Adjusting My Run Training for my Current Fitness

I had this post half-written, and I lost it! So, here we go again, which is kind of like my running. Here we go again. My history with running has a lot of ups and downs. From walking out of swim practice during running one day to running to lose weight to completing my first Ironman, my relationship with running has changed a lot over the years, and in a good way. I don’t see it just as a punishment or a tool for weight loss, and completing a run now leaves me with a feeling of accomplishment that I can’t get from my job. I am frustrated though. Since I was not running even remotely consistently recently, I am basically starting from negative when it comes to fitness, and I am learning to adjust to what my body needs.

First, I have accepted run/walking for the time being. I have written about zone 2 training before here and here, and I think for me right now sticking to it needs to be my highest priority to build good base fitness for running. Unfortunately, I can not run at a steady zone 2 heart rate, so I have adopted a run/walk system to try to keep my heart rate down. My runs over the last week have been 3 run/2 walk and 4 run/2 walk. Previously when trying to run/walk, I would just run as far as possible until I hit this little hill in a neighborhood near mine and then I would walk to catch my breath, but by structuring it I was able to maintain a steady pace and was not struggling to catch my breath at the end, which has been the case before when I have been trying to get back to running.

I am also trying to do a better job of listening to my body and its signals when something might be wrong. I have plantar fasciitis in my left foot that is currently bothering me, and while on vacation I actually had to stop walking on the beach barefoot to help it. Now that I am home and can get into a routine, I am trying to add stretching and foam rolling into my regular routine to help it and to help with other injury prevention.

Also on the topic of injury prevention is not increasing my mileage too quickly. After experiencing runner’s knee twice from increasing mileage too quickly, I have a plan. Since I am run/walking, my first priority is getting to be able to run at a steady zone 2 heart rate for thirty minutes before I focus on longer distances. This doesn’t mean I won’t do more than thirty minutes, but that I want to hit that milestone before I work on running for longer periods, so I can do those long runs in zone 2 as well.

Finally, I am holding off on adding speedwork beyond making it up the small hills in the neighborhood next to mine until I get my heart rate under control. This is the opposite of what I’ve done in the past. Typically I have pushed to add speedwork when trying to regain fitness, because I thought it would help more, but right now even running at all is pushing my heart rate to zone 4 (especially with the heat), so I don’t need to be adding it quite yet. If anything, adding additional speedwork right now would slow down recovery after workouts, so I don’t think it needs to be a priority.

Overall, nothing I am doing is groundbreaking, but the thing I find most important is that I am learning from my previous mistakes, and I am taking an honest look at where I am fitness wise. Because my drop off in training was so gradual, I never really noticed how much fitness I has lost until I get out to run and my pace is much slower than it used to be.

Vacation Reset

I’m inconsistent. I have written about being inconsistent time and time again, but nothing has really changed. I sometimes want to blame my job or the dog, but the reality is I have struggled getting the motivation to get out of bed in the morning other than to walk the dog and go to work. For the last week I was on vacation with my family in Florida, and I was able to take some time to recover from a minor injury and get some decent training in when the weather allowed.

First, the injury. I don’t know exactly what I did, but I strained my left hamstring during my leg workout the Friday before I left. I do feel like I was going lower on RDLs than I usually do, but I wasn’t going heavier than normal, so maybe I just did something weird. Driving got really uncomfortable, and when I got to the beach it meant I couldn’t really do too much other than rest it that day. I try to really listen to my body with these things, because while I wanted to be active all week, I knew I didn’t want to make it worse.

I took it easy Sunday and Monday, taking a couple long walks on the beach, and I learned I probably should wear shoes and walk on the flatter parts of the beach. I have dealt with plantar fasciitis in my left foot before, and the walking did not help, so while my hamstring was doing better day by day, I irritated my tight calf and my foot. Of course, I don’t listen to my own advice though and will likely walk barefoot on a beach again someday.

