Training Totals

I missed updating my training results last week, so I'm going to include them in this week's post. Seems kind of fitting because Mary hasn't given me a day off since I got back from Florida. Thankfully, there's one on the schedule for tomorrow. She's pushing me to get ready for the 70.3 in Galveston in April, and it's a bit tiring getting back into more than just maintenance workouts.

January 21-24
Swimming: 0:49, 2275 yards
Biking: 4:11, 56.1 miles
Running: 1:31, 8.8 miles

January 25-31
Swimming: 1:53, 5140 yards
Biking: 4:10, 59.2 miles
Running: 3:11, 18.6 miles

I did strength/weight lifting workouts this week for the first time in many years. With all that shoulder and chest work on top of the swim yardage, I could barely lift my arms to shampoo my hair. This is going to be a very difficult and painful part of my IM training. I'm not good at it at all, and I really don't like it. I have almost no upper body strength. I know, I know, it'll be good for me in the long run, but that doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy it any or pretend that I'm any good at it.

My new 920xt has been put through its paces for two weeks now. Generally, I'm very happy with it, but there are a few things that drive me nuts. For one, it skips a lot more laps in the pool than my 910xt. That watch never missed a single one. The 920 misses about 10% of them, which is really aggravating, especially when trying to keep track of longer sets and intervals. Garmin suggests pushing off harder from the wall and/or having a longer glide before taking a stroke in order to keep this from happening. Great advice that should be totally unnecessary. It's not terribly accurate in the parking lot either. I need to do some testing to see if that's due to my having GLONASS enabled or just a bug in the watch. I plan on wearing both watches next weekend during my outdoor runs to do a comparison. Other than those annoyances, I am very happy with the watch. Far more comfortable than the 910, better battery life, and a bunch of extra features (like drill sets for kicking in the pool) that are very handy.

Sunday Summary to Jan 10

I'm a little late in posting my summary for last week, but I've got a good excuse. I was on a plane for most of the day on the 10th and spent the next several days working and relaxing at Disney.

Swimming: 1:37, 4615 yards
Biking: 2:30, 39.3 miles
Running: 0:29, 3.1 miles

I hit all of my workouts last week except one run. I had to cut that one short when the power to the hotel and the gym went out.

Sunday Summary

I'm going to try to get in the habit of posting a summary of my training for the past week every Sunday night. If nothing else, it'll give me something to look back on as IMFL gets closer this fall. Maybe I'll also get back in the habit of writing more and more often. Maybe.

Swimming: 52 minutes, 1960 meters
Biking: 2:11, 36.5 miles
Running: 2:10, 13.1 miles

I had a hard time getting out of bed at 530 to workout last week. I ended up doing most of my training in the late morning before lunch or once I got off work in the evening. That's not a sustainable habit going forward seeing as most weeks of the year are not as light as the one between Christmas and New Year's.

I really enjoyed my biking this week. I discovered a really well done online cycling "game" called Zwift. You can ride a simulation of the world championship course in Richmond, set up your own workouts, and even race against people around the world if you're so inclined. They even have jerseys like the Tour de France that you can earn if you're faster than everyone else riding at that time. Today, by some miracle, or more likely a computer glitch, I took home the green jersey.

Zwift keeps me focused better during the interval workouts that Mary gives me, but for longer endurance-type rides, I think streaming movies still wins out.