Training Blog

In the interests of making myself a bit more accountable for my training goals I've decided to make my trianing a matter of public record. I've added a link on the right hand side of my blog that will take any interested parties to my training blog on www.mapmytri.com.

Here is the official link:
http://www.mapmytri.com/rss/rss_workouts?u=1644481

My plan, at the moment, is to try to get back to two-a-day workouts. On days that I commute to work via bike...I am going to count the trip there and the trip home as two workouts. But, I'm hoping to get in a couple runs and, once it gets warmer, a couple swims per week in addition to any cycling I do.

Since I have done very minimal running and swimming in the past couple months, I am going to be struggling a bit on those two disciplines. I decided, yesterday, that I should go out and do a field test for my LT (Lactate threshold) on the run. What I found was interesting.

First, I am massively slower than I was in the fall. Which, I guess, is not a major surprise. With as little running as I have been doing, I wasn't really expecting to maintain my fitness. But, I was surprised at how much slower I actually was. It was significant.

Second...based on my lower fitness level on the run, and the slower speed, I was extremely surprised at where my HR (heart rate) averaged for the run. It turned out that my LT was at or even a beat or two higher than it had been in the fall. But, the speed at which I run at that HR was much slower. That was surprising to me. I thought that my HR would be a lot lower and that I would be slower because I wouldn't be able to tolerate the elevated HR for as long a period of time. But, it turned out to be nearly the opposite. Interesting!

Anyway...I was feeling a bit depressed about the situation yesterday. I was done with the run and looked at the numbers. Wow. I'm slower than normal...and normally...I'm SLOW. So, that wasn't exactly inspiring confidence. However, after my run today I feel a bit better. I went out and did about 5.5 miles at a slowish (but comfortable) pace. I didn't set any land-speed records. But, I did the run comfortably and felt great at the end. None of the lay-down-and-die feeling that I'd had at the end of the Time Trial yesterday.

I didn't have time to get out on the bike yesterday. But, I'm definitely going to get out on the bike this afternoon. I'm really excited to ride the new bike again...CAAD9-5 = fast!

Depending on how my legs feel this afternoon, I may try to do a LT field test on the bike. I need to know where my HR zones are before Fisk Knob (March 30th). If my legs aren't feeling it...I'll just try to do a basic ride...maybe an hour.

Another factor in making my training public is that I will make my weight a part of each blog. Thus, I will be making my weight a matter of public record. www.fatcyclist.com made this method work to his advantage as well...thus, I'm trying it for myself. The plan is that I will make my weight a potential target for public ridicule. Thus, I'm more likely to remain accountable for losing weight. And, I need to lose some weight!