Barrelman 2016 - week 1

Well, recovery time is officially over - last week marked 8 weeks until Barrelman, and I was feeling ready to get back into training again. So I fired up Trainerroad, loaded up the 8 week half iron specialty plan, and got things off to a pretty good start.

I'll essentially be repeating the 8 weeks I did before Muskoka. The idea here is to maintain my fitness through to Barrelman in the swim and the bike, and maybe improve things a little bit on the run if my back cooperates. As my husband is now in training for a fall marathon, his training gets to take priority and I'll be fitting mine in around his as much as I can.

Last week's workouts:

Monday: rest
Tuesday: 1700m swim; FTP test
Wednesday: track ladder (8k); 2000m swim
Thursday: TR - Gibraltar (1:45 tempo)
Friday: 104k solo ride
Saturday: 2000m swim; 10k run; 40k easy bike
Sunday: 17k run

Monday I saw my physiotherapist re: that damn sciatic thing. Fortunately the post race irritation had largely cleared up by that appointment, so we mostly spent time putting together a rehab routine I can do a few times a week to hopefully strengthen some of the weak spots in my back. And he did some ART that was like magic. For the first time in a long time all my runs last week felt...good. No nagging tugging in the hamstring, no hip pain sitting at my desk, just feeling normal. Fingers crossed we've got this thing figured out!

Tuesday was that little FTP test thing.

It really never gets any easier. Pleased with a 6 watt increase, which is going to make the VO2 stuff just THAT MUCH MORE FUN. Excuse me while I cry for a few minutes. I have a real love-hate thing going on with Tuesday night trainer rides.

Attempt at cute instagram photo fail #1. 

Wednesday I went to the track and did a ladder workout to see how my hamstring would feel. It felt fine! But it was really hot. But I kind of missed doing intervals. So I guess I'll be trying some more speedwork out this week and seeing how that goes.

Attempt at cute instagram photo fail #2. Don't stand in front of the tree, dumbass. A lot of work goes into the insta pic, OK? You can't just throw any old picture up there...

Friday I did a solo century since I had used a vacation day and had the morning free. All things considered I'd rather do those long rides with someone else along to keep me company, but sometimes a solo ride is great for clearing your head. And it's nice not to have to worry about keeping up with someone or that you are going too fast.

Plus I finally got to try out my birthday gift jersey. I want to order all the stuff from Cycology. 

Saturday rain screwed up my plans to do a brick, so I ended up at the pool with Sam instead of biking or running.

Pretty much how Sam and I train.

Then I ended up running at lunch and biking later in the afternoon and I don't know. It was a weird day. Good workouts, though! And Sunday I went up to Milton to run long with Nicole, which is pretty much the best idea I've had in weeks. I have been really unenthused with running, especially long runs, for a while (I blame the heat and humidity. I am so over it). But Nicole and I had a really great run! Getting a solid feeling 17k in has improved my mindset on running about 1000%, and it's absolutely from running with a friend. The miles are so much easier with company. Thanks, Nicole, I really appreciate you changing your run plans so I could join you!

#runnersmakethebestfriends Finally a great feeling run. Mainly because I got to do it with @egrrrl 17k is a #runanddone

A photo posted by Nicole (@macnic05) on Jul 31, 2016 at 5:31am PDT

So, what's up this week!

Monday: 10k run with Sam (already done, it went great!)
Tuesday: TR, 60 minutes of some sort of interval horror I'm sure, I don't even want to look; swim
Wednesday: Run trackwork, maybe OWS
Thursday: TR 90 minutes sweetspot/tempo + brick run; swim
Friday: REST
Saturday: long ride
Sunday: long run, swim, recovery bike

As per usual, this is all pretty tentative. Scheduling is complicated and hard sometimes. Especially swimming on the weekends. That one is the absolute worst, although that Saturday morning lap swim Sam and I went to was pretty much deserted for the first 45 minutes, so I might have to hit that one up again!