By Tuesday, my hamstring was 80% better, and a massage helped it loosen up even further, but I still felt like I should stay off of it running and biking, so I found a pool to go swim at. It is the “Aquatic Center in Destin” on Hwy 98. It was a pretty nice outdoor pool that was previously a YMCA, and the person who took my money is actually from Nashville, so it was funny what a small world competitive swimming is. I really liked the pool, and it was cleaner than the outdoor pools I’ve swam in locally in the summers before, so when I get back down to Florida I will definitely go back. My goal was a minimum of 2,000 yards, and I managed 2,200 (workout at the end below), so I was overall happy with it. My hamstring did feel off on the butterfly though.

Wednesday was a nice morning with low wind, so after breakfast and relaxing for a little while, I got on my bike for an hour long ride up and down the road where we were staying. My one problem with Florida is that I couldn’t ride very far due to the roads. The road we stayed on was about five miles, and I didn’t really want to ride on the highway, so I rode up and down enough to get a little over 15 miles in. This felt a little hard, but my legs are feeling strong, so it is just endurance and cadence I need to work on right now.

Thursday I finally got myself to run. I’ve tried running at home a few times, but I have been struggling a lot, so I made a commitment with myself for this run. I would stick to running 3 minutes and walking 2 in order to keep my heart rate down for once, where at home I would run until my heartrate skyrocketed and then walk and felt like I could never recover. It worked, and while my run was not very long, it felt good and I felt like I could recover. Sometimes running at home I have felt so bad by the end that when I get home I am just sitting on my couch trying to breathe for a while after.

That was it for my training for the week, and while I wish I had the chance to do something Friday, the weather wasn’t great, and after not training much at all, I know I needed the rest. I am calling this a vacation reset, because I am hoping it gets my mind in the right place, and now I just need to stop making excuses for myself. It is easy to make excuses though. I work a lot, the dog needs a walk, and I always need to run the vacuum at home. I just have to remind myself how good I felt when I was doing that training.

Tuesday’s IM Workout
300 swim
4x50 25 kick/25 backstroke
4x(4x25 kick
2x50 drill/swim
1x100 IM) one round each stroke
8x25
1-1/2 fast 1/2 easy
2-1/2 easy 1/2 fast
3-all easy
4-all fast
4x50 pull odd-breathe every 3, even-breathe every 5
100 easy

My Day: An Average Triathlete Thursday

I used to think of professional athletes as having the luxury of not needing to go to work every day, so they can just train, but as I have matured and followed more professional athletes, the truth is their training and everything else that goes into their performance is very similar to working a standard 9-5 job. They’re planning out when to do their workouts to optimize the benefit and recovery, while we are planning our workouts to fit them in and give enough recovery before the next session. Just like average people, they have to fit that in around eating enough, sleeping enough, and other obligations that may come up, and then, on top of all of that, things may come up that derail them, just like my Thursday plan this week.

I picked Thursday to talk about, because I think there were some good things and some things I can learn from when it comes to my schedule and optimizing it.

I get started early. Usually around 5:45 AM, and Deagle will whine until I get him after my alarm goes off, so I let him out and then give him breakfast before returning to sit under the fan in my room to cool off while drinking water, because I feel bad most mornings when I get up. This was not my plan that morning, but the cats fought at 2 am, so I did not sleep well and missed my planned 4:30 AM Zwift ride. My first lesson of the day was to keep separating the cats at night until this issue is solved.

By 6:35 I have made breakfast, ordered Starbucks, and have Deagle in the car with me for a quick (1 min) stop to pick up my tea before taking him to daycare for the day. While I work, he can have his exercise. Leaving the house when I do usually gets us to his daycare a little early, so I can drop him off and get to my office around 7:20 and start my workday by 7:30. I am a morning person, so this is ideal for me.

I am trying to lose some body fat right now, which has me getting hungry for a snack around 9 am lately, so I bring an oatmeal square to work and eat that while I’m working. There is also a lot of black tea involved in my day, because they missed the study on women’s productivity and how we’re more productive if the office is a little warmer and our increase in productivity exceeds any decrease in the productivity of men. Someday when I run things I will fix this.

