Summer is finally here

As the summer days tick by I find myself becoming busier and busier with my training. Hence you'll notice I haven't blogged in almost a week. Last weekend....well I can't even remember what workouts I did last weekend. Okay, now that I looked it up, Saturday I ran 13 and swam 3100 yards, and Sunday I biked long (4 hours) with Paul.

It seems that I've come to a point in my training where I am getting in good quality workout and not becoming tired. It's amazing watching the body evolve week by week. The hills that I biked up weeks ago, those same hills seem like small rollers.

Monday was an off day, this week and after work I napped, and then did some Yoga with Jennifer. We got this new DVD which is part of the Spinervals series and I highly recommend it to anyone that has a tough time stretching and staying flexible. I was back in action Tuesday for nice long workout. An hour on the bike followed by 17 mile run was just what coach Kevin ordered. Going into the workout I thought that I would be tired towards the end, but it was the exact opposite. After the long run, I felt like I could have kept going another 17....but obviously I didn't. My daily routine continued as I ate and went to bed shortly after the session.

Wednesday morning came all so quickly as the 5AM buzzer went off. I really need to get a new alarm clock that doesn't scare me half to death when it goes off. We climbed out of bed, went down into the basement and jumped onto the trainer. Just a light easy workout for this morning said Coach Kev. Just a little something to get the blood flowing before the evening swim. Wednesday evening was here before I knew it, and my buddy Matt met Jen and I and we proceeded to the Greensburg Y for our 6000 yard swim. That's right 6000 freakin yards!!! This is coming from a guy that who last year would be lucky to swim 6000 yards in a month. The set was broken up into 12 sets of 500. For me at around a 1:30 / 100 pace, that meant I swam 12 sets of 7 minutes and 30 seconds. The first couple went by without a hitch, but by the time I got to around the 7th or 8th interval I was completely water logged. There was no turning back now. I sucked up the pain and swam my heart out. After the 12th set I had that feeling of accomplishment and gratification. So my 3.4 mile swim was officially over, and it felt great. Jen and I headed home and met two of our friends for Pizza and was off to bed shortly after that.

Thursday I called my "Mental Toughness" day. It was my key workout of the week, and I absolutely nailed it! After a 20-30 minute warm up, Coach Kev wanted me to get in a solid 2.5 hours 20 beats per minute below my Lactate Threshold Heart Rate. Not having many flat roads near my house I decided to pack up the car and head down to the Washington Bike Oval just outside of Pittsburgh. The oval is a 1/2 mile course with a slight roller at one point of the oval, and also has banked corners. I've done one crit race there two or three years ago, but decided it wasn't my thing. Anyways, the ride really got tough about 1:30 into the 2:30 ride. Going in circle mile after mile at the same pace, same gear, same position, really was challenging but hopefully workouts like this is what will set me apart from my competition July 20th at IMLP.

posted by Chad Holderbaum @ 1:53 PM Comments: 1