I'm Calling this my Comeback - Last Week's Training

This past week has been a great week of training for me, and while I am still running in zone 2 primarily and keeping my pace down, I feel like there has been some progress in my running. I did make a couple changes from my prior week of training. I swam twice and only ran three days instead of four, and I ended up with only two bike rides instead of three. This is all based on making sure I have enough energy to get through my workouts and making sure I am getting adequate recovery before I go into my next workout. What I found in the prior week was when I ran three days in a row with a strength session the same day as the middle one was that I could not keep my heart rate down on the third run, even though I had planned zone 2 with just a few intervals of thirty seconds to one minute. This week, I didn’t run two days in a row, going back to my old college training plan, where I tried not to run two days in a row, because I feel like I recover most slowly from running.

Monday - I ran an easy zone 2 workout with no speed work and strength trained at the gym. My gym work is very specific to triathlon and injury prevention. I focus on compound lower body movements, like squats and lunges for cycling and running, and I focus my upper body movements around my bad shoulder, which also strengthens the muscles needed for swimming. I also limit these workouts, so I won’t be too sore to train the next day, because previously when trying to go back to the gym I would train to the point my legs would not move well the next day.

Tuesday - I rode on Zwift for an hour after I couldn’t ride outside due to work I had to get done that day. When picking my Zwift routes, I try to avoid pancake flat (like the desert) in favor of routes where I will be forced to train at different cadences and try to keep my heart rate where it needs to be over various terrain. This one ended up having one climb (the start of the epic KOM) and a lot of flat with a few rollers mixed in, which I like for trainer rides, because when I do ride flats I get bored.

Wednesday - I went to swim practice. We’re swimming long course part of the time right now, and we will switch over to entirely long course in a couple weeks. I slept kind of oddly the night before, so my neck was bothering me, and that definitely had me cutting my warm up short and not pushing too hard during the stronger portions of the workout.

Thursday - This mimicked Monday a little, except the run had hills and was an interval run. I typically make up my intervals and the workout once I have started, so on this one I was doing thirty seconds fast followed by two and a half minutes easy five times through in the middle of the run. One thing I noticed this week was that my calves were feeling tight, so I did extra stretching after the run and in the next few days to be ready for Saturday’s longer run. The strength workout was the same as the workout I did on Monday.

Friday - I was back at swim practice, and I felt better than Wednesday. Fridays are always speed work, and right now I need it, so for once I really committed to trying to go fast on the fast stuff, not just strong which is what I typically do.

Saturday - I ran “long” on Saturday, which meant a little over three miles. I stayed in zone 2 to warm-up, but starting at the fifteen minute point I did thirty seconds fast with four and a half minutes in zone 2. Going into the last five minutes of the run I kept the pace up in zone 4 until I hit the three mile point and then I stopped my watch and walked back to my car.

Sunday - I rode my bike outside after working at the shop. I took my Madone out, because after thinking I lost my Di2 charger when I moved out of my ex-husband’s house over a year ago I finally found it. I really enjoyed this ride, and I am thinking I may keep my Madone and sell my Domane, because the Madone is more comfortable.

Since I only have a sprint planned right now, I am focusing on regaining some speed over anything else at the moment. My plan is to drop some weight and regain speed over the next few months, then for 2022 I want to plan a couple half distance races where I feel like I can really perform at my best. I am also going to take some time to do things other than triathlon training. I had my parents bring down my tennis racket from Ohio this weekend, so I can start taking some private tennis lessons with the goal of eventually getting good enough I could find a group of people to play with to get out of the house more.