OK, I know it's only been 97, but I was trying to come up with a creative title and I thought about the 'first 100 days in office' thing...
I've been pleasantly surprised at some improvements and successes so far this year despite a less than ideal training volume. My focus so far this year has been on grad school and living life much more so than training and triathlon, however, I've still been getting some work done, and I've been really enjoying all my workouts, which I can't say was true last year...
So let's see what I've been doing since Jan 1 and compare that to 2011:
swim: 9hrs (35hrs in 2011) - 75% decrease
bike: 31hrs (52hrs) - 40% decrease
run: 30hrs (32hrs) - 6% decrease
strength: 6hrs (2.5hrs) - 140% increase!
total: 76hrs (112.5hrs) - 33% decrease
average/week: 5.8hrs (8.7hrs) - 33% decrease
There's been a huge drop off in my swim and bike training. I barely spend any time at the pool now a days. I know I said a big goal of mine is to improve my swim and to do so I need to get in the water, but it's tough to find time because of my pool's limited hours of operation, and frankly, I just haven't made it a priority... This summer I will be working at a pool, so I should be able to get something in 5days/week.
The bike is coming along... My goal for the year is to work on some top end speed, which I haven't tested yet, but I imagine it is below where I would like it. Next weekend starts weekly time trials along West River Drive in Philly, so I'm going to try to make it a priority to get out there and see how my speed comes along throughout the season.
My run is strong. I have been very pleasantly surprised at how well it has come along with the lack of overall training hours... I think the use of specific workouts really helps as opposed to just getting out there and running (I realize this might be a "no shit, Sherlock" comment, but bear with me). I really believe you need to do 3 different workouts to become a good runner. The first is a long easy run. The second is an interval workout run with spurts of high intensity. And the third is a steady state run, somewhere between the other 2 in terms of speed and effort. I also believe complementing the run with 3 similar workouts on the bike is extremely beneficial. My legs get pretty beat up from high run mileage, but I respond well to moderate run volume with well planned, moderate-high bike volume.
With the Broad St. 10 miler coming up in just 4 weeks, I will continue my run focused training. I know things are going to get busy the week before the race because I have a final exam, a presentation, and 2 final papers to write... But I'll do my best to hold it together. After that I'm switching gears to bike focus (ha! see what I did there? "switching gears"...). I'm going to try to really focus on the same 3 workouts I use running on the bike (long/easy, interval/speed, steady-state) in varying forms. Then come mid-June I'll start working in the swim while trying to continue a bike focus. My "A race" of the season is Aug. 8 as of now, so I should be good to go by then. It'll be back to running in the fall with another XC season.
For now things are coming along very well! I hope I continue to see improvements. It's hard to compare to previous seasons/races because just about every race I do is a "new" distance, but I know I'm improving.
Just looking at running races:
2009 marathon - 3:52 (8:51min/mile pace)
2010 broad st 10 mile - 1:07 (6:42pace)
2010 5k - 18:55 (6:06pace)
2010 marathon - 3:00 (6:52pace)
2011 5k - 17:36 (5:39pace)
2012 half marathon - 1:21 (6:13pace)
I know that part/most of my improvements come from still being new to the world of swimming, biking, and running, but I'll take it! One of the things that keeps this so exciting for me is seeing the improvements, so keep 'em comin'!
Thanks for reading.
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