Training Week in Review: Week 12

This week was again, fairly uneventful. It seems like the past couple of weeks have been flowing in a good rhythm and made it easy to push through towards taper week. The distances slowly decreasing and the promise of a 3-day weekend made this week a breeze as well. The only difference in the structure this week was I had a swim on the calendar 3 days in a row (Tues-Thurs) and runs 3 days in a row as well (Fri-Sun). The swim repetition didn't phase me at all, but I started to feel the final run for this week on Sunday morning.

The only workout that I want to expound on was the ride/run brick on Saturday. My training partner and I decided to change up the scenery a bit and headed over to the Silver Comet Trail. This isn't a hilly trail by any means, but it is a good place to get a feel for what's known as "false flats". These stretches are where the terrain looks completely flat, but actually consists of slight gradual inclines. The heart rate effort level for the ride was supposed to be low zone 2 so it was going to be an easy session. I hadn't done much speed work since my Sprint Tri in late April so when we headed out and got warmed up t felt effortless. We picked up the pace for about 2/3 of the ride (40 mins.) and it still felt like there was very little exertion both in the legs and in breathing so that instilled a bit of confidence headed into the run portion of the brick.

We swapped shoes and then took off in the opposite direction on the trail for more variety. (Side note: changing where you train is a good thing to practice as not only can biking and running in the same places get extremely boring, but it's good to change up elevation profiles as well) I could feel our pace was faster than my normal brick runs, but my heart rate stayed put firmly in zone 2 so I pressed on. This was a 30 minute run so we headed out 15 minutes and then turned back towards the parking lot. On the run back, my training partner slowly pushed up the pace so by the time we hit the parking lot it was almost at a sprint pace. The only reason I mention that is that he increased it so slowly that I didn't really notice the speed distance until the final .1 miles when I began to feel my heart rate slowly creeping up. The weather was great, and it was nice to have the training done for the day at 9:30am especially since my typical Saturday training doesn't end until closer to noon (or later).

Now it's time to enjoy taper week, focus mentally, and rest for the challenge ahead at the Rock N' Rollman Half Ironman in Macon on Saturday. Weekly totals: Swim - 5000m • Bike - 51.5mi • Run - 14.75mi.