Lunch is where I learned my second lesson on Thursday. We get free lunch at work on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which is great, but sometimes I don’t like the food, because I am a picky eater. This week, with no pescatarian protein option of protein, I ended up having pita bread, a few bites of tomatoes and iceberg lettuce with some sauce, and a brownie, so first it was not remotely nutrient dense, and second it was calorie dense for very little food, while I am trying to lose some fat. I now know I need to start bringing a back-up lunch with me to work on days where there is free lunch, because even though I was able to get enough food, I did not feel very good after that meal.

I managed to leave my office around 3:45, which is a little early. I try to stay until at least 4, but this gave me some extra time in my afternoon. I got Deagle home and had time to ride my bike on the trainer for an hour starting at 4:45, which gave enough time to take Deagle around the neighborhood after dinner and then I went to my personal training session to hit legs. It was a little tough to hit legs right after biking, which is why I wanted to bike in the morning instead of right before my strength workout, but sometimes you have to adapt to things when they don’t go the way you wanted them to.

In that whole day the only time I had to myself was from after my strength workout until I went to bed an hour and a half later, which included time I needed to clean cat litter boxes and to take Deagle out one last time. I say all of this to show how important structure and planning is when it comes to creating a successful training plan.

I Got a Dog (and I Stopped Training)

I think the title above is self-explanatory. I originally tried to film a video about this for YouTube, but I just could not get everything in a clear and concise manner, so here I am, trying to write and make sense.

First, the dog is not why I stopped training, and I did not consciously make a decision to stop. In fact, I want to train, but I have been struggling with the mental side of things, and I find that when something goes wrong, I have trouble getting back on track, so I have been struggling for months. If anything, the dog is in a way helping me get back on track, which is what this post is about.

I am a person who thrives on routine and habit, but my life over the last few things has been anything but routine. Going back to when I prepared for my last half iron, I had changes jobs a few times, was going out on a lot of dates until I met my ex-husband, and I was not very focused on training. Since then (five years ago) I got married, went back to school, changes jobs a few more times, got divorced, bought a house, and changed jobs again. My life has been anything but routine, and I have not kept myself in any sort of one in recent years either. I sometimes go to bed at eleven and sometimes at nine, and I would wake up anywhere between 4 am and 8 am (which for me is late). All of this has created the exact opposite of ideal conditions to focus on training.

Getting a dog is helping me get into some sort of a routine. Every night I take Deagle out before bed at the same time, and every morning he needs to be up by a certain time to go out. This means I also need to be on almost the exact same schedule. Does this mean getting a dog is the solution to all of my problems? Absolutely not. It is one of many tools I can use to focus on improving my habits and getting into a healthy routine.

Because of the dog, I need to fit everything into a routine, so I’ve spent some time going through my workouts I need to fit in and worked to figure out how it works with Deagle’s schedule. I go to work twice a week in my office when he is at daycare, and those days I am also working with a personal trainer (more on that another day), so I can only train in the mornings, and I have dinner with my grandma on Wednesdays, so those are the same. That leaves Mondays and Fridays as days where I can do two workouts, so I know I need to plan around this.

So, that is it for my life update, and my dog pictures. I find I thrive when I have a lot of things going on, so I am hoping this new routine will help with getting me on the right track.

How to Prevent Zone 2 Training from Turning into Junk Miles

Since I started zone 2 training (sometimes) earlier in the year, I’ve learned a lot about implementing it as well as how it should be used and the common pitfalls of it. One of the biggest pitfalls I’ve found is letting it turn into a lot of junk miles and not quality miles. It reminds me of back when my swim coach would call it “mamby pamby” swimming if we were just kind of going through the motions without purpose.

I have definitely had to adjust my pace and expectations as far as how my workouts are going to go in order to make sure I am following my plan. Below are the things I have found to be important to maintain the quality of these zone 2 workouts.

