Wild Goose Chase Metric Century Training: Week 4

What. a. week. This week was met with personal triumphs, setting new records, and a huge test in mental and physical stamina. I also had to be flexible with my training schedule, which in some terms, did not work out in my favor. This is how my week looked…

October 1- 7, 2012:

Monday: Swim 1800 yards

My one and only swim session of the week but it was a huge milestone for me. I was not feeling up to the swim at first, but once I got in the water, something else took over. I warmed up for 300 yards followed by 300 yards of drills. Then I did something I dubbed an “endurance challenge;” basically swim as far and as long as I could without stopping. My goal was 500 yards, but I smashed my goal and went for 750 yards!!!!

While I have swam that distance (and more) in triathlons, I’ve always had to take rest breaks by flipping onto my back, but that was not the case during this swim! I know that it may not be a lot to most people. but it amazes me how far I have come with swimming in 10 months. I started out by being terrified of even jumping into a pool to being barely able to swim 25 yards, to now being able to swim 750 yards without stopping. It does go to prove that hard work and dedication does pay off. I don’t write this to brag, but rather to show that if I could do this, ANYONE can. Seriously.

I plan to do an “endurance challenge” every month or two to see if I improve at all, especially during the triathlon off-season.

Tuesday: Strength Training+ Core/ Stretching

I woke up to find that it was pouring outside so I was forced to postpone my ride to later in the week. Instead, I just went to the gym to get in my strength training and core workouts for the day. The strength training went pretty well (I went up on weights) and I focused more on compound Olympic lifting verses isolated free weight work.

Wednesday: REST

I had to work an event for my internship so I pushed up my rest day to earlier in the week.

Thursday: Speed Ride- 22.98 miles

This is the ride that was originally supposed to be on Tuesday and it went pretty well! After a brief warm-up, I did seven sets of speed bursts for two minutes each. I was able to keep the speed bursts in the 17 mph range which is a lot better than I was doing four weeks ago! My overall pace (with warm-up, speed bursts, recovery time, and cool-down) was 15.5 mph.

Friday: Steady Ride- 26.60 miles

This was another ride that went well! I know that I have improved a little over the past four weeks and it is exciting to see the difference from week to week. After a warm-up, I did two 25 minute steady pace sets (in the 16-17 mph) range. I was able to hold the pace easily and had an overall pace of 15.9 which isn’t too shabby for me.

Saturday: Run/ Walk- 3.05 miles (AM)+ Long Ride- 42.24 miles (PM)

I already discussed the run/ walk at length in last night’s post, but if you didn’t read it, the run/ walk went well! However, the ride in the afternoon was a complete and utter disaster. I’m summarizing it below not to complain, but to just have it documented.

My training plan called for 57 miles but I knew from the beginning that I would not make it that far. It was supposed to rain today (and it barely did…boo) so I pushed it to Saturday. However, I had to work in DC until 1pm so I didn’t even start the ride until 3:30. Strike 1. Knowing that I was going to be working against the sun, I decided to just go as far as I could before the sun set.

I should have known within the first mile that this was going to be a rough ride. Where I ride, it is not uncommon for groups of people to take up the trail. Most of the time, if you yell “ON YOUR LEFT”, they will move out of the way, but the large group of teenagers that was ahead of me had nothing of it. I yelled no less than five times at the group ahead of me and they would not budge. Running out of room (and not wanting to hit them), I swerved onto the grass to avoid them, and (without thinking) yelled at them to get out of the freaking way (except I was not that nice). Karma would definitely come and bite me later… strike 2.

As the ride progressed, the temperature started to decrease and I was definitely not prepared for the chill and could not warm up. Strike 3. At mile 18, I was crossing an intersection, which has a blind spot, when a car started barreling down the hill towards me. I panicked trying to get my feet out of my pedals but ended up falling over and bending my handlebars. I suppose all cyclists do the slo-mo fall every once in awhile, but it just sucks that I bent my handlebars in the process. At least I was able to fix them. Strike 4.

The rest of the ride consisted of me spontaneously bursting into tears, cursing cycling forever, and getting a flat tire 3 miles to the finish. Strike 5, 6, and 7.

Needless to say, I definitely did not make it to 57 miles. I only made it to 42, but I fought hard for every single mile of that ride. It just goes to show how different one ride can be from another week to week.

Sunday: Strength Training+ Core/ Stretching

Another strength training workout, similar to Tuesday’s but with a new different exercises. I also tweaked my core workout a little and will continue to do so over the next week (to keep my body guessing). I forgot that I did not do cardio on Tuesday and if I had realized this (before this evening), I would have went to the pool too.

• Run/ Walk Mileage= 3.05!
• Bike Mileage= 91.82
• Swim Distance= 1,800 yards
• Total Distance= 95.89

I suppose you can call this a cutback week, although that was not my intention. I also was forced to switch around my schedule quite a bit because of the weather which really threw me for a loop. I didn’t really like cycling three days in a row, and it definitely took a toll on me during the long ride. It was disappointing to end my week on such a sour note and I would be lying to you if it didn’t make me nervous for next week. However, I know from past experience that you can’t base your training off of one bad workout.

I did however, make some big gains in my swimming and running so that really boosted my self-esteem! Hopefully this is the start of a new chapter!

Last Week’s Goals:

• Have a successful run/ walk on Friday- send me good vibes! (CHECK!)
• Have a good long ride over the weekend (Major major FAIL!)
• Study at least 4 days for my ACSM CPT certification (CHECK!)
• Try to do something fun this week (Sort of check…)

Goals For Next Week:

• Have more successful run/ walk sessions this week. I still need good vibes!
• Swim more!!!
• Work hard and have fun at my Metric Century on Sunday!

Have a great week!