Lets mix things up.... first... by the numbers:
Swim: 4h30m, 19,550y
Bike: 8h14m, 162mi
Run: 34m, 4.6mi
Strength: 1h40m
TOTAL: 14h58m
TSS: 1013
Swimming:
Had a nice breakthrough in the pool this week. So excited I had to share it on Facebook too. I couldn't help it. I'm a good swimmer, but not a fast swimmer, so overall it's my weakness. So when I have a great day, it's pretty exciting. I'ts taken almost 9-10 months, but I finally found my stroke again. I think I made up for it with fitness last year, but it just wasn't as smooth as it had been back in Feb. This Fall, with the fitness gone, I got slow and felt slow, and felt just a little off. But on Sat. I was about 400y into a 20x100 set on moderate rest (about 15-20") and suddenly my times started dropping. I wasn't swimming harder, just everything suddenly "clicked". Best I can figure, it was a combination of kick & stroke timing and a small change to my body position with head position and engaging my core a little better. I dropped my times by 4-5" per 100! So I started out coming in around 1:19, slowed to 1:22, then suddenly I was knocking out 1:17's. I was pumped! SO I pushed a little more and was hitting 1:15 consistently for the next 10 reps, then faded near the end. I think I even did a 1:14 in there,.. and I got confused with the pace clock, and thought I did a 1:19 (I was swimming on a 1:35 interval). I ended up swimming 25 reps... but felt like I could have done 30. I was so excited I did a short set of 100IM, then for cool down I did some timed 100s to see how fast I would go trying to swim slow. I struggled to swim slower than 1:25. I didn't want to get out of the pool. 2800y planned turned into 4100. I then hit the weight room and ran 1.5 miles without any ITB pain and did my strength training.
ITBS: Some very slow progress. I just need to get this hip stretched out. It's a real bummer. I'm spending upwards of 6-7 hours a week just stretching and using stretch cords. It's a little demoralizing to say the least. But I feel like I'm getting somewhere...finally. It's going to be a LONG spring getting my run fitness back. I am working with a new physical therapist. He's a long course triathlete and understands the injury well. 1st thing he did, was put me on a treadmill to evaluate my run gait. Not to brag... or I'm bragging a little, hell it's a blog... he didn't find any obvious issues viewing from the side, front and back. Foot motion, hip control and angle were all good. Not that it's perfect, but there nothing really to correct there. He agrees with my assessment, that the injury occurred in the IM run and was aggravated by not being diagnosed and immediately addressed after the event. He gave me a few different stretches to try and another stretch cord exercise.
Bike is going pretty well. Not much to report. Just putting in 3 solid interval session on the trainer, 2-3 recovery rides, 1 day off and 1 long ride. With the holidays, I'll get in 2 longer rides this week I think.
Ultimately trying to make the most of the ongoing situation and use it as an opportunity to improve my swimming, and try and few new things on the bike in terms of position and the mix of intervals.
My bike and swim fitness overall is well ahead of where it was last year. So that's a bonus.
Last post of 2014 coming up. Since it's the last full training week of the year, I'll go ahead and do a annual summary at that time.
Happy holidays to everyone!
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