This past weekend was solid. Rick, David and I started out with doing the triple on Saturday. Swimming at Masters class, doing the CT class at Endure It followed up with a 5 mile plus run.
I am very happy with where my fitness is at right now but I am not going to lie my body was smashed by noon. I needed a nap but it didn't happen, what did happen was plenty of food once I got home. That is the reward of busting your ass is you can eat pretty much non stop. I think I am going to try and do this at least once a month going forward as it was hard but fun, surprisingly I had more left on the run than I thought I would. Maybe I didn't press it enough during CT Class or I was right on as I had something left?
I wanted to make sure I got my long run in this weekend as the Indy Mini Marathon and Buffalo Spring Half IM is not that far off so I headed out Sunday once Landon went down for a nap, this was not easy to get out the door after Saturdays effort. I ended up having to press a little on the last couple of miles to come in on the pace I wanted to be at but was glad I did. Overall almost 10.5 miles right on pace and after a tough day on Saturday that was very rewarding.
Once I got home from my run I made sure to rehydrate like crazy as I was still planning on going to masters in an hour. Masters class luckily was a breast and fly stroke day, you say luckily? Well luckily as it was a lot of instruction so was really kind of a nice recovery swim. Was fun, learned a lot (like fly is way easier with fins) and was once again glad I went when all was said and done.
For once I made the smart choice on Monday night and skipped masters class to take my lovely wife out for her birthday. She puts up with a ton of my crazy ideas and it was nice to surprise her with a nice dinner with the family.
Oh ya, less than a week to Solvang! Cant wait, this weather in Chicago sucks.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
How do you spend your vacation days?
Well I needed to use up some vacation so I decided to take today off and do the CT class at Endure It at 10:15 instead of my usual 5:30 in the morning spot, actually Amy was out of town and since leaving Landon home by himself from 5:00 - 7:00 would guarantee me to get into some serious trouble with law also had some major inmfluence on my riding time.
Usually when I ride at 5:30 I don't have time to worry about what to eat before hand as I am leaving the house before 5 and not quite functioning fully yet so I either grab a banana or granola bar and head out. This morning I had to put a little more thought into it as I knew I would be excercising for a couple of hours and wanted to make sure to eat right. I have made it my goal lately to try and eat on a more routine schedule and watch what types of food I am eating as I can tell when I eat poorly I can definately feel it in my workouts.
Todays CT Class was tough, it was 60 minutes straight with really no rest interval.
After a 15 minute warmup, I don't remember the exact numbers but was something like 5 min at 75%, 5 min at 80%, 2 min at threshold and 3 min at 75% or similar straight into the main set.
Main Set
6 min @ 80%
4 min @ 90 %
2 min @ at least at threshold
3 x through the following (20 seconds easy, 40 seconds as high as you got)
We repeated that set three times with no rest, this was good as the 40 seconds all out really got your heart rate up and allowed you to try and recover at 80%. It hurt but it was pretty suprising at how you could recover at 80%, after a minute or so it wasn't hard to hold 80 at all.
After class I headed out to run the usual loop, I ended up getting in 5.93 miles as I added on a bit but was happy with the pace. I am going to try and get out and run everyday the rest of the month to make sure I am getting my base back as I have slacked a bit the last couple of weeks, as well as start building up to the Indy half at the beggining of May.
All in all, a fun day and I get to do it again next Wednesday as I have one more day to use by the end of the month and than off to California for a week of swimming, riding and running!
Usually when I ride at 5:30 I don't have time to worry about what to eat before hand as I am leaving the house before 5 and not quite functioning fully yet so I either grab a banana or granola bar and head out. This morning I had to put a little more thought into it as I knew I would be excercising for a couple of hours and wanted to make sure to eat right. I have made it my goal lately to try and eat on a more routine schedule and watch what types of food I am eating as I can tell when I eat poorly I can definately feel it in my workouts.
Todays CT Class was tough, it was 60 minutes straight with really no rest interval.
After a 15 minute warmup, I don't remember the exact numbers but was something like 5 min at 75%, 5 min at 80%, 2 min at threshold and 3 min at 75% or similar straight into the main set.
Main Set
6 min @ 80%
4 min @ 90 %
2 min @ at least at threshold
3 x through the following (20 seconds easy, 40 seconds as high as you got)
We repeated that set three times with no rest, this was good as the 40 seconds all out really got your heart rate up and allowed you to try and recover at 80%. It hurt but it was pretty suprising at how you could recover at 80%, after a minute or so it wasn't hard to hold 80 at all.
After class I headed out to run the usual loop, I ended up getting in 5.93 miles as I added on a bit but was happy with the pace. I am going to try and get out and run everyday the rest of the month to make sure I am getting my base back as I have slacked a bit the last couple of weeks, as well as start building up to the Indy half at the beggining of May.
All in all, a fun day and I get to do it again next Wednesday as I have one more day to use by the end of the month and than off to California for a week of swimming, riding and running!
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Been a week already?
I think I have started writing a blog post multiple times over that last week and have never seemed to finish so I will just do a recap as a lot has been going on.
Last Wednesday we did our threshold testing at Computrainer class. I have two baselines to compare this to, the multiple twenty minute tests we did last winter and the previous 30 minute test we did a couple of months ago. I had some expectations going into this but was not putting it to high as I did not think I was hitting the cycling as hard as last year. Last year for any of the twenty minute tests I peaked at 283 watts, previously this year I was at 271 for the thirty minute test. Well I must be doing something right as I was able to test at 286 watts for the 30 minute test, was very happy with that and now hoping to build on that next time we test.
