Weekly Recap: 15 hours 31 minute

This was my second biggest week ever. Got in 4100 swim, 166 on the bike and 40 running. I wish there had been another swim but my pass ran out and forgot to renew it (complicated process of course). Next couple weeks I would like to stay around 150 on the bike but up the swim and run to 7000 and 50 miles a week and hold that for a while and get some efforts when the weather is better. I also want to have a rest run day on Mon after a long run which I messed up this week. I think around this volume I should be able to loose a tad bit more weight. I am realizing more and more that I just have tons of trouble with weight loss. It was also a stressful week bc the kiddo is now throwing food on the ground again and bashing her head on the ground in parking lots and fitting like mad. It is really bad and I hit quite a low the other day so we shall see how this manifest in my general mood. I have finally found a training partner but they had to go out of town. This should help a bit as it was really nice seeing people down at the SG half marathon.

Race Report SG Half Marathon

I am going to preface this post with a video of my child. Just put this on repeat with food throwing and loud screaming for the past 10 days. She lost 3 pounds off her 30 pound frame in 6 days. She is having her independence struggle and is doing it for a long time. It is finally turning around but as you will see my brain was totally fried which lead to some mistakes. (BTW Squawkwalla is a nickname from a type of lizard in Death Valley, we are science nerds)

So I woke up and got in a 15 minute spin on the Bike before heading down to SG. One thing I was worried about was making the distance at the speed I wanted so I didnt want to warm up too much . Well the above mentioned shorted my brain and I just stood around until race start with no running warm up. Oh well I thought bc then I would have to start slower.

I went out in 3:01 and then a 3:03 and then started to slow. I had two half miles of 3:26 and 3:31 in there for my 6:22 total. My final time ended up being 1:23:09 and I weighed almost 174 which is completely unacceptable. Seeing that I should easily weigh 163 on my 5'10" frame that puts me at a 6:02 pace just based on weight alone. That puts me at a 1:19:05 which is much more in line how I felt. I will take the 50 second PR though since I have had biking and swimming PR's this month already and it is Jan. The only thing I am behind on is the weight which is so tough with the above mentioned.

I could talk most of the race just fine and my breathing was fine even though I got a side stitch at the beginning but that was the lack of warm up and trying to run out of my ability so quickly. Quads are a little sore but got in a 1:47 stroller tow and a 53 min stroller push the next day so that is pretty good. Joints and the rest of the body are good though.

I think I learned a lot about what needs to happen to take my running to the next level so that is the most important thing here. We will see.

Breakthrough week.

Big news is that I set a new trainer PR on the 10 mile TT. I went 22:33 at 78 rpm at 155 avg HR. 26.6 mph I think I finally hit the nail on the head with my start. I did an outdoor TT this spring in 25:13@144HR using a low cadence and not starting too hard obviously. I have also noticed that I can ride around 22 mph on an out and back 50 miler at when I am just out for a ride. On Tues I made sure to note when I really felt like I was pushing it and when I was not. IT was when I was around 83 rpm and my HR was at 162 is when the red light on my RPE turned on. I was hitting miles in 2:19 at the begining and then brought that down. Normally on an indoor TT I am all over the place. After the halfway at around 11:33 I really kicked it in and ran through some 2:10 miles. The hurt was there but it was constant.

This is the single biggest breakthrough in cycling that I have ever had.

Went to the track and knocked out some 240's (indoor 160M track) at about 5:40 pace afterwards. Outdoor track is clear now thankfully.

Sunday I got out for a long run up the canyon. Starting at 5600 ft and running up to 6800 ft in 8 miles before turning around. Threw in a 41 minute 6 miler (~6:45 pace) coming back. Didnt even feel good until mile 9. Glad I stuck with it. Longest run since moving down to Utah.

Tied my 100 yard swim PR with another 1:15 at the end of a 2400 yard set.

The late post is from a trip to Death Valley with ZERO workouts for 4 days due to the kiddo deciding to throw every single bit of food given to her onto the ground while camping and then being pissed all day long. The sites were great and still glad we went but it was super stressful and my body felt more tired and strained from this then when normally working out. So I dont really have any big expectations for the half except for a good mental battle.

Weekly Recap

I have devised a set of workouts that I will try to work towards with specific goals in mind. The first one I came up with is 5x5min on the trainer above 26.4 mph. I choose this because I hit this workout in Missoula when I was hitting the trainer a lot but when I came down here to altitude I couldn't muster even 3 this hard.

Sat was a recovery day from staying up to late so Sunday I decided to hit this interval set to see how I would do. This is one of the sets that a lot of people do but I think that I execute much better. Sorry about the ego trip there but my training seems lacking severely when compared to others doing the same speed or way higher then others in the same range. The workout takes 50 minutes to complete and I want to quite every minute after the second minute. The recoveries don't seem long enough and the intervals are terrible about 30 seconds in. Normally I prescribe to the part about liking to train but I love to see the numbers at the same time so I can get through this workout. I managed averages 27-27.4 mph at 80 rpm and a 159 HR which would top out at 170 for the last couple minutes.

Still struggling with the weight loss but after lunch I have only been eating workout drinks, a bowl of low cal chili, and a glass of bourbon and water in the evening. Occasionally I will have a 100 cal hot cocoa right before bed. The snow on the ground is terrible here. Stupid lightest snow on earth crap.

Swimming is coming along nicely and I have been using the bands to do a modified front lat pull down that turns into a tricep pulldown and then traditional lat pulldowns. Worked up to 50 lat, 20 mod, 50 lat, 20 mod before I rest. Will see how that works.

Got a PR on the 100 free when I had a lifeguard watch my form. I hit a 1:15. I really really need to remember to stay relaxed bc that was what I picked to focus on when she was watching. Finished the day with a tough 6 mile recovery run. Need to pick up the run frequency so I don't have to run as many 10 milers in the cold.