Great Week of Training

I was still recovering from my flare up and the travel back to North Carolina, so Monday and Tuesday were good training days but not excellent.  I still felt a little weak.  I did do one thing super well and that is sleep.  When my body is not 100% because of my Crohn's, I make an effort to sleep at least 8 hours and if I can push it, 10 hours.  During the previous week and this week, I considered sleep and a lot of it, as important or even more important than a workout.  I slept a good 10 hours on Monday and another 9 and half Tuesday.      

By Wednesday I was feeling better and ready to tackle the tough workouts.  On Wednesday, Alex M. and I went out for an awesome ride and we really pushed the pace.  The workout called for an hour around threshold so Alex and I went to hills of the P-Ride beat up the hills pretty well.  It was perfect.  We both worked hard and my climbing legs are finally coming back to form. 

Thursday called for a key swim and a key run and I hit both workouts out of the park.  The key swim included a broken 1650 and with the subtraction of rest, I swam it in 18:18 (1:06 pace per 100 yards).  The run was tough, 10 X 600 meters @ 4:50 mile pace, followed by a minute easy.  I broke after number 8 but determined to finish, I ran 9 and 10, albeit a little slower, but nevertheless I finished the workout.  This was a great day that was top off by a Carrburito burrito. 

Friday, I was back in the pool with Justin P and Alex M, and Justin threw out a tough set.  The session was 5000 yards, with a main set of 600, 500, 400, 300, 200, 100, all on the 1:25 basis.  The 1:25 basis challenged our arithmetic skills, but after a bit of a struggle, we figured out the times and the three of us took of to swim.  We all swam great.  Justin swam well and Alex is swimming better than he ever has.  I too had a good swim, hitting, 6:42, 5:20, 4:26, 3:15, 2:10 and 1:02 for the swims.  I'm feeling strong in the water. 

Hurricane Irene arrived on the North Carolina coast on Saturday but Justin, Alex and I went forward with our plan to ride 4 hours together.  The weather was not too bad in Chapel Hill.  Chapel Hill is about a 4-5 hour drive from the Outerbanks of North Carolina so we anticipated some rain and strong wind gusts.  Our expectations came to light but in all the ride was very enjoyable.  I did get a kick out of riding 13mph into a headwind and working almost as hard as I could.  I followed up the ride with a 4.5 mile T-Run, with the first 4 miles run at 5:40 pace.   

    

On Sunday the weather was perfect.  Justin and I had an excellent long run on the Tobacco Trail.  The GPS map is a bit boring, it's an out an back, but the run was great, really enjoyed it.  To finish up the week, Elizabeth took time away from her mountain biking to join me for a nice easy swim.  It was a great week of training.

 

I am racing again soon!  I'm looking forward to racing with Team Challenge and competing in the San Diego TriRock Olympic Distance Triathlon on September 11.