1. Make sure your heart rate is staying in zone 2. This may seem obvious, but I found it difficult in the beginning, and I still do sometimes. Depending on your level of fitness, you may see your heart rate try to drift into zone 1 or zone 3. Some people may say that it is supposed to be an easy pace, and that’s just where they fall naturally for an easy pace, and while certain conditions may elicit following pace or perceived exertion, heart rate can also prevent you from overexerting yourself at times when you need to stay in zone 2. I have a high heart rate (200+ max), so I set my zones based on my threshold, and I while I struggle at times when out of shape, I did find based on historic data from when I trained for my full in 2016 that it was a lot of time running in zone 2 without knowing it.

2. Know your purpose when you go out to run. Zone 2 training is not about all zone 2 training. It is about doing 80ish percent of your training in that zone so you can go hard when it matters. A great example of this for me is a recovery run. It is really easy to make this turn into an easy run where form falls apart, so I know I need to focus on my form, and I even use these to incorporate terrain similar to a race course, because I prefer doing my speed intervals on flatter routes.

3. Not every workout needs to have intervals. I’m really bad about this when training on my own. I get bored easily on the trainer or the treadmill, so in the winter I want to do intervals to break up the ride. The problem is that all of those intervals are more time out of zone 2, most likely in excess of 20ish percent of my training. This can leave you fatigued when you get to key sessions. Ive found for steady state rides on the trainer a route with a good hill where I have to maintain my heart rate and power is helpful, because it gives me something to focus on, and when running I try to get outside when I can or vary the incline on the treadmill. This helps me add something extra to focus on instead of letting my mind wander and my form potentially fall apart.

4. Focus on your form. When we go slower, we naturally may change our form in a negative way, so I find it is very important to maintain form on these slower workouts. When running I am thinking about moving my arms forward instead of letting them cross my body, and I focus on how my feet sound when striking the ground. When cycling, I am watching my cadence on the flats, trying to stay above 80 rpm, since historically I’ve had a low cadence. For me, watching these cues brings these back to being workouts and not just junk miles.

5. Know that bad days will happen and adapt instead of letting the workout fall apart. Bad could mean a lot of things. The weather is wrong, your heart rate monitor isn’t working, or your legs feel like a ton of bricks. Today, my legs felt like a ton of bricks and I could not keep my heart rate down without slowing to a shuffle, which is slower than me walking. I modified my run to a run walk, trying to stay in zone 2 like it was written, and getting the workout done meant it was still a success. I’ve had long runs on treadmills when it’s snowing, and I’ve gone based on perceived exertion when my heart rate monitor is dead. The most important thing is to be able to adapt to these situations and fit the workout around them, so you’re not going out and just going through the motions because something went wrong.

Those are my five biggest tips for preventing zone 2 training from turning into junk miles. For me personally, tip 2 has been the most important. When I first heard people talking about low heart rate training, I just thought it meant everything was done at a low heart rate and a steady pace, but now I have a better understanding of how training is structured on a plan that focuses on zone 2 training.

Retiring the Cat Garmin | Garmin Forerunner 945 First Impression

In 2016 when I was training for Ironman Louisville, I bought a Garmin Fenix 3. I was looking for two main features. The first was battery life, and the second was the look of the watch if I was going to be wearing it at the time. My other options were the Forerunner 735, which lacked battery life, and the Forerunner 920, which was ugly.

Now, five years later, I decided to upgrade, especially because I get a little jealous of everyone with their training load status and other statistics from the new watches. I’ve also scratched the screen pretty badly on my Fenix 3, and I just felt like it was time for an upgrade.

My decision process was pretty simple. I basically wanted the training status features and upgrades from the newer watches, and I wanted to be able to train for triathlon and race with it. I decided the new Fenix series was a little overkill for me, so I went with the latest high end multisport watch from Garmin, the Forerunner 945. I would have considered other brands, but Garmin is the most readily available to me, and all of my historic data is also with Garmin, so it made sense to stick with it.