Last Saturday was the monster swim event for the local masters swim club. This is a 100 (or 75 and 50's) , 100's on the 100 (1:40 interval). Rick and I opted to do the 75's as we were going to ride at CT class beforehand and I was fine with a 7500 swim day with an addition of almost two hours riding. I swam all 7500, no pulls, no fins just straight up freestyle. Things went pretty well except for the last 20 I couldn't stop coughing as I think that after three hours in the pool the chlorine did some damage. For this reason I am not sure I would do this again as it really got my lungs and I was dead ass tired the rest of the day.
Sunday I started up my longer runs as the Indy Half Marathon is coming up the start of May, I was really not sure what to expect as the ride\swim on Saturday took a lot out of me but I knew some beers were going to be consumed for the Super Bowl so in my sick head I used that as motivation to get me out the door (it was also super nice out). I headed out with once again little expectations and just went by feel, I ended up running almost 8 miles on a 7:30 pace and felt I could have gone longer, I was very pleased.
Monday, I decided to run at lunch to see where the legs were. Goal was to go easy on the treadmill four miles or so. This was more for a mental break from work than anything, it really breaks up the day and gets rid of the stress caused by the few that have managed to stay employed in the dismal economy that really have no reason to be.
Monday night was masters and I was hoping it was an easier set after the monster swim and all. No dice, one look at the workout and first thought "shit". Main set consisted of a 1000 for time followed by 6 x 200 hard. I am not going to lie, I actually kind of like the 500 for time we did last year on a monthly basis but have never done anything longer outside a race. Last year the fastest I ever went during the 500 was 6:45 I I think, the plan was to just find a pace that was comfortable, count the 40 lengths and set it on cruise control. First 500 looked up and it was 6:47, happy with that wasn't feeling all that bad and just wanted to not drop off much. I ended up coming in on 13:36 which puts the second 500 at 6:49. This ended up calculating out to a 1:21 100 pace, very happy and really felt like I could go another 500 at that same pace. The problem came on the following 6 x 200 set, ouch those hurt.
Today's CT class was the first over/under workout of the year, I got in a pretty lengthy warm up before we started the main set and I could tell the legs weren't feeling all that great but the sets were 4 x through the following:
2 min above threshold,
1 min at 80%
2 min above threshold,
1 min at 80 %
1 min above threshold
3 minute recovery
Even though the legs weren't feeling all the great the intervals were short enough where I could zone out and get through and still hit the numbers I needed to be hitting.
Well that is the recap and it has been a tough week of training.
Last Wednesday we did our threshold testing at Computrainer class. I have two baselines to compare this to, the multiple twenty minute tests we did last winter and the previous 30 minute test we did a couple of months ago. I had some expectations going into this but was not putting it to high as I did not think I was hitting the cycling as hard as last year. Last year for any of the twenty minute tests I peaked at 283 watts, previously this year I was at 271 for the thirty minute test. Well I must be doing something right as I was able to test at 286 watts for the 30 minute test, was very happy with that and now hoping to build on that next time we test.
Last Saturday was the monster swim event for the local masters swim club. This is a 100 (or 75 and 50's) , 100's on the 100 (1:40 interval). Rick and I opted to do the 75's as we were going to ride at CT class beforehand and I was fine with a 7500 swim day with an addition of almost two hours riding. I swam all 7500, no pulls, no fins just straight up freestyle. Things went pretty well except for the last 20 I couldn't stop coughing as I think that after three hours in the pool the chlorine did some damage. For this reason I am not sure I would do this again as it really got my lungs and I was dead ass tired the rest of the day.
Sunday I started up my longer runs as the Indy Half Marathon is coming up the start of May, I was really not sure what to expect as the ride\swim on Saturday took a lot out of me but I knew some beers were going to be consumed for the Super Bowl so in my sick head I used that as motivation to get me out the door (it was also super nice out). I headed out with once again little expectations and just went by feel, I ended up running almost 8 miles on a 7:30 pace and felt I could have gone longer, I was very pleased.
Monday, I decided to run at lunch to see where the legs were. Goal was to go easy on the treadmill four miles or so. This was more for a mental break from work than anything, it really breaks up the day and gets rid of the stress caused by the few that have managed to stay employed in the dismal economy that really have no reason to be.
Monday night was masters and I was hoping it was an easier set after the monster swim and all. No dice, one look at the workout and first thought "shit". Main set consisted of a 1000 for time followed by 6 x 200 hard. I am not going to lie, I actually kind of like the 500 for time we did last year on a monthly basis but have never done anything longer outside a race. Last year the fastest I ever went during the 500 was 6:45 I I think, the plan was to just find a pace that was comfortable, count the 40 lengths and set it on cruise control. First 500 looked up and it was 6:47, happy with that wasn't feeling all that bad and just wanted to not drop off much. I ended up coming in on 13:36 which puts the second 500 at 6:49. This ended up calculating out to a 1:21 100 pace, very happy and really felt like I could go another 500 at that same pace. The problem came on the following 6 x 200 set, ouch those hurt.
Today's CT class was the first over/under workout of the year, I got in a pretty lengthy warm up before we started the main set and I could tell the legs weren't feeling all that great but the sets were 4 x through the following:
2 min above threshold,
1 min at 80%
2 min above threshold,
1 min at 80 %
1 min above threshold
3 minute recovery
Even though the legs weren't feeling all the great the intervals were short enough where I could zone out and get through and still hit the numbers I needed to be hitting.
Well that is the recap and it has been a tough week of training.
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