Muskoka 70.3 build: week 6

Some pretty intense workouts in the build plan this week.

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 1850m swim; TR Shortoff +2 (1:15 VO2s)
Wednesday: 10k easy run; 2200m swim
Thursday: TR Picket Guard (90 min over/unders); 1850m swim
Friday: 8k easy run; TR Pettit (60 min aerobic)
Saturday: 73k outdoor ride + 6k brick run
Sunday: 15k long run; 2000m swim

Damn that's a lot of workouts. Well, it is the second hardest week of the current plan, so that seems about right.

Tuesday morning's swim was pretty solid, but my day was mostly consumed with wondering what the hell I was thinking regarding that night's trainer workout. Four minute long VO2s? WHY, TRAINERROAD, WHY?

Don't judge my trainer music. You do what you got to do to survive the tough ones, even when it involves an alarming amount of Limp Bizkit.

But I had a rockin' playlist, put on my best game face, and got that shit DONE, yo. BOOM.

Inscrutable Trainerroad graph. Trust me, it's good.

Wednesday I got in a run with Christina at lunch. She had to do some speedwork, so I joined her for the first 2 minute segment at 5:15/km to see how it would feel. A little tugging in the hamstring so I shut it down from there, sent her off to do her workout, and ran the rest easy. Just staying on the safe side. Wednesday night another solid swim.

Bonus of late night swimming: the awful goggle marks are gone by morning. 

Thursday was a flat out STUPID trainerroad workout. Over unders, oh my god. If VO2s might someday kill me, over/unders are what waits in hell. But hey. I survived.

Thursday night, a swim with Coach Lara, which was great. She paired me up with another club member who swims about the same speed, and that makes a surprisingly large difference in how hard I can push on an interval. Just knowing someone is chasing you (or chasing someone) is super motivating. Although she did introduce us to the 3/5/7 drill and I think I almost drowned. I really see the appeal now of something like a master's swim club. If only I had more time...

OMG it might finally really be spring!

Friday, another run with Christina, this time keeping it easy. Although I felt pretty sluggish and blah and like I hadn't eaten enough that day. Friday night the usual easy spin.

Saturday, long ride, outside, yay, etc, etc. My toes weren't quite as cold, so it's warming up a bit! And I followed it up with a brick run; first time I've done one of those in a while. It felt pretty good, but maybe that was just the new shoes.

Pretty new shoes. Way different colourway than my usual. It's nice to change things up.

Sunday out for a long run in the rain. This was honestly the first run since ATB that felt good. Like, really, really good. I kept it easy and it just flowed beautifully (well, other than one emergency stop at a Tim Horton's. Bless them for being everywhere with their nicely accessible and clean bathrooms).

soaked from the rain, fought the wind through half the run, but feeling fantastic!

Then a really solid swim. I initially was planning to just do a super lazy easy swim, but after I warmed up and did some of my paddle drills I started feeling better and better. Eventually, I decided to accept Zindine's challenge to swim a 48 second 50m.

I really wasn't expecting to actually do it! Yay for friends who push you out of your comfort zone.

What a great way to end off a great week of training.

It's crazy how much I've grown to love this place.

The plan. Peak week of the build plan!

Monday: rest
Tuesday: swim; TR VO2s (OMG this one is HARDER than last week? WTF!)
Wednesday: easy run
Thursday: swim; TR tempo
Friday: easy run, TR aerobic*
Saturday: Long outside ride + brick run
Sunday: Long run, swim

*may have to move to Sunday, not sure yet. It's all tentative anyway, really.