My first impression when putting it on was that it is smaller and lighter than my Fenix was. I knew it had a slightly smaller face, but the weight was surprising. The band has also changed. It is narrower than the Fenix 3 band, and it feels a little bit more substantial, like it will hold up better, and the tab that holds the strap in place definitely has a much stronger hold than the one on the Fenix 3 did.

My first priority was to get a new watch face. Specifically I wanted to use a photo of one of my cats, so I was able to quickly set that up on my phone, then the next time I synced from Garmin Connect it was there.

My first workout after putting this on was actually an indoor bike ride, so I just use Zwift, my smart trainer, and my heart rate monitor for that. The feature I did like was that it would sync the activity to the watch, not just Garmin Connect, when I was done. I do a lot of indoor workouts, and I don’t wear it when I swim, so I think this is beneficial for the recovery advisor and training status on the watch.

I took it for a run the next morning, and thankfully I set my zones and changed the screen settings before the run. I like to have heart rate, heart rate zone, and time on my first screen for most of my training. I train by time when building up endurance, so I try to ignore distance. I do keep the current lap distance on the second screen along with pace, but I don’t use those metrics as often. It navigates very similar to the Fenix 3, so that made the transition easier for me.

Overall, my initial opinion of the watch is good. I still have some learning to do about other features, so I will definitely post a follow-up at some point, possibly as a part of my off-season training plan wrap-up, since getting the watch was right at the beginning of this new plan. There are a ton of features I have not used yet, so I know I’ll definitely have a lot more to say.

Picking my Off Season Training Plan

A lot of people will say that since I am in the off season, I should just focus on long steady distance. I don’t 100% disagree, but I think having a plan is very important, even for mostly long steady distance. I considered writing my own plan for this off season, but I decided to buy a plan through TrainingPeaks for 12 weeks to help my off season training along. I think goals and planning are an often overlooked part of triathlon training.

I’m very intrinsically motivated to compete in triathlons, but sometimes getting out the door to train can be tough when I don’t have a plan of what I am doing. By having a plan, something goes off in my mind telling me I have to get this done. Sometimes, when there is no plan, I will procrastinate until I just don’t get the workout done that day, so having a training plan helps me get out the door sometimes.

Using a training plan also helps eliminate junk miles in training. With a lot of long steady distance work, I find it easy to get sloppy about workouts. Running slower, a lot of people find their form may begin to fall apart to an extent, so training with purpose can help prevent this. Having a plan can give you areas to focus on improving and a purpose behind workouts so things like technique do not fall apart.

I picked my training plan based on a few criteria. First, I wanted to use heart rate, because it is the metric I am most familiar with, even though I have a power meter. Second, I wanted something focused on zone 2 training, because I felt like that worked for me in the summer. I may feel frustrated sometimes with it, but I think for me it is the right way to train right now. Third, and finally, I wanted something where I would build distance over the course of the plan.

I picked one of Matt Fitzgerald’s 80/20 plans from TrainingPeaks for about $25 (off season plan). It is based on time for the bike and run, and I substitute my masters swim practices for the swim workouts, because I was a former competitive swimmer. I am just getting started with the plan, so I am hoping to do a more in depth review when I’m finished in January.

Overall, I think the most important thing when picking a plan is to make sure you’re honest with yourself about where you are right now. I am currently easily running 35 minutes, biking 1.5 hours, and I can swim forever, just at a slower pace than I used to be. I could have lied to myself, but then I would be on a plan with too much volume too soon, which is likely to lead to injury. Hopefully in 12 weeks I’ll be back with success stories of completed workouts and increased fitness.

Considerations when Picking a Race

After enjoying my race at the sprint in Chattanooga this summer, I began to think a lot about returning to long distance racing and training. The biggest problem I have run into was just picking when and where to race. In the end, I signed up for Ironman 70.3 Oregon, and I have a couple other races on my radar for next season. Below are my tips and considerations for when you’re picking your next race.

