Friday off; week 5 in review

Ahhh, the recovery day. I love having Fridays as an off-day. I should probably stretch, but i'm far too busy with back door work stuff in all my spare time between clients.

Anyway, here's the training week in review.

I'm feeling pretty good about everything. This week wasn't as strong a training week for me as I would have hoped, but if I take a step back and look at how far I've come in the past year, I can see it wasn't so bad. Again, I'm still more nervous about the bike than anything and have been driving myself a bit crazy doing Google and Youtube searches of the WF course. Rain has been a heavy factor and I haven't gotten in the saddle time I would have liked. Also, I need to spend a little more time developing a nutrition/hydration strategy. This race is a lot longer than the others I've done. I'm either going to have to put more cages on my bike, geek around with a Camelback, or (gulp) get proficient at whizzing past aid stations with my arm outstretched to grab a water bottle from a volunteer. Or, I suppose I could stop and dismount... Horrors!

Swim:
Volume this week will probably top out between 7500 and 8000 meters. My fatigue resistance is steadily increasing, and if I concentrate, so is my glide. Can make it across the pool in 13-15 strokes if I stay focused. Should be a cinch to glide once I'm back in the wetsuit.

Bike:
Have only managed the scheduled spin session this week. Picked the Long Course Pro session and went 70' with 5x6' intervals at L3, out of the saddle. I know it's good for developing my power, but 1 hour on a spin bike always feels like 3 or 4. BORING. Thank goodness for the hammer-inspiring sounds of Tool and Nine Inch Nails!

Run:
A bit out of commission this week. Sunday I went out for a 5 mile trail run. It turned into an extremely muddy, slippity-slidey hike through the rain. I kept up as brisk a pace as felt safe and ran up all the hills. Right calf has been tweaking again in the cold weather, right at the musculotendonous junction of the Achilles. Don't want to mess with that, so I had an hour session with Kristi on Tuesday. I gave it a little test last night at track with a little running, but mostly we did circuit training. I will try it out for sure this coming Sunday with an 8 miler.

Question of the week...Sport Beans vs. Accelerade vs. Nuun vs. Shot Bloks? Too many choices.