Last regular recovery week down. I needed that after a hard training block and Steelhead. Backing off the running and swimming helped the most. Swimming was mental break. Running was a physical break. Now i can regroup and head into taper.
Now mind, you "taper" can be a little deceiving unless you have a reference from what your tapering from. It's a taper from your last build. Meaning you're not building, but you not recovering either. You'll also doing training that more high intensity, and less volume to sharpen you overall fitness. You are no longer concerned with your overall cardio base. You want to hold that fitness level, hold that "punch" in your legs but get them as rested as possible at the same time and get your energy levels near their max. If you do it right, you'l be climbing the walls like a race horse ready to charge out of the gate. I was most of the way there at Kansas, but I'm more fit now with an even deeper base, so I'll taper even stronger this time.... and I'll need it to survive 9-1/2 hours at a solid pace. What will really make a difference is how long I'll be at a positive TSB. Previously I only raced after being positive for a few days. This time I'll be positive for about 8 days. I was only positive for 4 days at Kansas. Biking specifically, I'll be positive for 7 days, but also only negative for 5 days in the previous 22. Maybe this will leave me flat, but I think it will leave me really fresh and ready to fire on all cylinders.
Overall I felt really good on the bike. Running a little less helps with that and mentally, Steelhead was a great springboard that really added to my confidence. The bad news is that my rival, is also riding really well. Maybe better than he ever has. But hey, I love good competition. I love to see everyone stepping up their game. More satisfying if you have a good day and beat them or can come close. Strong competition makes you better and makes your accomplishments mean just a little more. Saturday I rode indoors and did "The Hunted". My favorite of the 4 videos I own. Short but hard, more steady efforts than sprints. I destroyed my CP60 (best 60' power average) power record by 10Watts! My previous best doing this session was 270W in June. SO big, big improvement. As a result I bumped my FTP up to 308 (no sandbagging my training load). I came close to beating my CP20 as well. Additionally, my HR seems to have dropped just a little at the same running pace. My legs haven't been snappy, but I think I've gained some overall fitness. I think that showed at Steelhead, in how I felt after the race (not as beat up) and how quickly I recovered.
By the numbers-
Swim: 1h46m, 7600y
Bike: 7h09m, 144mi
Run: 3h43m, 28.1mi
TOTAL: 13h18m
TSS: 818
Overall CTL: 157.8 (8/17)
Overall TSB: 18.3 (8/18)
This week I'm on-call at work. Usually I time this with a recovery week, so it will have the extra challenge of getting in a descent training load with some unpredictable training hours. However, my workouts are less specific, and more about getting in the training load I need. I deferred my longer ride (3 to 3-1/2 hours) to Monday and I did my last run over 10 miles and one of my last runs over 1 hours this morning (remember I do frequency over long duration). Training load over the next 8 days will be about 10-15% less than my last build. So instead of a 200TSS/day average I'll shot for around 170-180. Then step that down about 10-15% and a even bigger drop the last week.
Almost there. Really just checking off the workouts at this point. 45 workouts left. I think that's probably split about 12 swims, 16 runs, 15 bike rides.
One again, a huge thanks to my wife & daughter for putting up with my schedule. Big thanks to my neighbors down the street for letting me use their lap pool. Our YMCA is closed for 2 weeks for maintenance. Great timing for me. Though it's so hot, humid and miseable in there when the dewpoint is over 60F, that I just assume swim outside anyway.
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