Two months of 2010 are already behind us! It seems to be a good time to take stock of how things are going so far. At a high level:
- Injuries: doing reasonably well … my back is less of an issue than in years past … some run- and swim-induced overuse issues seem to have abated without becoming major issues.
- Fitness: feeling strong on the bike and run, rediscovered by feel for the water with a 30,000-yard week last week but still not feeling FAST again there, yet
- Stress & Sleep: staying ahead of things so far
- Austin Endurance Ranch was a blast!!!
And now the fun part – training details. Let’s compare volume & intensity for January + February over the past six years.
Year | 2005 (AG) | 2006 (AG) | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 |
Swim | 17.7 | 26.1 | 29.4 | 44.0 | 31.6 | 40.3 |
Bike | 85.6 | 89.5 | 56.4 | 75.2 | 60.5 | 89.6 |
Run | 11.3 | 16.4 | 41.0 | 28.2 | 27.1 | 39.0 |
Other | 16.8 | 14.1 | 19.8 | 16.6 | 8.6 | 4.9 |
Total J+F Hours | 131.4 | 146.1 | 146.6 | 163.9 | 127.7 | 173.8 |
So what is interesting about the numbers above, other than that Chris must be a bit obsessive-compulsive in order to even have all of these numbers written down?
- My high-level training approach in Feb/Mar is “swim/run volume with one day of intensity, minimal bike volume but three days of intensity.” In January I was more focused on just getting into a routine again, so I had volume everywhere with minimal intensity.
- 2010 volume is also a bit inflated thanks to the Endurance Ranch
- During my last two Age-Group winters, my bike volume was high (riding with a cycling team) but my swim & run volumes were much lower than once I got established racing Elite. I got my Elite license in April 2006.
- In 2007 I had a huge run focus. I built up to 74.9 miles in my biggest week ever (31 Jan – 6 Feb) and developed a stress reaction and strained a tendon. Who would have expected that? Seriously… I did a “slow” build-up, never adding more than 5 miles/week and never adding for more than two consecutive weeks, but when you step back and look at my monthly totals I had been over 11 hrs/month only once before that build-up, and that “over” was a whopping 13-hour month, so just over 100 miles in a month. Then starting in November 2006 I did 15.8, 26.8 and 31.0 hours. Obviously a bad idea. But since then I have averaged 13.6 hours/month including injuries and time off, with a 20.0 a 24.2 and a 25.4 mixed in. So if I can get into the neighborhood of 20 hours/month consistently then I should be able to achieve a balance of improved fitness and avoidance of injuries.
- I had a big swim focus leading into 2008. 2008 was my best year of racing, with the in-the-money finish at Lake Stevens and also some strong ITU races where I almost earned points. I am happy to see that my 2010 swim numbers are close to those from 2008 in spite of the shoulder issues.
Volume is easy to analyze objectively. What about intensity?
Swim: I had one test set before my shoulder got too sore to swim: 4x200 @ 5:00 from a dive. I don’t have a lot of comparable sets in the past, but 2:03-4 seems rather strong. A longer test set like 20x100 @ 1:15 would have been nice to see, too.
Bike: I have felt biomechanically strong and I have been happy to find a lot of seated-climbing power. No test yet, though.
Run: Two track workouts so far: two weeks ago was 5x1200 @ 2:00 rest targeting 3:51-3:54, last week was a 3.5-mile cut-down targeting 5:40, 5:32, 5:24 by mile, then 5:16 pace for the last 1/2 mile. I felt smoother and easier during the first of the two, but maybe that was a metabolically easier workout?
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