1. Consider the weather. I also looked at Ironman 70.3 Ohio, and a few of the Canadian races, because I would like to race below 80 degrees Fahrenheit. 80 is the average in Salem, Oregon for the time of the race, so it is warm, but the date for Ohio hadn’t been announced, and I needed time to plan everything else.

2. Know what transportation you will need. I am flying and renting a car, because the airport is 50 miles away. I also need the car, because I will ship my bike. It is important to be able to plan all of this ahead of time to avoid stress. I also planned my slights with longer layovers, so I have a bigger window in case flights are delayed.

3. Know the course you’re picking. I looked to see what people who raced this past year thought about the new Oregon course, and I found while Ironman called it flat, most racers think it was rolling. Living in Nashville, rolling is ideal for me, because I can easily find a lot of climbing in even a short ride, but we don’t have long hills like some places. Instead we have a lot of rollers. The run also has a mix of trails and road, so I know this isn’t a PR course, but it should be fun.

4. Know you’ll have the time to dedicate to training. I’ve done races when undertrained, and they’re just more enjoyable when you have trained properly and can see what you’ve accomplished. I know my training is limited from early February through April 15, so I didn’t want to race anything long until at least mid June, so I have time for long workouts. I have about a 2 month window in the summer, so Oregon fit perfectly for me.

There are a lot more things to consider, but these were the big priorities for me right now. Now, I am focusing on getting my training on track and making sure I am at my best next July.

My First Race in Four Years: 2021 Chattanooga Waterfront Triathlon Sprint

After a four year hiatus, I finally got back out racing, and I forgot how good it really feels. I picked the race I did, because I knew the course was pretty much flat, and I didn’t want to race at the end of July in Nashville, because I know how miserable that race can be.

I’m going to keep this race report brief. Chattanooga is a great city for a race I’ve decided. No wonder so many people race the half and full there. My parents drive down, so while waiting to check in at the Crash Pad I parked at their hotel and was able to ride my bike to transition. This is something I would never attempt in downtown Nashville.

I picked the sprint as something easy to train for in the two months I trained, and just as a little motivation for training. It worked. I’ve been more consistent than I have been in a long time while trying to listen to my body and rest as needed while building back my fitness.

The swim was short and downstream. I actually like longer lake swims, but I also tend to panic sometimes in open water, so this was good for my first time back racing. I swam a little too far into the current, but it wasn’t too bad making the turn to the finish. The volunteers were truly helpful with telling athletes to really bring their feet up to reach the bottom stair at the exit. Sometimes they want to help people who don’t need it getting out, but I thought for once they did a good job of helping when needed. Of course, helping when not needed is always better than not helping at all.

Getting to T1 was long, or at least it felt that way because of the stairs. I had a little bit of difficulty with my shoe, but once I was headed out I felt strong. I was also really thankful I bought a new aero bottle for my bike, because it allowed me to drink really easily when I knew I needed it, since I didn’t eat much pre race (1/2 of a blueberry bagel).

The bike course was fast. It took me a minute to settle into a pace, since there is one short hill as the beginning, so I took that easy to keep my heart rate from spiking, but after that I just found myself riding at a very steady pace for the remainder of the ride. I got a little irritated by people not calling out their passes, and by the potholes that need to be filled, but overall it was a really good course. The U-turn is a little tight, but I can stay clipped in for it, so it’s not too bad, you just need to make sure you slow way down for it. I was also very cautious coming down the hill before the bike finish, because it has one tight turn before you go into the straight line to the dismount line.

T2 was a little tough, just because I need socks to run, but once I started running I felt good. The run course was flat and went along the river, and it felt long, but my watch told me it wasn’t. I feel like I could have pushed the pace a little more, but I’ve always had issues with pushing through the discomfort, so I know if I race short course again I will need to work on it.

Overall, I’m really happy with the way this race went. Team Magic puts on a good race, and the volunteers did an excellent job. I’m planning to come back in 2022 to see if I can improve on my run time and get to the podium, because if I had my fastest 5k I would have been up there.

Returning to Two-a-Days

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.