As the title says, this week included my return to two-a-days, or at least in terms of two sport specific workouts in one day. I have always done my strength training on days where I have also had another workout, so I have been doing two workouts a day to some extent.
I always found it funny the way some people react when I say I am going to do more than one workout in a day. Growing up as a competitive swimmer, I swam twice a day for a couple summers, and the more elite swimmers do this year round, so I just kind of saw it as being a part of training for a sport. With triathlon training, I also have always seen it as necessary to be able to balance three sports instead of just one. I have never really thought about it as being a big deal, but I have been intentional about slowly increasing my training volume, which is why I haven’t done two sport specific workouts in one day.
Monday - I have felt fatigued all week, so I haven’t pushed myself too much. I got on the trainer Monday, and during my ride I did some hard intervals, but I also kept everything else to zone 2.
Tuesday - I kept my run in zone 2, following some breathing advice I found on YouTube to try to keep my heart rate down without walking. I then went and did my usual strength workout at my gym, which takes about an hour, and leaves me getting home pretty late, but I like it when the gym is quieter after 7 PM.
Wednesday - I got in the pool! I feel like I need to celebrate when this actually happens, because it is five in the morning, and this workout was hard. I like my lane I swim with on Wednesdays, and I appreciated when my coach made someone else be lane leader for the last part of the main set, because I was tired.
Thursday - I did my speed workout for the week. I did a 10 minute warm up then six time thirty seconds in zone 4 followed by four and a half minutes easy until the forty minute mark. I upped my shorter runs to forty minutes this week, and they feel good, aside from the eighty-four degree heat.
Friday - I was back on the trainer due to some bad weather moving through. I did slightly longer intervals of slightly higher power. I will probably start to do longer intervals at half-iron pace once I am through this sprint, but right now I want to focus on speed for my sprint.
Saturday - I went back to swim practice! it also knocked me out, because I didn’t sleep well the night before. It was another speed workout, and I was happy with my lane choice, because one of the men I swim with is one of the most consistent people to swim with when it comes to pace and keeping intervals.
Sunday - The two-a-day I was talking about was my long run of fifty-five minutes, which had been planned for only fifty, and then I found out the outdoor pool at my gym opened this weekend (they were short staffed, so I didn’t know if it would), so I impulse decided I wanted to go for a swim. I got a pretty good night of sleep Saturday night, so I think that’s why I had the energy to go for this swim even after running.
Overall, this was a solid week of training, and based on my apps, this was my fifth solid week of training with four to go until I race my sprint. I am planning to just stay consistent between now and then, and I will probably take another rest day at some point, then the week of the race I’ll take off the Friday before and throughout that weeks my workouts will be shorter and higher intensity.