving it. Not a great machine for the longer rides, but in general I have kept things as short as I could. Many 30 mile / 1 hour 20 minute efforts. I also kicked off a concerted effort to ride as much Always Be Pushing / Zone 3 effort as possible.
The result has been a consistent stretch of rides all over 300 watts Normalized Power, usually over 22 mph on my road bike. Super excited about this, as it's been great to watch even though I spend most rides wanting to throw up.
There was a volume pop at the Placid camp where I actually set some PBs on my road bike (not tri!), but it was tough riding the road bike for that long!
I am looking forward to returning to my P5 and getting some good aero time.
The Run
Similar to the bike, I have been pushing the runs. Most of them have been sub-6:40 pace, with two 10 mile efforts at 6:32 and 6:34 pace as well. The running has been awesome; like the bike there's a sweet pace that's easy to fall into...even though it hurts like I am in a human vice. It's been fun to push, but the overall mileage has been pretty low, so I will need to begin to work on building that back up.
The Cost of Intensity
My left knee has been feeling it...I guess if you never stop putting torque on the pedals your body is going to push back. It's nothing too serious, but I need to back off to allow it to heal and give myself time to recover between the super quality sessions. I believe it's Patellafemoral Syndrome, so lots of work on my hips and dorsiflexion as I hammer on that quad with self care.
Next Steps
As I head into July, I plan to get back to a more basic schedule. Similar to my typical training build but not all in with the work. I am still getting back to the volume but I have to exit the short/intense training period that I just finished up. My goals are straightforward:
- Continue working the swim, getting in 4 sessions a week.
- Get back on the TT bike and continue to push the rides fairly hard...no serious volume this time outside of the week I will be in Lake Placid to support the Team and give our free Four Keys Race Execution talk.
- I will get back to 4 solid runs a week and build up to sitting on 30 miles a week...the intensity will have to drop a bit b/c of the volume (and summer heat) but I will see what I can do to keep some quality in there.
Thanks for reading and for all of your support!