The start of the week has gone really well with only a couple of speedbumps workwise. It's getting harder and harder to get away but I have to keep reminding myself that spring and longer days are just around the corner and with that, comes training's 'extended hours'.
I have not been training in the early mornings for 2 reasons: 1) I swim 3 nights a week and get home at 11pm and am too tired in the wee am; and 2) it's still too bloody cold until the afternoon sun peak. Case in point: today, -24C with the windchill at 8am. By 2pm, it was -2C and sunny and beautiful. I did manage to get outside for a bit to walk the dogs. They appreciated not having to wear their coats!!OK - onto the speedwork. The adage is true - it's not easy, but it's getting faster. I looked at my results from just 3 weeks ago and improved avg /km pace by 5 - 15 seconds. The session (after warm up) was 1k, 2k, 2k, 1k with 1 min rest in between and I kept each interval nicely below 5min/km. I wrapped it up with an easy 2km home. Part of the pace improvement could have been both better weather and actual pavement ... I think my last session was partially snow covered.
Swimming on Tuesday night was interesting - a lot of 'no shows' slackers and so 4 of us split the 2 fastest lanes, each keeping to our side of the lane. It made for some good 'ol racing on every drill / lap. You bet your a$$ we were competing for form, speed, and stamina. One of the guys with an oversized ego, who has always felt he should be in the fastest lane, was pulling up short every single drill. He has always talked big Ironman talk in the locker room but fell to the slowest of the four of us and by the end of the hour on our last 200m set, he was a good 35 m behind. You can imagine the locker room talk after class - not that any was needed whatsoever...most of us leave that in the pool, but this guy shared one excuse after another as to why he wasn't 'feeling in' in the water tonight. I don't think anyone cared...we all left our performances in the water and were onto other stuff.
That's the midweek report. Training is going well!
Mon - 1hr ride
Tues - 1hr swim + Run speedwork
Wed - 90 min hard ride with drills
I love it! Those are the greatest workouts ever, my best training swims are always with some competition next to me - I love reeling them in and passing em' lol
ReplyDeleteI like that you just leave it in the pool. Some people dont get that.
Hope the training is going well, spring is finally almost here!
ReplyDeleteI know, I am late to the party. I wanted to say that this year I am JUST getting it. FINALLY what that thing about not getting easier, you just get faster means. People have been saying that to me for years and I have been like, what the heck are you talking about, that doesn't make any sense.
ReplyDeleteNow it does. This winter, I finally got it.
Oh. And the post before this one where you almost froze yourself and was on the brink of hypothermia? CRAZY!!!